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 ...
I did not know they were related.
I have always thought that Linda Ronstadt had the most beautiful voice. Sure she's a political whack-job. But I also don't wish Parkinson's on anyone.
“so I think its perfectly legit to bring up her very outspoken anti conservative/patriot/republican hatred.... “
It is. No argument there.
I was a fan before this, she launched the Eagles, but I really loved her in this movie.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0077532/
Best Voice Ever.
Proof: no one since has covered songs that LR covered and was as successful. Once LR covers music it defines the song indefinitely as hers. She didn’t write, but didn’t have to.
Three distinctly different genres of music and she was magnificent every single time. She definitely had a God given talent and was one of the best female singers of my generation of music, (60's and 70's).
Interestingly, “Different Drum” was written by Michael Nesmeth of The Monkees. Also interesting is that his mother, a secretary, invented White-Out and became very wealthy as a result.
Oh great! Now I have to try going to sleep with “Hey Hey We’re the Monkeys “ going off in my ear.
“Heart Like a Wheel” is a friggen masterpiece of an album. And she was friggen smokin hot.
She had a lovely voice and Nelson Riddle backing her up was awesome!
My all time favorites were Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins!
Their politics were weird, but the talent...wow!
Further down in the list: Streisand in her early days
Number one forever Though is the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald !!!!!
[the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald]
I remember the wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald.
It’s in my book “Astonishing Tales of the Sea”.
And to think it had to be done by a rock star
Yes, not many have the vocal power and warmth to do Patsy Cline's signature tune, but Linda certainly did it justice. Her style was always sort of country-rock with a touch of folk music tossed in, so the song suits her very well. Her style heavily influenced the early Eagles albums, too - they really didn't have "rock band" credentials until later, when Joe Walsh joined the band.
Perhaps her last really rock-influenced recording was a cover of Tom Petty's "The Waiting", which she takes to a whole different place than Tom did.
She’s another artist who’s great voice is in inverse proportion to her politics. Great voice, liberal brain.
I had no idea that Michael Nesmith wrote “Different Drum.” I always thought that the corporate-assembled boy band The Monkees had nothing but mediocre talent hacks. I was a sophomore in HS when Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys released that song. It’s always been a favorite of mine.
I saw Heart a couple weeks ago. Ann and Nancy have still got it!
Mike Nesmith had actual musical talent. In fact, he is arguably the inventor of the narrative music video (as seen in the “Friday Night Videos and early MTV era). The video in question, “Rio”, was included among stereo samples on a tape that was shipped with the first Sony Beta Hi-Fi VCRs.
Love her beautiful harmony with Paul Simon on “Under African Skies” from his Graceland album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3nFdBi6gQE
We grew up in a golden time.
Blast.
Now I want to watch that again but it’s not on Netflix.
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