Category: Laura Berman's Blog
Posted by Laura Berman (The Detroit News) on Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 6:08 PMFlower Child at 70
Judy Collins -- she of the cornflower blue eyes and coltish hair mane --will turn 70 on May 1. Even so, she's still a flower child. Her appearance at Planned Parenthood's luncheon at the Troy Marriott, when she entertained an audience of 325 people had a folkie feel: "Let's get this out of the way," she said, as she launched into her rendition of Joni Mitchell's, "Both Sides Now."
The long hair is now piled atop her head, all silvery and elegant, and people under 40 aren't quite sure who she is: One of the distinctive voices of the 1960s and '70s, the inspiration for Stephen Stills song, "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" ("I am yours/you are mine/you are what you are.)
Why was Collins' speaking to Planned Parenthood? I introduced her and was told she felt a strong connection to the organization. If so, she never explained the link directly. But she's writing a memoir -- her fifth --that she's calling, "Sex, Drugs and Folk Rock." She told a couple of bawdy stories, recalled meeting her husband at an Equal Rights Amendment fundraiser in 1978, and suggested that she's a woman who has lived and loved and survived.
