Bryan wrote: "Having just read the W interview in full...please let's clarify: Joni didn't swipe at Judy, she swiped at Judy's too-sweet, sing-songy arrangement of BSN. As for "ripping off"...please! Joni's career was in large part launched by the covers that Judy and others did. That's certainly not a rip-off."
Me now: I agree with Bryan that Joni's career got a huge jump-start thanks to the covers done by Judy Collins, Tom Rush, the late Dave Van Ronk and others in the mid-sixties. Judy, as the most commercially successful of this initial group, perhaps deserves the most heartfelt "thank you" from Joni fans. However, I remain discouraged that Judy's version of "BSN" is the only one that many people are familiar with, and the one many others regard as the "original" to judge other covers by. My own mother dutifully listened to a tape of a mature Joni singing "BSN" a couple of years back, but basically thought that Joni was mutilating her own song, because all my mother knew was Judy's sing-songy version. SIGH. But she did listen. Mary.
