Uncut Magazine- November 2015- Linda Ronstadt

[Anton!]

[Guest]

Thanks Anton!!!!!

[Anton!]

Okay, there was problem with the third page of the article not displaying. Is fixed now.

[fabtastique]

thank you - interesting read about Winter Light .... so she thinks her voice started to decline in 1993! wow ....

[erik]

I think that Linda's claim about the title track of Winter Light, that "it might not have been what everybody wanted to hear", is a reactionary, knee-jerk kind of a statement, although it should also be said that a lot of people thought it sounded more like Enya than it did Linda.

It doesn't change my mind about either the title track or the album as a whole, both of which I have always said I liked. But statements like that one sometimes make me wonder just how much credit Linda has given to her fans over the years for having intelligences of their own.

[Anton! aka Tony aka Partridge]

She had to wonder how many English-speaking fans she had left based on the lukewarm sales of Winter Light. And radio support was minimal.

[Richard W]

Rereading the piece, Erik, it doesn't seem to me that Linda is referring to the song, but the album, when she says it "might not have been what everybody wanted to hear." The song itself had not come under discussion yet at that point.

And based on the album's sales and dismal singles charting, it's a difficult to argue the point.

I love that album. Evidently so does Linda. Why's yer dander up?

[Richard W]

And thank you so much Anton for scanning and posting. I'd have not seen it otherwise.

[erik]

Quote by Richard W:

Rereading the piece, Erik, it doesn't seem to me that Linda is referring to the song, but the album, when she says it "might not have been what everybody wanted to hear." The song itself had not come under discussion yet at that point.

And based on the album's sales and dismal singles charting, it's a difficult to argue the point.

I love that album. Evidently so does Linda. Why's yer dander up?

I don't want to give that impression; and I don't think I have ever said than Winter Light was anything than Linda at her absolute best (after 1998's We Ran, which did even worse commercially but to my mind was also an artistic triumph of the first order, it is my favorite album of hers from the 1990s). It just felt to me like she was selling her truest fans short for appreciating the different things she was able to do.

[PoP80]

Rereading the piece, Erik, it doesn't seem to me that Linda is referring to the song, but the album, when she says it "might not have been what everybody wanted to hear." The song itself had not come under discussion yet at that point.

And based on the album's sales and dismal singles charting, it's a difficult to argue the point.

I love that album. Evidently so does Linda. Why's yer dander up?

It's refreshing to hear Linda say something complimentary about her singing on Winter Light, since she so rarely does. The lack of commercial success is unfortunate, since it received very positive critical reviews. Her popularity had waned somewhat at the point, although she had reached her stride vocally. It's a wonderful album that undeservedly got lost in the shuffle.

[rumba]

Dec 10, 2015 18:48:13 GMT -5 PoP80 said:

Rereading the piece, Erik, it doesn't seem to me that Linda is referring to the song, but the album, when she says it "might not have been what everybody wanted to hear." The song itself had not come under discussion yet at that point.

And based on the album's sales and dismal singles charting, it's a difficult to argue the point.

I love that album. Evidently so does Linda. Why's yer dander up?

It's refreshing to hear Linda say something complimentary about her singing on Winter Light, since she so rarely does. The lack of commercial success is unfortunate, since it received very positive critical reviews. Her popularity had waned somewhat at the point, although she had reached her stride vocally. It's a wonderful album that undeservedly got lost in the shuffle.

She feels it's the best singing she's done.

[sliderocker]

Dec 10, 2015 9:54:06 GMT -5 erik said:

I think that Linda's claim about the title track of Winter Light, that "it might not have been what everybody wanted to hear", is a reactionary, knee-jerk kind of a statement, although it should also be said that a lot of people thought it sounded more like Enya than it did Linda.

It doesn't change my mind about either the title track or the album as a whole, both of which I have always said I liked. But statements like that one sometimes make me wonder just how much credit Linda has given to her fans over the years for having intelligences of their own.

I think Linda did stretch somewhat with the "Winter Light" album, and with some fans, that's always a risk they may not buy. They want their favorite artist to remain true to the kind of music that made them popular. But, what that kind of fan doesn't understand is that staying in the same kind of musical groove often can become a rut. And that rut can cause sales to dwindle too.

In Linda's case, I think some may have saw her as trying to get too artsy. "Heartbeats Accelerating" was not a good choice for a single. I didn't even know it was Linda for the longest time. They'd play it on the radio but then they'd never tell you she was the artist. That had to have an impact on the sales of the single and the album. If a dyed in the wool Ronstadt fan like me couldn't recognize his beloved lady Linda, what were the chances other fans or non-fans couldn't recognize her either?

Another problem Linda may have ran into then was that was about the time certain powers that be with the record industry, managers and new artists were complaining loudly about not being able to be heard because the market favored the oldies artists. Certain new artists and their managers and record business types were less than polite in their comments about older artists needing to go. MTV started up VH1 as a cable channel where older artists could be heard, but the group of people who were complaining about the older artists was trying to run therm off VH1 and make VH1 play them instead. It didn't occur to younger artists and their supporters that even if they could've succeeded in freezing out older artists, they still couldn't make the public buy their records instead. But, I do think Linda could've been a victim of that as well as trying to be too different.

With regard to the fans and whether Linda ever gave them credit for having their own intelligences, I think she did. If she ever had a problem with them buying her records, one would think she would've refused her artist royalties on grounds she didn't deserve them. Linda is the only artist I've ever known who disliked all of her recordings but then, I did not in that story, she said she never listened to them. So, how could she know they were terrible or her voice was terrible? I think she was grateful there were many others who disagreed with her on that. Still, constantly telling everyone over and over again "I'm not a good singer" can be grating as hell, and make one want to tell her to shut up with that kind of talk. It's ok to say it but don't take it to an extreme.

One other thing I disagreed with in that article was Linda talking about how she wasn't a songwriter, that it wasn't who she was. Not thinking she needed to grind out songs because she had J.D., Jackson and Neil around to write songs, while true, was no excuse for her not to try her hand at it a little more than she did. She had the talent - anyone who could write a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark song like "Try Me Again" her first time out as a songwriter had an unrecognized songwriting talent within her. If I would've been her manager, I would've had her writing or co-writing one or two songs per album until she got comfortable with the process. She didn't need an office, some place to go write songs and she didn't need to write in the quantity that J.D., Jackson, Neil and other songwriters wrote and write. If it didn't come easy for her, well, she wouldn't have been the first singer who couldn't write that many songs. But, I think she could've surprised herself with what she could've done.

[fabtastique]

Winter Light is a fantastic album and I'm pleased it is one of Linda's favourites. I find it quite astounding that it faired so poorly, it has a great selection of tunes and her voice is stellar.

[eddiejinnj]

I never thought that the album did that badly. They did play "Hearbeats" quite a bit and she did have what 2 adult contemporary charted songs from it. There are a number of reasons it was not a "Cry Like a Rainstorm" sales wise that we have discussed b4. She was also producing then for Aaron (2 of their songs off his albums hit the adult contemporary charts) and had had a moderate hit in "Dreams to Dream" not long b4 "Winter Light". eddiejinnj

[70smusicfan]

I know I'll be crucified on this medium for saying this, but I feel that this period was Linda's only failure. IMHO, the Stone Poneys were just as good a Folk-Rock group as Peter, Paul, and Mary. Then she pioneered the country-rock sound with another dozen groups - a huge success. Then she singlehandedly (sorry Carly) reinvigorated the American Songbook for dozens of artists to follow (kudos Nelson Riddle) - another huge success. Then she brought Mexican/Latin music to the forefront in US mass media - another huge success. And I thought Mad Love was one of the best New Wave albums put out. She pioneered Broadway for other rock stars. All of these efforts were major changes in her career - and brought about huge changes in the public's tastes (was Linda the cause or just an effect?).

If we look at her later albums - they are again very different musically from what was around then or before - and different from Enya. Her voice is superb and, although I can't define it since I am a non-musician, it had a "Adult Oriented" quality). However, only Cry Like a Rainstorm (1989) was a success - Winter Light (1994), Feels Like Home (1995), and We Ran (1998) were not. I think it was the public's "fault" as Linda alludes to. I would be much happier with the sonic landscape as it exists today if the genre had gotten a foothold and taken off. We are already richer because of the other genres that Linda pioneered.

[eddiejinnj]

She was a little more mature chronologically and artistically. She did material appropriate to her tastes and stage in life imo. eddiejinnj

[erik]

Quote by 70smusicfan:

If we look at her later albums - they are again very different musically from what was around then or before - and different from Enya. Her voice is superb and, although I can't define it since I am a non-musician, it had a "Adult Oriented" quality). However, only Cry Like a Rainstorm (1989) was a success - Winter Light (1994), Feels Like Home (1995), and We Ran (1998) were not. I think it was the public's "fault" as Linda alludes to. I would be much happier with the sonic landscape as it exists today if the genre had gotten a foothold and taken off.

I would have to disagree about the failure of those later albums of Linda's being the fault of the public exclusively. If there is any "blame" to go around per se, it is not to be found in just one corner, but spread out all over. Fans and listeners were fragmented into various genres by the 1990s; the industry would only now support "sure things" like Madonna, whose shtick was already kind of old by then; and it's not out of the question to suggest that some record industry execs though Linda's diversity to be her own worst enemy.

I have always maintained that Winter Light and We Ran were great albums that deserved better. But I am not convinced that everything she put out during the 1990s was on that level. Feels Like Home and Trio II both have their issues ("High Sierra" and "Lover's Return" are Linda at her most sub-standard, and I am standing firmly by that opinion); and nothing and nobody can ever convince me that "We Will Rock You" on Dedicated To The One I Love works as a lullaby. "The Waiting", "Walk On". "After The Goldrush", "The Blue Train" and "Feels Like Home", all on Feels Like Home, are where I felt Linda was more naturalistic. And "He Was Mine", on Western Wall, was Linda's final great track of the 1990s (which isn't to say that this duet album with Emmy was a bust, because it wasn't, unless you again count the record sales).

As for the sonic landscape of today not being what it could have been had the Adult genre taken hold--well, that's hard to say, since, as is often pointed out, "kids" buy the CDs and the concert tickets, and download the songs on their MP3 players. But some of us have often pointed out, perhaps ad nauseum, that there are artists out there that do great stuff, you just have to really look out for them. And more than a few have taken their cue from what Linda (and Emmy) have done--like Tift Merritt; Caitlin Rose; and, most recently, Canadian-born (with Mexican surname) firebrand Lindi Ortega. If you're only looking at the "mainstream", you'll never find artists of this caliber (IMHO).

[fabtastique]

Erik ..... Lover's Return is wonderful!

[Goldie]

Not only is Lover's Return exquisite so is High Sierra. When Linda and Emmylou were on tour for Western Wall they each did some their own songs as well, at least in my home town. When the intro to High Sierra began fans almost blew off the roof with a standing ovation. No other song except with the possibility of Blue Bayou came even close to that reception. Feels Like Home continues to be my favorite Ronstadt album. I can continually play it over and over and never tire of it. People's musical tastes seem to be wired differently but there was no denying the reception High Sierra received so I would say in general it is very well liked. Linda's long lasting survival as a singer was rooted in her diversity. Most singers don't get more than a few albums of longevity. We were lucky to get such choices from our favorite singer. But we have had this conversation many times before and some of us are very "dug in" and that ain't about to change lol.

[Tony]

Erik, although those might not be to your taste, I do think they are the best versions of those songs I have ever heard.

I can see where you might not like the bellow of High Sierra, as I myself do not like the rock shouters (though I do love the rock screamers). But that was obviously the style those 3 ladies thought served the song best.

Do you skip over those songs whenever you play the two albums they are on, or do you give them a chance to possibly grow on you. I ask because it took me over 20 years to warm up to the "Don't Cry Now" album (and the title song still makes my skin crawl).

[erik]

Quote by Tony:

Erik, although those might not be to your taste, I do think they are the best versions of those songs I have ever heard.

I can see where you might not like the bellow of High Sierra, as I myself do not like the rock shouters (though I do love the rock screamers). But that was obviously the style those 3 ladies thought served the song best.

Do you skip over those songs whenever you play the two albums they are on, or do you give them a chance to possibly grow on you. I ask because it took me over 20 years to warm up to the "Don't Cry Now" album (and the title song still makes my skin crawl).

I don't skip over either "High Sierra" and "Lover's Return", but I have also never been convinced that they are Linda at her best, even when it is just the 1990s that are considered. I feel that on "High Sierra" she strains way too much for a "high lonesome sound" that she did fairly well twenty-five years before that, and I also thought "Lover's Return" was much too cutesy. I felt she was far better in doing this kind of traditionalist country material later when she did "New Partner Waltz" with Carl Jackson on the 2003 Louvin Brothers tribute album Livin', Lovin', Losin; it felt less like she was trying to be absolutely note-perfect and more naturalistic and go-for-broke. I also felt a lot of that was still there on Adieu False Heart, even though she has said that her voice was nearly gone by that time.

[markv]

There are of course songs that are not my favorites, but when I hear Linda sing anything, there is just the sound of her voice that always grabs me.

[Robert Morse]

I never thought of He Was Mine as Linda at her finest especially given some of the other songs on Western Wall such as The Highway Man and Falling Down.

[fabtastique]

This Is To Mother You, Falling Down and Sisters of Mercy are my favs on Western Wall.... Famous Blue Raincoat album (by Jennifer Warnes, often mistaken for Linda by some ... !) was the Leonard Cohen album Linda should have made - even though I love what Jennifer did., I can hear Linda singing those song so well.

[rumba]

Dec 12, 2015 0:41:46 GMT -5 fabtastique said:

.. Famous Blue Raincoat album (by Jennifer Warnes, often mistaken for Linda by some ... !) was the Leonard Cohen album Linda should have made - even though I love what Jennifer did., I can hear Linda singing those song so well.

Yes exactly!

[Partridge]

I was requested to post the cover of the UNCUT magazine- here is a link to the cover:

Uncut- cover

[70smusicfan]

Thanks for the cover for the scrapbook.