In June this year I wrote about the best concerts I’d ever seen and there was Linda Ronstadt front and center, I wrote of the 1980 concert: “This was around the time of Living In The USA tour and was my biggest concert to date. I was a huge fan and she was in great voice though, of course, I couldn’t see a damn thing. Her Smokey cover “Ooh, Baby Baby” stands up well.”
Some twenty years later I would see her again at Radio City Music, seating one row behind Ron Howard so pretty great seats, and again she was excellent. What a range, right? Ridiculous. She went from Contralto to Soprano -that’s eleven octaves pop pickers. What can I say? I was too busy looking to care and later too busy listening to care.
Here is a play list.
You’re No Good – Remember when Elvis Costello was really rude to her though she made him a fortune by covering “Alison” and “Girl’s Talk”? Well, he apologized by covering her version of this brutal little rocker.
Blue Bayou – How good was no good Linda? Good enough to cover Roy Orbinson and do it well. It aches in places Roy didn’t and she gets all of the chorus, when I saw her at Radio City it was the greatest moment.
Poor Poor Pitiful Me – I don’t blame her for dropping the girl beating verse off the Zevon classic and changing it from a piece of weird alt L.A. wonk out into a slab of L.A. rock that stands as a classic.
Ooh Baby Baby – The woman is fiercely. Not only does she roller skate but she tackles one of Smoley Robinson’s most exquisite songs ever.
Heart Like A Wheel – I absolute don’t believe the McCarrigle’s NEEDED Linda to cover em to make them good, I think they needed her to cover them to make them mainstream. Glorious stuff.
Heat Wave – The Jam couldn’t cover it, and Jagger and Bowie couldn’t cover Martha And The Vandalls, so if yiu think it is easy to be this perfect, think again.
Different Drum – Nesmith offered it to the Monkees but Kirshner turned it down, so he walked across the street and gave it to the Stone Ponys. So rock nyc owes Don one.
It’s So Easy – Buddy Holly meet Linda Ronstadt. Any questions?
Love Has No Pride – I reviewed this last Valentine’s Day, this is what I wrote in part: “The complaint against Linda back when she was a superstar is that she was too clinical, too pristine, too specific. Nobody denies she SOUNDED GREAT, but she sounded as if she was giving a singing lesson. All rather silly now, true. But it works very well on “Love has No Pride” because the song is so devastating, if there wasn’t a little distance it might fall apart, it might break down and cry. Instead, there is just enough space between singer and song for the listener to get in the middle. Juiced by a twangy slide guitar and so many strings it seems to be wallowing in its sorrow while Linda just keeps on hitting the notes. However, the lyric is beyond need or want or desire:
“If I could buy your love, I’d truly try, my friend
And if I could pray, my prayer would never end
But if you want me to beg, I’ll fall down on my knees
Asking for you to come back, I’d be pleading for you to come back
Begging for you to come back to me “
The love is harrowing, it is beatific in its humility, masochistic and near death. This is a daydream of love, and it is a truth of love. A love so powerful it goes beyond the usual distance to love. It seems self-evident that a mutual love, a marriage, children, are the strongest bonds of love, but here the case is otherwise.“