Is Judy at Carnegie Hall the greatest album of all time?

yes, if you're old skool gay.

It's mind blowing. Even the fucking overture is.

The secret bonus track where she makes Liza, Lorna, and Joey come out and perform "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" from Gypsy.

My favorite part is the encore. Everyone is yelling requests and she says something like "How about I sing them all, and we'll stay all night!"

No doubt it's a great album, but you'd want to stab someone in their eardrums if you had to listen to it nonstop for a few days.

That’s Entertainment followed by Almost Like Being In Love. Judy was immeasurably helped by a great orchestra.

I wonder how many uppers she took before going onstage.

Yes, the album is the greatest of all time by the greatest artist of all time.

This "old school" label is a backhanded way of dismissing something as no longer relevant. Those who do this are wrong and ignorant.

The Man That Got Away is my favorite song from that album. Judy died 10 years before I was born; it's a fantastic recording regardless of your age.

I actually love her monologue about going to the coiffeur in Paris. Funny and self-deprecating.

Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to find in Hollywood. At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified her struggles and she theirs.

Yes it is. I bought it at a garage sale in 1974 for 25 cents. The encores are astounding especially after she revs up the audience with old vaudeville and Jolson numbers. I love when she stumbles during “You Go to My Head,” and sings “— and I forgot the gol-darn words.”

The comic intro to “San Francisco” — especially since Jeannette was in the audience on opening night — is great, the held note during “Swannee,” and TMTGA are all stunners.

you're welcome to MARY! all you want, R12

Why yes, yes it is. Every track and all her patter is THE best ever.

Not from Carnegie but my all time favorite live performance. It's heartbreaking and nuanced and beautiful. I forget how good she was at face acting.

Why did she die broke? Didn’t these records sell?

Rock-a-bye Your Baby (with a Dixie Melody) is a masterclass in how to sell a song. She does it effortlessly. The slow build, the emotion, the stomping of her foot with the beat in *just* the right place. This is what those thousands of hours, starting when she was a toddler on stage in vaudeville, will teach you; how to take an audience on a three-and-a-half minute epic journey.

We don't have Judy's today because there are not real training grounds like the vaudeville circuit. During those thousands of hours she learned how to manipulate any audience with her immense talent.

One quick note: I believe Rock-a-bye was an encore at Carnegie Hall. Therefore on the actual recording, her voice is a bit tired. Doesn't matter, it's still amazing. In this video taped version, done a few months before or after Carnegie Hall was recorded, she's even stronger. This is a near supernatural performance.

I think the IRS was taking everything, R16.

On R17, *that should read "We don't have Judys today"

I just wanted to say that before I got "oh deared"

N.O. No

No. That would be The Allman Brothers Band, [italic]Live at Fillmore East.[/italic]

"This is what those thousands of hours, starting when she was a toddler on stage in vaudeville, will teach you; how to take an audience on a three-and-a-half minute epic journey"

Yep.

She knew how to make a performance exciting -- dramatic, comedic, romantic, sometimes even erotic. The album is a series of thrills. Back in the 80s, Camille Paglia wrote a great essay about it calling Judy Garland "a force of nature."

Is that comment some sort of meme R11? I've seen it pasted word for word all over JG videos on youtube.

R12 the stumble in You Go To My Head is rehearsed. There's a recording of her doing the exact same thing at another performance on YT. Unless one of them was a real mistake and they liked it and wrote it in for later performances... but the "mistake" I saw on YT was identical to the one on the album

That album ish truly Shenshaysh......shh..... zzzzzzzzzzz

Do you know how many previous threads there have been on this exact subject OP? Do you? I mean seriously, do you? Have you done any kind of research on it? Did you? Did you do any kind of search first? Did you? What did you do? Tell us OP. Tell us how you searched for prior threads you filthy asshole fucker. Show us what you did . Provide a link or a screenshot butt hole breath. Can you at least do that? Can you? Why would you even think of coming here and posting a thread like this when you know damn good and well there have already been many of the exact same threads that have preceded this same fucking subjecct. Answer me bastard. You owe everyone here the truth as to why you feel you are so much better than every other person here that you can just walk your ass in here without doing a search first. You just eat shit. I hate you OP and I hope you get AIDS.

I'll post this here--even though it's not part of the Carnegie Hall album. Usually when you show your appreciation for Garland you get Mary'd to death or called a cunt. R17 said it best, that it takes years and years to know how to do this. What I like about this rendition of "Ol' Man River" is how it shows the power of her voice. When the camera angle shifts at 2:13 you can fully understand what "belting a song" means. The amazing way that she holds the note on "along," (2:48) for an amazing 11 seconds at full volume is all the more remarkable for someone who smoked and drank.

"Do It Again" is a favorite of mine. Garland gets downright steamy in a seldom-performed ballad of erotic remembrance,.

R27 Wow. You're singularlly unfunny. The utter lack anything at all amusing in your post is rather astounding. SUCH a hard swing, and SUCH a miss.

I remember Barry Manilow and Tony Danza talking about seeing her in concert on Danza's talk show many years back. They were both taken aback by how exquisite Garland's hand movements were. I think it was Barry who likened them to porcelain sculptures while Danza gushed about how when the light would him them it looked like pure art in motion.

And Tony's a straight man! It just goes to show how Garland's appeal extended to everyone.

r10 I wonder if the 'chic French friend' she was talking about was Capucine?

On Judy Garland Interview with Tennessee Williams Conducted by James Grissom New Orleans 1982

A lot of people have a bit of talent, so it isn't talent that frightens people: It's genius. When someone utterly unique and bold comes along, there's fear and hatred. And it cannot be explained. There is no explanation for genius, and we can't assume bad childhoods and misplaced affections lead us toward it, or the cities would bulge with Picassos and Garlands, and instead we have indications and grudges.

Judy Garland was a genius stuffed into a tiny, fragile body, and it walked right out and did what it did, and people went absolutely insane. Some of us insane with admiration and incredulity; others insane with envy and lack of understanding.

She was a freak. They happen rarely, and they never have a good time of it.

Me and my Gal/The Trolley song is my favourite. If Love Were All is heartbreaking.

This and Bette Midler's Live at Last are two of the best live albums I've ever heard. The energy that must've been in the audience is palpable listening to both

My mother saw her there in person and at, I think, it was The Palace theater. She was a huge fan. Seeing Judy was something she remembered and spoke about for the rest of her life. I appreciate Judy more now than when I was younger. All the recent movies and stories make me appreciate her more, although I think she brought on much of her trouble herself. Yes, they fucked her up when she was a kid but once she was older she should have stopped looking for a savior and saved herself.

Not to be the BPD troll, but I suspect she was a borderline r35

R28 Yeah, I think that is the key to what makes Judy so special. Tons of natural talent, plus being on that vaudeville stage every night of your life from age 3 to age 16. Then hours upon hours of concerts, and in front of the camera, behind radio microphones, and finally in front of television cameras. You cannot teach what she learned over her lifetime.

I think Barbra Streisand may well have been as naturally talented as Judy Garland. But she never had to put in those hours on a vaudeville stage when she was a kid like Judy did.

There's a story in Mel Torme's excellent book The Other Side of the Rainbow. In the '50s, Mel attends a performance of Judy's first stint at the Palace. He's blown away. He's only met her before in passing, but he goes backstage to let her know how great he thought she was. "In fact," he says, "I'm gonna come see you again tomorrow." Judy encourages him NOT to come again. She tells him if he goes and sees her again, it will ruin the performance for him. Mel has no idea what she's talking about. He goes to see her again, and understands exactly what she means. In her concerts, Judy would take the audience on an amazing journey. And she made the journey, and the emotions, and connection with that particular audience seem very real. Torme realized that it was ALL performance. That during Over the Rainbow, she shed a tear, and seemed to be overcome with emotion and the exact same time each night. Comments from her to the audience, which seemed to be spontaneous, were exactly the same both nights in the row. He realized that the connection the audience had with the audience, while very real seeming to the audience, was for her just a performance. Not to take away from her talent, but Torme going a second night exposed the man behind the curtain of Judy's psyche.

No other recording serves as a one-album history of the Great American Songbook with the drama, pathos and delivery that this one does. And with the size of the audience, their excitement, as a second "performer" you can sense the give-and-take electric charge of the evening. Her voice is great but gamely vulnerable, giving you the thrill of "can she do it?" when she seems ready to slip and then as nails it every single time. Nails it with definitive, intelligent, joyous covers. The humor, skill, slight cynicism and sheer love of singing her way sets it apart.

Yes, you either get it or you don't. But if a person doesn't and snarks proudly about it, it seems clear that a lack of capacity connected to personal issues is involved, because there's a pure, direct and accessible quality to the whole thing that I don't find anywhere else. And that includes her other "event performance" recordings, which cover similar territory before and after the Carnegie night. Matchless.

Who was in attendance that night? Probably it was the greatest audience of all time, too.

Leonard Bernstein

Harold Arlen

Phil Silvers

Rock Hudson

Betty Comden

Adolph Green

Myrna Loy

Richard Burton

Carol Channing

Julie Andrews

Maurice Chevalier

Carol Channing

Lauren Bacall

Henry Fonda

Spencer Tracy

Katharine Hepburn

Mike Nichols

Elaine May

Anthony Perkins

Phyllis Newman

Kay Medford

Jerry Herman

Terrence McNally

And at the first 4/23 show or the second one 5/21, there also were

Marilyn Monroe

Edward Albee

Richard Rodgers

Stephen Sondheim

Lena Horne

Bette Davis

Roddy McDowall

Robert Goulet

Eli Wallach

Anne Jackson

Jackie Gleason

Mickey Rooney

Ethel Merman

Anthony Quinn

Bert Lahr

Paul Lynde

Arthur Laurents

Chita Rivera

Dick Van Dyke

Gwen Verdon

Bob Fosse

Tennessee Williams

Noël Coward

Alfred Drake

Don Ameche

Elaine Stritch

Richard Kiley

Nancy Walker

Hedda (the Cunt) Hopper

Alan Jay Lerner

Fred Loewe

Gloria Swanson

Alan King

Rex Reed

Chester Morris

I wonder which of those guys fucked each other after the show?

R34 I saw the Bette Midler show of which "Live At Last" is a recording. I believe it was recorded in Cleveland. (?) I saw her at the Century Theater in Buffalo in 1975 but it's the same show, almost word for word. I still remember it 45 years later.

[quote] I love when she stumbles during “You Go to My Head,” and sings “— and I forgot the gol-darn words.”

This was part of her schtick. She did it at several concerts, with the intention of giving the audience a 'special' moment

R37. I know what Judy meant when she told Mel Torme not to come to see her show the following night. It does ruin the magic a bit. You realize how much of the performance is rehearsed. No matter how good they are, these people are entertainers, actors who deliver the goods. But a song, a turn, a line is delivered with precision because it works. It's not going to be all that much different the second night so you may not feel that special magic again.

On occasion, I have gone to see plays or musicals more than once. Some of the magic is gone, but the play is still good because it's an ensemble. But when you see a single artist in the same solo show, everything there is exposed. The artist can only give you so much. There's nothing to hide behind for the artist so you always know what's coming. They may be great--and you may feel very lucky to see a particular performer for a second or third time in the same show, but a little bit of magic is gone. If that doesn't bother you, then it's fine, but sometimes you may feel that the performer has come up short and less that what you expected.

Not from that concert, but this rendition of "As Long as He Needs Me" is transcendent.

Bitch knew how to put over a song.

Judy, damn. Great rendition of As Long As He Needs Me.

Inspired by this thread, I watched Judy and then 1/3 of My Life in the Shadows (it's on YouTube) last night. Renee and Judy Davis each do a good job but neither get it perfect because you can't replicate her voice, and using recordings is awkward.

I'll MARY myself out, thanks...

Renee was better than Judy Davis.

It helped that Renee was playing a Judy roughly around her own age. Seeing Davis doing The Trolley Song number was cringing.

What about this album, which I'm sure is just as good?

r29 yes "Do It Again" is another gem

"Alone Together" and "Do It Again" are both very powerful. "Alone Together" is vocally amazing, backed up by sensational orchestrations and orchestra performance. "Do It Again" is compelling in its naked eroticism.

R12 Jeanette was in the audience? I had no idea, that's great. "The Man That Got Away" is the standout for me. Just the tiniest quibble though: When she sings "and where's he gone TOOOOOO," does she sharp off ever so slightly on the "too"? It always....not *bothered* me, but I notice it every time.

I loved the scene where Judy Davis as Judy works herself up in the dressing room, makes her way to the stage door riffing, then steels herself and.....MAKES HER ENTRANCE.

An eldergay friend shudders at the mention of Judy Garland. His parents had a terrible marriage, one suffused with lots of pain and alcohol. He told me that when growing up, he and his sister learned that if Mom had Judy Garland on the Hi-Fi... stay out of her way.

R 42, I think the point of Torme telling that story is that part of what Judy could do so well was to make each audience, even each audience member feel as if she was sharing a special moment with them. When it becomes exposed that it's all a performance, or that she isn't necessarily feeling for the audience what they are feeling for her, some of the magic is gone. I believe that story is basically a microcosm of his experience with The Judy Garland Show. That this woman is not, and was never the little girl longing for the rainbow, or pining for the man that got away. She was a demanding, difficult person, who struggled with demons. She was brilliant at playing Judy once she hit that stage, though.

I really like the quote at r33

I'm so pissed-off the 7 year old me insisted we watch Bonanza.

I've never been able to forgive myself for it.

It's your fault the show got cancelled, R55.

Who was the famous actor who used to say Judy Judy Judy?

r57, it's Cary Grant you're thinking of, but he wasn't certain he'd ever actually said it.

Not from Carnegie Hall, but I love this

It's the greatest live album.

For greatest studio album, there are many contenders.

No, this drunk caterwauling for two hours is certainly NOT the greatest album of all time!

No. It's not.

And as for Rufus, he is NOWHERE near as talented as either of his parents, he didn't even bother to learn the whole album, and all his stuff centers around his belief in his own genius.

I agree that this is the greatest night in showbiz history and the greatest live concert ever recorded.

Those quibbling about Judy's "spontaneous" moves, remarks, tears, etc being rehearsed....what do you think show business is about? You don't just get up there and do any old thing. Any great artist rehearses the shit out of whatever they're doing, finds the best way to deliver the song or the line or the move and then they do it that way forever. If you go to see a broadway show six months into the run, you deserve the SAME performance the opening night crowd got. It's called TECHNIQUE and great performers have it. Judy had it in spades because of the all the training she had not just on Vaudeville but making movies. So Torme seeing her shed a tear in exactly the same place in Rainbow simply means that Judy was a great actress. Anybody who can do that night after night and still move an audience as if it's the first time they've done it is a fucking GENIUS.

R64 My only point was really that part of her great talent was to make the audience feel as if she was connecting with each and every one of them. Even if she wasn't. I agree, she was brilliant up on that stage.

[quote] You don't just get up there and do any old thing. Any great artist rehearses the shit out of whatever they're doing, finds the best way to deliver the song or the line or the move and then they do it that way forever.

I agree, but what made Garland's concerts far spectacular than say, Ethel Merman's, was not just her range, but the way she made you feel everything was spontaneous. Merman had her concert act down pat and it felt that way, not a comma was altered from show to show.

Garland's banter with the band ('One. Two. One-Two-Three'...pause...'It works!') was probably done that way in rehearsal, but on the recording it comes off as something that genuinely surprised her.

Have you got your sticks?

"We'll stay all night and sing 'em all!" I'm sure was a stock line, but the audience ate it up with a spoon.

Slightly off topic, was just looking at a pic of Rose McGowan. She really had the look to play late-60s Judy. Probably could have done an interesting portrayal, too.

R68 Back in my corporate closet days, I'd use a version of that line to see if there were any other 'family' members in the group.

For instance, if we were out at a corporate dinner, I'd be looking at the wine list and I'd say something like "So many wines to choose from. I guess we'll just have to drink 'em all and stay all night", which was an innocuous remark to the straight people at the table, but was sure to let any fellow gays know I'd just dropped a bead.

You'd be surprised how many times I'd have some straitlaced, three-piece suit type sidle up to me while we were saying our goodbyes and quietly ask if I'd like to go somewhere for a nightcap.

It depended on the delivery, R70. I hope you declared "We'll drink em ALL, and stay all NIGHT!" With hand gestures, of course.

The other day, I was in CVS and this old woman came in, asking if she’d left her wallet behind. She had the same voice and speaking pattern as Judy, god bless her. I wanted to stay and listen to her some more, but my husband rushed me out.

How can you top this?

She sang "That's Entertainment!" on both the Carnegie Hall album and the Palace album. Same musical charts, of course. And she forgets some of the words on both recordings. But she forgets different words on each album.

It is possible (and don't ask me how I know) to edit together a live performance of this song by Judy Garland that contains only a few of the original lyrics and a whole lot of "ziba ziba ziba, ziba," plus a few swear words.

After asking for her wallet, she turned and "Do you...do you like a Foggy Day? I like it."

R75, haha yes. “I seem to have lost my wall- wallet somewhere between here and my CAAAHR. I’m absolutely certain it’s not in my car NOW. Oh my goodness...”

Another highlight.

The "Can't go on" at around 4:40 is sublime

Really is, R77. Chills, every time.

Imagine being in such perfect voice, all night long.

R73 Judy makes every word count when she sings. I forgot how complex the lyrics are to that song.

Gen X here. I've never cared much for Barbra but I love Judy.

This is the Camille Paglia essay on Judy.

There has never been anyone like Judy and in all probability, there never will be. The particular circumstances that resulted in her fiery performances coupled with a superb voice and free vocal technique will probably never be replicated. I wish she had had a happier life, but I'm thankful we had her for as long as we did.

Another good track.

Damn it, they're ALL good.

Arlene Francis wasn't there? Was this a legitimate theater?

The entire album is stellar, from start to finish.

Where were all those people when she died broke in that tiny dump in London 7 years later?

My parents saw Judy at The Palace in 1951. I still have the tattered program.

[quote]And at the first 4/23 show or the second one 5/21, there also were Marilyn Monroe.

I don't believe Marilyn was at either performance.

r89 If Marilyn couldn't handle Judy at her worst, then she sure as hell didn't deserve her at her best!

Marilyn and Judy were friends. Judy was devastated when Marilyn was found dead.

The photos of Garland and Monroe greeting and kissing each other is not from her concert, but an awards show. Judy is wearing a different outfit, not carrying a microphone and is surrounded by the audience which she couldn't be at CH.

This is why I hate us.

R92 It was the Golden Globes. Judy won the Cecil achievement award and Marilyn was nominated for Some Like It Hot.

Because we have good taste in music r93?

M

A

R

Y

!

!

!

!

Judy is probably the most thrilling pop singer who ever lived. Those who saw her live compare the experience to a revival meeting.