I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. To start with Julie was seventy nine. Secondly I had this lightweight image of someone singing ‘I’m going to the Zoo’ (not my normal preference). But I was interested. She had been there through the good times of the Sixties.
I needn’t have worried. She was amazing – lithe, full of youthful energy and with some good tales and brilliant songs.
Julie told how she’d come across to Europe in the early sixties and ended up on the Greek island of Hydra with Leonard Cohen – playing the bars for small change.
She sang a few songs for Leonard – including Bird on a Wire and a touching tribute version of ‘Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’. She did a couple of Dylan songs too including a great version of ‘Masters of War’ and then a few Woody Guthrie – the stand out being ‘Deportee’ which had great resonance due to her Mexican lineage.
This Land is your Land was also rather good.
Julie did a couple of Mexican songs and some of her own, she got people signing along and generated a great atmosphere.
I was glad I’d gone – even the couple of verses of ‘going to the zoo’, delivered with a wearisome apology – seemed OK.
Now had this been the Julie Felix of 1968, I might very well have been bound for the front row.
“Once More With Felix”, yes, rather.
Julie was amazingly youthful and gave a very good concert. You might really have enjoyed it.