no record deal for Linda for last 10 years??

[fabtastique]

Although now Linda is retired (of which I am still deeply saddened) how do people feel about her lack of record-deal over the previous 10 years until retirement?

Was that a conscious decision on her part, choosing instead to flit around on smaller labels to record a CD here and there in various genres? Did Elektra not renew her contract or did she not want to stay? Or could she not get a label to commit to her?

If its the latter then I am surprised seeing the huge amount of crap being released these days!

Into retirement.... what does that mean? Does she need money or can she live off what she's earn't? Is writing the book a financial supplement? I expect that has to be a huge part of the decision for such a private person.....

[philly]

Well she bought a house for almost exactly $2 million a couple years ago, is renting out her $¾ million Tucson home she bought in '94, and has other assets. And if she's worth even a fraction of what she was reported to have in '83, I think the girl is fine

Plus she gets her social security now!

[erik]

I am only guessing here, but I suspect there wasn't anyone left at Elektra who knew or supported her. It had largely become an R&B label by that time, and I think the label execs saw Linda as a relic of the past. It has been said that she may have felt that her Christmas album, her last for Elektra, was not sequenced properly, which may be in part what prompted the split.

The other thing to note is that, after the triple Platinum success of Cry Like A Rainstorm, which reached #7 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart in the winter of 1989-90, Linda never came any closer to that mark with her last eleven albums than the #62 performance of Trio II in 1999. Regardless of what die-hard fans like us, or even the critics (many of whom praised Linda's pop efforts of the 90s quite profusely) may think, in the music business, the Bottom Line is still king. I think Elektra supported her for as long as it could with her various non-pop projects, but changes at the top and perhaps a mentality among the Elektra execs that Linda had become way too musically eccentric for their (and her) own good caused the 28-year relationship she had had with the label to come to a somewhat inglorious end.

One can argue, convincingly I think, that Linda did all right by doing Hummin' To Myself for Verve, and then going over to Vanguard for Adieu False Heart. There's no question that those were solid artistic successes, even if their anemic sales figures don't reflect that. Unfortunately, the music business that Linda had known since 1967 has largely vanished now, and, absent a change in the way she feels about the new technology, there just may no longer be a place for her in it.

As to the memoir she's writing--I don't think she was motivated by the money to do it; otherwise, she'd probably have retired and done it years ago. We may have to wait until 2013 to get it, but I think it'll be more than worth what the cost of buying it is.

[Partridge]

If Linda still had the desire to make records, in whatever genre she chose, I'm certain there is a record company out there that would welcome her projects. Nonesuch comes to mind. It seems to me Linda is slow and meticulous with her albums, and that runs up the budget. She would have to become less of a perfectionist. I had always thought she would end up doing this. But instead she has decided to quit because her voice, in her opinion, is not up to par.

[beatle]

Actually in this day and age a record deal isn't such a big thing......the details are a little fuzzy but here goes...:
Around the time of We Ran I remember talking with Ira about her deal and he said something like that there weren't many big deals like there were reported...I think at the time Aerosmith had reportedly got some multi-million dollar thing and Ira said it was BS....anyway he had said at the time that the companies basically offered a distribution mechanism for the product. Linda at that time had to foot the bill for production etc and WEA would agree to distribute them...so there was no contract at the time..only this distribution thing and he said that that was pretty much what everyone was doing...nowadays it is all digital so the "need" to have a record company and their distribution system is unnecessary....I get all my music through Itunes these days...( I believe I have some Linda stuff in there...let me check..oh yeah!)..but the old system was changing way back then....
PS...Sorry I haven't been in for a while... have a great Xmas