Posted on 09/05/2019 9:50:53 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
After re-reading my own Comment, I do sound kind of harsh.
My college girlfriend really liked Ronstadt, so I listened to all her early stuff many, many times.
I liked her music, but I was never a passionate fan.
For some reason, seeing her become a Mexican folk singer on the Tonight Show was a complete shock I never quite got over.
Must say I wasn't a huge fan when she was in her prime. In those days, I was much younger and more into Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, that type of music. At the time, Linda was just another pop/rock star to me but I did recognize her voice right away when it came on the radio.
Over the years, I find myself more and more exploring her discography, which is quite diverse. I really like the old stuff (pre-1975) but especially her later albums (post 1980) including those Spanish mariachi albums, one of which is the biggest selling non-English album in the Western Hemisphere.
There's a treasure trove of Linda's concert clips on YouTube but the best one I have found is this 1976 concert in Germany, apparently with a lot of appreciative U.S. troops in the audience.
The quality isn't the best but I believe this concert captures Linda at the very peak of her talent, just as she was exploding into a major superstar.
I’m not sure she launched the Eagles, but Glenn Frey and Don Henley were asked to be in her band when she went out on tour. It was after a concert show one night that they decided to leave the tour and form their own group.
At least that’s how they told the story in their rockumentary on The Eagles.
Oh, my pleasure (as they say at Chik-Fil-A :).
The whole A side of that album is fantastic.
Sorry, Patsy Cline does I Fall to Pieces 100 times better than Linda R.
When I worked in radio, I spoke to someone who said he’d worked with her. He said (although totally unsubstantiated) when she was on the road, she’d sleep with any male with a pulse.
Loved her voice, especially ‘Blue Bayou’ and ‘When Will I Be Loved’.
Loved her voice.
“You’re no good” was an awesome song.
It is hard to believe now, but when Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and others, began to pioneer the “Nashville Sound” they were not considered classic country. Country music purists of the day resented their move away from fiddles in favor of full orchestration.
Cline's recording of “I Fall to Pieces” was part of the attempt by recording executives to reach into the pop audience. No matter, her recording was then and remains great story telling.
Cline's powerful voice hit every note - she was in total control of the music. Perhaps a little too much in control to convincingly sing “I Fall to Pieces.”
In Ronstadt's version her voice has an earnest authenticity that features vulnerability over competent craftsmanship. Add to that the crying steel guitar and crying fiddle playing call and response with the vocalist . . . Again, I don't think anyone has done it better.
The only things I remember our elementary music teacher saying was that there is only one kind of music - good music.
And she said the only way to determine what was good music was to give it the test of time.
Both Cline's and Ronstadt's music is now officially good music, as is the songsmithing of Harland Howard and Hank Cochran.
Also when Ray Charles went country as well. He was fantastic in that genre.
“Also when Ray Charles went country as well. He was fantastic in that genre.”
I was taken aback as a young teenager when I first heard Ray Charles sing Don Gibson’s “I can’t stop loving you.” It would have been 1962 or 1963 and the color line meant something then to many.
Later in the sixties Charley Pride swam upstream successfully. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy.
Speaking of Ray Charles, remember this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1nOyaYkX5s
Another one who is really good is Darius Rucker (of ‘Hootie and the Blowfish’), a great country voice.
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