Linda Ronstadt - Classic or Dud?

Oh, and her work on the 'Mr Plow' theme song is truly inspired.

Jealousy will get you nowhere. ;)

bah. mad love is awesome! rickey wright already namechecked "how do i make you" but lemme also throw in "justine."

again, it's just the mark of good training! any teacher with a brain will go over the shaping of consonants and vowels with his students.

Also we thank her/hate her for hiring Don Henley as her drummer...

Linda Ronstadt's version of "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me" is an exquisite gem of a song. I still haven't heard the original Karla Bonoff version, but I love the tune and the way Linda sings it.
My favourite Ronstadt song.

When I was about 8 years old, my friend's parents next door used to play this album, and I still say this is the one to have:

http://chartts.tripod.com/HISTORY/1977.JPG

Other favourites include her version of Tumbling Dice and that Warren Zevon cover...what was it? Ah yes, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me". My favourite thing to play at the end of an academic quarter. I like Linda. She can sing.

But she also made some clunky mistakes. I chanced to hear "It's So Easy" the other day; I never did like that song.

"Long, Long Time" is still devestating to me everytime I hear it -- especially when she betls out that last "'Casue I've done everythin I know/to try and make you mine"

Hm. Maybe. I'm a guy who digs upbeat Loretta and Dolly and New Wave Rosanne Cash, so, it's a coin flip.

"you're no good" >>>>> everything rosanne has ever done, with the single possible exception of "seven year ache."

California Mafia Faux PunkWave= Adorable

Understanding it's about rock and roll revival and not synths and safety pins = admirable

Ultrathick prog moog in a new wave context classic

I don't think I'd call her a rock singer, even if she sang rock at times. Way too AM radio, no apparent attitude other than challenging her own vocal cords. Much more a pop artist, moving through genres and styles.

http://www.vanguardrecords.com/listen.asp?idArtist=30

i love the harmonies. so beautiful to me. but it might not be for everyone. i've always loved her voice. it's a really pretty album.

Revive!

Re-discovery for me. My dad used to listen to her back in the early 70s so I have heard all the songs. But I didn't remember how great her voice is. Classic.

YouTube has some killer material up:

Long long time

You're no good

Love has no pride

Couldn't resist another. Damn, that voice is good.

I guess it doesn't matter anymore

I always thought of Mad Love as a response to the first two Pat Benetar albums, although its cover art was quaintly New Wave. If nothing else, it made Elvis Costello some cash at the beginning of his career.

Apparently she and Linda Thompson were drinking buddies on the Shoot Out The Lights tour as well.

I did get Simple Dreams at the beginning of the year and was surprised by much it rocked, in a stiff-jointed way.

Linda Ronstadt was generous in covering rock standards and budding songwriters. But then you hear the original "Blue Bayou," the original "When Will I Be Loved" and "Tumbling Dice," the Dave Edmunds cover of "Girls Talk," and especially the original "You're No Good," and you realize you've been cheated. It's like thinking you hate "Up On The Roof" and "What A Wonderful World" because you're sick of James Taylor's mellow brand of folk-rock, until you finally hear Sam Cooke doing them right. Like it or not, this is the way we '70s kids first heard these songs.

At the end of the early 90's movie version of The Secret Garden they play her "Winter Light" and it's awesome.

i'm listening to After The Gold Rush, and liking it

"hand full of thorns and you know you've missed it/lose your love when you say the word 'mine'"

COME ON SHE IS CLASSICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't care who wrote the song, okay?

IT'S SO EASY TO FALL IN LOVE

TUMBLING DICE

the love for mad love upthread is otm. i tracked it down and downloaded it a while ago because i remember my dad had it and it was one of my favorite records when i was about 10. she did faux-new-wave really well. (and ditto faux-country-rock, hand sown ... home grown is great.)

i also like this stone ponys clip.

"Hurt So Bad" is so classic - reminds me of some old Dusty Springfield gem. Nice screaming guitar solo too.

never heard her version of this until today. nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Sr2KK1oqs

I tell you, Evergreen Vol 2 by the Stone Poneys is utterly brilliant. So for that alone, I'd give her classic status.

t A Wonderful World" because you're sick of James Taylor's mellow brand of folk-rock, until you finally hear Sam Cooke doing them right. Like it or not, this is the way we '70s kids first heard these songs.

Really interested in someone expanding on this – her position as gateway drug.

There's an original "You're No Good?" I guess I fall into the category of a 70s kid who heard all those songs via Ronstadt (and apparently has yet to hear all the originals). Anyway, I like her but somehow have nothing by her (true of lots of 70s music I like a great deal).

can't follow the Nelson Riddle bashing.
theres a time where you need this ('Lush Life' & 'Whats New')

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/5e/de/87b4e03ae7a046124e67b110.L.jpg

never heard her version of this until yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e08siRDkfQ

holy cow!
Heart Like a Wheel is a complete classic and should be in every home

There's an original "You're No Good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S1VmqyTUBk

Yeah, there's definitely something to be said for the "gateway drug" thing. Ronstadt's covers exposed me to a bunch of things I wasn't really listening to otherwise at the time: Motown, Everly Brothers, Hank Williams and Dolly Parton for starters, as well as 70s songwriters (Eric Kaz, Karla Bonoff, Warren Zevon.)

Holy cow indeed at that Playboy After Dark clip; they start soul-clapping about the 1 1/2 minute mark!

one great thing about linda is that you can go to most used record stores and get ten of her records for about $10.

even more original "you're no good"

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9054360&;server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9054360&;server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9054360";>Dee Dee Warwick - you're no good</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user3023043";>Romagnolo</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com";>Vimeo</a>.</p>

oops.

even more original "you're no good":

http://vimeo.com/9054360

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRTplUpErRM&feature=player_embedded#!

This absolutely fucking kills me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD1LSxA24aU

She's 37 in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKQss1HhYl8

I just heard Blue Bayou today...damn if there was ever a timemachine back to my childhood, it's her voice.

I LOVE that song.

Ned mentioned this upthread - worth posting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbjsMGyZVDw

I heard "Hurts So Bad" on Sunday. Her voice cracks!

when her voice gets loud on Bayou I get all teary and goosebumpy

me too

Same for me on "Long, Long Time." That one just absolutely slays me.

Love her version of Love Has No Pride, just an incredible vocal (http://youtu.be/rN8YVVKPNC0). Bonnie Raitt also recorded a great version in the early 70s (http://youtu.be/S2QTdxXmd0k). I love me some Bonnie Raitt but I give the nod to Linda.

lollin @ some of the comments on these vids:

Wow! That black dress, black hair, sultry lips, tight little body, and those trade-mark mesmerizing eyes. Word cannot describe how sexy she was during the early-mid 80's I would have worshiped her back then.... gladly been her slave.....
Lindawatcher 3 weeks ago

lindawatcher jfc that's creepy

rondstalker

er, ronstalker

name: lindawatcher
job: lindawatcher
interests: linda, lindawatching
hobbies: lindawatching

favorites:
Linda's Bedroom Window at Night
Linda's Bedroom Window at Night pt 2

"Linda told me to shave my head today. I'm amazed at the results. After all this time, she really knows me too well."

She played Sun City, so dud.

Snow White in South Africa

Frank Sinatra, whose eyes are apartheid blue

she has my favorite voice ever

weird!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maau7g6ivy1qzoglfo1_500.jpg

And that's what the late 70's were like.

C-3PO's arms don't even bend properly, he would be a terrible drummer.

That is literally my only problem with that cover.

Suffering from Parkinson's

In a wide-ranging interview with AARP’s music writer Alanna Nash to be published on aarp.org next week, Ronstadt revealed how she discovered that “there was something wrong” with her voice.

“I couldn’t sing,” she told Nash, “and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist. I think I’ve had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I’ve had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that’s why my hands were trembling.

“Parkinson’s is very hard to diagnose, so when I finally went to a neurologist and he said, ‘Oh, you have Parkinson’s disease,’ I was completely shocked. I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years.

“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”

This is bringing me way down like a 40 pound soaking wet raincoat of sadness. Even though it's been years and years since I had any interest in what she was doing at the time, knowing that she's sung her last note is AWFUL.

i just found out about this and immediately thought of my friend/choirmate who does linda in a tribute band.

what johnny fever said. :(

I revived a thread last week after the spike in Eagles interest and because she comes off so powerful, stalwart, and fascinating in Hoskyns' Hotel California. A real bummer: if she could do anything extraordinarily well it's sing.

Just saw this on Facebook. Her lingering significance (with Stevie Nicks and Carly Simon) as the definition of female beauty in the '70s is greater than any impact her music had on me, but that is something significant in and of itself.

I know it's from past her prime, and complete schmaltz, but I've probably listened to "Don't Know Much" about 20 times in the last two hours. The final lines of her first verse are my favorite document of her voice.

Man this makes me v sad

poor linda

This is so weird, because just two days ago I asked my wife what was up with Ronstadt and where had she been and did she drop off the face of the earth?

Basically: did I do this to her?! If so, I'm sorry, Linda.

Rosanne Cash said on twitter that Linda told her three years ago she wasn't singing anymore, but didn't reveal to her why not. Wikipedia links to a 2011 interview with Linda's hometown newspaper where she officially announced her retirement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I7GkHy5iOA

I know someone with Parkinson's, diagnosed about 7 years ago, who can still sing. Which makes me suspect Ronstadt's case may be relatively advanced. Although my friend isn't a professional singer, doesn't put that kind of demand on her voice. Still...

Not that current medications can't be pretty effective: my friend says she still doesn't have many day-to-day problems with her condition; the neurologist has her check in once a year, etc.

Mike Nesmith on fb:

The awful news about Linda losing her voice to Parkinson's is terrible but it can never diminish the legacy she has created for us in the songs she has sung for all of us.

Because of her these songs will live as long as people listen to songs and these songs will always sing with the same power and beauty that she was and is.

Like all great gifts, these songs now sing to her as they once sang with her.

Listen to them. You will hear what she has done. What she has given us.
Her voice is far from stilled. It lives and sings forever down the halls of time.

Linda did more for Different Drum than I ever did -- or ever could have.

She breathed eternal life into it.

A couple thoughts.

Unfortunate. I love the 1st 2 Nelson Riddle albums as well as the Spanish-language ones; even the duet she did with Aaron Neville on some crap Disney movie is remembered well. Such a beautiful tone and she controlled it masterfully (like when she holds a note and only colors the very end of it with a splash of vibrato); and while most vocalists loose most of their chops when they get older, i was really looking forward to seeing some of the ragged edges.

are you confusing "Don't Know Much" and "Somewhere Out There"? The latter is on a Spielberg-Bluth movie.

That's it -- "Don't Know Much" -- beautiful vocal from both.

Good bit on the memoir:

By “all this” she meant not her health, but the book, which was completed before doctors confirmed that she has Parkinson’s. “I never wanted to write a book,” she said. “I never wanted anyone else to write a book. I thought, ‘Let it end when it ends.’ ” She also wasn’t sure she was up to the task. A voracious reader who can quote Henry James verbatim, Ms. Ronstadt has, if anything, too much respect for the written word. But at dinner one night, Mr. Pollan, the journalist and author, urged her to reconsider. She told him: “I don’t have any craft. I don’t have any skill. And he said everybody has at least one good story in them that they can pull out.”

There was another fact to weigh, her dwindling savings. Ms. Ronstadt released many albums but wrote very few songs, so her royalty checks are small. “Writers make all the money,” she said. Her most memorable hits — “You’re No Good,” “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Blue Bayou” — were written by others. “I was making good money when I was touring,” she said. But now “I just can’t do it.”

“I can’t make one note,” she said. “I have a hard time calling the cab at night.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/arts/music/linda-ronstadt-discusses-her-memoir-and-parkinsons.html?ref=arts

ugh

Later, she perched on her front stoop, awaiting the taxi she had summoned via an iPhone app for a quick tour of her neighborhood and her favorite spots on the Presidio, where she still walks, though her limit is now 30 minutes. She suddenly remembered that Ms. Harris was coming to town and had invited her to join her on at least one song. Ms. Ronstadt had to say no, because of the Parkinson’s.

“Every time Emmy comes to town, I wish I could get up on stage with her,” Ms. Ronstadt said. “I know I’d be allowed to, but I can’t do it.” Instead she will sit in the audience “and think the notes I’d be singing” in earlier times.

“I have no choice,” she added, withheld passion at last surging to the surface, just as it does in the songs she made her own. “If there was something I could work on, I’d work on it till I could get it back. If there was a drug I could take to get it back, I would take the drug. I’d take napalm. But I’m never going to sing again.”

So sad. I imagine she doesn't get much in the way of airplay royalties, as most of the formats that would still play her (Oldies, Easy Listening) have gone by the wayside, and she's one of those people that never really got accepted on Classic Rock radio even though I imagine she had alot of AOR success in the 70s. As we know, the places were her audience can find her now, like Pandora and Spotify etc. aren't really helping pay anyone's bills.

then again, as she herself notes in the interview above, she never got airplay royalties worth writing home about because she didn't write her own hits. she would get more from a play on pandora or spotify than from a thousand plays on every radio station in america. which is sad.

Just finished watching the two episodes of Tavis Smiley that she did this week. I just love her.

Riding with Linda through Arizona and Mexico (says most people have a family tree;"We have an anthill"). Reporter says she "softly" sings with the car radio;emails she him, mentions recently breaking into three-part harmony with brother and niece, while they were looking at early photos for use in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&rref=travel&hpw

"later she emails him"

Did anyone catch her interview at the Commonwealth Club last night? It was charming and notably weird to hear her interviewed by a woman who is her peer in age, but not someone who had musical experience. Her name was Barbara something, I forget. It was kinda cute to hear them giggle about how cute Jackson Browne was. I only heard about half of it -- did anyone hear the end?

brilliant singer who I've tried many times to get into and can't, always just sounds a little too perfect for me

i didn't know about her parkinson's :(

i know that singers can make much less in royalties than writers, but she sold so many millions of albums in the 1970s through the early 1990s that it's hard to believe she's running low on cash. i guess she didn't invest her earnings well?

Yeah I could definitely see her lack of songwriting credits hurting her, but still

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt#Highest-paid_woman_in_rock

if you make $12 milliion in a single year, you /should/ be able to put enough away for quite a while. maybe she had bad financial advice.

this from the wiki page was pretty funny:

"Rampant eclecticism is my middle name."

—Linda Ronstadt

wouldn't that actually be two middle names? Linda R.E. Ronstadt.

It's hard to explain how big she was in the late seventies. She was Elton John big in the United States: top five album debuts at a time when these things rarely happened, two singles in the top five, every writer lining up to work for her. And although her eighties profile was smaller she still sold millions of records off those Nelson Riddle things. Sad.

yeah and she had that late-1980s comeback album with aaron neville that must have sold a zillion copies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Like_a_Rainstorm,_Howl_Like_the_Wind

wiki notes:

In 2009, the album was taken out of print, twenty years after release.

:(

where does it say she's hurting for cash?

There was another fact to weigh, her dwindling savings. Ms. Ronstadt released many albums but wrote very few songs, so her royalty checks are small. “Writers make all the money,” she said. Her most memorable hits — “You’re No Good,” “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Blue Bayou” — were written by others. “I was making good money when I was touring,” she said. But now “I just can’t do it.”

i mean, "dwindling savings" technically could mean "dwindling from $200 million to $100 million," or it could mean, "i need to take out a 3rd mortgage." who knows.

Seems a little quid/ag for someone like her to say "writers make all the money."

those celebrity net worth sites say she has $115 million but god knows how they come up with that

big NYT profile in fall '13 previewing her memoir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srpwqf2MWAw

"quid/ag"?

also, god love linda ronstadt, but that warren zevon cover makes pretty plain why people accused her of being the pat boone of the long-hair set.

which one? I love "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" but am eh on "Carmelita."

yet I love her "Tumbling Dice."

lol @ her tumbling dice cover, that's quintessential mush-mouthed mick but ronstadt is such an /enunciator/

but it's not a bad cover nonetheless

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lalo90aXXq1qd0imf.jpg

Jonathan Schwarz last weekend played her Spanish version of "Blue Bayou," which I don't think I'd ever heard. Gorgeous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TnR4IsoC_0

(Schwartz, I mean)

Damn. This is gorgeous.

Wow

Senõr Plow to thread :)

benefit for Michael J. Fox Foundation:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7534407/linda-ronstadt-tribute-concert

What a career: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/they-say-that-loves-a-gentle-thing-the-best-of-linda-ronstadt/

loving linda these days
her outfit is so cool + she (always) sounds great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2_LKoTYKw

also let's hear it for rhyming gender & blender

classic

Linda is magic

It's so easy
It's so easy
It's so easy

iiiiiiiiiiiiive been cheateeed

my father loved linda ronstadt and i always have too. there’s a small windy intersection by an ugly little bridge near our childhood house that always makes me think of ‘blue bayou’ (and hearing the song always makes me see the intersection, which could not be less bayou-like.) i suppose we must have been singing it in the car driving through there once. my friend has moved to that part of town and a couple of weeks ago i drove over to visit her and the memory turned up as usual, it’s a fixture.

also let's hear it for rhyming gender & blender

Well, Warren Zevon.

take it to the Zevon thread buddy, this is LindaTown

lol yes

the way she rhymes them is all her

ps estela whenever i hear blue bayou i think of watching her sing it on the muppet show, fresh out of the bath sitting in front of the heater so my hair would be dry before bedtime <3

<3 that is darling

Classic!

Three things I love:

1. Her first solo record, "Dolphins," written by Fred Neil ("Everybody's Talkin'")

2. "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water," Stone Poneys single from 1968

3. "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," single from 1973, previously recorded by many other people including the Springfields (UK) and the Cowsills but hers is the best

VG & estela otm -- Linda gamely makes those corny lyrics sound charming
I can't stop singing "WoooooooOOOHHHHooooe is me"

I think interpretation is something of a lost art. Too many singers gravitate toward "standards" but I wish they just cherrypicked their favorite stuff and made something fresh out of it, like LR. Like, there's a difference between a "covers album" and singers doing special with songs by other people, I think.

"Will Never Marry" has become one of my anthems.

when her voice gets loud on Bayou I get all teary and goosebumpy

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 7:07 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too

― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 7:48 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still true.

i love her spanish albums

She played Sun City!!

classic Simpsons/Linda R reference for the nerds:

http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/files/2013/12/geeky-cross-stitch-senor-plow1.jpg

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/linda-ronstadt-opens-up-about-losing-her-voice-and-living-with-parkinsons-1203126148/

<3

Great performance here, and I'd never heard the story she tells at the beginning about Lowell George.

https://youtu.be/kMP8JsV7wbg

Lots of good songs imo

Not counting Stone Poneys? "Different Drum" is of course beyond great.

This one may delight you.

:)

I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty

Aw man, I really love her "Back in the USA." And I'm not so hot on "Tumbling Dice."

I spent my teens eyerolling at my parents Ronstadt obsession, but eventually realized my affection for Hazelewood's ballad productions was rooted in the constant exposure to "Long Long Time".

"Different Drum" is an all-time favorite.

A really good New Yorker interview.

That was great, thanks!

Posted this recently on another thread because of the B-Bender:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FiKHaSRMeg

Great interview! Yeah, Ronstadt, all things considered, sounds like she has it all figured out.

(B-bender derail: I saw Marty Stuart play not long ago, and I guess he is the current owner of Clarence White's b-bender, and he plays it every night. I think he also owns and uses one of Pops Staples' guitars. I think it's super cool when musicians have a piece of history and continue to use it the way it was intended. Iirc Neil Young owns and plays Hank Williams' guitar all the time.)

(Yeah, that came up on a Byrds thread and another guitar thread. Apparently he has so much memorabilia that he has to sell off some of it once in a while and there is a shop somebody told me about, can't remember where, that ends up with a lot of it)

Norman's Rare Guitars?

Maybe. Think it was in California. Also think it wasn’t just guitars, more like cowboy boots and Nudie suits, etc.

I just watched Marty tell the story of how he came by Clarence's B-bender Tele not long ago: http://youtu.be/r8H08Xs_w8A

Yeah, discussion was here and then further down Old School Guitar Pickin' And Strummin' Sick Chops YouTube Thread

Clarence had the first B-Bender, guy in the Linda Ronstadt video and all over some of her records, Bob Warford, had the second.

Walking down the road t'other day, what should come into my head but LR's ace version of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," followed by Kinky Friedman's cover of "My Shit's Fucked Up": kind of a natural succession, as nature goes (both r Zevon songs, decades apart). What else did she do by Zevon, besides "Rosalita"?

Re Marty and well-deployed vintage guitars etc, online relcis of this tour might be worth looking for---from Rolling Country 2018:

roger mcguinn, chris hillman and marty stuart & his fabulous superlatives, sweetheart of the rodeo full album show, los angeles, tuesday night. opening night of a short-ish tour. it was ragged, loose, occasionally awkward and more than occasionally great. they did one set of truncated versions of hits and deep cuts, and then the sweetheart of the rodeo set, played in full but out of order. i got the sense that stuart and the superlatives rehearsed thoroughly on their own and mcguinn and hillman maybe not so much. they missed cues left and right, were looking down frequently for chords and lyrics, and while hillman's voice was in good form, mcguinn was having a little trouble cutting through. but their instincts for harmony are still dead-on, and stuart fit right into that. i felt like i was watching a band still working out its sound, and as a result, when something gelled, when they hit a sweet spot, it was magical. like watching a band discover itself in real time. and that second set was way better than the first. it felt like having a piece of my own dna read back to me. maybe they felt the same.

encore: two byrds classics and three tom petty classics. i was wondering if maybe they would be able to coax david crosby (who i assume still lives here though i have no idea) onto the stage for a song or two. instead we got mike campbell, who joined for "american girl" -- after which they kicked him off and, strangely, played more petty songs without him. marty stuart did a bluegrassy take on "runnin' down a dream" (thumbs up) and hillman did a fairly faithful "wildflowers," which apparently petty produced for him for an album he put out last year.

they also told some stories. they're not particularly good storytellers. damn those harmonies though.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, July 25, 2018 9:08 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Was already hoping for an album from that tour, even more while reading your dispatch. Marty and His FS have the drive and expertise to keep those geezers functioning onstage for as long as possible.
-dow

Also I still need to check out LR's contributions to Escalator Over The Hill and Songs From Liquid Days.

I think you meant "Carmelita". Ronstadt also did "Mohammed's Radio" and "Hasten Down The Wind".

I skimmed that New Yorker interview but probably missed mention of the CNN documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDMYAsu5PvI

it's mentioned in there
also my childhood bff sent me a link to the trailer bc we were talking about the magic of linda ronstadt recently <3

Place with vintage clothing and memorabilia from Marty Stuart was Pioneer House in Knoxville: https://www.pioneer-house.com/events/2016/11/4/the-marty-stuart-collection

This is an excellent cover not often mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc128G3u61M

The new documentary is fantastic, it gave me chills over and over again. To hear her performing those songs on a big screen up close is an emotional experience.

Nothing groundbreaking about the form of it, but there doesn't seem to be a wasted moment in the whole 95 minutes.

The clips in the trailer were marvelous.

The audience applauded at the end, which can be a corny move but in this case felt right

loved this documentary

PBS is showing that unearthed '80 cable show as a pledge programming tonight. Her version of "Lies" is fun.

Knickerbockers or Stones?

The Former.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IaOn4NvrSc

Apparently a studio version was issued as a single in '82

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywY_ppvyj-Y

Thanks. Yeah, saw that video. Bugging me that I can’t ID that Mick Fleetwood-looking drummer.

Linda really getting her inner-Debbie Harry on in the latter vid.

Kind of makes you wish there was someone in Ronstadt's crew had slipped her some Dwight Twilley or Go-Gos tapes for prospective covers.

Russ Kunkel, I guess.

Yeah, remembering the long ago battle between John Rockwell and Elvis Costello, when I wouldn’t have wanted to hear her versions of such songs, but have since changed my tune.

AMG says it's Russ Kunkel

Never knew what he looked like. Guess he was usually hiding behind Leland Sklar’s beard.

Now they both hide behind Lyle Lovett's rooster coif.

Lol

omg she looks so CUTE with short hair!! <3 her

OTM

She seems like a good candidate for a POLL.

Russ Kunkel also the longtime drummer on much of Stevie Nicks's material.

He’s experiencing some kind of ILX Renaissance of late.

Pretty sure he got some love in this memorable thread

The Ubiquitous HIred Gun Session Veteran Shout-Out Thread

Wow, had no idea she ever put out a version of "Lies." Pretty good--wish she'd tried "A Public Execution" too.

Yeah, or "You're Gonna Miss Me".

If folks haven't seen that recent Linda Ronstadt doc, they can click this link to watch it between June 4 and June 10

https://www.brightfocus.org/movie/

Thanks!

Philip K Dick had some weird infatuation with Linda Ronstadt, and wrote characters based on her into a couple of his nuttier-than-usual later novels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Invasion#Writing

Both novels not only reference Linda Ronstadt,[5] but include fictional characters named Linda; in the case of VALIS, there is a character named Linda Lampton,[6] and in the case of The Divine Invasion, there is a character named Linda Fox.[7] In both novels, a character has a dream that conveys the notion that slippers need to be put on in order for said character to approach the dawn.

I tell you, y'all are sleeping on the Pirates of Penzance soundtrack (Linda Rondstadt, Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, Rex Smith).

She is a gem and a treasure

Planning to watch that doc soon.

Please forgive the facile comparison but I feel like I bought into the common dismissal of another pretty voice and pretty face singing songs they don’t really understand the same way I bought into it when it was said about the other Elvis, the one from Tupelo, which I long ago got over, and I guess I got over in this case too, only haven’t taken a deep dive into the discography yet.

She date Jerry Brown while he was governor. Still a wild thing to consider.

Yeah, think about that every once in a while.

That and the Eagles breaking up for the first time at an Alan Cranston fundraiser is the cool hilarious underbelly of late 70s/early 80s politics.

Willie Nelson says he smoked a joint on top of the White House after Carter was elected.

My dad claims he ran into Neil Young at a Democratic campaign HQ in Ohio in the 70s

Just watched the doc, still processing, goes pretty deep. All I have now is a a nerdy question: is that Renee Fleming dancing in the audience during the tribute concert at the very end?

Rock and Roll HoF induction ceremony and not the Kennedy Center so maybe not.

I'll have to check out the documentary. I'm not exactly a huge fan of her work, but from the interviews I've read, she always struck me as thoughtful and very modest (not to mention self-critical). It's kind of frustrating that her work isn't better, something she has said herself.

"Heart Like a Wheel" is an excellent LP, and I like a few other singles - the ones that come to mind generally pre-date "Heart Like a Wheel" - but whenever I've ventured beyond that, it's been disappointing.

Documentary is really well done.

If this is her show w Byron Berline and Country Gazette I heard (could have sworn it was a live broadcast from a studio), it's amazing---she mentions how much better this is than her tour (the early one w Neil Young, I think), where the audiences were more interested in tossing beach balls around. Digs deep into the olde roots and lets fire----scroll down for link to original post of whole show (variously labelled '72, '74, maybe others, on YouTube posts, as you can tell by their having the same setlists). Also see links to songs from a '75 set w Byron & CG, which poster says has better sound than the first show---haven't listened to much of it yet, but most of the links still work: https://ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/1431/ronstadts-bluegrass-country

On the Midnight Special, with a very special band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SOosWH6_M

And then again, later that Rockin’ Eve, after midnight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c41embg2Bfg

https://www.billboard.com/pro/linda-ronstadt-last-of-us-sync-wont-make-money-very-glad/

Oh, I fuckin hope this does a Kate Bush for her. I have so many Ronstadt albums I can’t even sell for a buck.

Outside of Heart Like a Wheel, there's only a few singles that I like, and that's definitely one of them.

When Capitol released that two-disc anthology of her complete recordings for them, they included a live recording from the Troubadour as a bonus - it's even better than the single IMHO. (More intimate, it isn't overpowered by an orchestral arrangement.)

https://open.spotify.com/track/6BNYxL2ss2yXfaq549uLD1?si=0cf4cf3a0f3844a7

She's only on four tracks of 2022's Putamayo Presents----Songs from The Sonoran Borderland---Feels Like Home: Linda Ronstadt's Musical Odyssey. which goes with her book of almost the same name, but they're the best on first listening, along with one I just linked on the main Los Lobos thread): "El Sueño," with blurry, unsettling, somewhat VU-ish acoustic guitar, has her waking up alert and foreboding---Springsteen's "Across The Border" (tune not as faux-Mexicali-solemn as I feared, though maybe she's keeping a lid on it) incl. Emmylou's maybe double-tracked, still thin intrusions on chorus, but LR always restores the vibe of verses---also good, if maybe a little too-drawn-out, on the thoughtful "I Never Will Marry" (Dolly v. effective on choruses)--then this one gets me right off, with the only piano (and it's a good piano) on the whole collection, and new instruments, male backup vocals keep appearing, vaya con Linda:

After a sweeping tour of the music of Mexico and the borderlands which inspired her, “Piel Canela” sees Linda and her band interpreting another Latin musical style that was ever-present in her childhood home: Cuban mambo.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1693140166_10.jpg

Some of the other artists' singing and songs seem blah and predictable so far, though picking is always good, and would like to hear more from her folkie relatives P.D. Ronstadt & The Co---oh yeah, also on "On The Border," notes say it's Neil Young playing that good harmonica, uncredited steel, bass, drums all effective too, one of the most robust tracks overall.

Classic voice, good material, usually rendered in a mediocre fashion.