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Post by Dianna on Sept 3, 2014 20:49:52 GMT -5
Hmm.. shy and timid? well I don't identify with her in those terms..She isnt a show off on stage but that doesn't make one timid. on the contrary I find her to be very confident, direct and outspoken. If you watch her early interviews i.e Mike Douglas she was not shy at all. Linda has a lot of humility and doesn't come off with a holier than thou superior attitude..I think that's wy people might confuse her of being shy or timid... I'll go back even further than Madonna.. Some would argue even Elvis was controversial and even vulgar for those times (only showed his performance from the waist up) I only meant for me it isn't necessary to see all that other stuff if the artist is a perfectly good singer..
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 4, 2014 0:39:44 GMT -5
I don't want to sound like I'm generalizing (though I probably am, anyway), but I feel that a lot of these shocking acts and publicity stunts go back to what Madonna began encouraging, whether knowingly or unknowingly, back in the 1980s. Lady Gaga's "meat dress" is the height of this absurdity and obsession with shocking people, and it's also idiotic of her to even be doing it in the first place because it obscures and overshadows whatever merit her music may have. Unfortunately, almost everybody born after the advent of MTV seems to hunger for that kind of "entertainment", and this kind of leaves anyone just out to give a solid performance without the gimmicks, the shocks, the pyros, and the kiddie porn out in the cold.
I'd go back even further than Madonna as far as shocking acts go, certainly back to the era when Alice Cooper first started becoming known for the theatrics and his snake. It was theater mixed in with rock music. Alice freaked a lot of people out even though it was just a show. After Alice, you had David Bowie going for the make-up and then Kiss, who sort of stole Alice's thunder. But, Madonna, for me was rather tame compared to Cooper's theatrics. Lady Gaga? I agree with your thought the theatrics work against her music as more people I think talk about her "theatrics" than her music, but then again, it may well turn out to be there's nothing of value in her music and the theater disguises that fact for now. My guess is Lady Gaga's music may not be well received at some future point if and when she knocks off the theatrics. She'll be remembered for her absurdity and the fact others did it before her and did it better.
As I think we all know, Linda is not one to do any of the stage spectacle stuff, because it simply isn't who she is or ever has been. She was very naturally shy and timid, but I feel it is that very shyness that her fans and her peers in the business identified with because it was real; and then to be hit with the power and control, and the heart, of that four-octave voice of hers was something that, if you appreciated anything about the fine art of Voice among female singers in American popular music in the second half of the 20th century, you yearned for, you even hungered for (IMHO).
Linda didn't need to do any stage spectacle stuff but if she had chosen to do so, I don't think she would've approached the level of Madonna or Lady Gaga. Or even Alice Cooper for that matter. Any stage spectacle stuff she might have done probably would've been on the somewhat conservative side if it had been done before Alice Cooper had come along. And even after he had come along, I couldn't have seen her getting too wild but still, one would've taken notice of that beautiful voice of hers despite any theatrics.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 4, 2014 1:14:30 GMT -5
Hmm.. shy and timid? well I don't identify with her in those terms..She isnt a show off on stage but that doesn't make one timid. on the contrary I find her to be very confident, direct and outspoken. If you watch her early interviews i.e Mike Douglas she was not shy at all. Linda has a lot of humility and doesn't come off with a holier than thou superior attitude..I think that's wy people might confuse her of being shy or timid... I'll go back even further than Madonna.. Some would argue even Elvis was controversial and even vulgar for those times (only showed his performance from the waist up) I only meant for me it isn't necessary to see all that other stuff if the artist is a perfectly good singer.. I don't think she comes across as shy or timid either, the MD interview being a good case in point. I thought she was a bit resreved around Johnny Carson in the 80s but then again, he was asking her about her dating life and she was clearly uncomfortable talking about that. I agree she was confident, direct and outspoken in interviews but maybe her on stage persona was a different matter? Recall in her book she wrote that as a solo artist, she'd had some male musicians in her band(s) who behaved as though they were calling the shots and addressing the audience instead of Linda. Linda was known for sometimes not saying a lot on stage and maybe there was some stage fright in play, which allowed the guilty male musicians (whoever they were) to do what they did. Linda's manager(s) should've had a serious talk with her about letting that happen and should also have put the musicians who did that on notice that the next time that happened they'd be looking for work elsewhere. I think that happened because there was some stage fright, maybe a little more than there was with other performers. And maybe she couldn't relax before a concert?
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 4, 2014 6:21:53 GMT -5
I think Linda is shy at times especially if not in her comfort zone. eddiejinnj
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Post by Goldie on Sept 4, 2014 6:34:10 GMT -5
Coy may be a better term than shy. Linda was always chatty onstage whenever I saw her which was probably to work out her nervous energy. I would think it hard to be on stage and have a one way conversation while trying to be amusing or interesting. She did get much more interesting when she began to become political onstage to the chagrin of some but mostly joy to others.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 4, 2014 15:13:31 GMT -5
demure, somewhat coquettish is Linda to me and coy fits in with that. She hasn't always been really chatty. at times in concert it was difficult to hear her talk. it depended on the show. I never left disappointed other than at the one arts center show in nj in like 2003 maybe. the crowd was just all over the place. they I think wanted to drink and rock out but it was not to be that kind of show. I knew what it was going to be as far as potential set list. was not disappointed with linda at all. that was a show phoebe snow came out and sang with linda and they both knocked it out of the park. eddiejinnj
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Post by Guest on Sept 8, 2014 13:39:58 GMT -5
I enjoyed this very much. Is there a list of her latest interviews and radio broadcasts with links some3where ?. Her facebook page is nice but not much help in this regard. I have always loved her. I liked the San Francisco Chronicle Interview very much as well.
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Post by nick on Sept 14, 2014 19:26:43 GMT -5
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Post by jay15206 on Sept 14, 2014 20:35:57 GMT -5
You do have to wonder if maybe the 1990s were the decade that everyone in the general public started forgetting about Linda. This isn't to say that I think everything she did in that decade is great, because I don't (I actually think there are places where she actually stumbled quite noticeably), but very little of what she did, especially (in my opinion) We Ran and Winter Light, has ever been really examined. the irony there is the oldie stations didn't play an oldie artist's new album or singles but just their old hits. I've always believed that was an untapped potential for the oldie stations: to not only play the original hits but also play something new from the artists who made up their play list. Some of the oldie stations would give away copies of an artist's new album as a way of "promoting" it but they wouldn't play any of the songs from those albums. Counterproductive, if you ask me. Especially with Linda, whose best songs were not her "hits."
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Post by charlotte on Sept 15, 2014 15:36:45 GMT -5
Wow, thank you Nick in Melbourne for the Purple Haze podcast. The Aussies have always been great to our Linda. "Can it be True?" from Diary of a Young Stockbroker. -doesn' t get much rarer than that. Someone needs to post this on the facebook pages(where some folks are not as seasonsed as us) -very eclectic, some rarely heard songs and Nick is so knowledgeable. HOBO has got to be as depressing a tune as Linda or anyone has ever recorded -beckoning the hobo for love and being rejected. No wonder I haven't listened to it in eons. Thanks again!
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 15, 2014 21:55:58 GMT -5
love Hobo. eddiejinnj
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 15, 2014 23:06:17 GMT -5
Wow, thank you Nick in Melbourne for the Purple Haze podcast. The Aussies have always been great to our Linda. "Can it be True?" from Diary of a Young Stockbroker. -doesn' t get much rarer than that. Someone needs to post this on the facebook pages(where some folks are not as seasonsed as us) -very eclectic, some rarely heard songs and Nick is so knowledgeable. HOBO has got to be as depressing a tune as Linda or anyone has ever recorded -beckoning the hobo for love and being rejected. No wonder I haven't listened to it in eons. Thanks again! Linda's version of "Hobo" is a very affecting performance which surprisingly, wasn't a single but maybe should've been. (Maybe it was?) I thought it held more possibilities for pop chart success than what "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water" did, which was the first sign of Linda turning in a country direction. Not a good move, although "Muddy Water" was a good tune. "Hobo" has that sense of sadness in Linda's vocals that were present in other songs she did but it doesn't sound quite as devastating as some of those other songs. .
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Post by erik on Sept 16, 2014 9:16:28 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
Not being A&R material, I can't say whether "Hobo" would have been a hit had it been released as a single; it does have some of the same baroque folk-pop-rock feel of "Different Drum", but much more depressing in a way, whereas "High Muddy Water", which barely broke a sweat on the Hot 100 (#93), was much too country for AM radio back then in 1968. I might have gone with "Stoney End" if I had to choose a single from that third Stone Poneys album.
Oh yes, I did listen to that podcast all the way through, and I thought they did a fabulous job with the song selections and the interview all the way around.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 16, 2014 10:23:55 GMT -5
Not being A&R material, I can't say whether "Hobo" would have been a hit had it been released as a single; it does have some of the same baroque folk-pop-rock feel of "Different Drum", but much more depressing in a way, whereas "High Muddy Water", which barely broke a sweat on the Hot 100 (#93), was much too country for AM radio back then in 1968. I might have gone with "Stoney End" if I had to choose a single from that third Stone Poneys album. Oh yes, I did listen to that podcast all the way through, and I thought they did a fabulous job with the song selections and the interview all the way around. The B-side of "High Muddy Water" was "Carnival Bear," which remains unissued on a regular album. It was similar in feel to "Hobo" but because "High Muddy Water" barely charted, its potential to be heard on the radio (a possibility in those days) was deep sixed. "Stoney End" had potential although I believe Capitol went with Linda's second Mike Nesmith song, "Some of Shelly's Blues" as a single. They may have had some high hopes for the song as the steel guitar was mixed out of the song, which was a mistake. I thought it sounded more interesting with the steel guitar. But, Capitol likely was looking at the success Glen Campbell was starting to have and maybe thinking Linda could gain some traction on pop-rock radio with similar country-pop songs, which was why "High Muddy Water" and "Shelly's Blues" got the nods. I would still have put the money on "Hobo" (first) and "Stoney End" although "High Muddy Water" held some potential. Maybe Capitol should've marketed that song straight to country radio rather than going for pop-rock radio?
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Post by Dianna on Sept 16, 2014 14:09:22 GMT -5
Hobo was that song written in the late 1800's or early 1900's.. the words sound very old fashioned
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Post by erik on Sept 16, 2014 14:34:35 GMT -5
Quote by Dianna:
Actually, contemporary folk singer/songwriter Tim Buckley (father of Jeff Buckley) wrote it sometime around 1966 or '67; it's also known as "Morning Glory", I believe.
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Post by Dianna on Sept 16, 2014 20:19:23 GMT -5
did anyone check out Rachel Price (the girl Linda talked about in the interview) she's pretty good.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2022 14:51:37 GMT -5
This was indeed a great listen - in many ways. For those who incorrectly think Linda does not recognize her "rock and roll" cred - well just listen to her riff about jamming all night with Neil Young and Roy Orbison or Jagger and Waddy Wachtel. How about long talks on the phone, across the country, regularly with Doc Pomus? Linda hasn't changed - she sounds at times like her young breathless self here but then you can hear her tire - her intense modesty and inability to brag about herself is as it ever was. I do not expect her to satisfy us by saying "I was a great singer". Rather she demonstrates through her talent, wisdom and feeling for music instead of marketing and self aggrandizing just how truly rare and remarkable a talent she is. We are her public champions along with writers, commentators, historians, music lovers like Mr. Selvin and other assorted fans. Linda's consistent lack of ego is hard wired, like the American desert in her DNA. She does not owe us further acknowledgement of her superior talents and it is not going to happen. This is who she is. I find it fortunate she even states that fans have been "lovely". PS Thanks again to Erik, Eddie etc. for bringing the "lost" albums of the 90s- especially Winter's Light to my attention. Along with early Sunday morning listens to Adieu False Heart it is my favorite later Linda recording. Still waiting for a quality live release. What Linda has said, is where she is good, what her strongpoints are, how & what she learned from associating with other musicians, managers, mixers and technicians. Linda was a very willing pupil and is an analyst and authority. Hot air big talk is not her style, but encyclopaedic knowledge is.
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