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Post by the Scribe on Sept 9, 2018 14:09:58 GMT -5
Post any questions you would like to ask Linda or possibly have someone else ask Linda if given the opportunity when attending one of her events.
If you are lucky enough to do so write down the answer right away lol. Maybe record it so you don't forget what she said. Then report back on this thread.
If you already asked Linda a question please post it here along with the answer. That would be very helpful.
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 9, 2018 14:16:15 GMT -5
When I went to see Linda in Tempe she didn't call on me to ask a question. (so much for running a fan club and being an acquaintance of her mothers lol) So I asked John Boylan and he didn't know the answer.
What is your real name? Linda Maria OR Maria Linda. That question has since been asked and she answered it BOTH ways LOL (at different times). So that was a bust!! I should have asked her mother when I had the chance but I never thought about it back then.
If I were to ask something now it might be along the paranormal lines, or about UFOs or maybe the most unusual character she has ever met (famous or not). I am sure she has some really good stories.
Heard any good jokes lately, Linda?
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 9, 2018 16:53:44 GMT -5
Some of the questions I would ask, if given the chance (and writing this as if I really was talking to Linda):
1. Linda, one area of interest for me are songs you wished you had recorded but never did. One such song you mentioned was Jimmy Webb's song "Where's the Playground Susie?" There are a number of songs I could've seen you doing, such as the Jonathan Edwards song "Sunshine" (with its line "He can't even run his own life/I'll be damned if he runs mine," which would've been perfect for you) or the Mac Davis' song, "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me." Are there any songs, other than "Where's the Playground Susie" that you remember wishing you recorded over the course of your career but never did?
2. Linda, you have mentioned you were never interested in acting, that it wasn't one of your gifts, yet I was re-reading an interview in Rolling Stone from 1971 which mentioned you were moving into movie and television work, and that Screen Gems TV, which produced innocuous comedies but also produced "The Monkees," was looking into developing a TV series for you. Do you remember anything about that? Also, since you have said were never interested in an acting career, would you have automatically turned down doing a movie early in your career if it had been offered to you?
3. In your book, you mention a frightening episode in which an executive from the "Johnny Cash Show" shows up in your hotel room and starts undressing, thinking he and you are going to engage in sex, because he takes you for a hippie and hippies believe in free love. What was even more frightening was when you called your manager on the phone, he told you not to make a scene or report it because it could negatively affect your career. (Pity there wasn't a Me Too movement back then.) I read that and was outraged. Where was your manager when this happened, and if he couldn't be with you, why didn't he send someone with you or a couple of bodyguards so that wouldn't have happened? Also, did Johnny Cash ever find out? I couldn't have seen him letting that go unreported and unpunished. I could've seen him calling ABC to tell them to get the executive off of his show and taking the responsibility without providing a reason why as to why he wanted the executive off the show.
4. When you look back on your career, do you think your solo albums on Capitol would've benefitted if they had all been produced by Peter Asher, rather than by different producers? Apologies to John. (If he happens to be there, probably will.) Elliott Mazer got you a hit with "Long, Long Time" but that song also seemed to sum up your career with Capitol. The hits were few (until "Heart Like a Wheel") and the misses were many. You have said you chose your songs and Capitol made some suggestions which went over like a lead balloon with you. Most of the songs seemed to be older songs which had been hits for others. Didn't Capitol ever try to get you to record newer songs or didn't they ever send new songs your way?
5. What are your true spiritual beliefs? Many seem to believe you are an atheist but when you spoke with the USA Today about your illness, the article concluded with you commenting about being welcomed into heaven and being congratulated on a job well done. And I thought that was a rather strange comment for an atheist. I don't see you as an atheist at all. By the way, I irritate certain Christians by telling them there will be atheists who will be admitted into heaven, just as there will be certain Christians who will never step foot in heaven. If there is a heaven or a hell, it will be our words and actions that put us there.
6. All right, Linda, last question: me or Rob? Which one is it going to be?
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Post by erik on Sept 9, 2018 18:44:37 GMT -5
Mine would be along the lines of this:
Linda, in your career you managed to sell something on the order of at least fifty million, perhaps upwards of one hundred million, albums; and dozens of young girls who bought those albums not only were inspired to sing for their own pleasure, as you have said everyone should do, but also to go out and do it as their life's work. Many of these women are in the mainstream country, Americana, and roots-rock fields, and have named you as a big influence. How do you feel about being considered such an influence, and what advice would you give to them?
I would also try to roll off the names of some of these women, including especially the one I will never call Mrs. Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 9, 2018 20:40:31 GMT -5
Mine would be along the lines of this: Linda, in your career you managed to sell something on the order of at least fifty million, perhaps upwards of one hundred million, albums; and dozens of young girls who bought those albums not only were inspired to sing for their own pleasure, as you have said everyone should do, but also to go out and do it as their life's work. Many of these women are in the mainstream country, Americana, and roots-rock fields, and have named you as a big influence. How do you feel about being considered such an influence, and what advice would you give to them? I would also try to roll off the names of some of these women, including especially the one I will never call Mrs. Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood. I'd never call Trisha Yearwood Mrs. Garth Brooks either, That would be offensive from my perspective. |
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 9, 2018 20:52:15 GMT -5
It is always interesting to know what Linda is currently reading as she is an avid reader. I would also ask her what she does with all of her books once she has read them.
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Post by 70smusicfan on Sept 9, 2018 21:04:01 GMT -5
We just had the thread of how Linda dissed a recent interviewer asking inane questions, giving short answers and cutting short the interview. We should think of questions that might elicit some sort of personal recollection from Linda, which may get a more lengthy answer, than questions about her opinions or her "impact" on others. For example...Ever since we found out that Sidney Poitier's film "Lilies of the Valley" was filmed on her father's ranchette, I often wonder if she has recollections of watching the filming, meeting the actors, etc.
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Post by TEXFAN 0 on Sept 9, 2018 21:04:27 GMT -5
I'd ask her why she never sang "Different Drum" after disbanding the Stone Ponys, or really any of their songs (maybe "Rock Me on the Water)"? I mean it was basically her signature song, that shot her to fame. Was it a copy write issue or something else?
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 9, 2018 22:35:49 GMT -5
I'd ask her why she never sang "Different Drum" after disbanding the Stone Ponys, or really any of their songs (maybe "Rock Me on the Water)"? I mean it was basically her signature song, that shot her to fame. Was it a copy write issue or something else?
I recall a very long time ago, in fact it may have been at my first Ronstadt concert in 1972 when someone yelled Different Drum to her while she was on stage. She said she really didn't know or recall all the words to it. That was 4-5 years after it was a hit. I am thinking since she rarely sang it in her solo act she just forgot the words and the band wasn't prepped on it either. Anyway, at the time I thought it to be an odd comment and it stuck with me.
She did sing Rock Me On The Water along with a few others from her eponymous album. Also the song Don't Go To Strangers from JJ Cale. |
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Post by LindaFan5 on Sept 9, 2018 23:02:38 GMT -5
1. What can you tell us about your projects with Philip Glass (the avant-garde classical composer?) You worked on several projects with him.
2. I know you are a fan of art and design. The man you worked with most often on your album packaging was the brilliant Kosh, and those collaborations proved very successful apart from the music. In the ‘70s especially it seems lyou had multiple photo shoots every month. Did you enjoy those on an artistic, creative level?
3. Your good friend Rosemary Clooney was self-deprecating and often a critic of her own work, especially recordings she thought had to be rushed. For example, pre-recorded material for her TV Variety Show. She was played the songs much later on and much to her surprise she actually liked them. Do you think it’s possible if you listened to some of your older work that you might reevaluate it in a more positive lightt, like Rosemary did with hers?
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 10, 2018 8:04:41 GMT -5
Linda, what is it about you that so many men of every stripe and color have found to be so irresistible over time?
Probably a question she wouldn't care for but she must have wondered that herself and I know a lot of "other" women would like to know for whatever reason. It is difficult to explain charisma or why one person becomes a star and an equally talented other person doesn't. That might be a better question to her peers and co-workers. Her response would most likely be "why don't you ask them?"
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 10, 2018 9:59:54 GMT -5
Az, I apologize as I think that I recall you have or is it had a fan club. If active, can I join? Eddiejinfl
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 10, 2018 10:14:31 GMT -5
Az, I apologize as I think that I recall you have or is it had a fan club. If active, can I join? Eddiejinfl Had, back in the late 1970's until 1980. |
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larry13
A Number and a Name
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Post by larry13 on Sept 10, 2018 21:35:35 GMT -5
In the early 2000's, I attended a concert/lecture Linda gave at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. During the Q and A period, I was the first to raise my hand and immediately got called on by the moderator. Gathering my courage, I stood and prefaced my question by a comment. I mentioned that I had just purchased the Box Set and was disappointed that Rambler Gambler (which I consider one of her most beautiful recordings) didn't make it on the Rarities disc. Jokingly, Linda said, "I forgot about that one. Why didn't you call and remind me?" Keeping on the same song, I mentioned that other versions were quick and peppy, and hers was much slower, and I wondered how she came to the decision to slow it down. Her response: "I was playing guitar and that was as fast as I could play."
A funny moment from the same evening: a later questioner stood up and gave an oration on his adulation of Miss Ronstadt. He happened to mention that he attended a late 70's concert of hers where she sang Different Drum and Linda immediately chimed in by saying that she had never sang the song in concert during this period. "Yes you did," this guy replied. "No, I didn't," was her response. "Yes, you did," he repeated. Linda looked at the moderator, who had the microphone taken from the guy and brought to the next questioner. Linda had the last word, "I never did", before turning her attention to the next person.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 10, 2018 21:41:32 GMT -5
1. What can you tell us about your projects with Philip Glass (the avant-garde classical composer?) You worked on several projects with him. 2. I know you are a fan of art and design. The man you worked with most often on your album packaging was the brilliant Kosh, and those collaborations proved very successful apart from the music. In the ‘70s especially it seems lyou had multiple photo shoots every month. Did you enjoy those on an artistic, creative level? 3. Your good friend Rosemary Clooney was self-deprecating and often a critic of her own work, especially recordings she thought had to be rushed. For example, pre-recorded material for her TV Variety Show. She was played the songs much later on and much to her surprise she actually liked them. Do you think it’s possible if you listened to some of your older work that you might reevaluate it in a more positive lightt, like Rosemary did with hers? Very good questions, Linda, especially your third question. It does make me wonder if she's never listened to her own albums, how does she know her singing was bad? |
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 10, 2018 21:47:14 GMT -5
In the early 2000's, I attended a concert/lecture Linda gave at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. During the Q and A period, I was the first to raise my hand and immediately got called on by the moderator. Gathering my courage, I stood and prefaced my question by a comment. I mentioned that I had just purchased the Box Set and was disappointed that Rambler Gambler (which I consider one of her most beautiful recordings) didn't make it on the Rarities disc. Jokingly, Linda said, "I forgot about that one. Why didn't you call and remind me?" Keeping on the same song, I mentioned that other versions were quick and peppy, and hers was much slower, and I wondered how she came to the decision to slow it down. Her response: "I was playing guitar and that was as fast as I could play." A funny moment from the same evening: a later questioner stood up and gave an oration on his adulation of Miss Ronstadt. He happened to mention that he attended a late 70's concert of hers where she sang Different Drum and Linda immediately chimed in by saying that she had never sang the song in concert during this period. "Yes you did," this guy replied. "No, I didn't," was her response. "Yes, you did," he repeated. Linda looked at the moderator, who had the microphone taken from the guy and brought to the next questioner. Linda had the last word, "I never did", before turning her attention to the next person. Love that first story, Larry. The second story, did the guy recall the specific concert where she sang "Different Drum?" Sounded like two little kids in an argument. Loved that Linda got in the last word, for now. Of course, if a recording of her performing "Different Drum" in concert in the 70s, she'll probably dispute that as well. As I recall, she had also said she had never worked with Neil Diamond, for which she must've forgotten when she appeared on the Glen Campbell Show and performed a series of Neil Diamond songs with Neil and Glen. |
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 10, 2018 22:06:44 GMT -5
Funny story Larry. I will side with Linda on that one. I think there would have been a recording (bootleg) of that concert.
Along the same lines when I first came to Arizona in January of 1976 a fellow staff member at our local university swears up and down that she had a recording by Linda of Different Drum in Spanish. She is from Ajo, Arizona. I have never been able to find such an animal but that would be a good question to ask her...if she did indeed do a Spanish version. Speaking of such animals one should ask Linda about her pet jackalope from Casa Grande.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 10, 2018 22:18:27 GMT -5
Additional questions I would ask Linda:
1. What are your favorite memories of growing up in Tucson?
2. If you could change one thing about your career, what would it have been?
3. You appeared on the Glen Campbell Show and a Bobby Darin special in 1970 performing versions of "Long, Long Time" in different arrangements from the recording. Is there a chance either version may be released in the near future? There's also another version from the Johnny Cash Show that is close to the recorded version, and the same question applies. Any chances it will be released?
4. Are there any unreleased recordings that could eventually see the light of day?
5. As a performer, there were many men and women who wanted to meet you. Now, I'd like to put that shoe on the other foot. Was there any performer you wanted to meet and never did, even as a celebrity yourself?
6. What was your most embarrassing moment while growing up and as a performer?
7. Did you ever get in trouble at school and how was that handled? And what about at home?
8. You have mentioned songwriting was never one of your gifts, yet with Andrew Gold, you wrote the devastating "Try Me Again." You also wrote with your father Gilbert and Kenny Edwards "Lo Siento Mi Vida." You had some other songwriting credits here and there, but not a large number. Most of these were written in the mid to late 70s and later. Did you ever try to write songs before then and did anyone ever encourage you to try and write your own songs? Or write with others?
One question I would like to ask but never would, would be what her favorite car was when she was able to drive? I rather imagine it had to be a very sad day for her when she had to give up her drivers license because she was no longer able to drive because of the Parkinson's. What I have seen of elderly people who are no longer able to drive is they usually go downhill very fast. It's losing their independence Some are able to adapt, some are not, but that's a question I couldn't ask Linda at all.
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Post by TEXFAN 0 on Sept 11, 2018 2:12:22 GMT -5
I'd ask her why she never sang "Different Drum" after disbanding the Stone Ponys, or really any of their songs (maybe "Rock Me on the Water)"? I mean it was basically her signature song, that shot her to fame. Was it a copy write issue or something else?
She did sing Rock Me On The Water along with a few others from her eponymous album. Also the song Don't Go To Strangers from JJ Cale.Didn't Linda say in Simple Dreams, that the Stone Ponys walked in on her as she was wrapping up Different Drum in two takes with that "Wrecking Crew" type band? I bet there were lots of folks at her concerts yelling out "Different Drum" as well as "Heat Wave" and she said she hated doing "Heat Wave" but she eventually got around to it. Don't want to speculate any further since I barely paid any attention to her, back then, being only 16 in 72, growing up in the DFW area, with the exception of "Different Drum", "Long Long Time" etc. that were being played on my tiny 6 transistor radio.
Sorry about large type face, but at 62, it's tough to make out a lot of these posts, even with glasses. You know your getting old when you just got invited to your 45th HS reunion.
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 11, 2018 4:02:38 GMT -5
I do the same thing for the same reason most of the time.
I think Linda may have done Different Drum on some early tv and at the Bitter End but not much after that and especially not since Long Long Time came out as she had another "go to" hit to push.
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Post by Richard W on Sept 11, 2018 8:30:23 GMT -5
I'd ask her about something she probably hasn't had to answer before:
Who is Ray Santos, the guy who did the brilliant arrangements/orchestrations on Frenesi, and where did she find him?
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 11, 2018 20:36:42 GMT -5
I think Linda may have done Different Drum on some early tv and at the Bitter End but not much after that and especially not since Long Long Time came out as she had another "go to" hit to push. [/font][/b] [/quote] It would've been surprising if she had been doing "Different Drum" in her concert appearances and then dropped the song from her set list once she had a second hit. Linda, at that time, didn't have a lot of hits to speak of, just two, and when people go to concerts, they want to hear the hits and certain songs. I'm sure people going to a Linda concert in the early 70s (pre-Don't Cry Now) probably expected to hear "Different Drum." Before "You're No Good" was released and became Linda's first and only number one on the Top 40, "Different Drum" was her biggest hit to that time. And one unwritten rule of singers was you performed your biggest hit as the closer or as the encore. Of course, there was always exceptions: Elvis closed his concerts with "Can't Help Falling in Love" and no encore. And Linda's dislike of her singing may have come from her own concert appearances and perhaps the audience's reaction to her song choices and how she was being booked for any concert appearances. She was being marketed as a country singer in the early 70s but she was booked as a rock performer. Rock fans may have been startled by the country songs Linda was singing, and they may have made their displeasure known. Just as Rick Nelson misinterpreted what happened at Madison Square Garden, Linda may have felt those in the audience didn't like her singing. |
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Post by erik on Sept 12, 2018 9:18:40 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
Linda did mention this somewhere that it was a tricky thing to do C&W material because she was afraid that her audiences would think it was "uncool". Keep in mind that this was a time when, if you mentioned country music among young people with hair longer than a quarter of an inch, it would spell "Establishment", and stuff like flag-waving, in-your-face patriotism, religion, and stuff like that--stuff that they not only could not relate to, but which was actually quite repellent to them. And at the other end, the C&W fans looked down their noses at the hippies as being "flag and draft card-burning Commies".
I don't think that was ever quite true with Linda, however; and I'm not quite so sure that the dislike she had of her own voice stemmed from her audience's reaction to the kind of material she was doing at that time. It's true that a lot of it was of a C&W bent, but Linda tended to balance traditionalism with progressive values, as in her hard-edged takes of "Break My Mind" or "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line", or the honesty of "I Fall To Pieces" and "Crazy Arms". In more recent interviews, she has said that Capitol, her label during those years, didn't really know how to market her because she was never a one-genre singer. Was she folk, rock, or country? And the answer to all three would be "Yes". As I've often said, when it came to that period between 1969 and 1973, Linda was just a bit ahead of her time; and eventually, people caught up.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 12, 2018 22:01:38 GMT -5
Linda did mention this somewhere that it was a tricky thing to do C&W material because she was afraid that her audiences would think it was "uncool". Keep in mind that this was a time when, if you mentioned country music among young people with hair longer than a quarter of an inch, it would spell "Establishment", and stuff like flag-waving, in-your-face patriotism, religion, and stuff like that--stuff that they not only could not relate to, but which was actually quite repellent to them. And at the other end, the C&W fans looked down their noses at the hippies as being "flag and draft card-burning Commies".
It's kind of odd that Linda knew what her audiences were and what they wanted, yet she seemed to make it a point she was going to do the music she wanted to make, and not the music her audiences wanted to hear. That's almost always a recipe for disaster, especially if a performer's career is just in the beginning stages. You don't take your audience for granted. Linda didn't have high album sales or even high single sales in the early years. And Capitol, like every other record company in business at the time, had expectations of how many albums or singles an artist had to sell. And how many an artist had to sell just to stay on the label. It might not have been a stretch to say Linda may have just barely met the minimum to stay on the label. And how many people who were at her concert were turned off by her musical choices? And turned off to a degree they didn't buy her singles or her albums.
I don't think that was ever quite true with Linda, however; and I'm not quite so sure that the dislike she had of her own voice stemmed from her audience's reaction to the kind of material she was doing at that time. It's true that a lot of it was of a C&W bent, but Linda tended to balance traditionalism with progressive values, as in her hard-edged takes of "Break My Mind" or "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line", or the honesty of "I Fall To Pieces" and "Crazy Arms". In more recent interviews, she has said that Capitol, her label during those years, didn't really know how to market her because she was never a one-genre singer. Was she folk, rock, or country? And the answer to all three would be "Yes". As I've often said, when it came to that period between 1969 and 1973, Linda was just a bit ahead of her time; and eventually, people caught up.
I think it's a possibility Linda's dislike of her singing could've come from the audience reaction. I think she believed she had made good, strong song choices and perhaps the audiences just wasn't taken with her song choices and maybe the responses were lukewarm. Or perhaps it didn't occur to her that songs like "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy Arms" had already been done to death by every country performer or country-pop performer there was, and that audiences got tired of hearing the same songs. It's like Linda saying she got tired of doing her own hits and wanted to give some a rest, but the audiences expected to hear them. And the irony is, she recognized that herself as she said if she went t a concert to see one of her favorite performers, she'd be disappointed if that performer didn't do her favorite song.
And it may not have been Capitol didn't realize how to market her properly, but how difficult it was for them to market her to the radio stations. Country radio was very resistant to former rock performers seeking to switch to the country genre. It was almost impossible for one time rock performers to get radio airplay on country stations because as with many country performers, the country radio stations didn't like the rock performers. It wasn't as hard for a country sounding recording to get radio airplay on a pop or rock station, but they certainly weren't going to make it a habit to play every country record by a former rock performer. Linda's audience was rock based and Capitol certainly had to know that for a fact, but they were accommodating to her artistic ambitions. But, I wonder if Capitol recognized early on the country market and establishment would never accept her totally and tried gently to ease her back into the rock and pop market? Or realized that was where her strength lay and the chances she could be a success?
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Post by erik on Sept 12, 2018 23:35:44 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
Yes, Linda's audience was rock-based; but it wasn't the kind of rock audience that was of the kind that most rock critics of the 1960s and early 1970s thought it should have been. For various reasons which I personally think are suspect, rockers of that era were expected to be influenced by black music, specifically blues and R&B, perhaps to counteract the idea that White people "stole" black people's music, which was certainly true in terms of Pat Boone, but false when it came to Elvis. Linda, of course, proved that she had the capacity for blues and R&B, even if she never admitted to that and the critics never gave her credit for doing it. But Linda's listening habits growing up in Arizona were largely of a country music nature, specifically Hank Williams first, and this was in the two or three years just before the rock and roll boom occurred. For those who study this, forms of country music endemic to the Southwest, specifically Western swing and 1950s honky-tonk, had an impact in the way rockabilly music of the kind that Elvis and his fellow Sun Records label mates, like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, developed. Later on, Patsy Cline came along with her glorious, if sadly short-lived, streak of country/pop crossover hits, two of which, of course, Linda did ("I Fall To Pieces"; "Crazy"). And the early 1960s folk music boom opened up Linda's listening to very traditional forms of country music, including bluegrass. So when the country-rock movement began in 1967-68, Linda was right in the thick of things. What she needed to do, and what I think she did fairly well (even if it didn't get "hits", per se), was to convince audiences that country music, when done with the proper mix of traditional and progressive values, was going to work.
But even if she considered herself "country" (which she never strictly did), it was a decidedly left-of-center style of country, which meant that something as ultra-conservative as "Stand By Your Man" was never going to be in her wheelhouse. That was Tammy Wynette's song, never hers. It was the radio programmers that didn't know how to handle her; and Capitol was a big label but, as with a lot of other big labels, one with very neatly defined categories of artists. Linda didn't fit into just one category, and that's why she left Capitol for Asylum,. But I don't recall in the interviews she had given in recent years her ever expressing any bitterness towards that situation.
Once Heart Like A Wheel went to #1 on both the pop and the country album charts, of course, whatever Nashville might have thought of her before that, they could no longer act as if she was some kind of carpetbagger from the pop music world. She was never going to be a Nashville artist, even if two of her friends, specifically Dolly and Emmylou, were, but Music City eventually had to admit that she knew country music through and through, and had a great respect for tradition. She just approached it far differently from, say, Tammy or Loretta Lynn. And because of the approach Linda took, we have women like Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride, Lucinda Williams, Tift Merritt, Margo Price, Lindi Ortega, and tons of others who claim her as a big influence on their approaches (in Trisha's case, Linda may have been the reason why she ever became a singer in the first place).
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 13, 2018 1:37:57 GMT -5
I think I would word any questions in a way where an abrupt Yes or No might be your answer.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 13, 2018 18:06:12 GMT -5
I think I would word any questions in a way where an abrupt Yes or No might be your answer. It would never be my style to ask a question that could be answered with an abrupt yes or no. I'd like to engage Linda in a way that would give her a lot of enjoyment for her time, because every moment she has now is precious. Plus, I know every question asked of Linda in which she answers with a yes or a no is a question in which she is annoyed, and those are questions I'd want to avoid. |
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 13, 2018 18:41:21 GMT -5
But even if she considered herself "country" (which she never strictly did), it was a decidedly left-of-center style of country, which meant that something as ultra-conservative as "Stand By Your Man" was never going to be in her wheelhouse. That was Tammy Wynette's song, never hers. It was the radio programmers that didn't know how to handle her; and Capitol was a big label but, as with a lot of other big labels, one with very neatly defined categories of artists. Linda didn't fit into just one category, and that's why she left Capitol for Asylum,. But I don't recall in the interviews she had given in recent years her ever expressing any bitterness towards that situation.
Linda's success with the country genre may have been greater if she had been promoted by the Capitol division in Nashville, rather than Capitol in Los Angeles. The Nashville division might have figured out how to get her radio airplay on the country stations, since they were a lot more familiar with the stations and disc jockeys whose jobs it was to play and promote the records. Still, Capitol had a lot of country artists who didn't have a lot of original songs (either written by them or by others) but a lot of covers. And because Linda wanted to record what she wanted, rather than what Capitol wanted her to record, that likely presented some problems as they may have offered her the first options that rejected, but which others did not and got a hit on. That would be another question I'd like to ask Linda: did she pass on songs offered to her by the record company or music publisher that was a hit for other artists? And was it something she constantly did, much to the chagrin of the record company?
I believe Asylum only succeeded because Capitol had laid down the groundwork that finally resulted in Linda's success. And I think Linda's success occurred because she had a producer who understood her and understood what was needed. And I think she also finally had the musicians she needed to make the music work, especially Andrew Gold and the return of Kenny Edwards in her life. Had they not been there, had Peter Asher not been there, I don't think the boat for Asylum would've been there.
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Post by erik on Sept 13, 2018 19:13:45 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
I think a lot of that is true. But just as important, it seems to me, is that David Geffen, already something of a legend (for better or worse, depending on what you read), had known about Linda dating back to her time in the Stone Poneys when she was represented by Ashley Famous, where Geffen was a talent agent (pre-CSNY), and felt that he could market her unique mix of rock and country better--perhaps a bit of chutzpah on his part, but at least he had the backing of the Eagles and Jackson Browne to make that chutzpah stick. It still took a bit more doing, but it finally clicked in the end.
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Post by ausfan2 on Sept 14, 2018 22:18:32 GMT -5
There are a number of reasons why Linda never performed Different Drum in concerts after the demise of the Stone Poneys. From Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_DrumCompare the 2 versions: Studio Recording
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