Julie Felix sings PHIL OCHS "prior to a joint..."

There was nothing amusing about the passing of Julie Felix, except perhaps one obituary which offered a caption that made it seem that she was about to smoke a joint. 

Back when there were proofreaders and copy editors, that line would've been re-written so that the line break wouldn't be so odd. As in, "Use her full name, JULIE Felix, so that "joint performance" is on the second line. 

Anyway....

Julie was sort of known as the Joan Baez of England, since she covered Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs (as Joan did) and had a Latino father. She was actually born in America, but turned up in the U.K. in 1964, exploring the emerging folk clubs that were also luring Paul Simon and so many others. Just as Paul was signed first in the U.K. and put out his "Paul Simon Songbook" there, Julie was quickly signed to Decca. A song from the album, "Someday Soon," got her an appearance on "The Eamonn Andrews Show," and from there, regular work on "The Frost Report." 

Some might recall that Frost's "That Was the Week That Was" made a star out of Millicent Martin, and the American version did likewise for Nancy Ames. So it was that regular appearances on the new "Frost Report" series helped Julie remain firmly in the public eye. She covered Phil Ochs on her 1966 album "Changes" and sang with him on a Swedish TV show. Brian Epstein did his part, booking Julie and Georgie Fame together for a popular series of "Fame & Felix" shows in 1967. 1967 was also the year Julie got her own BBC show. Leonard Cohen made his UK debut on it. Julie's eclectic interests also allowed for Spike Milligan to guest on the show, too. In 1969, when Bob Dylan appeared at the Isle of Wight festival, so did Julie.

She sang "Changes" with Phil Ochs on a Swedish TV show, and like Baez, Julie kept Phil's spirit alive by covering his songs in concerts over these many decades. Here's Julie singing Leonard Cohen's "That's No Way to Say Goodbye" and then Phil's "Flower Lady." 

 
Julie's cover of Paul Simon's "El Condor Pasa" gave her one more Top 20 hit in 1970. At the age of 80, she released (that's "dropped" for any of you under 30 in age or IQ) her final album, "Rock Me Goddess." Well, "Folk Me Goddess" wouldn't have sounded right, would it? But Julie Felix sure was the goddess of folk-rock. Julie Ann Felix (June 14, 1938 – March 22, 2020).