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Post by Richard W on Jun 12, 2013 11:51:40 GMT -5
That's the one!
Linda is in fabulous voice and high spirits.
Anyone who doubts her commitment to this music should have those doubts vaporized after hearing this.
I'll grant that ten years later she may have moved on (even if she frequently returned), but at the time this was her music.
We should all post our gratitude to the person who made this available.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 12, 2013 10:22:24 GMT -5
Anyone who hasn't downloaded the linked '76 Boston concert should. Besides being vintage '70s-era Ronstadt, it is, as someone said on the site, perhaps the best sounding audience recording ever. Whoever remastered and tweaked it should get some sort of medal from us.
Not only does Linda sound amazing -- her performance of "The Tattler" is especially revelatory, much more forceful than the rather laid-back album version -- but so does the band. Unlike typical "from the audience" recordings, everything here sounds balanced and, along with a few nearby audience member's calling out "mercy!", truly gives you the feeling that you are sitting at about tenth row center.
Linda even chats between songs.
Get it.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 10, 2013 19:01:51 GMT -5
All I will say is "the county won't give me no more methadone..." is just -- well, it's another one of those moments for me.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 10, 2013 17:23:31 GMT -5
Everything mentioned here (seriously, everything), plus that high note on "still" in the line "I still love you like I did" on I Keep It Hid.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 7, 2013 17:45:58 GMT -5
I'm sure Pennsylvania has a musically notable cathedral -- that seems to be the theme here!
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Post by Richard W on Jun 7, 2013 8:25:44 GMT -5
I recall Gold clarifying the writing credit by saying that he merely "helped her with the bridge."
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Post by Richard W on Jun 6, 2013 16:46:51 GMT -5
Like I've said -- but maybe not recently -- actors aren't required to write their own parts, so why should singers be required to write their own songs? Acting and writing, just like singing and writing, are two separate arts.
Occasionally someone comes along that can do both, but what if a singer can't write? Are they supposed to remain silent?
It's a stupid, specious requirement for legitimacy.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 6, 2013 9:43:47 GMT -5
You got that right, Erik (and Upton!).
What's most interesting to me about this article, besides the rare fact that the author was willing to admit a change of mind about her opinions, is that it clearly demonstrates how much music criticism -- and criticism of Linda in particular -- is motivated and based more on political and/or personal ideology than what is in the grooves. Once the author here let those preconceptions and biases drop, she heard the voice and all it conveys.
Although I still argue that Linda's interpretation of "Sail Away" is far and away from "helplessly literal." I think she gives the song a dimension that Newman's own lacked. Indeed, Newman's voice carries such natural irony and sarcasm that he'd be hard pressed to interpret the song the way Linda does, that is by making the song sound so alluring and beautiful; it is, after all, a song about enticing slaves aboard ship with horrifyingly false promises and imagery. Like I've said before, were you to hear Newman sing that song, you would turn tail and run for your life. Linda, on the other hand, makes it all sound so entrancing and promising. Now there's irony for you.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 6, 2013 8:53:21 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure you've already seen this, musicaamator, but here's a vintage -- and pristine -- video of Linda performing YNG in 1976 (with Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards in the band). This gives you a time-capsule feeling of what it was like to see her live during this period of her career (I saw her first in 1977 -- twice!). You're No Good 1976Nice band intro at beginning, too. And no one looks better shaking a tambourin and banging a cowbell than does Linda. And thanks, BTW, to tonygent for the Troy/Ronstadt mash-up. Never heard that before. I remember Linda performing this song during one her last tour stops here at the Chicago Theater. The arrangement was slowed down a tad and Linda's vocal was shaded with just enough menace to give the song a "stalker" theme, a theme more than fitting with the lyrics (lines like "I'll get you, some day" took on a whole new meaning), something I never recognized before hearing her do this song just this one time.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 5, 2013 18:36:02 GMT -5
Especially after "Verdad Armaga" has played, Mike! You can't deny the vocal genius of that track, no matter what.
Actually, I had a friend from Ireland who was indifferent to Linda's pop hits but when I played Frenesi for him he freaked out. Bought the album and is now quite the defender of her. I heard him say to someone once at a party when of her songs played, "oh, there's more to her than that," in reference to one of her hits.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 5, 2013 10:50:50 GMT -5
I agree with everything you said about Linda's interpretations, musicaamator, which is why "Back in the USA" was, for me, a disappointment. It, unlike nearly all the others, was more of a recreation of the Berry original and less an interpretation.
I do like Linda's performance -- and the live version from the HBO Mad Love special just kicks it -- but the arrangement doesn't add much to (or find much more in) the original. Like I said, a fine rock-and-roll vocal from Linda, but compared to what she did with the other songs mentioned, it remains one of Linda's rare, true "remakes" which doesn't really remake all that much.
Another original vs. cover of Linda's that's astonishingly transformative is her country-soul interpretation of the minor R&B hi,t by Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, "Everybody Loves a Winner." If you've never heard the original, you cannot fully appreciate Linda's interpretation on DCN.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 5, 2013 8:05:54 GMT -5
It's a very smart and funny show, Tony, but one that I can only take an episode or two of at a time; its attention-deficit style of episodic storytelling kinda works my nerves if they're exposed to more than that at a stretch.
Haven't seen mention of Linda in the new series which, BTW, is available for instant viewing on Netflix (which produces it).
Jessica Walter is so funny on that show.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 5, 2013 8:00:41 GMT -5
I won't disparage Holly's version, Eddie, but I will say the first time I heard it I was a little shocked at how "bouncy" it was, used as I was to Linda's wistful, sincere reading of it. It's as if she took the song, turned it over and exposed its darker melancholy side.
But back to YNG: I remember what a shock it was the first time I heard that song (on a juke box at a Mexican restaurant where I worked). I had been obsessed with DCN since its release and yet I did not know who that was singing that song. First listen and bam! I had to have it. Imagine my shock when I read the juke box song label and it was by Linda Ronstadt.
Nothing from Linda on DCN had prepared me for the rocking soul of YNG.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 5, 2013 7:50:30 GMT -5
Since Linda most obviously did another shoot with Liebovitz for this series of photos, your assessment of their first shoot, Eddie, is most likely true. I can't imagine Linda, having the resentful feelings for Annie assigned to her by conjecture, willingly submitting to Liebovitz's camera again.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 4, 2013 17:50:36 GMT -5
And what she does with Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" is nothing short of interpretive genius. A side-by-side comparison between the two songs demonstrates this without my having to say more. (Well, at least for now.)
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Post by Richard W on Jun 4, 2013 13:26:43 GMT -5
OMG! How many facts did I get wrong? Thanks, Erik, for the corrections.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 4, 2013 10:55:09 GMT -5
Freakin' love this song.
I recall reading in Dionne Warwick's bio how she groused about "before there was Linda Ronstadt" her cousin (I believe it was) Fontella Bass made the original.
What Warwick failed to acknowledge is how Linda (and Andrew) totally revamped the song, turning it into something completely original.
Fabulous bass-line.
I remember when, during the Mad Love tour at her stop in Ames, Iowa, how she and the band segued from "How Do I Make You" into "You're No Good" and brought the house down. She never rocked harder than when those two songs were played back to back.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 4, 2013 10:28:36 GMT -5
I LOVE that shot! Funny that it's over 30 years old yet Linda's "look" would still look good today. Well, to me...
It's also funny that Liebovitz is the photographer, this after the dust-up between Linda and Annie after the notorious "arse to the wind" photo shoot. I know that Liebovitz was RS's go-to photographer, but you have to wonder how things went between them on this shoot.
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Post by Richard W on Jun 2, 2013 10:02:30 GMT -5
Stapleton was nothing short of brilliant in her role as Edith Bunker.
Her remarks on her feelings about her most iconic role, the role that made her famous, has a certain relevance to a particular singer we all love, if you substitute iconic, career-making music for acting:
"She had no trouble shaking off Edith - 'when you finish a role, you're done with it. There's no deep, spooky connection with the parts you play...' "
and
'For years, she rarely watched "All In the Family," but had softened by 2000, when she told the Archive of American Television that enough time had passed. "I can watch totally objectively," she said.'
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Post by Richard W on May 31, 2013 19:48:07 GMT -5
Yes, Eddie, it is spine tingling. Mine is tingling right now just thinking about it! (Or maybe that's a slipped disc...)
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Post by Richard W on May 31, 2013 10:48:25 GMT -5
Even at this stage Linda was still singing (and appreciating) country/bluegrass music.
The Bluebirds sound great singing together. I'll have to check out Laurie's albums. I really like her voice.
Thanks for posting these.
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Post by Richard W on May 30, 2013 18:23:06 GMT -5
For the record, pre-ordered my book from Amazon.
She ought to have about 10 pre-orders by now thanks to us!
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Post by Richard W on May 29, 2013 15:26:03 GMT -5
I've heard Johnny Rivers's version of "Tracks of My Tears" many times on XM 7 but not Linda's. In fact, Rivers gets a lot of airplay on that station.
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Post by Richard W on May 29, 2013 14:43:03 GMT -5
"Heatwave" on XM 7 just a couple of hours ago.
The more I hear Linda's version, the more I appreciate what she did with it. More rock than R&B, and I really love the staccato way she spits out "I ain't never felt. like. this. be-fore."
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Post by Richard W on May 29, 2013 9:10:49 GMT -5
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Post by Richard W on May 23, 2013 14:51:06 GMT -5
I agree with Tony about SP being ragged.
Some fine moments from (a very green) Linda that underscore her potential more than they establish her brilliance.
It's an album I rarely play anything from, defeated as it seems to be by comparatively weak songs and slipshod production.
All you have to do is compare her singing and phrasing on this album to her next, LR, to experience her growth and confidence as a vocalist.
(Simply play the song LLT from SP and follow it with LLT from the bonus cut on the Capitol Years recorded live during the LR sessions and you can hear her master her art.)
Even more astonishing is her growth from LR to DCN.
And if you jump over LR from SP straight to DCN -- holy crap!
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Post by Richard W on May 22, 2013 9:47:13 GMT -5
What's ironic here is that while Linda apparently dismisses the country-rock music that made her name, she's promoting a new album of -- country-rock!
And isn't that dichotomy itself a potentially interesting topic to pursue?
So, yes, although she may not attend country-rock, country or rock concerts, instead preferring opera (and lest we forget, opera was a big part of her musical life as a child, not to mention that she was in an operetta herself), she is still (at the time) making the type of music that made her famous and promoting it with an interview with RS.
I suspect, like jason, that this was a Wenner snipe job (I can almost hear him sniggering in the background), that the interview was never supposed to be successful. The interviewer says from the top that she hasn't spoken to RS in 12 years, yet he doesn't explain why. I think we know why.
I'm not a fan(atic) apologist for Linda, but when I read this hatchet-job the feeling I most come away with is regret, regret for all of the interesting things we could have learned about the music on this (ultimately forsaken) album, interesting things Linda vainly tried to tell us.
Which should have been the point to it all.
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Post by Richard W on May 21, 2013 16:33:05 GMT -5
Thanks, musicaamator.
I'm sorry, but I still believe the problems are all the interviewer's.
You can feel things start to go wrong with his facile (read: stupid) suggestion that they sell Trio II out of newspaper bins...
Still, as willing as Linda is to talk about the album -- how many times does she keep swinging the subject back to that? -- this moron keeps interrupting her potentially interesting comments about the making of the music on this album with left-field (read: idiotic) questions such as: "You don't do a lot of bowling, do you?"
And if you read the interview as a conversation, there are several times when Linda, even later in the exchange, still opens up and answers his questions in a conversational way, such as her answer to his innocuous (read: mundane) question, "Is there a target audience you want to attract?" To which she replies:
"I think more about who I would like to have playing with me - people like Jim Keltner, David Lindley. I love David Lindley. He's my cousin, and there's no reason he would ever not be in my life personally and professionally. I like him, I like his wife."
Now, a professionally astute interviewer who did his homework on his subject would immediately pick up on the fact that Linda brought up the subject of her cousin, David Lindley (someone she has rarely said that much about) and would have known that she produced Lindley's debut album, "Very Greasy." I imagine any one of us could have concocted at least a half-dozen good questions about that topic.
But did our intrepid (read: smart-ass) interviewer? Nope. He went for what he thought was a "gotcha!" moment which, as any seasoned -- and perhaps even novice -- interviewer knows, is death for this type interview.
He: Be careful, that was almost personal.
Even after the ominous "long pause" following another attempt to get into her personal life, she still gives him something to pick up when she talks about Annie Lennox being "best female pop singer in the last 50 years." Again, who here couldn't think of a better follow-up question following that tantalizing tidbit of musical opinion than: "Has there ever been something that you wanted to talk about that an interviewer didn't bring up?"
It devolves quickly from there.
To answer the question posed at the top of the interview, yep, it's easy to see why Linda hasn't spoken to RS in 12 years -- or since. When you assign a callow, rude, smart ass to interview Linda Ronstadt, this is the result.
[written and posted after jason's comments, which I did not see until after the fact]
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Post by Richard W on May 21, 2013 14:24:26 GMT -5
The clue to me that it was the interviewer who had crossed some line was when Linda said, in effect, "listen, I've been at this for a long time..."
Does anyone have easy access to the interview? I know it's here (or on the archived site) and am just too damned lazy to search for it.
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Post by Richard W on May 21, 2013 14:18:10 GMT -5
I have no use for Wenner or his ilk. I can't buy KISS as Hall Worthy, though (sorry fans) Erik and Robert -- I wasn't posting this item because of any feelings I have toward KISS - I am on your side in that they never did anything for me -- but because it is another omission from the RRHOF. Dianna, I may be wrong, but I think what Rob (RonstadtFanAz) was doing, was taking that one quote, and substituting "Linda Ronstadt" for "KISS," meaning those in a position to do anything view Linda the same way that they do KISS. That it might as well be interchangeable. (FYI -- every time I type "Ronstadt" on this Forum, of all Forums, the site underscores it in red as if the name is spelled incorrectly. Is there some global way so that the system doesn't recognize the namesake of the Forum as spelled wrong? Just a thought.) You have to add "Ronstadt" to your dictionary (or have it learn spelling). I know because I mentioned this a couple of years ago, noting the irony that "Ronstadt" always comes up on spell-check on the Ronstadt fan forum -- when actually there was no irony at all; it's just a matter of having your system's dictionary recognize it. As for KISS, was never and am not a fan. Still, the same could be said by me for several other inducted acts, yet I recognize that, personal tastes aside, they merit induction. As for Ronstadt, the way things are going, Taylor Swift will be inducted before Linda will...
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