|
Post by Richard W on Apr 27, 2019 19:05:08 GMT -5
Erm...well, but Erik, page 3 was so long ago! Quote by Richard W: I posted that one last night (scroll back to Page 3).
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 27, 2019 13:43:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 26, 2019 19:27:26 GMT -5
Who best to play Linda in a movie about her life?
Never thought the answer would be Linda herself.
!
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 25, 2019 18:18:34 GMT -5
Lots and lots of hair.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 25, 2019 14:42:37 GMT -5
Not Linda at all.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 23, 2019 9:05:04 GMT -5
Imagine my surprise when I saw this (current issue): Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Apr 15, 2019 9:33:02 GMT -5
And she's a fine writer.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 30, 2019 9:43:14 GMT -5
The thing about LIH is that you really get a sense of Linda's sheer joy in singing. Every song on it crackles with passion and energy, something that Linda, despite her performance discomfort as noted by Erik, overcomes in spades. There's an energy and an immediacy here that elevate the songs even higher than they already were. You can feel that come through the audience.
Oh, and this band just nails it. They sound as if they're having as good of a time as Linda is.
Anyone else notice the guy in the audience's hearty "yeaaaahh!" at the beginning of Just One Look, right after she sings the title for the first time? Cracks me up.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 29, 2019 10:32:51 GMT -5
I'd guess the other songs were left off mainly because Linda wasn't happy with those particular performances.
She may have made some "in the moment" vocal choices that she regrets. There are certainly ones that make me wish she hadn't made. That theatrical whispering of "vice" in Party Girl derails an otherwise breathtaking performance; her vocal assault on Silver Threads along with Payne's anachronistic keyboard solo don't do that signature song any favors; the way she shreds her vocal chords on Mad Love are more wince-worthy than exhuberant; and the classic I Can't Help it gets a canned, almost corny honky-tonk arrangement by the band that sounds more like a parody of a country song than a real one. There are others.
There are outstanding moments in all of these songs, of course, because it's Linda at the mic, but a live performance is a series of instantaneous choices and on several of the songs the choices don't bear repeating. Unless you edit the recording in the studio, which was not an option here and for which I am grateful. This truly is a "live" album.
That said, the twelve tracks released make for a fantastic listening experience, a rare live album that begs to be replayed
I haven't stopped playing it since February!
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 26, 2019 8:51:32 GMT -5
It's So Easy -- Brokeback Mountain
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 26, 2019 8:49:14 GMT -5
I Can Almost See It
Skylark
You Tell Me that I'm Falling Down
Falling Down
I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance
Verdad Armaga
Anyone Who Had a Heart
Colorado
Sail Away
Everybody Loves a Winner
Willin' (of course!)
It Doesn't Matter Anymore
Sometimes You Just Can't Win
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
I Can't Get Over You
Don't Cry Now
Miss Otis Regrets
Sisters (with Bette)
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 26, 2019 8:41:57 GMT -5
Another loss for pop music's past. What struck me about the Walker Brothers' recordings of "Make It Easy On Yourself" (first a hit for "The Iceman" Jerry Butler in 1962) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" is that the arrangements sound a lot like what Phil Spector was doing with the Righteous Brothers around the same time with the Wall of Sound. I always wondered if that figured into their way of thinking. Agreed. Being unfamiliar with the Walker Brothers, the first time I heard "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" on the radio a couple of years ago, the Righteous Brothers was the first thing I thought of. I loved the song immediately, but that Wall of Sound sound definitely flavors it. Had no idea that the Walker Brothers were such a big thing in England at the time. I thought they were one hit wonders! And now all this lionizing and recognition comes out only after Scott Walker's death. After reading some of the articles suddenly proliferating after his demise, I can't help but wonder if Scott himself would have appreciated hearing some of this praise and recognition ("genius" from The Guardian) even a few years ago. Makes me appreciate even more how Linda is receiving some (much overdue) recognition in her lifetime.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 24, 2019 9:47:18 GMT -5
my most favorite Ronstadt song of all time
I Can Almost See It Mine, too.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 6, 2019 16:35:48 GMT -5
Live in Hollywood is as rock as the Eagles or Billy Joel or Fleetwood Mac, so why it's not on the Rock Album chart is weird.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 5, 2019 14:09:50 GMT -5
I think you nailed it, Erik! One listen to Cramer's Last Date (which I have but haven't listened to in some time) and I can hear the resemblance.
It's funny to me how Just One Look has emerged as perhaps my favorite track on the live album, having not been completely sold by the studio version. I always liked it, but I never loved it. I love this.
As for the orphaned tracks from the concert, I've heard them in bootleg and recognize after the Rhino release that they certainly sound better from their source, but I think Linda was right in her choices.
On several of the left-off songs from Mad Love Live, Linda shreds her voice for the sake of rock and roll, and the result doesn't always pay off or bear repeated listenings. Mad Love itself in particular makes me wince for her poor, gorgeous larynx.
Party Girl is outstanding, but what I think put it on the chopping block was the unfortunate choice of whispering the word "vice".
In a live performance, it's an understandable, if regrettable, choice to try something new and, as an audience member, something you'd likely not recall, especially after she blows the roof off in the finale of that song.
But as a track on a real album, that whispered "vice" sounds corny and unconvincing and pokes a hole in the song, letting the air out of Linda's emotionally committed performance of it before and after.
That's my reasoning. I wonder if it was Linda's.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 4, 2019 18:40:07 GMT -5
Am loving Billy Payne's piano rolls on Just One Look. They're easy to overlook, but once you pick up on them, they're awesome.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Mar 1, 2019 10:48:34 GMT -5
The later one from Don't Cry Now.
Those drums really propel it into the rock side of country-rock, as does Linda's vocal.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 26, 2019 12:53:57 GMT -5
This is also an unusual Ronstadt album in that 9 of the 12 songs are rockers, with the ballads a minority at 3.
I'm especially impressed by that 4-song sequence beginning with Poor Poor Pitiful Me and ending with Back in the USA where Linda maneuvers through several rock styles seamlessly:
Poor Poor Pitiful Me: straight up FM rock You're No Good: r&b rock How Do I Make You: new wave rock Back in the USA: old time rock & roll
And am I the only one who detects the pure joy of singing on this album? Not my joy in listening to it, but her joy in doing it.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 25, 2019 19:21:18 GMT -5
Maybe she lost the black pen or it ran out of ink...
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 25, 2019 11:04:38 GMT -5
Bad sentence structure on my part, Tony!
I should have said "the signature is in black ink."
The album itself is indeed red. I, too, had to remove the shrink wrap so that I could take look at it, even though I don't own a turntable.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 25, 2019 11:01:42 GMT -5
I still argue that the band credits track is properly placed at the end of the concert.
Haven't we all heard those live album band intros and after the third or fourth time simply skipped over them, whether by lifting the needle or clicking next track?
As it is, Live in Hollywood presents a seamless, unbroken live set of songs without the (eventually) annoying band intros stopping the show.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 22, 2019 19:18:07 GMT -5
Absolutely, Lawrence. She ups the drama on HSB to thrilling effect.
And Just One Look, to give another example, she and the band find a real groove here that I don't get from the comparatively wobbly studio version (which I've always liked but wanted to like more -- and now I do!). And she and Waldman and Edwards really belt it out with some awesome soulful wails. I just love it.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 22, 2019 15:30:07 GMT -5
Well, it is a fabulous record, start to finish.
As far as I'm concerned, every song on this album cuts the studio version.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 22, 2019 9:39:58 GMT -5
My signed vinyl is in black.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 15, 2019 20:29:23 GMT -5
We can carp about Billboard chart positions, but what impresses me is that a 73-year old woman who hasn't had a major hit in decades and whose last album is 6 years old is having a hit record, a big enough success to land her in the upper reaches of -- and sometimes the top of -- two major music charts, iTunes and Amazon.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 5, 2019 15:28:04 GMT -5
As always, Erik, spot on.
Only one point I'd disagree on: band credits. Personally, I appreciate the moving of them to the end. They are nice to hear once or twice, but I don't need to hear them as a matter of course every time I play the album, especially on vinyl.
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Feb 4, 2019 19:28:19 GMT -5
Have played it twice since getting it today. Love it! The sequencing is great. The quartet of Poor Poor Pitiful Me, You're No Good (!), How Do I Make You (!!) and Back in the USA just kills. And makes the following Desperado just that much more thrilling.
Got the autographed LP on red vinyl. Signature is on neck. You can tell it's her "new" signature. Kinda broke my heart.
Does anyone know if ALL of the vinyl copies are on red vinyl?
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Jan 31, 2019 17:32:53 GMT -5
OMG, she looks great.
Thanks, Mike!
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Jan 31, 2019 17:30:02 GMT -5
I like it. It's a dramatic shot that shows Linda smack dab in the middle of breaking my heart. Plus I like the typography, some classic '80s Kosh.
Personally, I don't care if it's not from the show itself, but I could see where others might.
Agree, though, that a band shot would be nice somewhere inside. (Hey, maybe, haven't seen it yet.)
|
|
|
Post by Richard W on Jan 31, 2019 17:26:49 GMT -5
Just looked at that on Amazon. No way as a user to correct the misinformation about its being the bootleg being reviewed and not the official one from the master tapes.
When you try to post a review to clarify that this is an official studio release, Amazon won'd let you because the CD "hasn't been released yet", so there's no way to let people know the difference.
Still, at only 3.5 stars, it seems to be generating some interest for it to be that far up the CD chart.
Because of the barbaric weather here in Chicago (colder than Antarctica yesterday!) I won't get either the vinyl or CD until Monday.
|
|