Classic Tracks w/ Ronstadt Connections

[the Scribe]

CLASSIC TRACKS: Linda has been involved in other people's music almost as much as she has been with her own. She has appeared on some real classics. Some weren't originally classics but have grown to become so over time. I am choosing songs where I can find the back stories to add a little history. Longtime fans know most of this stuff but newcomers to Linda and the forum might not, especially if they are under 50.

Classic Track: Neil Young's "Heart of Gold"

5/01/2001 8:00 AM Eastern
Author: Elliot Mazer www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/classic-tracks-neil-youngs-heart-gold/372802

By the time Neil Young rolled into Nashville to begin recording his Harvest album, 30 years ago this past winter, he had already enjoyed several different careers as a musician. And, as we learned subsequently, he was only warming up for what has been one of the most fascinating odysseys of any rock musician.

After playing folk and rock in his native Canada during his teens, Young and his friend/bandmate, bassist Bruce Palmer, moved to Los Angeles in 1965 and, the following spring, formed the groundbreaking country-influenced rock band Buffalo Springfield with guitarists Stephen Stills and Richie Furay and drummer Dewey Martin. Over the next two years, Buffalo Springfield would go through various personnel changes (including the departure of Palmer and the addition of Jim Messina) and record two well-received albums for Atco. It was a band filled with strong singers and songwriters, and Young quickly established himself as an utterly distinctive presence, as songs such as “Mr. Soul,” “Broken Arrow” and “Expecting to Fly” showed. However, by May of ’68, the battles between Young and Stills had led to the dissolution of this promising group. At that point, Young became a solo artist, releasing his eponymous first album, produced by the eccentric genius Jack Nitzsche, in January 1969. In the course of making that album, Young encountered a group called The Rockets (guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Bill Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina), and he hooked up with them and changed their name to Crazy Horse. Together, they cut the classic, hard-rocking Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere album, which contained such defining Young numbers as “Cinnamon Girl,” “Cowgirl in the Sand” and the epic “Down By the River.” Then, just as that album was taking off, Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash for a tempestuous year or so that included the making of the multi-Platinum Déjà Vu album. A third solo album, After the Goldrush (featuring Crazy Horse, Stills and an up-and-coming young axe-slinger named Nils Lofgren) came out in September of ’70, and continued Young's incredible rise. At this point, Young took a turn in a somewhat different direction, heading to Nashville to record Harvest.

Elliot Mazer, producer of that album (and subject of this issue's Producer's Desk on page 54) tells the story of the recording of this issue's “Classic Track”, the Number One single “Heart of Gold.”

“Heart of Gold” was recorded during the first set of the Harvest sessions at Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville in early 1971. This project was full of coincidences and surprises. Neil, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Tony Joe White were in town to shoot the final Johnny Cash Show for ABC-TV. I was living in Nashville, working mostly at Quad, which I co-owned with David Briggs — the Nashville musician, not the David Briggs who had produced other Neil Young records — and Norbert Putnam. I decided that the studio would host a dinner for some of the [Cash show] guests and some of our studio friends. I called Elliot Roberts, Neil's manager then and now. Elliot and I had known each other in New York; I produced some demos with a group he called Roberts Rules of Order. He took Neil to the party. I had produced Linda's Silk Purse LP. So, I called Peter Asher, Linda's manager, and he brought Linda and James Taylor. We had around 50 people for dinner. During dinner, Elliot introduced me to Neil, and we started talking about studios and musicians. Neil had heard of our band, Area Code 615, and asked if I could get the drummer, a bass player and a steel player into my studio the next day. Kenny Buttrey was available and keen to play [drums] with Neil. Norbert had gone home to Muscle Shoals for the weekend, and Weldon Myrick, the steel player in Area Code 615, could not make it, because he had to do his regular gig on the Grand Ole Opry. So we found Ben Keith — he's still working with Neil after 30 years [see story in “Recording Notes”].

Neil and I met for breakfast Saturday morning at the old Ramada Inn, and we decided to meet up at the studio that afternoon. Neil showed up and asked us to move things around so that he could be next to the drums. We got Troy Seals, an amazing songwriter, to play bass, and Teddy Irwin, a session player-friend, played guitar. A few hours later, Tim Drummond showed up with his bass. Marshall Falwell, the photographer, had seen Tim walking on the street and told him to go to Quad with his bass.

“Heart of Gold” was the second song we cut. Teddy, Ben, Tim and Kenny played on it. I used a [Neumann] U87 on Neil's voice; a [Neumann] KM86 on his guitar; drum overheads were KM86s, snare most likely a [Shure] SM56, hi-hat a 224E; bass was direct; we had a KM86 on Teddy's guitar and an 87 on steel. We were recording to 2-inch 16-track Scotch 206, 30 ips, no noise reduction. The console was a Quad Eight 20×8×16. No compressors were used. I hand-rode his voice, which meant I had to learn the song and anticipate his moves. The vocal effect on Neil's voice is 15 ips tape slapback, and it is on the multitrack.

A vivid recollection of the session that produced “Heart of Gold” was hearing Neil play and sing the song for us the first time. The song and arrangement came alive. Kenny Buttrey and I made eye contact while listening, and we both raised a finger that said we knew it was going to be a Number One hit. It took a few minutes for the band to learn the song and figure out how to capture the magical feel that Neil was laying down. Neil was very specific to Kenny about what not to play. Tim Drummond and Kenny played together so much that they just connected to each other. Teddy Irwin found some harmonics and rhythm chops, and Ben Keith just sailed through the song. We did one or two takes. Neil and the band played live, same as every song on Harvest. After we got the master take, we got Linda and James to add their harmonies in the control room while sitting on the couch. They were facing the control monitors and the vocal mic; an 87 on cardioid was facing them. They listened to the studio monitors and sang along listening to each other. Two passes, and it was finished. I guess it took less than two hours to record everything on “Heart of Gold.” I can't remember where we mixed it — either at Quad or in Neil's house. We did a mono and a stereo mix — 15 ips, no noise reduction.

A side note: It was very easy to get good sounds in the studio in Nashville. The rooms were set up properly, the musicians knew how to tune and make their instruments sound good, and the engineers were expected to get sounds quickly and to give the musicians good earphone mixes. At Quad, we had a 3-channel cue system that sounded great. In my studio in San Francisco, His Master's Wheels, we had a 4-channel system. Each musician got a box with controls for level. We only spent a few minutes getting sounds for Neil. I had listened to After the Gold Rush, and we all seemed to respond to the intimacy of Neil's music. I don't recall why we started to use slapback on Neil's voice, but that worked wonderfully. Neil really got excited when he heard the first playback. Later on, after he had gone home to California, he told me that this was the first time a tape sounded better at home than in the studio.

In the ’70s, Bob Dylan said that when he first heard “Heart of Gold” on the radio, he got mad, because it should have been him; it sounded like him! The song peaked at Number One in Billboard, as did the album.

Where's everyone now? Neil, obviously, is still writing, making records and touring. Ben Keith is still playing; he also produced Jewel's first album. Teddy Irwin is living in Nashville, playing and composing music for TV shows. Teddy has toured with Roy Buchanan, Petula Clark and Doc Sevrenson, among others. Tim Drummond worked with Neil and CSNY and Bob Dylan and many more in what has been a long and brilliant career. Kenny Buttrey made many, many great records over the years; he is retired now. And these days, I'm living in New York, working in the technology world and making the occasional record. Quadrafonic Sound Studios is now associated with Quad Studios of New York, which is owned by Lou Gonzalez, who was an engineer I worked with on a Gordon Lightfoot record back in the ’60s!





www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiOZDveWI75vk97cHyawvduvQE9xivj8O




Published on Aug 24, 2014

"Harvest" is the fourth album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released on February 14, 1972. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks, while noted guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor contributed vocals. It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States.

After Neil Young left Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, he recruited a group of country session musicians and recorded a country rock record in Harvest. The record was a massive hit, producing a US number one single in "Heart Of Gold". Other songs returned to some usual Young themes: "Alabama" was "an unblushing rehash of 'Southern Man'"; and "The Needle And The Damage Done" was a lament for great artists who had died of heroin addiction.

The album's success caught Young off guard and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. He would later write that the record "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."

The recording of the remainder of Harvest was notable for the spontaneous and serendipitous way it came together. Young arrived in Nashville in early February 1971 to perform on a broadcast of Johnny Cash Show where Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor would also appear. Mazer had opened Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville, and invited Young to dinner on Saturday, February 6, to convince him to record his next project at the studio. Neil admired the work of the local studio musicians known as Area Code 615 who had recorded there and was interested. Young had been working on new songs that he had been performing on the road, as seen by the repertoire on Live at Massey Hall 1971, and told Mazer that all he needed was a bassist, drummer, and pedal steel guitarist. Young made the decision to start recording that very evening.

Since many of the Area Code 615 musicians were working on a Saturday night, Mazer scrambled to find drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond and steel-guitarist Ben Keith. That night, they laid down the basic tracks for "Old Man", "Bad Fog Of Loneliness" and "Dance Dance Dance" (the latter two tracks didn't make the cut).

"Heart Of Gold" was only recorded on Monday 8 February with the same basic line-up as the 6 February session. However it has been reported that after taping the Johnny Cash Show on the evening of Sunday 7 February, Young invited Ronstadt and Taylor to come back to the studio with him. The three sat on a couch and recorded the background vocals for "Heart Of Gold" and "Old Man." Taylor picked up Young's Banjo guitar (a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar) and overdubbed a part for the latter song.

The electric-based songs were recorded in a barn at Young's ranch in California in September, with the master takes being recorded at the end of the month. Using a remote recording system, Mazer set up PA speakers in the barn for monitors rather than have the players wear headphones. This resulted in a lot of "leakage" of each microphone picking up sound from other instruments, but it resulted in a sound that Young and Mazer liked.

Background vocals by Crosby, Stills & Nash were subsequently recorded by Mazer in New York.

Mixing was done at both Quadrafonic and at Young's house. During playback at the ranch, Mazer ran the left channel into the PA speakers still in the barn and the right channel into speakers in the house. With Crosby and Nash beside him Young sat outside listening to the mix. When asked about the stereo balance, he called out, "More barn."

Despite the album's strong sales, assessments by critics were not overwhelmingly favorable at the time. A negative review was published in Rolling Stone, where John Mendelsohn called the album a disappointing retread of earlier, superior efforts by Young, writing of "the discomfortingly unmistakable resemblance of nearly every song on this album to an earlier Young composition — it's as if he just added a steel guitar and new words to After The Gold Rush." A review in The Montreal Gazette gave the album a mixed verdict, calling it "embarrassing" in places but interesting lyrically. More recent evaluations of the album have been far more positive: in 1998, Q magazine readers voted Harvest the 64th greatest album of all time. In 1996, 2000 and 2005, Chart polled readers to determine the 50 greatest Canadian albums of all time — Harvest placed second in all three polls. In 2003, a full three decades removed from its original harsh assessment, Rolling Stone named Harvest the 78th greatest album of all time. In 2007, Harvest was named the #1 Canadian Album of All Time by Bob Mersereau in his book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.




Neil Young - Harvest Moon + interview [January 1993]

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: Paul Simon's "Under African Skies"


(contains some SNL footage of Linda and Paul)

Mettler: Tell me more about your performance on “Under African Skies,” which, I have to say, is one of my favorites of your performances on someone else’s record.

PAULSIMON - IN SOUTH AFRICA 1987Ronstadt: Paul called me up one day and said, “I’m having a hard time on this work; I’m stuck. Give me an idea, something I can see.” I happened to be in Tucson when he called. “Give me something you saw or thought of when you were growing up.” Immediately, I thought of visiting the San Xavier del Bac Mission, where we used to spend a lot of time. It was built in the 1600s, just south of Tucson, founded by Father Kino. [San Xavier was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692.] It’s just meant to be one of the most beautiful missions in North America. Just gorgeous. It was built on a sacred spot, one of the Indians’ sacred mountains. So it feels like a holy spot, regardless of what religion you subscribe to, or even if you’re like me and don’t subscribe to any religion. It feels like a really resident, amazing place. So I told Paul about that, and he put that in there, and then we all sang harmonies all the time when I was a kid growing up. The whole family sang. We all sang in harmony, everybody knew how to sing harmony. So that’s how he wound up with those lyrics.
www.soundbard.com/soundbard/sound-quality-dreams-linda-ronstadt-on-her-unyielding-passion-for-true-high-fidelity/

EVENT

“UNDER AFRICAN SKIES”

Again, if you listen to this album on headphones and really pay attention, certain details will jump out at you. Many, many tracks have thunderous percussion and drumming. But how unexpected is it to hear the massive thump that begins one of the quietest tracks on the album? That percussive sound (almost like thunder) is repeated more quietly throughout the song, a tune you probably remember mostly for its gently beautiful verses and the iconic lyric on the chorus. “These are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain” is as clear a calling card for the album one could ask for.

Simon duets with Linda Ronstadt and her childhood memories provided the inspiration for the lyrics of the second verse. On tour, Simon sang the song with the great Miriam Makeba, but Ronstadt belongs on the album. She’s one of pop’s great voices and as a talent is one of the most musically adventurous in rock history. As a woman (I can’t think of any other reason), she hasn’t received her due for how bold and exploratory she’s been throughout her career. But Ronstadt embraced country and folk and pop and rock and what would be known as Americana throughout her career, not to mention venturing successfully into operetta with Gilbert & Sullivan. When she recorded this song with Simon, Ronstadt was deep into her collaboration with arranger Nelson Riddle on classic standards, a genre she was first roundly mocked for singing but which proved hugely successful. By the time her third album of standards came out the same year as Graceland, even doubters would recognize she’d grown mightily in her chops as a torch singer. One year later, she was belting out Mariachi music and earning the respect of traditionalists. You can take music you find and use it as a launching pad or find inspiration by respecting its origins. Neither path is wrong and Ronstadt — who has received more Grammys in more genres than any other performer in history, I think — is a genuine trailblazer and her presence here is fitting.

But again, there’s that thunderous percussion, which reasserts itself throughout this song that encompasses perhaps the birth of Christianity and music itself. That thomp that punctuates the desire to express yourself artistically, the constant need for rebirth that all artists must face and which Simon succeeded so completely at here. That unexpected thwamp, which seems so out of place in such a gorgeous, almost contemplative song and yet which belongs so completely you almost don’t notice it. And then the coda, which lets all the rest of the music drop away while the percussion by Ralph MacDonald continues in its striking pattern, long after you imagine it would stop or fade out. It’s those seemingly incongruous, unexpected sonic details that keep songs like this forever fresh. And of course Ronstadt sings the hell out of it.

www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/paul-simons-graceland-tur_b_1603009.html

Some of her duets and appearances were Events. Linda's invitation to join Paul Simon on his masterpiece GRACELAND is one such event. Together they sing Under African Skies, a song which was written in part by Paul about Linda herself.

Graceland is the seventh studio album by American musician Paul Simon, released in August 1986.

It was a hit, topping the UK Album Chart, and reaching number three on the US Billboard 200. The album won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while the title song won the 1988 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. In 2007, the album was added to the United States National Recording Registry, along with another 24 significant recordings that year. It is included in many "best of" and "greatest" album lists including both Rolling Stone's and Time's.

25 YEARS LATER

In 1986, Graceland sold 14 million copies worldwide and garnered both the Album and Song of the Year Grammy in 1987. Simon and the members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo performed on Saturday Night Live and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. Simon and Linda Ronstadt later appeared on SNL in a duet on Under African Skies, a tribute in song about singer Ronstadt herself. Graceland generated three hit singles and it kept Paul Simon and the Graceland tour on the road for five years. Its music was heard across the globe. Today, its music and its reputation still reach generations of music enthusiasts yet so many are unaware of how pivotal that one album was during the 1980s, how it helped birth the idea of World Music and revived the career of one of America s most important songwriters. How it influenced the political progress of South Africa a country divided by institutionalized racism, causing and then transcending years of controversy. How in fact the album came to be in the first place.

Under African Skies (Directed by Joe Berlinger, award-winning director) captures Paul Simon's return to South Africa in 2011 to explore the incredible journey of his historic Graceland album, including the political backlash he received for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime. Features film bonus footage.





Joseph's face was black as night
The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked by the stars in the southern hemisphere
And he walked his days under African skies

This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the veins
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain

In early memory, mission music was ringing around my nursery door
I said, "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona
Give her the wings to fly from harm
And she won't bother you no more"

This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the veins
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain

A-oom-ba-oom-ba-oom-ba-Oooooooooooooh
A-oom-ba-oom-ba-oom-ba-Oooooooooooooh
A-oom-ba-oom-ba-oom-ba-Oooooooooooooh
A-oom-ba-oom-ba-oom-ba-Oooooooooooooh

Joseph's face was as black as the night
And the pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked by the stars in the southern hemisphere
And he walked the length of his days under African skies

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: “An American Dream,” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band



Four studios from all around the country, an initial duet refusal, and the ultimate singing partner were all part of the “An American Dream” saga, which put the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band back on pop radio after 10 years.

While on tour with Louisiana’s LeRoux, NGDB had some time off, and as frontman Jeff Hanna put it, LeRoux members said, “Y’all have to go to Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana.”

The band, with Hanna co-producing alongside Bob Edwards, took them up on the invitation. They had met Edwards, Al Kooper’s engineer, when Kooper wrote for Crawdaddy magazine—in addition, of course, to being one of the more influential musicians and producers of the era. Kooper had interviewed Steve Martin, who was Dirt Band manager Bill McEuen’s other client. Edwards then engineered some overdubs on the album preceding the An American Dream album at the Record Plant, in Sausalito, Calif.

At Studio in the Country—where everyone believes there was a Neve console and Studer multitrack—the band cut rhythm tracks for two songs for the An American Dream album: “New Orleans,” and the title track, “An American Dream.”

As with most of the records Hanna and Edwards produced together, with the exception of the Louisiana beginning on this one, they started in Aspen and continued in L.A. for overdubs. At Sunset Sound where there was the custom API DeMedio console, they overdubbed the late Bobby LaKind (from the Doobie Brothers) on percussion. He played a chime tree, conga and you can hear the güiro prominently throughout the track. Edwards is pretty sure they recorded Al Kooper on electric piano at Sausalito’s Record Plant.

Mixing was done back in Aspen; Edwards describes it as an incredible place to work.

“The front of the control room was this angled wall of glass about a story and a half tall, where if you were sitting at the console in the mix position and looking off to the right, you were looking at the back of Aspen Mountain,” Edwards recalls. “And if you were looking off to the left, you were looking up at Independence Pass. There were birds flying around and snow coming down and it was the top of the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide. Inspirationally, it was unparalleled and very comfortable.”

The song was done but Edwards and Hanna were looking at one another wondering what they were going to do about the missing female voice. Rodney Crowell’s version had Emmylou Harris on it and they were big fans of that recording. They asked their drummer friend Rick Shlosser for Nicolette Larson’s phone number.

“We asked Nicolette if she wanted to come in and sing on ‘American Dream,’ and she just turned us down. Well, we didn’t know her,” Hanna says in her defense. “For starters, we were not yet friends. We later became fast friends.”

They were stymied. They really wanted a female voice to go with Hanna’s.

“Bob looks at me and says, ‘What about Linda?’” Hanna recalls “‘Linda Ronstadt?!’ She was on the cover of Time magazine—literally the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll. Somehow I got Linda’s number; she had changed it a bunch of times.”

Hanna and Ronstadt went back all the way to 1967 when she was playing with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards in the Stone Poneys. Hanna recalls being at the session when they cut “Different Drum.” In 1975 Ronstadt had recorded a duet with member Jimmy Ibbotson on “Hey Good Lookin’” for their Symphonion Dream album.



“I call her up and it went like: ‘Hey Linda, Jeff Hanna.’ ‘Jeff, ahhhh! Are you in town?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Let’s have dinner.’ I said, ‘It’d be great to have dinner, but before we do that, how would you feel about coming into the studio and singing on this tune we’ve got?’ She said, ‘What’s the tune?’ I said, ‘American Dream,’ this tune that Rodney wrote.’ She said, ‘I love that song.’ That was great, I thought. She said, ‘When do you want to record it?’ I said, ‘How about tonight?’ She said, ‘I’ll be there in two hours.’”

Hanna recalls Ronstadt was taking karate at the time and showed up at Sunset Sound in her dojo outfit and “killed it in two takes.”

“The first take was perfect and she was self-critical like always: ‘Let me sing that bridge on the second take,’ and that was it,” Hanna says.

Edwards says they used a Neumann U 67 on her vocals. “That was the tried and true vocal mic for her,” he says. “Probably some EQ and compression on it. At Sunset Sound the console equalization was top notch, so we may have used that, or maybe some outboard gear, I honestly don’t remember. But for compression, probably a Teletronix LA-2A would be my guess.”

“And while she was there, we asked her to sing on another tune, ‘New Orleans,’ which had a call and response on it, and if you listen to that you can hear her clearly wailing,” Hanna adds. “And we had dinner and that was that.”

The postscript on the story was that Ronstadt endorsed the Dirt Band to her friend Nicolette Larson, who then sang on the band’s next single, “Make a Little Magic.” That single took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to No. 25 on the Billboard charts in 1980, and the band has just celebrated its 50th anniversary.



www.mixonline.com/news/classic-tracks/classic-track-american-dream-nitty-gritty-dirt-band/428242

ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/3971/classic-track-american-dream

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: "Benediction" from Jonathan Elias' Prayer Cycle



The Prayer Cycle had 3 inspirations. Jonathan's new child, the Holocaust and the Atomic Bomb. If that doesn't stir your heart you probably have none.

This is yet another example of Linda's involvement in many special musical events. i.e. Graceland, An American Tale, The Secret Garden, Harvest/Harvest Moon, Pirates, etc. Interestingly, The Prayer Cycle is beginning to be performed in its entirety live by other groups, orchestras. Most love it, some hate it but it will endure.

We are a world
Growing dark with dying flashes
While the moon is crying
Full of unfamiliar music

With some heaven
between God & Prayer
I watch
For here the light
no longer follows

I see the new ghosts
Lost in the innocence
of their mission

On an Earth that is burning
Who will be there

Angel of death
In the moon of the red grass
Surrender your shroud



Composer Jonathan Elias confronts the death and devastation of wartime with a stunning nine-part choral symphony. Bolstered by a truly awesome lineup of singers -- from the late Qawwal singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Salif Keita to Linda Ronstadt -- and lyrics that appeal for mercy and strength, hope and compassion, and faith and forgiveness, THE PRAYER CYCLE is a moving achievement. The English Chamber Orchestra and Choir provides a solid pastoral setting for the stunning soloists. The most surprising contributor here is rocker Alanis Morissette, who belts out Hungarian and French and more than matches the power and passion of Ali Khan and Keita. Other estimable soloists include James Taylor (whose plaintive "Grace" offers the only lyrics in English), Linda Ronstadt (Spanish), Yungchen Lhamo (Tibetan), Martin Tillman (cello), and John Williams (guitar). The chorus and the American Boychoir expand the worldview by singing in German, Latin, Italian, and French. Unfortunately, given the world's continuing conflicts, this music will remain too timely for too long -- but it offers a sublime way to search for faith amid the suffering.

All Music Guide - Steve Huey
The Prayer Cycle is a surprisingly spiritual and moving album masterminded by composer Jonathan Elias, featuring an all-star cast culled from the pop, rock, and world music arenas (including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Alanis Morissette, Perry Farrell, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Ofra Haza, Salif Keita, and more). The album is structured as a nine-movement suite, with each movement dedicated to a different spiritual quality. Elias' material elicits passionate, committed performances from the assembled artists, making it a deeply felt statement on bridging cross-cultural differences.

"The Prayer Cycle" is a contemporary classical composition featuring modern musicians from around the world. This work takes as its inspiration the onset of the Atomic Age in the 20th Century. Not since the harnessing of fire has there been any other single human invention or discovery which has changed the world so greatly, because no other technological development has given us the power to end life as we know it. By mere virtue of its existence, The Bomb has changed the way in which the world's political forces interact. "The Prayer Cycle" is a conceptual album about its history, from the genesis of the Atomic Age to the present state of nuclear proliferation, that examines the influence that The Bomb has had on our society and culture; tracing musically, the origins of The Bomb in the Manhattan Project, the first tests at Trinity Site, the devastating first uses of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the ensuing decades of living in fear of the power unleashed through these weapons. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the 1st test at Trinity, the importance of grasping the impact of this great force on the world is impossible to ignore. "Prayer Cycle" was released on Sony Classical; the follow up will be released on Universal Classics: this fresh "Cycle" mixes new electronics in a uniquely collaborative way, featuring offerings by Sting, Trudie Styler, Salif Kata, Raha Nusraet Fateh Ali Khan, Jonathan Davies of KORN, Serj (from System of a Down), Anthony Keidis, Alanis Morisette, London Phil & Choir, and Angelique Kujo. A portion of the proceeds will fund charities which address children's education and awareness of the Atomic Age, and it's weapons repercussions. As Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of The Bomb, noted: if WW III is fought with nuclear weapons, WW IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

[eddiejinnj]

I enjoyed reading these very much and thanks!!!!!! eddiejinnj

[Deleted]

Neil Young also used Linda on several cuts of his Harvest Moon album. There are many lovely cuts with Linda, not the least of which is the gorgeous title track...

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: "Winter Light" from The Secret Garden



Winter Light (Secret Garden) Linda Ronstadt
Pictures edited from the movie,
audio from original soundtrack
at the end of the movie.

To Ronstadt, sublime is something else. It's the glass armonica, an instrument she was first captivated by in the early 1970s. "I don't remember to this day where I first heard it, but I never heard music the same after that. It was one of those experiences that just changes everything. And I searched for it always after that, but I wasn't on a track that would run me into a glass armonica, I was on a track that would run me into a guitar player."

Finally, in 1993, when Ronstadt was commissioned to write and record a song for Agnieszka Holland's film, The Secret Garden, she knew the time had come to find a glass armonica. Although she didn't discover her armonicist, Dennis James, until after the track, Winter Light, was cut, she incorporated his playing into the revamped version of the song for her album of the same name, and used him on three successive albums, most noticeably Dedicated To The One I Love, her 1996 collection of rock songs reinterpreted as children's lullabies.

Well I feel like I've really slowed down, and it's very deliberate, and I almost felt kind of lazy when I was working, and like I wasn't doing enough. But you know we worked so hard, and when I look back on it I just see that we were like blurs, you know, our hair was sticking out.

But at any rate, running around and rounding up glass music wasn't on the agenda, you know, so I wrote this song for a film called Secret Garden directed by Agnieszka Hollander, the music was written by a Polish guy, a really good composer, I just can't remember his name right now, I can't remember anything any more! But anyway, they had various people writing songs for this and the studio over here was really pressuring them to have like a formula sort of a hit song, and the guy who was producing it is a good friend of mine, and he — Agnieszka is this Polish director, she makes European art films, she did Europa Europa, she did that film. I was writing this thing.

They finally called up and said look, we've had three writers on this and we can't, she hates to have a pop song at the end because she thinks it trivialises her picture, and I had a conversation with her and I said look, give me an opportunity to try to write this out of something I can pull out of the soundtrack that's already written so that it sounds like the rest of the movie, and I'll try to put a song together out of this soundtrack. And I got my friend Eric Kaz and we sweated and slaved and we came up with a song called "Winter Light." And that's what they had. And she loved it, she was just thrilled.

But the whole time we were doing it I was going, and I made the track in little layers and from scratch, and I kept saying 'God this song makes me want to have a glass armonica!" So we started searching and I said I've been procrastinating about finding a glass armonica all my life, I need to do it before I do, I need to do it, let's find it. Well the guy who runs the studio up in North California where we record all the time just happened to know this guy in Paolo Alto, at the Site up there where we record, and damned if he didn't find us this glass armonicist, and I was so thrilled. But we didn't get him in time to use it on the track for "Winter Light," cause we had to hurry it so that they could have it for their picture. We had three days to write it and record it, it was really writing under a deadline, but we just really did it.

So it went off to the movie without any glass. But I put textures on it that were the closest that I could come to generating them myself. And then we found the glass and then I used it on the rest of the record. And then I started using it just whenever I could cause I love it so much, but I'm fitting it into that mould, and what I want to do is a record that's made for glass, you know, so that it's a glass record instead of fitting it in.

But that glass music, boy, it just kills me, it's so beautiful. And you know what I like about it? I always say the future belongs to the small. You know the small will survive the year 2000.

www.debbiekruger.com/writer/freelance/ronstadt.html



The Secret Garden (1993) - Original Theatrical Trailer

Sweet, beautifully told adaptation of the classic story about a lonely orphan girl who goes to live with her uncle in a forbidding British manor house.

Once there she finds friendship and happiness when she discovers a wonderous, deserted, secret garden that is brought back to life in her magical hands.

Starring Academy Award and Tony Award-winner Maggie Smith and directed by Academy Award-nominee Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa).



www.allmusic.com/album/the-secret-garden-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-mw0000620338

www.filmtracks.com/titles/secret_garden.html

Sarah Brightman later included Winter Light on her "Classics" album. The original video she did for this song is blocked so I cannot post it here. This video is a nice gesture from Sarah to America in light of 9/11. I am a fan of Sarah's. She obviously has good taste.



Sarah Brightman - Larryking LIVE winter light

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"


Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

12 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘I Will Always Love You’
Chris Willman
Stop The Presses! (NEW)February 14, 2012

You probably already knew that Whitney Houston's recording of "I Will Always Love You" is one of the biggest singles of the last 25 years... and the song that defined her legacy, as proven by its use as the lone ballad of homage to Houston at Sunday night's Grammys. Maybe you even know that a not-so-behind-the-scenes songsmith named Dolly Parton wrote and first recorded it, almost 20 years before Whitney spent a then-record 14 weeks at the top of the singles chart in 1992-93 with what turned out to be her signature song.

But did you know that Kevin Costner is the one who found the song for Houston? That a cash dispute scotched an Elvis Presley recording of the tune? Or that Saddam Hussein was also a huge fan? Here are a dozen lesser-known facts about the power ballad that America and the world will always love:

Dolly Parton wrote it about a professional breakup, not a personal one.

When Parton wrote it in 1973, it was as a farewell to her mentor, producer, and longtime duet partner, Porter Wagoner, with whom she never had a romantic relationship. Wagoner was reluctant to have her go solo, to say the least. "It's saying, 'Just because I'm going don't mean I won't love you. I appreciate you and I hope you do great and I appreciate everything you've done, but I'm out of here,'" Parton told CMT. "And I took it in the next morning. I said, 'Sit down, Porter. I've written this song, and I want you to hear it.'... And he was crying. He said, 'That's the prettiest song I ever heard. And you can go, providing I get to produce that record.' And he did." She even sang it on one of her last appearances on Wagoner's TV show in 1974.

Kevin Costner effectively usurped the role of music supervisor on "The Bodyguard," forcing it into the movie when another intended song didn't work out.

The big finale of "The Bodyguard" was supposed to be a cover of "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted." But when Costner found out that was being used in "Fried Green Tomatoes," he had to go back to the musical drawing board. That's when he came up with the Parton tune, which had previously only been associated with country-rock. It was also Costner's idea to begin Houston's version of the song a cappella. "I thought using no music at the beginning was a stupid idea," producer David Foster admitted to ABC News. But Costner insisted, and Foster said he was never so glad to be proven wrong.

Clive Davis didn't think the song would work for Whitney... at first.

According to Costner, the reaction was less than unanimously enthusiastic when he told execs at Arista Records what the movie's big closing ballad would be. "When I said to Whitney, 'You're gonna sing "I Will Always Love You,"' the ground shook," Costner said. "Clive Davis and those guys were going, 'What?!'

It was Linda Ronstadt's cover version that was really responsible for Whitney Houston's cover.

Ronstadt was the first major artist to cover the song, in 1975, bringing it to rock audiences a year after Parton had a hit with it. Some music fans still consider Ronstadt's version the loveliest. Costner certainly had a fondness for it: It was Linda's recording he knew and was a fan of, and her version that he took to Houston and Foster.



"I Will Always Love You" Linda Ronstadt

There was yet another version of the song in "The Bodyguard," that was even also released as a single... by a punk-rock singer!

The song is first heard in the film in the background when Costner and Houston enter a bar. That version was by John Doe, singer for the L.A. punk band X and a frequent film actor in his own right. Funnily enough, though Doe also frequently works in the country idiom, his version was neither punk nor country but straight-ahead pop. The John Doe recording wasn't included on the blockbuster soundtrack album, but it was briefly released commercially... as a cassette single!


I will always love you - John Doe

Houston recorded two different versions of the song — one for the movie, one for the soundtrack album.

Not everyone realizes that separate renditions of the tune were sung by Houston on celluloid and wax. Some Houston fans continue to insist the actual movie version, which was never released on CD, is superior.

"The Bodyguard" wasn't the first time the song had been a smash movie theme.

Six years after she'd first had a country hit with the song in '74, Parton re-recorded it to add some seriousness to the otherwise levity-filled score of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the 1982 movie musical she starred in with Burt Reynolds.

Not only did Dolly Parton hit No. 1 with it, she did it twice, with separate recordings in separate decades.

The Best Little Whorehouse version also hit No. 1 on the country chart, like her earlier rendition — the first and still only time that's ever happened. (Parton recorded it in a third decade, too, in the '90s, as a duet with Vince Gill... but that third Parton version only reached the top 10.)

Elvis Presley was going to record it, but the deal was nixed over Colonel Parker's insistence on taking half of Parton's publishing.

Parton thought it was a dream come true when Presley decided to cut the song, and she was even slated to visit him in the studio when he did. Then she was informed that Elvis wouldn't be recording it unless he got half the publishing royalties — a mercenary custom instigated by manager Colonel Tom Parker that, sadly, kept Presley from getting to record a lot of great material later in his career. Parton refused the deal, which was heartbreaking at the time but ultimately served her well. "'I think stories like that are the reason why younger female artists say I've influenced them," she said.

"I Will Always Love You" was Saddam Hussein's re-election theme song!

In 2002, the Iraqi leader held a bogus "referendum" on his leadership, blitzing election broadcasts on the airwaves of the nation's three government-controlled TV stations with "I Will Always Love You." Sadly, neither Houston nor Parton nor Ronstadt got the honor of helping Saddam keep his stranglehold on power. He used an Arabic version by Syrian star Mayyada Bselees. Like a lot of Americans before him, the soon-to-be-forcibly deposed leader didn't seem to get that "I Will Always Love You" is a breakup song.

Parton serenaded the intended recipient of the song, Porter Wagoner, with an in-person rendition, decades later, not long before he died.

At a salute to Wagoner celebrating his 50th anniversary on the Grand Ole Opry in April 2007, Parton came out to sing the song to the honoree. "It was the most emotional night that I've ever spent at the Opry in my whole life," Wagoner told me at the time. "And Dolly of course sang that song 'I Will Always Love You,' and they had me sitting on a stool, and she just came out and wiped some of the tears away... She meant it for me, and wrote it for me, she said. That's a wonderful thing that she stood there and sang it for the whole world to see. And the evening was unbelievable." He died in October of that year.


Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner - "I Will Always Love You" | Live at the Grand Ole Opry | Opry

Houston is about to have a top 10 hit with it again, 20 years later.

Perhaps needless to say, Houston's single has been No. 1 on iTunes almost from the moment word got out about her death. It's a shoo-in to re-enter the Billboard Hot 100 in the top 10, with a shot at recapturing its chart-topping status.

[the Scribe]

Classic Track: Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy"



"Lonely Boy" is an international hit song from 1977, written and recorded by Andrew Gold in 1976 for his album What's Wrong with This Picture? It spent five months on the American charts, peaking at number seven in both Canada and the United States and number 11 in the United Kingdom. While "Lonely Boy" would be Gold's biggest U.S. hit, his "Never Let Her Slip Away" achieved greater success in the U.K.

Linda Ronstadt sang backing vocals on this track, marking a role reversal for the singers: Gold backed Ronstadt (on keyboards, guitar and vocals) on her albums Heart Like a Wheel, Prisoner in Disguise and Hasten Down the Wind.

The song follows the life of a child who feels neglected by his parents after the birth of a younger sister. Many assume this song to be autobiographical, yet Gold denied the implication, despite great similarities between the lyrics and his life.

Regarding the verses' first lines: "He was born on a summer day in 1951" matches Andrew's August 2, 1951 birthday, "In the summer of '53 his mother/Brought him a sister" matches his sister Martha's July 22, 1953 birthday, and "He left home on a winter day, 1969" may well match the formation of Bryndle, of which Andrew was a member, in 1969.


(I'm a huge Bryndle fan)

The song was also released as an edited single, eliminating the vocal bridge and shortening the instrumental finale.

The song was featured in a number of films including Boogie Nights (1997), The Waterboy (1998), and The Nice Guys (2016).

In 1982 Italian singer Ron covered the song adding Italian language lyrics, releasing it as Cosa farò in his album Guarda chi si vede.

In 1997 country music band Blackhawk recorded a cover for their third studio album Love & Gravity

In February 2000, the Foo Fighters recorded a cover of the song to be used as a B-side for an upcoming single off their 1999 album There Is Nothing Left to Lose; however, it wasn't used as a B-side as planned.

In 2007, the song was covered separately by the bands Farrah and Lazlo Bane.

In 2013, rock band The Almost covered this song for their album Fear Inside Our Bones.

British-American band The Hoosiers often cover this song when they perform live.

"Lonely Boy" Linda Ronstadt Band Interview Session With Andrew Gold

Q - How long did it take to write "Lonely Boy"?

A - It was about four hours. I was just in this zone where I can get when I'm writing songs. I'm kind of tuned into some sort of like a stream of creativity that you stop sort of judging yourself and realize that mistakes made can really be great instead of bad. It can take you interesting places. That kind of stuff makes for writing a good song. I always feel when I'm writing that if I'm sick, I don't feel sick. That's sort of an alpha wave that gets very strong in creative people when they're creating. So it took about four hours. It was gonna be a real long song, because back then that's what people were doing a lot. They would cut it down for radio. But I got bored after the third verse. Originally it was not gonna be me at all. But then I thought, just leave it like this. And then we went out and rehearsed the song, played it on the road during my show as a song we hadn't recorded yet. We played it for about two months and really knew it at the end. I went into the studio and recorded it 'live'. All of it is 'live'. There were little strings on this machine which were like fakes, but we liked the sound. The sleigh bells, the drummer was amazing. It's quite a feat. Quite a show. The song originally had a real plaintive kind of soft section in the middle. And everybody said to hell with that, let's pump it up! And we played it out and it was much better. We were playing it on the road and we were getting applause in the middle of the song. A brand new song, they were going "yeah." So when we recorded it, I felt very confident about what we were doing. And we added some real strings and I put the vocal on and that was it.

Q - How'd you get that gig in Linda Ronstadt's band? Were you friends with Peter Asher?

A - No. I hadn't met Peter Asher yet and I didn't know he was managing Linda. But looking back, I heard he had just started with Linda, and producer of the album before the one I did, which was "Heart Like A Wheel", which had various big hits. My band, who had Kenny who was part of The Stone Ponys, was a magnificent guitar player. A guy named Gene Garfin played drums and sang high. Bass was a guy named Peter Bernstein, whose father is Elmer Bernstein, a famous music composer. We were opening up for Linda. It was a George McGovern fund raiser. We went on and Linda watched us and liked what I did and called me the next day and said "Would you consider playing in my band?" I said "Consider it? Absolutely." I got there and they put my amp onstage. I thought oh, I have arrived to total luxury. I don't have to carry my amp anymore, which to this day is still my least favorite thing to do. About a month later Kenny joined, playing bass. He usually played guitar, but he got really good on the bass.

After I was in her band for about one tour, and I had never been on a tour and it was a very rough tour, we were opening for Jackson Browne. The first part, when we flew out, we had the worst turbulence I had ever felt in any plane before or after. Because of that, I wrote a song called "Endless Flight" that was pretty much the story of my life there. (laughs) I hate flying.


(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Flight)

It was so cold back East. It was pretty disheartening and the people on the tour were kind of weird. Just didn't get along with them that much. So when it came time for the second half, she was begging me to come back and play. They had a temporary girl, in fact it was Karla Bonoff, but she just sort of did a very slow miniscule version of what I was doing. She (Linda Ronstadt) begged me. "I'll give you more money." She basically said...let me put it this way, "I'll give you my body. I'll sleep with you." I can't believe that I did not take her up on that. That would've been very nice. I said "C'mon, you don't have to go that far." So anyway, I did join her band and then stayed in it for real. She started paying us retainers and off we went.

www.classicbands.com/AndrewGoldInterview.html

Andrew Gold during 'Lonely Boy' Linda Ronstadt Band Interview Session With Andrew Gold - February 15, 1977 in New York City, New York, United States:

www.gettyimages.com/event/lonely-boy-linda-ronstadt-band-interview-session-with-andrew-gold-february-75235473?#andrew-gold-during-lonely-boy-linda-ronstadt-band-interview-session-picture-id111580934

The 30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments

5. Andrew Gold, 'Lonely Boy' in 'Boogie Nights' (1998)

One of the most unbelievably sad moments ever captured on film, as P.T. Anderson takes a harmless bit of Seventies soft-rock fluff and turns it into a heartbreaking requiem for basically everybody in the movie, if not America in general. It’s a druggy L.A. pool party at Burt Reynolds' mansion, in the coked-out stupor of the Seventies. All the porn stars are there to make the scene: Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman (former president of the Greendale ceramics club). The phone rings in the kitchen – just some kid looking for somebody who isn't there. You realize how completely doomed all these party people are, and how savagely they are going to break the hearts of everybody they ever touch. Oh, what a lonely



He was born on a summer day 1951
And with a slap of a hand
He landed as an only son
His mother and father said what a lovely boy
We'll teach him what we learned
Ah yes just what we learned
We'll dress him up warmly and
We'll send him to school
It'll teach him how to fight
To be nobody's fool

Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy

In the summer of '53 his mother
Brought him a sister
And she told him we must attend to her needs
She's so much younger than you
Well he ran down the hall and he cried
Oh how could his parents have lied
When they said he was an only son
He thought he was the only one

Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy

Goodbye mama, goodbye to you
Goodbye papa I'm pushing on through

He left home on a winter day 1969
And he hoped to find all the love
He had lost in that earlier time
Well his sister grew up
And she married a man
He gave her a son
Ah yes a lovely son
They dressed him up warmly
They sent him to school
It taught him how to fight
To be nobody's fool

Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy

full interview including the making of Lonely Boy and some interesting times in Linda Ronstadt's band