As I write we are still only a tad over halfway through Ms Garland’s centenary year so it seems reasonable to anticipate further reminders via stage, screen or even disc. I have already covered I’m Always Chasing Rainbows, a CD issued specifically to mark the centenary. And here’s another, albeit not explicitly directed at the anniversary market.
Judy Garland: The Final Concert In Copenhagen is precisely what it says on the tin; it was recorded live at the Falkoner Centret on 25 March 1969, which places it at the mid-point between the evening in January of that same year when I was privileged to see and hear her at the Talk Of The Town in London’s West End and June 22, when she died.
One thing this release does once and for all is give the lie to the rumours that, to all intents and purposes she was washed-up as a performer in those final years. It’s indisputable that she had lost her home in 1967 and was reduced to living in hotels and/or with friends. It’s equally true that she walked on stage at The Falkoner Centret for what would be her final public performance weighing barely 90 pounds, thanks mainly to constant harassment by the IRS, from whom she was now finally safe.
Her fall was personified by the act that opened for her, Johnny Ray, but the show she laid on the good burghers of the Danish capital that evening – from the opening number, Harold Arlen’s first hit Get Happy, to the closer, Arlen again and Over The Rainbow, one of the all-time great signature songs of any performer, anytime, anywhere – was thoroughly accomplished, professional and, above all, entertaining.
This is an album that all true Garland buffs will want to own and the fact is the serious Garland aficionado will already do so, given that it formed part of a triple CD, Swan Songs, First Flights that was released briefly in 2015 and contained virtually everything the Garland completist could desire, namely the last US concert (in July 1968), this final concert in Copenhagen, an interview on Danish radio the following morning and several titles recorded between 1929-1940 featuring The Gumm Sisters with Ethel Gumm at the piano and the adolescent Garland.
That album came and went like April snow, but on the positive side restoration technique/equipment have come on by leaps and bounds since 2015, making this album truly memorable.
Discography
Overture; Get Happy; Just In Time; The Man That Got Away; I’d Like To Hate Myself In The Morning; For Once In My Life; Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody; Over The Rainbow (orchestral interlude); Chicago; Till The Clouds Roll By*; Am I Blue*; San Francisco; Over The Rainbow (orchestral interlude); Over The Rainbow (48.07)
Garland (v) with orchestra conducted by Tony Osborne; * duet with Johnny Ray. Recorded live at Falkoner Centret, Copenhagen, 25 March 1989.
High Definition Tape Transfers HDTT 13518
