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 ...
LR’s performance singing classics in “Round Midnight” with the Buddy Rich orchestra is nothing short of magnificent and sublime.
Round Midnight is a “must own”.
My bad, it was the Nelson Riddle orchestra.
Again, Round Midnight is an exceptional double album/CD. Her voice is ethereal.
Loved her voice and played her albums constantly in my high school years. My favorite song was “When I grow too old to Dream”, which my Nana just loved ... can’t listen to it without tears rolling!
I was disappointed tho, when Linda interjected judgmental politics into her concerts.
I had some sympathy for her before reading that article. It’s pretty much evaporated.
Didn’t she sing “Crazy” for JFK at one point?
In her early career playing the Troubadour club with her backing band featuring Glen Frey & Don Henley among others, Linda had a reputation of being able to drink the guys under the table. She was quite the wild one...
I saw her at the Blossom Music Center in Cleveland - outdoor theater with a roof but no side walls. She had just released “What’s New” and was dressed in a formal like the album cover - no longer the “wild one”.
All said, she had one of the greatest voices in rock.
Sorry to inform you, but Linda was nowhere near Paul Simon and his recording of the Graceland album. While the two were in a relationship for awhile, the Graceland album was recorded by Paul using African talented artists. That being said, Linda is still and will always be, one of my favorites singers, male or female.
When I was in college we called her “Linda Thermostat”
...her and Olivia Neutron Bomb...
:0)
She’s a crazed liberal that would likely wish parkinsons on all of us on this forum. People can slobber all over if they want to but I’m not. She HATES me and you.
CBS Sunday Morning
Published on Feb 3, 2019
In a revealing interview, the legendary singer-songwriter Linda Ronstadt opens up to Tracy Smith about her career, the loss of her singing voice, and living with Parkinson’s. She also talks about the release of her first-ever live album, “Linda Ronstadt Live in Hollywood,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tc4e1KH0UU
Looks like Kenny Edwards on bass who, IIRC, was an original “Stone Pony” and played on many, many LR tracks.
As a HUGE fan of Jackson Browne, I never knew that factoid.
Certainly, David's vocal talent on "Stay" is just not quite the quality as Linda's.
Bump for later. One of my favorite singers of all time. I even like her mariachi albums, in fact they are spectacular
Many famous female singers from the 70’s - Carole King, The Carpenter gal, Carly Simon.
I always thought her decision and initiative to switch to Mexican music was astonishing and unprecedented, especially because it evoked her childhood and was a tribute to her father. Like you, Mexican music is not my cup of tea, but this was a bold thing to do. I always thought it was heartfelt and genuine, not just a crass commercial decision. From the article:
“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.”
I’m not sure she ‘switched’ to Mexican music. She did a couple of Spanish albums. Vicki Carr was very successful doing such a crossover.
Suzy Bogguss‘ “American Folk Songbook” album is just astonishing. Her version of “Johnny Has Go e for a Soldier” is a mournful love song / lament that gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it for the voice, the music, and the lyrics. Every song is wonderful. The upbeat “Old Dan Tucker” is great fun and counterpoint to Johnny.
“Clarity of voice” — yes, that perfect crystalline pitch-perfect quality that is so rare. Judy Collins was perhaps the best, but right there with Joan Baez and Jodi Mitchell.
Janis Joplin...she’s ok if you enjoy dump trucks tipping 20 tons of gravel.
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