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Post by erik on Apr 22, 2012 12:27:17 GMT -5
This 10-part series will look at Linda's chart progress on Billboard's country & western singles charts, because a sizable amount of her popularity stemmed from her ability to cross over between country and pop without sounding like a carpetbagger. As we know, country music was a big part of Linda's musical education while growing up in the oven of the Arizona desert. Thanks to her sister Suzi, Linda got instantly hooked on Hank Williams and listened voraciously to the Grand Ole Opry and its less inhibited cousin The Louisiana Hayride on the radio. The early rockabilly records of Elvis, among the first to mix C&W with rhythm and blues, also impacted on Linda as she grew up, along with Patsy Cline, the traditional honky-tonk and Western swing styles that permeated the music of the Southwest, and the Mexican rancheras that influenced her vocal approach to both country and rock. And as the 1950s turned into the 1960s, the mass revival of American folk music introduced her to ultra-traditional country music, including bluegrass. All these styles would figure into Linda's musical mix when she left Arizona for Southern California in 1964. Some of Linda's country influence may have shown up on record as early as the first Stone Poneys album, with her lead vocals on "2:10 Train" and the acoustic folk/rockabilly version of "Wild About My Lovin'." It was on the third one (actually a de facto Ronstadt solo album in all but name), however, that the twang really came out via "Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water" and "Some Of Shelley's Blues." But as much as Linda loved the country music form and was very authentic with it, she wasn’t so naïve that she didn’t know how imposing the challenge would be to integrate it successfully into the rock music of the day. One was musical: many of those in her peer group were, by 1967, turned off by the drawl of the steel guitars and fiddles and depressing songs of drunkenness and heartbreak. The other was political: to many young people of the late 1960s, country music represented the Establishment, and the three 'R''s, to wit: Reactionary; Racist; and Redneck. Still, she pressed on. Her 1969 solo debut Hand Sown, Home Grown, though a commercial bomb to be sure, established her brand of left-of-center country, and is arguably the first alternative C&W album by a female artist by virtue of being recorded not in Nashville but in Los Angeles. With hard-edged versions of such country songs as "Break My Mind" and "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line" on that album, she still attracted a lot of attention; and on June 21, 1969, she made her official mainstream country music debut by appearing on The Johnny Cash Show, broadcast from the home of the Grand Ole Opry itself. Her somewhat puckish sense of humor and her long-haired look kind of rattled the nerves of the Music Row establishment (including Johnny's wife), but she had become a favorite with a number of them, including Skeeter Davis. Her propulsive brand of what came to be known as country-rock, with her backing band The Corvettes (which included Chris Darrow and Bernie Leadon) continued to make inroads with fans, including a July 1969 appearance at New York's Bitter End where a very young Emmylou Harris was watching, her jaw gaping open at the petite but powerful vocalist onstage whom she would meet and befriend a few years later. Linda did record Silk Purse with the Nashville session mafia, but she was not particularly happy with the results, noting how the experience made her realize the wide differences between country music as they played it in Nashville and country music as it was done back in California. Country radio, however, did eventually add the pop hit from the album, "Long Long Time", to its playlists once Linda's crossover appeal was solidified. After her time with Swampwater as her backing band, in 1971, Linda got down to recording her self-titled album, this time principally with the cream of the L.A. country-rock session crew, including Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (later to become everyone's favorite in-the-house bunch of desperados, The Eagles). With honest versions of such country classics as "Crazy Arms" and "I Fall To Pieces" included amongst contemporary songs by Neil Young and Jackson Browne, some of which were recorded live at The Troubadour that summer, Linda Ronstadt was the first thing of Linda's to penetrate the country charts, climbing to #35 on the Billboard C&W Album chart early the following year. And on December 7, 1971, Linda made her official debut at the premiere country-and-western nightclub in the world, The Palomino in North Hollywood. Linda had heard about the place back in Arizona and had long wanted to perform there, but she was under the state drinking age until 1967; and the place was notorious for a clientele that was extremely hostile to the hippie sect, even after Gram Parsons and his Flying Burrito Brothers played there in 1969 (wearing their Nudie suits, of course). Linda, however, broke the ice with her no-holes-barred, rock-ribbed approach to country that was both respectful and progressive, and sold out the place every single time she played there between 1971 and 1975 (the "Pal", as it was called, unfortunately closed down in the summer of 1995). It was when Linda made her move from Capitol to Asylum in 1972, and recorded Don't Cry Now over the following twelve months, that her career really began to take off on both sides of what was still a musical and ideological fence. Released at the end of the summer of 1973, Don't Cry Now reached a very respectable #45 on the overall Billboard Top 200 album chart, and jarred the country music industry by getting to #5 on the C&W album chart. A lot of that had to do with a country-rock hoedown version of a classic she had recorded back in '69 but whose arrangement she wasn't happy about. SILVER THREADS AND GOLDEN NEEDLES 03/02/74--#90 (her first Country singles entry) 03/09/74--#82 03/16/74--#68 03/23/74--#56 03/30/74--#44 04/06-74--#37 (her first Top 40 country hit) 04/13/74--#30 04/20/74--#24 04/27/74--#21 05/04/74-- #2005/11/74--#33 05/18/74--#47 Linda's success on the country charts with "Silver Threads" could be ascribed to the increasing acceptance of left-of-center artists like herself on West Coast radio stations, whose musical variety always tended to be more widespread than that of their cousins down South. Eventually, she would break those barriers there too. What rattled some of the country music establishment, however, was that she did not consider herself strictly a country artist; and at that time, in 1974, "crossover" acts like John Denver and Olivia Newton-John were inflaming passions on Music Row. Linda was very straightforward about it, however; and her honesty and heartfelt vocals were attracting attention from country radio station managers. By this time, she had established what would be a lifetime friendship with Emmylou Harris (following the death of Gram Parsons), a friendship that would pay big dividends for both of them. During 1974, Linda would also join Johnny Cash for his A Concert Behind Prison Walls TV special from Nashville, in which she and her backing band, which by that time included her former Stone Poney bandmate Kenny Edwards, and Andrew Gold, would perform "Silver Threads" in a hard-edged but still respectful rendition. And that summer, Linda would record the album that would cement her reputation as the consummate Queen Of Country-Rock. That album, and the huge C&W hits from it, will be spotlighted in next week's segment.
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Post by Richard W on Apr 22, 2012 20:23:47 GMT -5
Very cogent and insightful, Erik -- as always.
This only goes to show (and confirm) that, while Linda made forays into mariachi and standards, country, folk and rock were as much a part of her musical soul as those other two genres were. If she payed more attention to them later, it's only because she wasn't allowed to express those facets of her musical heritage earlier.
To say that Linda wasn't at heart a country/rock performer is to deny her roots, granted that she had many musical roots from which she drew artistic nourishment.
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Post by erik on Apr 22, 2012 20:47:06 GMT -5
Not to diminish what she has done to enhance the viability of the music of Mexican-Americans in our culture, but the fact that she helped pioneer the fusion, or rather the re-fusion, of rock with its traditional white country music roots at a time when the commercial or artistic potential of doing so was by no means a given is a part of her musical history too, and a big one. A lot of great female country and roots-rock singers, whether friends (Emmylou), or peers (Sheryl Crow), were inspired by Linda; and that aspect should not be forgotten (IMHO).
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 23, 2012 10:12:00 GMT -5
I still believe that Linda could've established herself as a country singer with the Nashville establishment and that she could've worked within their paint-by-the-numbers method of making hit records, which many times included the record companies or management choosing the songs rather than the artist. Many of Ronstadt's country disciples, including Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood had their success because they adhered to the paint-by-the-numbers system (same musicians and backing vocalists, same songwriters, etc.) but I don't think Linda's fiercely independent streak in making music would've worked out quite so well with them in their careers. Not if they wanted to be successful country singers. Nashville's way of making music probably could've given Linda bigger success at an earlier time than when that success came her way but if that had happened back then, the success might've been very short lived, with fewer people remembering who she even was.
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Post by erik on Apr 23, 2012 12:17:08 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
And I think that's why Linda didn't go to Nashville to live and work. She also knew that there was an enormous difference between country music as practiced on Music Row and country music as done in California and the Southwest, and clearly felt more at home with the latter style and its mixing of things. Although she clearly did a lot of classic C&W standards in her time, she clearly wanted to put her own stamp on them while still adhering to the spirit of the songs, which I think has been a hallmark of her entire career when tackling any style of music,
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 24, 2012 11:11:45 GMT -5
And I think that's why Linda didn't go to Nashville to live and work. She also knew that there was an enormous difference between country music as practiced on Music Row and country music as done in California and the Southwest, and clearly felt more at home with the latter style and its mixing of things. Although she clearly did a lot of classic C&W standards in her time, she clearly wanted to put her own stamp on them while still adhering to the spirit of the songs, which I think has been a hallmark of her entire career when tackling any style of music, I may be wrong about this but I have to wonder if Linda and others had a preference for the country music they listened to when they were younger, but kind of lost interest when they grew older, perhaps becoming less interested in Nashville's more countrypolitan sound? The reason for that being I think is that most people seem to have a preference for the music from when they were a certain age, which judging by the people who grew up in the 60s and 70s who have kept the music from that era alive and still selling in some instances, suggests that time would be when people were in their teens and 20s. Rock and roll has its 'old time rock and roll' disciples and I know the country genre likewise has a group of people with a preference for old time country. Old time country being 1950s country to maybe early 1960s country. Curiously, that group includes some current country musicians like Alan Jackson who prefer the earlier time yet their music is produced under Nashville's cookie-cutter method. And they went along with the system rather than rejecting it and making music in their own way. And yet, they still have the nerve to complain about it. Artists like Linda and Buck Owens showed a country singer didn't need to rely on Nashville's approval of certain musicians, producers, songs and songwriters to make music that would sell. Of course, no allegiance to Nashville usually didn't work out well for country singers who recorded outside of the Nashville system. And Nashville was musically politically correct: you didn't record there, they didn't promote or rarely promoted your albums or singles. The artists had to count on getting support from the record companies's divisions in Los Angeles or New York, which rarely happened as the attitude usually was, "it'a country record, it's Nashville's job to make it a hit."
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Post by erik on Apr 24, 2012 12:24:58 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
This was an issue that Capitol had with Linda in 1970 when it came to "Long Long Time." To them, because it was recorded in Nashville, it was a country record, and Linda insisted that it really wasn't (even though there's steel guitar and fiddle on it, it sounds more overtly orchestral and acoustic than straight country). But it did point out the fact that they really didn't know who or what they were dealing with when it came to Linda, let alone the country-rock scene that was happening within a fifteen-minute driving distance from the front door of their L.A. complex. They meant well, I believe, they just really were unable to think outside the box.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 24, 2012 15:38:57 GMT -5
This was an issue that Capitol had with Linda in 1970 when it came to "Long Long Time." To them, because it was recorded in Nashville, it was a country record, and Linda insisted that it really wasn't (even though there's steel guitar and fiddle on it, it sounds more overtly orchestral and acoustic than straight country). But it did point out the fact that they really didn't know who or what they were dealing with when it came to Linda, let alone the country-rock scene that was happening within a fifteen-minute driving distance from the front door of their L.A. complex. They meant well, I believe, they just really were unable to think outside the box. It was surprising to see the musician credits for "Long, Long Time" included a steel guitar, not to mention the fact there wasn't that many musicians on the recording. It's barely noticeable in the mix and combined with the violin (or fiddle), it sounds more like a string quartet. Capitol was extremely shortsighted not to see the pop potential in the song and I think it would've done far better in the charts if Capitol had pushed it more. It should've been somewhere in the upper region of the top ten, on the order of positions one through three. It's a classic that is timeless, with nothing about the production and arrangement or Linda's vocal to suggest that it's a four decades old recording. I don't think Capitol was alone in not being able to think outside of the box when it came to the then-unfolding country-rock scene in L.A. Probably every record label executive in L.A. heard the steel guitars or other country instrumentation and thought the promotion for the recordings should've been Nashville's job rather than their job. Maybe they just didn't know how to promote a rock act with country influences?
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Post by erik on Apr 24, 2012 20:38:53 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
There's more. They were basically forced to release it as a single because of heavy demand for it on KRLA AM 1110, one of the most popular radio stations at that time here in Los Angeles. This had happened before with "Different Drum" in the late summer/early fall of 1967 (that time, it was KHJ AM 930, known as "Boss Radio", that forced the issue), when popular demand forced that song out as a single, and it reached #13 nationally. While I agree that "Long Long Time" could have been a bigger hit than it was, the fact that it got up to #25 on the Hot 100 was a very auspicious way to start a career. And later on in the 70s, when Linda's crossover appeal was too big to ignore and too honest to be frowned upon by the country music establishment, it got country radio airplay as well.
In the years since, "Long Long Time" has been covered by, among others, Melanie; Mindy McCready; and Alannah Myles.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 25, 2012 1:04:31 GMT -5
There's more. They were basically forced to release it as a single because of heavy demand for it on KRLA AM 1110, one of the most popular radio stations at that time here in Los Angeles. This had happened before with "Different Drum" in the late summer/early fall of 1967 (that time, it was KHJ AM 930, known as "Boss Radio", that forced the issue), when popular demand forced that song out as a single, and it reached #13 nationally. While I agree that "Long Long Time" could have been a bigger hit than it was, the fact that it got up to #25 on the Hot 100 was a very auspicious way to start a career. And later on in the 70s, when Linda's crossover appeal was too big to ignore and too honest to be frowned upon by the country music establishment, it got country radio airplay as well. In the years since, "Long Long Time" has been covered by, among others, Melanie; Mindy McCready; and Alannah Myles. Wonder how long Capitol waited before releasing either "Different Drum" or "Long, Long Time" as a single? Timing can sometimes be crucial as to how well a song does on the charts, insofar as what the competition was like - the other songs that were on the charts at the time. If any of the top acts of the time didn't have a single at the top or near the top of the charts, that was a better time for newer acts or lesser acts with hopes of having a number one record to have a single in the charts do much better than what it would otherwise do. A number 13 showing for "Different Drum" wasn't bad although the song's direct connection to the Monkees probably didn't hurt the song's chances for success either. As for "Long,Long Time" only reaching 25 on the pop charts, not a bad start but I still believe had Capitol released the full version of the song as a single instead of an edited version, that might have helped its chances to have been a bigger hit. I know there was always this garbage about radio stations being very resistant to playing songs longer than three minutes, but when you could point to radio having played songs like "Hey Jude" and "MacArthur's Park," both of which exceeded seven minutes, a Bob Dylan song (whose title escapes me) that exceeded six minutes, Marty Robbins's song "El Paso" and Elvis's version of "Suspicious Minds," both which were longer than four minutes, it's not much of a believable argument. (In fact, Elvis's version of SM practically had the same run time as Linda's LLT, with a difference of a few seconds.) The full length version might've engaged the listener more than the just under three minutes single version and spurred a lot more sales. The covers of LLT you mention: I've been aware of Melanie's version for quite some time but didn't know Alannah Myles and Mindy McCready had also covered the song. The only versions of that song I recall were from way back when the song was a hit for Linda: both Andy Williams and Al Martino (who was also on Capitol) covered the song. And "Different Drum" has had a couple of fairly recent covers, a version by Susannah Hoffs and Matthew Sweet and a version by country singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw. Both versions were modeled on Linda's Stone Poneys hit though the Hoffs-Sweet version sounds very much like a Bangles recording whereas the Shaw version has the typical country flavoring, although it's not bad at all for a Nashville-recorded track.
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Post by erik on Apr 25, 2012 8:48:34 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
"Different Drum" was on the second Stone Poneys album Evergreen, which was released in June 1967; its singles release, however, didn't come until the end of September. "Long Long Time" came out on Silk Purse, which was released in March 1970; but as a single (edited down, or eviscerated [whichever definition you subscribe to], to three minutes), it didn't see its release until June, and it didn't enter the Hot 100 until August 15th.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 25, 2012 12:38:00 GMT -5
"Different Drum" was on the second Stone Poneys album Evergreen, which was released in June 1967; its singles release, however, didn't come until the end of September. "Long Long Time" came out on Silk Purse, which was released in March 1970; but as a single (edited down, or eviscerated [whichever definition you subscribe to], to three minutes), it didn't see its release until June, and it didn't enter the Hot 100 until August 15th. Extremely odd timing for releasing both songs as singles. Producer Nick Venet saw the potential in "Different Drum" for that song to be a hit and the arrangement it was given suggested that the plan was to release it as a single. The usual record company standards of operation was to release a single in advance of the album, not afterwards and while "Evergreen, Vol. 2" was a good album, there were only a couple of other songs on the album that might've have had potential as singles. Both of those songs were written by Steve Gillette but I don't think either could've been especially big hits. "Back on the Street Again" was substantially superior to the version by the Sunshine Company (which had a hit with the song), yet the song had an incredibly short run time. And if radio DJs had an objection to songs with long run times, the DJs also had objections to song with short run times. I still recall hearing radio stations play short songs like "The Letter," "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" and "Tracy" - all songs with run times under two minutes and going into on-air dead-air silence, all because the DJ either didn't have the next record lined up or they were off doing something else. "Song About the Rain" (one of Linda's loveliest performances on record) had some possibilities but I don't know if it could've made the Top 40. Top 100, yet it was a good ballad that could've surprised everyone by being a big hit. Capitol sure took a 'long, long time' to release "Long, Long Time" as a single but didn't they also release Linda's version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"as the first single? That kind of thinking was illogical as the song's ararangement didn't mark it as a good choice for a possible single. The tempo was perhaps a little too slow to help its chances as a single and while it was a song I think was a good choice for Linda, the musicians playing on the recording didn't sound particularly inspired. "Nobodys" could've been a better choice although it was obvious that "Long, Long Time" had 'huge hit song' song written all over it but Capitol almost blew it by waiting to release it as a single. But, they did blow it in a sense with editing the song down to three minutes and that's why I think that decision hurt the song's chances to have been a bigger hit.
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Post by erik on Apr 25, 2012 13:23:15 GMT -5
Yes, they released "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" first, in April 1970, but that clearly didn't wash (it "bubbled under" the Hot 100; and on the Cashbox singles chart, it just barely broke that barrier at #98).
One must also remember that at that time, in 1970, AM radio was still the predominant force in pop music, and FM was still something of an underground phenomena. Songs that lasted longer than three minutes were still generally anathema with the exceptions of "Hey Jude" and "Suspicious Minds" (in no small part due to the fact that the Beatles and Elvis were much too big to ignore); even "Light My Fire" was severely cut for AM airplay. This meant that Capitol just chopped the entire last verse off of "Long Long Time" to get it down to the length where AM radio would play it. By the mid-1970s, though, FM radio had caught up; and "Long Long Time" would almost invariably be played in its uncut form.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 25, 2012 14:39:24 GMT -5
Another trick I recall reading about where the artists or record companies got around radio's supposed objection to songs having a long run time was to release the full length song but show it with a run time that was shorter than what it actually was. Someone once mentioned that's what was done with the Righteous Brothers's hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin," which almost ran four minutes. I also think I read somewhere that the Byrds's version of "Turn! Turn! Turn" also listed a shorter run time on single than what it actually was, which was a three and a half minute long song. But, both of those were in the mid-60s and I think AM radio was definitely warming up to the idea of playing longer songs, although many of the record companies were taking no chances. Marmalade's 1970 hit "Reflections of My Life" listed a 3:12 run time on single which was totally bogus; the song's true length was about four and a half minutes. But, I recall some AM radio stations were playing superlong versions of the edited hits they played, like Rare Earth's hit "Get Ready." The DJs played the three minute single with regularity when the song was aits peak, but some of the DJs preferred the album version, which I think ran for something like twenty minutes! So, I think the DJs of AM radio were ready by 1970 to get away from the three minute rule because the longer run times allowed them time for personal business or to go through the radiuo station's library to find songs that were not in the Top 40 or songs from the past they wanted to play in addition to the then-recent hits but which hadn't been heard from in some time.
FM definitely played a very large role in the killing off of AM radio but AM radio also contributed to its own demise. I recall the two local Top 40 stations I listened to when I was in my teens not only played all the songs that were in the Top 40, but also played many of the songs that were in the Top 100 or missed out altogether, not to mention all the oldies they played. Both stations dramatically cut their playlists by 1971 to what was in the Top 20, and then almost down to a Top 10 by the time FM took hold and swooped in for the kill. The AM stations had been among the stations that played the superlong songs of the early 1970s but even that had fallen by the wayside with a few exceptions by 1975. AM radio should've been more competitive with FM radio as FM was playing songs and artists who couldn't always get radio airplay on AM. Linda's "Love Has No Pride" received more radio airplay on the FM side than what it got on the AM side; in fact, I recall only one of the AM pop radio stations playing the song with any regularity. The two main Top 40 stations played it maybe twice a day. One of the FM stations up and going at the time played it whaat seemed like eight to ten times in a single day while the one AM radio station (which was a station in a non-major market) that played it regularly played it almost as much. AM sought to combat FM by becoming more restrictive as to their playlist.
FM was definitely friendly towards Linda and her music as not only could you hear her singles but also any of the other songs on her albums. "Willin'" got quite a bit of radio airplay and for a time, I thought it might have been a single. I recall one FM station played almost every single song off of "Hasten Down the Wind," with the possible exceptions of "Rivers of Babylon" and maybe "Lo Siento Mi Vida." Of course, all good things being what they are and having to come to an end, FM stations became a virtual copy of the AM stations they had put out of business, right down to being limited on who they would play. Linda lasted far longer on radio airplay than what many of her contemporaries did but I still believe radiow rote her and others off far too soon.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 25, 2012 19:27:33 GMT -5
I thought sure Willin' would have been released as a single and was surprised and disappointed it wasn't. Seems like there were many missed opportunities.
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Post by jeffmeister on Apr 25, 2012 19:45:42 GMT -5
I remember the FM stations played "I Will Always Love You" a lot when "Prisoner in Disguise" was released. I always thought that song should've been released as a single.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 25, 2012 20:06:54 GMT -5
Around that time I recall Asylum stating that if Linda didn't release an album soon they were going to cull one from Don't Cry Now. Whether you like her reading of it or not I thought Sail Away was another potential Top 40. Next thing you know Heatwave hits the charts.
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Post by erik on Apr 25, 2012 20:24:44 GMT -5
Quote by ronstadtfanaz: I don't know if that was true; but if it was, they'd have been better off putting out "I Will Always Love You" as a single, as jeffmeister suggested. But at least Linda wasn't as slow as another big-name act on Asylum, namely her old band the Eagles. Then again, as has been pointed out gratuitously by snarky rock critics, she didn't have to write her own songs.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 25, 2012 22:22:31 GMT -5
I was surprised by some of the songs that should've been singles that never were, from both Capitol and Asylum. I thought Linda's version of Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone" would've been a good choice for a country-oriented single. And "The Dolphins" was another, kind of a quirky choice but which might have done as well as "The Long Way Around. "If He's Ever Near" was written off as lightweight by the critics but I thought it would've gotten some radio airplay, a quieter contrast to Linda's heavy-rock offering of "That'll Be The Day" and "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me." I always felt Linda had many songs on her albums that could've been singles but I guess Asylum didn't want to oversaturate the airwaves with her music. That probably explains why she lasted longer than many of her peers although she was in that era when record companies demanded every album have a minimum of three hit singles.
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Post by erik on Apr 25, 2012 22:41:14 GMT -5
I think the reason Elektra/Asylum didn't try to overexpose her is because they really didn't need to. They really believed in her so that it wouldn't be necessary to "hype" her, whether in terms of her image or her music. In short, they just let Linda's art speak for itself.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 26, 2012 9:08:36 GMT -5
I think the reason Elektra/Asylum didn't try to overexpose her is because they really didn't need to. They really believed in her so that it wouldn't be necessary to "hype" her, whether in terms of her image or her music. In short, they just let Linda's art speak for itself. A certain amount of hype or promotion is always necessary, no matter how good any artist or their art is. But, Asylum didn't seem to stick much to the "every album has to have three hit singles" rule and I sometimes wonder how they got along with the main company, Warners? At one time, Warners didn't seem to mind if some of their artists didn't sell a single copy but towards the 70s, they became more interested in the money side of things and I think that as long as you were producing the hits, they left you alone. With Linda, they might not have minded that every single album of hers didn't have three huge hits on them because many of her albums were such massive sellers.
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Post by erik on Apr 26, 2012 9:35:03 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
Pretty much from the beginning of her time with Asylum in 1972, Linda was first and foremost an album artist; the hit singles that came from them were what drove the sales of those albums. David Geffen knew all of this about Linda quite well, which is one of the reasons he signed her to the label; and while it still took a little time more for Linda to become a success story (including the one contractually obligated album from Capitol that turned out to be Heart Like A Wheel), his artistic and business instincts with regards to Linda turned out to be correct, especially given the fact that she was the one Asylum artist who was consistently crossing over between pop and country, and doing so almost without even trying.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 26, 2012 12:59:37 GMT -5
] Pretty much from the beginning of her time with Asylum in 1972, Linda was first and foremost an album artist; the hit singles that came from them were what drove the sales of those albums. David Geffen knew all of this about Linda quite well, which is one of the reasons he signed her to the label; and while it still took a little time more for Linda to become a success story (including the one contractually obligated album from Capitol that turned out to be Heart Like A Wheel), his artistic and business instincts with regards to Linda turned out to be correct, especially given the fact that she was the one Asylum artist who was consistently crossing over between pop and country, and doing so almost without even trying. David Geffen was at Asylum in 1972? I thought I read somewhere that he joined the Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch in 1973 as head of the company and that he had bounced some of the artists who had deals with the various record labels because other executives (including Jac Holzman) had signed those acts because either he didn't like them personally or didn't like their music or both. That was a very bizarre move to make, especially when the name of the game in the record business was and is to make a profit. His artistic and business instinct about Linda were certainly correct though I have to think had Geffen not been there, there would've been another record executive who would've seen Linda's potential.
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Post by erik on Apr 26, 2012 13:13:19 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker re. David Geffen:
Geffen formed Asylum Records in 1970 as, more or less, an "indie" label for the SoCal singer/songwriter sect (Joni Mitchell; Judee Sill; Jackson Browne; J.D. Souther, et. al), and the Eagles, though he later sold it to Warner Brothers for what, in retrospect, seems like a pauper's sum ($7 million), and then merged it with Elektra, becoming its CEO. He had known about Linda going all the way back to when she was in the Stone Poneys in 1968; and he was urged by Jackson and J.D. to sign her to Asylum because, even though she wasn't a songwriter, she had a knack for finding songs that fitted her and which put her in the position to be successful.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 27, 2012 12:14:57 GMT -5
Geffen formed Asylum Records in 1970 as, more or less, an "indie" label for the SoCal singer/songwriter sect (Joni Mitchell; Judee Sill; Jackson Browne; J.D. Souther, et. al), and the Eagles, though he later sold it to Warner Brothers for what, in retrospect, seems like a pauper's sum ($7 million), and then merged it with Elektra, becoming its CEO. He had known about Linda going all the way back to when she was in the Stone Poneys in 1968; and he was urged by Jackson and J.D. to sign her to Asylum because, even though she wasn't a songwriter, she had a knack for finding songs that fitted her and which put her in the position to be successful. For its time, seven million dollars was probably a reasonably good figure to have been paid, given that in those days, Asylum didn't have that many highly successful artists signed to the label. The Eagles were probably the biggest selling act on the label; I don't recall Jackson Browne as being that successful in the early 70s. And I believe Joni Mitchell was still signed to Warners or Reprise in '72. If anything, Geffen signed away too soon.
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Post by erik on Apr 27, 2012 14:09:31 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
Jackson and Joni were both on Asylum in 1973, and doing good enough for Geffen to be satisfied on a business level; and the Eagles had had two solid albums released (though Desperado wasn't an instant success). And Linda's career was beginning to arch upward.
But I agree that Geffen was a bit too hasty in selling Asylum. And to many, not only was he hasty, but, even back in '73 when he sold Asylum to the Warner Brothers empire, the seven million dollar sum he had asked for was way too low, given how big the Eagles became, and how big Linda became. The other unfortunate thing that came out of it was that it caused Geffen, who knew too late to what extent Warner Brothers had screwed him, to be strictly a businessman, and cop a mentality that eventually alienated him from a lot of those he had once befriended. How Linda felt about Geffen in later years, I don't know; perhaps she'll cover that in her memoir.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Apr 27, 2012 18:22:39 GMT -5
re: i stillmiss someone. great song choice and emotional delivery. was not my fav on the self titled album which btw is a remarkable album imo. i just thought that her voice was a little deeper than i would have liked on the song. the more i hear others' versions of the song i am becoming convinced that linda's is truly the definitive version and that it is not an easy song to sing. it is the one country song that nicks' does. also, jimmy buffet did it live. no disrespect to my partner who loves buffet but is not as active a fan as i am of linda whom he likes as well, he just does not have the range to do it true justice but did a nice mid range job with it and was nice to do the song not long after cash passed. eddiejinnj
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Post by erik on Apr 27, 2012 20:24:32 GMT -5
Quote by eddieinnj re. "I Still Miss Someone":
Dolly and Emmy have also done that song, making it, I believe, the only song that all three members of The Trio have each done on their own.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 27, 2012 21:02:05 GMT -5
Compare almost any song that Linda and any other artist have recorded and hers are almost always superior. Until Feels Like Home was released Linda's eponymous album was my favorite. It is so perfect.
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Post by sliderocker on Apr 28, 2012 1:25:13 GMT -5
Jackson and Joni were both on Asylum in 1973, and doing good enough for Geffen to be satisfied on a business level; and the Eagles had had two solid albums released (though Desperado wasn't an instant success). And Linda's career was beginning to arch upward. But I agree that Geffen was a bit too hasty in selling Asylum. And to many, not only was he hasty, but, even back in '73 when he sold Asylum to the Warner Brothers empire, the seven million dollar sum he had asked for was way too low, given how big the Eagles became, and how big Linda became. The other unfortunate thing that came out of it was that it caused Geffen, who knew too late to what extent Warner Brothers had screwed him, to be strictly a businessman, and cop a mentality that eventually alienated him from a lot of those he had once befriended. How Linda felt about Geffen in later years, I don't know; perhaps she'll cover that in her memoir. I recall Joni being on Asylum when she hit with "Free Man In Paris" and "Help Me," which I think were her biggest hits for her as a recording artist. I recall Reprise had gotten her some airplay with "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" in '72 but that song has become one of the forgotten oldies. Maybe it was just a little too close to Melanie's "Brand New Key" in its cuteness? With regard to Geffen, I recall seeing some negative comments about him in the 70s about the time of Joni's hits. Most of the comments described him as a jerk but I had to think if that were the case, could he have signed all the acts he did and built up Asylum and merged it with Elektra? He did what Robert Stigwood should've done with his RSO record label but didn't do: build up the careers of several of his artists and bands. All Stigwood seemed to care about as far as careers were concerned was the careers of Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees. No one else on RSO got the special care that Clapton and the Gibb brothers got from Stigwood. And when both Clapton and the Gibbs left (at different points in time) for the greener shores of Warners, Stigwood had no other heavyweights on his label to keep his label in existence. Geffen got to sell Asylum but at least it remained in business. RSO folded as a record label about a year after the Bee Gees left the label, and that was something that didn't have to happen.
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