Post by sliderocker on May 1, 2013 23:18:33 GMT -5
Where I think she may have gotten support in any attempt to resist recording "Stand By Your Man" may have been that her then-manager and producer John Boylan sensed her unease with the song and didn't force something on her that he knew wouldn't work, whether or not she was more conservative in those days. For Linda Ronstadt, she had given Capitol her own takes on older C&W classics like "I Fall To Pieces" and "Crazy Arms", along with contemporary material from friends like Jackson Browne and Neil Young. Admittedly, the album tanked commercially, but not because it was a bad album; Linda was just still a bit too far ahead of her audience.
Boylan may have been supportive of Linda's decision not to record SBYM, but rather than trying to get Linda to sing old country hits, I thought they should've been trying to get her to record more recent material. But, I got to thinking about her refusal to record "Help Me Make It Through the Night:" what if they had tried to get her to record that song before Sammi Smith had her hit with it? The record business is full of examples of artists who had the first option on a song but who ultimately passed on it for one reason or another.
"Linda Ronstadt" had some really good songs but it didn't truly have any stand out songs that could've been a big hit and which could've helped move sales of the album. And given that Linda dismissing her recordings goes as far back as 1971 (and maybe even earlier), I sometimes wondered if the reason for that was because of the lack of fresher material versus the over-reliance of the older material? If she had the first crack on certain songs and passed on them for whatever reason, she didn't have many options beyond recording the new song or recording an older song just to have enough songs to fill out an album. Something tells me that she probably wouldn't have been happy either way with the finished results.
As for Asylum, I think they knew that she was very focused on making the best albums that she could, and which would satisfy what both they and she were after. Of course they were nervous when she indulged herself with the Nelson Riddle trilogy, and then with Canciones De Mi Padre (even Linda herself later admitted they had good cause to be). In the end, though, at least up until 1991, it all worked out reasonably well.
I kind of wonder if either Linda and/or Asylum had a plan B ready just in case the Nelson Riddle albums bombed and the "Canciones..." album bombed? They took a leap of faith with Linda that other record companies might not have done. I recall reading of planned album releases by Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers and Ringo Starr among others, that ultimately got shelved because their record companies didn't like what they had heard. It's hard to believe a record company would have second guessed their artists, especially artists who had been extremely successful. But, previous successes meant nothing. One just wonders how the record company dealt with the bruised egos of those performers?
Boylan may have been supportive of Linda's decision not to record SBYM, but rather than trying to get Linda to sing old country hits, I thought they should've been trying to get her to record more recent material. But, I got to thinking about her refusal to record "Help Me Make It Through the Night:" what if they had tried to get her to record that song before Sammi Smith had her hit with it? The record business is full of examples of artists who had the first option on a song but who ultimately passed on it for one reason or another.
"Linda Ronstadt" had some really good songs but it didn't truly have any stand out songs that could've been a big hit and which could've helped move sales of the album. And given that Linda dismissing her recordings goes as far back as 1971 (and maybe even earlier), I sometimes wondered if the reason for that was because of the lack of fresher material versus the over-reliance of the older material? If she had the first crack on certain songs and passed on them for whatever reason, she didn't have many options beyond recording the new song or recording an older song just to have enough songs to fill out an album. Something tells me that she probably wouldn't have been happy either way with the finished results.
As for Asylum, I think they knew that she was very focused on making the best albums that she could, and which would satisfy what both they and she were after. Of course they were nervous when she indulged herself with the Nelson Riddle trilogy, and then with Canciones De Mi Padre (even Linda herself later admitted they had good cause to be). In the end, though, at least up until 1991, it all worked out reasonably well.
I kind of wonder if either Linda and/or Asylum had a plan B ready just in case the Nelson Riddle albums bombed and the "Canciones..." album bombed? They took a leap of faith with Linda that other record companies might not have done. I recall reading of planned album releases by Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers and Ringo Starr among others, that ultimately got shelved because their record companies didn't like what they had heard. It's hard to believe a record company would have second guessed their artists, especially artists who had been extremely successful. But, previous successes meant nothing. One just wonders how the record company dealt with the bruised egos of those performers?