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Post by eddiejinnj on Jul 3, 2017 8:11:31 GMT -5
I always wondered why Linda did not seem to know any of them really well (though Lindsey did play on "Talk to Me of Mendocino"). IMO, it would seem they would have crossed paths a lot. Ms. Nicks did recording with Henley and had a personal relationship with him. Stevie used a lot of the same musicians as Linda in her solo stuff. To be really honest, I never would have thought that Stevie would have been one of those paying tribute to her at the RnR Hall of Fame ceremony. I remember that they supposedly sat next to each other at a Louise Goffin show and they both loved her and Stevie (I believe not the other way around) said to the effect "What are we going to do now?" (could be a paraphrase and not an exact quote). eddiejinnj
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Post by eddiejinnj on Jul 10, 2017 8:37:36 GMT -5
I just recently discussed Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks and their circles are almost concentric and do not cross. The only musical piece with any of FM was when Lindsey played accordion on "Talk to Me of Mendocino" on the "Get Closer" album. Stevie and Linda tmk never sang together but sat together in the audience of a Louise Goffin concert and Stevie said to Linda and I paraphrase "What are we going to do now?" eddiejinnj
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Post by MT on Dec 26, 2017 14:43:34 GMT -5
I'd love to have heard her do "I Don't Konw How to Love Him", but she hated it and refused to record it, and Helen Reddy ultimately ended up having a big hit with it.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Dec 26, 2017 17:28:45 GMT -5
It was at a time when she could use a hit. That was around the time of Long Long Time but 2 hits in a year or so then really would have boosted her career. Who knows though. It might not even have been a hit but it was from a broadway show and Linda has such a great voice I have no doubt she would have done as well a job as HR I do not recall if I ever heard the reasons behind her declining not to record the song. Around that time. she also turned down "Help Me Make It Through the Night", correct? eddiejinnj
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Post by erik on Dec 26, 2017 20:41:12 GMT -5
Quote by eddieinnj:
Yes, Linda did not feel like she could make those songs into hers, and maybe at the time that was the case; it'd be hard to top Helen Reddy's version of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" or Sammi Smith's take on "Help Me Make It Through The Night", both of which were big hits.
I would submit, though, that "Long Long Time" is an entirely different kettle of fish. That song, thanks to both David Bromberg and Jerry Jeff Walker telling her about their good friend songwriter Gary White, managed to land up in Linda's hands, and she nailed it like nobody's business.
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Post by Mr. Kaplansky on Dec 27, 2017 8:26:42 GMT -5
Outlaw Is Just A State Of Mind by Lynn Anderson
This Night Won't Last Forever by Lynn Anderson
Love Is The Answer by England Dan and John Ford Coley
Buy And Sell by Laura Nyro
Luckie by Laura Nyro
Ring The Livin Bell by Melanie
Leftover Wine by Melanie
Together Alone by Melanie
If I Needed You by Melanie
Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
Slave to the Rhythm by Grace Jones
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Post by fabtastique on Dec 28, 2017 17:46:40 GMT -5
Can’t really hear Linda singing anything by Grace Jones! But, if Linda was still in her “avant garde” phase I could really hear her doing this -
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Post by erik on Dec 28, 2017 21:04:44 GMT -5
I'm going out on a proverbial limb here and saying....
"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan (which he wrote for one of the great Westerns of the 1970s, namely director Sam Peckinpah's 1973 classic PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID).
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Post by fabtastique on Dec 29, 2017 11:21:57 GMT -5
plus more Jimmy Webb . . . we were teased with the Jimmy album several times but that never came off. Such a shame as she is a great interpreter of his tunes. I'd love to hear Didn't We, MacArthur Park, Wichita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix
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Post by Richard W on Dec 29, 2017 12:13:27 GMT -5
Ever since I first heard it in 1994, I wanted to hear — and could nearly do so in my inner ear — Linda sing "Whispering Your Name" from Alison Moyet's Essex album (written by Jules Shear).
It's a stunning song as performed by Moyet, but imagining a full-throttle Linda version... sigh.
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Post by Mr. Kaplansky on Dec 29, 2017 14:26:20 GMT -5
When is that computer service going to be available that we can pay to order any song done by our favorite artists? From what I read on this forum years ago, it is supposed to take all the notes from all the songs an artist has recorded, and create a version of a song of our choice. I would definitely pay for this. I wonder how much each song would cost?
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 29, 2017 14:44:59 GMT -5
When is that computer service going to be available that we can pay to order any song done by our favorite artists? From what I read on this forum years ago, it is supposed to take all the notes from all the songs an artist has recorded, and create a version of a song of our choice. I would definitely pay for this. I wonder how much each song would cost?
When I originally posted that thread at the old forum in the early 2000's (Linda Ronstadt Sings Every Song Ever Written) it was an idea that came out of my own head. There wasn't such a thing. But as things happen someone else via technology is doing just that. I cannot wait for it to be perfected. I started another thread here of a similar nature. I also suggested in that thread that it will become possible to take and image of Linda's head (or yours or mine for that matter) and reimage a whole movie, even a classic with any of us as the major star in that movie. I hope I am still alive to see it.
What movie would you like to appear in opposite Linda Ronstadt?
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Post by sliderocker on Dec 29, 2017 15:38:30 GMT -5
John Boylan probably holds the key to any of this. He knows what is good and what isn't and what might work and what might not. There are clearly many songs "off album" that most people have no clue about.John didn't have much commercial luck when he produced Linda originally, but I have to think he would be more careful and guarded about Linda, what's left in the can and her legacy. Songs he may have been okay with in 1971 through 1973 in releasing, he might be a little more hesitant now. He may have been hesitant when any unreleased songs were recorded and they stayed unreleased for a reason. I couldn't imagine him changing his mind on something he didn't think worthy from that era. As for songs produced by others, how good of a song an unreleased song may be would likely determine whether or not it was released. On unreleased songs by other artists, there was definitely a question of what were they thinking in not releasing certain songs. It could be the same with Linda. Or it could be a case similar to Elvis', where there was more in the way of alternate takes than there was unreleased material. Elvis had so very little because his record company would release three or four new albums per year rather than just one or two albums. It was ironic because his manager, Parker, had agreed to such a release schedule, despite the fact his motto was "always leave them wanting more." And again, as to what there is in the vaults on Linda, unknowns and alternate takes, is something that's not truly known. There could be a lot or there could be very little. Linda's recording sessions are not very well documented by anyone and that's a shame, given she was the first continuously successful female solo artist in rock music.
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Post by sliderocker on Dec 29, 2017 16:07:08 GMT -5
It was at a time when she could use a hit. That was around the time of Long Long Time but 2 hits in a year or so then really would have boosted her career. Who knows though. It might not even have been a hit but it was from a broadway show and Linda has such a great voice I have no doubt she would have done as well a job as HR I do not recall if I ever heard the reasons behind her declining not to record the song. Around that time. she also turned down "Help Me Make It Through the Night", correct? eddiejinnj I never heard of Linda turning down "I Don't Know How to Love Him," but I think the fact Helen Reddy had gotten a big hit with the song probably would've caused Linda to have shied off from the song. Not because it was a bad song (it wasn't) but probably because Helen, like Anne Murray, was a label mate - they were all signed to Capitol. And Capitol's A&R strategy during that time was quite baffling when it came to their artists. Some other artist had a hit with a song, Capitol wanted their artists (the ones who didn't write their own) to cover those songs too. Linda, of course, could be quite baffling and head strong too as to her reasons for not wanting to record certain songs. I agreed with her about not covering "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (wished should've met and talked some sense into Elvis on that one - "Elvis, really?" I could've seen her saying to him) but Kris Kristofferson was a friend of Mickey Newbury's, who was a friend of hers. Kris wrote "Me and Bobby McGee," which would've been perfect for Linda, though I think she would've took a pass on out of respect for Janis. The song I've heard mentioned with "Help Me Make It Through the Night" that Linda turned down was "Stand By Your Man," which she asserted as ben an affront her feminism. I didn't think Linda was that radical a feminist! It also surprised me Linda was a fan of Tammy's music, and "Stand By Your Man" was about four or five years old at the time. Still, "Crazy Arms" was almost 15 years old when Linda recorded the song and "I Fall to Pieces" about 10-12 years, and although I liked both of those songs and felt they were good choices for Linda, I still don't much like the arrangements on either song. On a good stereo sound system, they sound halfway decent. On a system with tinny speakers though, ugh, both sound awful.
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Post by sliderocker on Dec 29, 2017 16:36:43 GMT -5
Yes, Linda did not feel like she could make those songs into hers, and maybe at the time that was the case; it'd be hard to top Helen Reddy's version of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" or Sammi Smith's take on "Help Me Make It Through The Night", both of which were big hits. Helen's version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" was actually topped, imo, by a version recorded in 1972 by ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog. The only problem some may have had with the song is that it was sung in Swedish, not released in an English sung version. Her version sounded sad, although with the Swedish language, some of the Swedish words sounded like they could be funny English words. On one section of the song, it sounded like Agnetha sang "you can pour some ammonia in your beer," - was she planning a murder? Other sections of the song, the Swedish words she sang sounded like "I'm just a door," "so hold your butt" and "I'm scrambling eggs." (Her version is on youtube, so if anyone wants to hear her version...) I liked Helen's version and I liked Agnetha's version, but I don't know if it would've been a good fit for Linda. I believe it would've been good for Linda's career at the time if she had been doing more recent material rather than some of the old dogs she was recording, some of which had already been recorded and released by every country singer and their mother hundreds, if not thousands of times already. That would've been a criteria for if I had been producing her: if there were 10 or more versions of a song already recorded by that time she wanted to record it, it would've been a case of let's record something else instead of something possibly already wearing thin with the listeners. And I would've been on her record company's case in providing demos of new songs rather than old songs. I think what made Peter so successful with Linda was the fact that he probably was as head strong as what Linda was. A lot of the material he produced on her, although covers essentially, was newer material rather than the old, old songs no one wanted to hear all that much, unless it was done right.
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Post by Mr. Kaplansky on Jan 20, 2018 11:50:00 GMT -5
Sad Eyes - Melissa Manchester (this is not the Neil Sedaka song)
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Post by rick on Jan 29, 2019 1:11:06 GMT -5
When Linda covered Motown, her “hit” covers were of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” and “Oooh, Baby, Baby,” and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ “(Love Is Like a) Heatwave.” We have heard here before her unreleased cover of Motown star Brenda Holloway’s “Every Little Bit Hurts.”
Here’s one song I could imagine Linda covering —
The Velvelettes’ “He Was Really Saying Something” —
Another Smokey & The Miracles’ song I wish Linda had covered is “Tears of a Clown” (would have loved to have heard her really belt on “Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid.”) —
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Post by eddiejinnj on Jan 29, 2019 8:45:56 GMT -5
I really wished she had done "In My Life" by The Beatles. There are others but that one stands out for me this a.m. Eddiejinfl
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Post by erik on Jan 29, 2019 9:41:19 GMT -5
For all the many great songs that Linda has done in her time and done well, I think the list of songs that she never got around to is nearly as enormous in number.
For starters:
"The Long And Winding Road" "Hurt" (the early R&B/rock ballad first recorded by Roy Hamilton in 1954) "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" (another 50s R&B/rock ballad, whose biggest hit version was by Tom Jones in 1970) "Wild Horses" (which she actually did contemplate covering, before Gram Parsons got his tentacles around it) "Sweet Surrender" (John Denver)
...and pretty much any Jimmy Webb song (starting with "Just This One Time" and "Didn't We?")
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Post by MokyWI on Jan 29, 2019 11:02:52 GMT -5
”He Was Really Saying Something” would have been a good one. I can hear Linda singing it.
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Post by germancanadian on Jan 29, 2019 15:13:34 GMT -5
Endless possibilities since she mastered so many genres.
Jim Croce - Operator.
Phil Collins - Do you remember.
Don McLean - Vincent.
Def Leppard - Pour some sugar on me.
Poison - Every rose has it's thorn.
Ambrosia - How much I feel.
Air Supply - Lost in love.
Boston - More than a feeling.
Doobie Brothers - Black water. Many Adele songs would be good for her but she started just before Linda retired.
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 30, 2019 9:47:36 GMT -5
Nessun Dorma Agnus Dei O Holy Night
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Post by Richard W on Jan 30, 2019 10:02:33 GMT -5
Heart's Dreamboat Annie
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Post by erik on Jan 30, 2019 10:29:42 GMT -5
"Long Black Limousine" (the C&W standard done R&B-style by Elvis on his seminal 1969 album From Elvis In Memphis)
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2021 9:48:37 GMT -5
George Jones had an album of "Songs I Missed" so too there must be one (at least) for Linda.
There is a Patsy Cline song, "Leavin' on your mind" Linda would have excelled at,
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2021 9:56:24 GMT -5
South of the border
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2021 10:06:03 GMT -5
Big band
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2021 10:11:25 GMT -5
A power duet
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Post by sliderocker on May 10, 2021 11:30:33 GMT -5
This song by the King, is one I believe would've worked well for Linda with an orchestra behind her. Written by Sylvia Dee (who cowrote Skeeter Davis's big hit End of the World) and George Goehring. Elvis's interest in this song could be traced back to as early as 1960, but it may have been earlier than that when he heard the song. He finally recorded the song in 1967, which was released as abonus song on the dreadfulSpeedway soundtrack.
Curiously, it's rumored Elvis's version of this song was the inspiration for John Lennon's song Imagine. John didn't care for much of Elvis's soundtrack songs, yet he remained a lifelong fan of Elvis. I believe Linda could've done justice on this song, if she knew about it.
One thing I have discovered about those who say Elvis never grew as an artist (as Linda said in an interview in Goldmine) is they only knew a small portion of Elvis's catalog. They didn't bother to listen to all of the catalog. The same is true about Linda and all the other artists we listened to.
Certain fans only have limited familiarity with artists they claim never grew as an artist. I refer to those claims as "The moment I stopped listening because I moved on to other artists and liked them." Elvis grew as an artist, but not in the way Linda liked. Linda grew as an artist as well, though some might say Linda never grew as an artist, but the reason would be the same. Not in the way they liked.
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Post by sliderocker on May 10, 2021 11:38:09 GMT -5
With regard to The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, it's sadly worth noting the song's composer, Ewan MacColl (or McColl) hated every version of the song that was recorded. Elvis recorded the song in 1971 before Roberta's version of the song was used in Play Misty for Me. I don't know what MacColl's problem was with all the versions of his song but it seemed as though he was a difficult person to get along with. He was estranged from his family (including his late daughter singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl) and there seemed to be a lot of bitterness between him and his family. Sad, really.
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