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Post by Richard W on Jul 1, 2020 0:57:15 GMT -5
Back in the USA / When I Grow too Old to Dream.
I mean, what? Who would do that?
I imagine: Linda's '70s 'stached guy fans going slack-jawed with discombobulation when, during the first spin of the album, the rock and roll crescendo of BitUSA (side 1, track 1) faded and the shimmering sounds of a vibraphone oscillated from the floor speakers of their Pioneer stereo systems, the jarring juxtaposition of classic rock and unremembered standard demanding that that second song would be listened to.
This 1-2 WTF perfectly illustrates the chameleonic facets of Ronstadt's instrument. Yes, it's the same singer singing both songs, but the strutting rock voice she uses to propel BitUSA is a completely different species from the gorgeous croon she butters WIGtOtD with. Different tone, different colors.
Unlike, say, Barbra Streisand, who has also applied her magnificent voice to songs from eclectic genres, too—but in the end it's always the same Streisand voice, whether she's rocking Stoney End or trumpeting Don't Rain on My Parade.
The Live in Hollywood album is a prime example of Linda's vocal diversity, where she does five rock songs in a row (beginning with Hurts so Bad and ending with BitUSA) of five different rock subgenera (pop, FM rock, blues-rock, new wave, and classic rock) and she never utilizes the same vocal attack twice. The hot, magma red of Hurts So Bad, for example, is awesomely different from the white heat of How Do I Make You.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 29, 2020 19:18:22 GMT -5
Welcome, Geno!
We had approximately the same Ronstadt exposure experience. Same year, same reaction. I caught her on the Midnight Special only because I tuned in to watch the Eagles.
Went out next day and bought Don't Cry Now with the babysitting money I'd made that night ($4.99 at K-Mart, fyi).
Haven't been the same since.
I agree with all of the comments on her influence / legacy completely. Only I'd add that it is the distinctive tone, the unique color of Linda's voice that makes it one of a kind. There are many strong voices out there, but few of them with the chromatic brilliance of hers.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 2, 2020 19:53:58 GMT -5
I pay for other streaming services (HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Start) What is Start? I'm not familiar with it. Is the download for the full concert or just the part aired by PBS? By "Start", Tony, I meant "Starz." Autocorrect got me. Haven't downloaded the concert yet so I don't know its extent. I would assume what was shown. Update: Evidently I'm to receive a code in the mail. Odd.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 1, 2020 17:45:00 GMT -5
$96 is for a year's membership to PBS; for that you get the digital download of the concert.
That's what I did.
I realized that I pay for other streaming services (HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Start) but don't for public television, even though I watch it a lot. Been meaning to become a member but never got around to it, until last night.
(Much of PBS's programming—especially their back catalog—is only available to members, although current programs/shows/episodes are available to all for a limited time frame.)
It was so much fun watching that concert on broadcast TV. She was so emotive and spunky and darling and, of course, that voice just slayed me. I couldn't help falling for her all over again.
And yes, I did miss Party Girl, but I can't say the same about Mad Love and Cost of Love. I don't think those two were especially good performances, with Linda stomping on the vocal gas too hard and too often, in the process shredding her voice to the point where it makes me wince to hear it. And she's done I Can't Help it countless times better than she does here; perhaps it's the arrangement.
This version of Silver Threads, however, is the very definition of country-rock. Smoking hot.
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Post by Richard W on May 25, 2020 19:25:04 GMT -5
"Being completely subjective, has there ever been a better cover?" eddiejinnj
Even being completely objective, Eddie, the answer is still no.
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Post by Richard W on May 24, 2020 19:43:35 GMT -5
That overview reads suspiciously like the critique of the album in the Dave Marsh Poison Pen edition of the RS Record Guide.
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Post by Richard W on Apr 22, 2020 18:35:42 GMT -5
I believe they based the content of the documentary largely on what Linda covered in her memoir, since they bought the rights to adapt it.
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Post by Richard W on Mar 23, 2020 16:41:58 GMT -5
Typically snarky RS bs, damning with faint "praise".
"The album became a dollar-bin staple; in the Eighties, they wouldn’t let you walk out of a record store without making you take a copy of Mad Love with you. Linda fled to the theater...
Fled, indeed.
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Post by Richard W on Mar 22, 2020 9:05:51 GMT -5
So "Falling in Love Again" popped up on my iPod last night and boy, did I regret not including it on my list.
Linda and Riddle's arrangement swing, and you can almost "hear" Linda winking at herself as she sings "men cluster to me like moths around a flame / and if their wings burn I know I'm not to blame."
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Post by Richard W on Mar 18, 2020 8:15:25 GMT -5
*Skylark Can't We Be Friends My Funny Valentine I'm A Fool To Want You When Your Lover Has Gone Guess I'll Hang My Tears out To Dry Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered What's New But Not for Me I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance Lover Man It Never Entered My Mind
*One of the most gorgeous, evocative tracks ever recorded by anyone. Ever.
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Post by Richard W on Feb 11, 2020 18:55:20 GMT -5
I'm (only) guessing it may have been the "country" factor of her foundational music. It's my perception -- and Sean, correct me if I'm wrong! -- that country music, especially during the '70s and '80s, was not a popular genre in the UK.
Although the audience in the Old Grey Whistle concert was certainly eating her up!
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Post by Richard W on Feb 10, 2020 17:20:18 GMT -5
Well he certainly got her!
Great to hear a fellow musician talk about her vocal and appreciate the band.
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Post by Richard W on Feb 7, 2020 10:23:20 GMT -5
The Documentary branch of the Academy is notorious for its "non-nominations" of films deemed worthy by critics and audiences/box office: Apollo 11 this year (which was great), Won't You Be My Neighbor last year (which pretty much won every other Best Documentary category there was at other awards), Paris Is Burning, Crumb, Hoop Dreams, The Thin Blue Line, and Fahrenheit 9/11.
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Post by Richard W on Jan 29, 2020 9:49:50 GMT -5
Saw this on a facebook fan page? Doesn't say who the guy is.. any ideas? At first glance I thought it was Eddie Rabbitt.. I'm sure I am wrong. Isn't that the country singer who performed with her in La Boheme? Gary...Morris?
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Post by Richard W on Jan 26, 2020 20:18:21 GMT -5
You should make an outing to the church that's on the album cover of Western Wall, the name of which escapes me (but which I'm sure someone else here can fill in). It is one of Linda's favorite places and really is beautiful.
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Post by Richard W on Jan 19, 2020 19:47:29 GMT -5
Anyone know of a decent quality audio file of Linda and Phoebe on SNL?
Seems the ones I had vanished...
Thanks, peeps!
Richard
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Post by Richard W on Jan 4, 2020 11:34:34 GMT -5
Finally! Some Frenesi love (from iTunes Top Latino album chart): BTW, Canciones is #1 and Mas is #5 on same chart. Plus 11 singles on iTunes Top 200 Pop chart.
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Post by Richard W on Jan 4, 2020 11:31:49 GMT -5
11 of her albums are on the iTunes Top Pop album charts, including GH Remastered at #1, along with CLAR, HDTW, DCN, LITUSA, PID, and even the eponymous Linda Ronstadt charting at #112.
GH Remastered is also #3 on Top Album chart.
Since musicians make their money off album/singles sales and not airplay, I assume Linda is making some money this year.
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Post by Richard W on Jan 4, 2020 11:19:49 GMT -5
While I appreciate the spike in album sales for Linda, I especially like the fact that an un-hits album is charting. With so many of her albums out of print, people are mainly left with only hits collections to purchase.
As we all know, the hits are not even half of the story. So much good music between those hits, and on the albums that didn't have any.
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Post by Richard W on Dec 28, 2019 18:31:32 GMT -5
I never suspected that 2019 would be so Ronstadtian, so it was a year of unexpected delights as far as she is concerned.
Thank you for sharing them with me.
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Post by Richard W on Dec 28, 2019 9:30:39 GMT -5
One of the best interviews of her ever, mainly because of her answers, which revealed surprising, unexpressed aspects of her.
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Post by Richard W on Dec 16, 2019 16:53:52 GMT -5
It IS the sound of her voice, the tone and color of it, that are both inimical and irreplaceable.
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Post by Richard W on Dec 16, 2019 14:53:28 GMT -5
Greatest Hits (Remastered) #8 on Top Album chart. Greatest Hits (Remastered) #2 on Top Pop Albums chart, with Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt at #15, What's New at #23, Duets #31, and The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years #32, 'Round Midnight collection #42, Cry Like a Rainstorm #44, Live in Hollywood #54, For Sentimental Reasons #56, Lush Life #128, and Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions #191 on same chart. Canciones de Mi Padre (Remastered) #1 and Mas Canciones (Remastered) #12 on iTunes Latino Top Albums chart. Complete Trio Collection #17 on Top Country Albums, with Trio (Remastered) at #30. Heart Like a Wheel #35 on the Top Rock Album chart. Nice! What charts? Billboard? I am not finding them. Links? iTunes
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Post by Richard W on Dec 16, 2019 11:28:11 GMT -5
"She knows that she is still very much loved, wanted, and appreciated by her peers, and her fans. I don't think we could have asked for too much more."
Well said, Erik.
My greatest apprehension as a long-time fan(atic) wasn't that Linda would fail to be appreciated, eventually, but that it wouldn't happen in her (or my) lifetime.
That apprehension, especially after this year, has been laid to rest.
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Post by Richard W on Dec 16, 2019 9:20:02 GMT -5
Greatest Hits (Remastered) #8 on Top Album chart.
Greatest Hits (Remastered) #2 on Top Pop Albums chart, with Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt at #15, What's New at #23, Duets #31, and The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years #32, 'Round Midnight collection #42, Cry Like a Rainstorm #44, Live in Hollywood #54, For Sentimental Reasons #56, Lush Life #128, and Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions #191 on same chart.
Canciones de Mi Padre (Remastered) #1 and Mas Canciones (Remastered) #12 on iTunes Latino Top Albums chart.
Complete Trio Collection #17 on Top Country Albums, with Trio (Remastered) at #30.
Heart Like a Wheel #35 on the Top Rock Album chart.
Nice!
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Post by Richard W on Dec 5, 2019 10:53:24 GMT -5
"Pandering" is a key word in this discussion, something many stars and superstars practice to their artistic detriment to keep their reading on the fame-ometer as high as possible. You can't, over the arc of her career, accuse Linda of that.
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Post by Richard W on Nov 30, 2019 17:16:05 GMT -5
The album cover shot is so gorgeous and evocative, it's amazing that it was spontaneous.
Great story.
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Post by Richard W on Nov 30, 2019 0:31:30 GMT -5
The Onion is a satiric "newspaper" that takes no prisoners, skewering everything worthy of being skewered, such as this "headline" about mass shootings: Then there's the goofy and surreal: The A.V. Club is their non-satyrical arts/culture section, widely read.
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Post by Richard W on Nov 27, 2019 11:11:41 GMT -5
It's too bad that both Entertainment Weekly and The Onion's AV Club completely ignored the film and did not review or mention it. It still did fine without them, but that added exposure might have helped it even more (given they were positive reviews).
Perhaps she's not "trendy" enough for them -- despite the fact that the film has certainly sparked a Ronstadt trend.
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Post by Richard W on Nov 26, 2019 18:53:39 GMT -5
That's awesome, especially for a movie that allegedly "no one would want to see."
But if it's nominated for Best Doc Oscar (and we all know how weird they can be in their nominations), it will have to be " just happy to be nominated". Apollo 11 will walk away with it (if IT'S even nominated -- you never know).
Myself, I'd be just that happy.
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