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Post by Richard W on Jul 11, 2012 8:43:29 GMT -5
Glenn Frey was on Tavis Smiley last night and there were several minutes of praise for Linda between the two of them.
In talking about Frey's new album, "After Hours," Smiley brought up Linda's trio of albums with Riddle and praised them to high heaven, to which Frey enthusiastically agreed, even stating that, as much as he liked Willie Nelson's "Stardust" and Harry Nilsson's early album of standards, Linda's were the best, describing her voice as "like chocolate."
There was more Linda talk as Frey responded to Smiley's question about what Glenn had learned from his association with Linda. Frey responded that he learned not to limit himself, and told the story about asking someone "where's Linda?" and they replied, "in New York doing The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline."
Frey was utterly charming, and fascinating when talking about songwriting with Don Henley. I especially appreciated when he talked about writing songs and said he tells aspiring writers "no one cares how you feel. What you need to do is paint pictures and tell stories. The rest will seep through." A constructive slap to all the self-obsessed navel-gazing confessional songwriters out there.
He talked about writing "Hotel California," how he and Henley thought in visual storytelling terms -- man in car, sees lights, enters hotel with weird people in it, etc. When people ask him, what is the song about, he replies, "you tell me." He said that letting the audience use their imaginations was very important. To which Smiley responded, "and a good melody."
It's a two-part interview. (I missed the first part.) Highly recommended -- and not for just the most obvious reasons.
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Post by erik on Jul 11, 2012 9:13:00 GMT -5
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Post by Richard W on Jul 11, 2012 9:40:12 GMT -5
What surprised me was not so much Frey's praise, but Smiley's. You could tell he was all over those Ronstadt/Riddle albums: he brought the subject of them up!
I also appreciated that Smiley asked what Glenn had learned from Linda (this was before the Riddle discussion), the assumption being that there was something from her to learn.
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Post by erik on Jul 11, 2012 9:51:57 GMT -5
I'm glad about this development. And I'll tell you this right now, Tavis Smiley is the kind of talk-show host that asks the kinds of questions that get the most insightful answers from his guests. His kind is in extremely short supply on television, public or otherwise (IMHO).
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Post by philly on Jul 11, 2012 10:59:32 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Jul 11, 2012 14:35:36 GMT -5
Tavis' interview with Linda and Ann was a good one too as was his time spent with James Taylor. He is such a likeable guy to we Liberals and he even likes our music and seemingly knows what he is talking about. I wouldn't mind seeing someone like Tavis in what we call "politics" today.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2012 16:57:03 GMT -5
Thanks for posting... I remember Linda's interview with Tavis, and also Tavis defending her during the Aladdin controversy..
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Post by Dianna on Jul 11, 2012 19:51:16 GMT -5
A very good interview Thanks for the heads up. Also, I really enjoyed the snippet video/song from Glenn's new album.. It sounds great!! I love how he credits Linda (an his parents too) for wanting to do this type of music. It's nice to give credit where credit is due (hear that Mr. Stewart?) A very good and interesting interview!
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Post by erik on Jul 11, 2012 20:48:08 GMT -5
Quote by dianna:
Glenn and Linda both seem much more credible at doing the Great American Songbook than Mr. Sandpaper Voice From Scotland. And anyway, anytime anything by Rod Stewart comes on the radio (which is too d***ed often for my tastes), I immediately switch to another station. I can't stand to listen to him any longer.
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Post by the Scribe on Jul 11, 2012 21:39:39 GMT -5
Rod does seem to be "milking" it a bit much.
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wdcats
A Number and a Name
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Post by wdcats on Jul 12, 2012 2:49:54 GMT -5
Can't wait until tonight to hear the 2nd half of this interview. Thanks for posting it.
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Post by Richard W on Jul 12, 2012 9:39:25 GMT -5
I also appreciated that, when discussing Linda, they actually showed a picture of her: the black-and-white HLAW-era photo of her tuning a guitar.
Reading the transcript, I saw part 1, not part 2.
Here's the Linda-related part of the interview:
Tavis: Obviously the relationship between you and Henley kicks up when you guys are both, as you said, hanging out and playing with Linda Ronstadt, but what did you learn from her, being with her, and I ask that because as I think about this new project of yours, “After Hours,” one of my favorite Linda Ronstadt projects was when she did the thing with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.
Is that an amazing record? That Nelson Riddle piece was absolutely phenomenal. But what did you take away from being with her all that time?
Frey: Follow your musical instincts. Do what you feel is right. Don’t be relegated to a certain category. Linda Ronstadt, she had a whole string of hit records with the “Heart Like a Wheel” album – “You’re No Good” and the Everly Brothers song and a Neil Young song, so she had all these pop records.
All of a sudden – now, I wasn’t playing with her anymore, and the Eagles are off doing their thing, and I hear, “Where’s Linda?” “Oh, she’s in New York doing ‘Pirates of Penzance’ with Kevin Klein.” (Laughter) She’s singing – and I go, “Wow.”
Tavis: And not the mariachi stuff.
Frey: Yeah. Then she did the records with Nelson Riddle. Now, in my humble opinion, those are the best records. Those records are nearly perfect.
Tavis: I think you’re right about that.
Frey: I also loved Harry Nilsson, “Touch of Schmilsson in the Night,” Willie Nelson’s “Stardust,” but Linda’s records, I thought, were – the Nelson Riddle arrangements were perfect. Her voice is like chocolate – it’s sweet, it’s rich. Those were great records. I’m excited – I hope she gets this record. I might have to send her a copy or two and say, “See what you started? I always wanted to do this after I heard you.”
Tavis: Yeah, yeah. (Laughs) Well, I feel better knowing that Glenn Frey and I agree on Linda Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle. That was good stuff.
Frey: Oh, yeah.
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wdcats
A Number and a Name
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Post by wdcats on Jul 12, 2012 17:56:30 GMT -5
The 2nd half of the interview brings up Linda's name quite often & her encouraging reaction to Glenn leaving to form the Eagles.
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Post by Dianna on Jul 13, 2012 17:03:13 GMT -5
Anyone have the link to the 2nd part of the Tavis/Glenn interview? Yes, you can tell Tavis is a Ronstadt fan:)
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wdcats
A Number and a Name
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Post by wdcats on Jul 14, 2012 0:58:44 GMT -5
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Post by Dianna on Jul 14, 2012 10:48:39 GMT -5
It worked great! Thank you for posting!  |
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Post by buttercup521 on Aug 7, 2012 20:20:14 GMT -5
Tavis is alright. He is an unapologetic fan of Carole King and James taylor, so why wouldn't he be a Ronstadt fan, as well? Love his interviews.
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Post by Richard W on Aug 8, 2012 8:45:33 GMT -5
Tavis is alright. He is an unapologetic fan of Carole King and James taylor, so why wouldn't he be a Ronstadt fan, as well? Love his interviews. Well, as many of us here have observed and lamented, King and Taylor (and other '70s icons) are very frequently mentioned without Ronstadt's name being dropped at all. That's why it was a thrill on the Forum to have Smiley actively mention Linda's name, cutting counter to the prevailing meme that Linda Ronstadt was little more than a negligible footnote to the '70s, to say nothing of popular music in general. |
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Post by erik on Aug 8, 2012 12:53:52 GMT -5
Quote by richwar:
As I said, Tavis asks the questions that a lot of us would want to have asked because he definitely does his homework going into a lengthy interview like this. And he knows his music history.
But his is that rare and unfortunate exception in a music business where no one remembers anything of substance anymore unless it's emblazoned on Entertainment Tonight or its other TV tabloid imitators. When they show pin-up tarts like Katy Perry or walking meat markets like Lady Gaga, what do we think the chances are of anything intelligent being said?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2022 17:17:19 GMT -5
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