Posted on 09/05/2019 9:50:53 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
At her concerts, Linda Ronstadt used to imagine that audience members were whispering to one another about what a terrible singer she was. She was an unusual rock star in several ways. Few others were as careful about keeping their distance from the insanity, and fewer turned away from arena adulation and the pop charts to do standards, operetta, and Mexican folk songs.
Ronstadt was the most spectacular female singer of the rock era, her voice a thing of astonishing clarity and power and color. Due respect is here, in the documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. What she did with a song like “Hurt So Bad” or “How Do I Make You” could blast you backwards into a reverse somersault, like a Peanuts character. Yet she was near her peak when she walked away from rock. Today she’s 73 and can’t sing, at least not in public: Parkinson’s.
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, this restrained and respectful film tells the story the way Ronstadt evidently wants it told (no mention of famous boyfriends and no mention that she never married). Ronstadt looks back on her upbringing just north of the border in Tucson, where her German-Mexican dad sang Spanish songs to her in a lovely baritone. As a kid, she thought Spanish was for singing and English was for speaking; at the time, Mexican-American kids were often discouraged from speaking Spanish. When a Tucson friend moved to L.A. when she was a teen, she joined up with him and another musician to form the Stone Poneys. A folky song they did in clubs, “Different Drum,” was reworked and heavily produced in the studios of Capitol Records to showcase her voice, and the single launched her career in 1967, when she was 21.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Yes, it was a short switch over. Still a bold move. Like teaming up with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra to perform torch songs. Amazing talent to change genres like that.
I certainly loved her!
Saw her first with the Stone Poneys as the intro for Steppenwolf. She wore a short dress with no underwear!
It is also the world’s hardest song to pole dance to.
prove it!
Sorry to inform you, but Linda was nowhere near Paul Simon and his recording of the Graceland album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_African_Skies
http://www.paul-simon.info/PHP/collaboration_all.php?id=7
“Janis Joplin...she’s ok if you enjoy dump trucks tipping 20 tons of gravel.”
I quite agree, but the question here is who is the better rocker. That’s definitely Janis Joplin from Texas, lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, not Latino Linda and her Nelson Riddle strings.
Many of the big acts from the 50s to the 70s had session artists writing the lyrics and music, as well as laying down the tracks.
The Monkees just got singled out for it.
Yes - absolute favorite female artist from when I was growing up, and still today.
Loved all her power, with no rawness, and that when the song called for quiet, her voice was still so clear and strong.
As for her politics - like so many on the left - I pray for the light to break through for them.
Tatt
I think Linda would've still been in high school in 1963. Plus, Willie Nelson had only released that song the year before, so the JFK thing seems a bit improbable. Her later (mid-'70s) recording of the song may actually be better than Patsy's version - one hell of an accomplishment.
I do recall some weird urban legend linking JFK with Patsy Cline's death, though. Maybe Oswald was a fan of hers and was just serving up some revenge. ;-p
Nesmith is a hidden gem.
LOL
“Summertime” makes me cry.
I was front row (no seats) leaning on the stage, looking up and watching the show ... I forget if it was Fillmore West or Winterland.
LOL...it’s the little details we remember from fifty years ago!
And on the relationship bit, I think you’re confusing Ronstadt with Carrie Fisher.
“Summertime” makes me cry.”
You can add up everything Ronstadt ever did and all of it would not compare to just the one album “Cheap Thrills” by Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin singing lead, let alone everything else they did.
There’s a time and place for “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)” and
“Piece of My Heart”“ and there’s another time and place for “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and “Blue Bayou.” Just like there’s a time and place for gravel dump trucks and there’s a time and place for Enzo Ferraris. Each has a different purpose.
Would Joplin have evolved as much musically as Ronstadt? I think that’s doubtful.
Good point. I loved all the music that The Wrecking Crew created. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I discovered that that assemblage of outstanding artists was the genius behind all the music I loved. That was a huge letdown when I found that out.
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