Country Music

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CliffMcTainshaw said:
And mentioning Warren's little brother, Jimmy Buffett who's been recording for over 50 years. I notice that although Jimmy has been mentioned in a number of your posts Prof, but so far no feature post. More than 30 albums with plenty of country stuff and still going strong despite nearly accidentally killing himself a couple of times, once by crashing his plane into the ocean and then swimming to shore and the other time falling off the stage in Australia on Australia day. The most bizarre incident happened when his plane with Bono, his wife and kids along with Island Records Reggae Producer Chris Blackwell, was shot at by the Jamaican police because they thought he was smuggling Marijuana.
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Ah yes, Jimmy Buffett’s name has arisen quite a few times (I’m chuffed you noticed) … now the chronological order for when I feature artists is usually (more or less - I ain’t strict) from when they breakthrough with the first of their big hits (though I’ve done some deserving ones like Townes, Van Zandt, John Prine, Gary Stewart and Guy Clark with very few or no real big-selling hits at all). For the 1970’s, for thematic reasons, I also covered the Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan/pop-country artists of the early to mid seventies in one block, to contrast them with the outlaw artists, from Waylon to Emmylou, all done together in the next block (separated by that European oddity, Pussycat, on post # 771). Now Buffett didn’t neatly fit into either of those categories. But now, I’ve completed the Outlaws and getting beyond the mid-1970’s, say to 1976/77 - and guess when Buffett had his first really big hit. So stay tuned …
 
Professor Knowall said:
Ah yes, Jimmy Buffett’s name has arisen quite a few times (I’m chuffed you noticed) … now the chronological order for when I feature artists is usually (more or less - I ain’t strict) from when they breakthrough with the first of their big hits (though I’ve done some deserving ones like Townes, Van Zandt, John Prine, Gary Stewart and Guy Clark with very few or no real big-selling hits at all). For the 1970’s, for thematic reasons, I also covered the Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan/pop-country artists of the early to mid seventies in one block, to contrast them with the outlaw artists, from Waylon to Emmylou, all done together in the next block (separated by that European oddity, Pussycat, on post # 771). Now Buffett didn’t neatly fit into either of those categories. But now, I’ve completed the Outlaws and getting beyond the mid-1970’s, say to 1976/77 - and guess when Buffett had his first really big hit. So stay tuned …
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Vince Gill, great voice and an amazing guitarist. Listen to him do his solo on this, one of the most gifted of guitar players around. Oklahoma Borderline, co written with Guy Clark.
 
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Just returned from Jenny Don't And The Spurs. Good show again. Really like that some fanatics doing these underground shows. Country surely is no big thing in Germany. Apart friom a Jenny CD and LP I also grapped some King Bee CD featured Fred Cole who later played in Dead Moon.

NP: Jenny Don't And The Spurs - Fire On The Ridge having a final glas of Jack Daniels on ice.

 
Professor Knowall said:
Ha ha - if they hired me for that, they’d soon sack me for repeating - “Nope, they ain’t real country enough” for every possible contester that’s likely to be popular to the wider general public - and only approve the authentic country artists that won’t attract such a wider pop-influenced audience.
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You might be surprised by some of these contestants Prof.
India

Mexico

South Africa


No Australians, it just goes to show that Americans have absolutely no idea about Australia.
 
CliffMcTainshaw said:
You might be surprised by some of these contestants Prof.
India

Mexico

South Africa


No Australians, it just goes to show that Americans have absolutely no idea about Australia.
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Have to admit, they’re definitely country and not too bad - my vote out of those 3 would go to the South Africans doing their Appalachian harmony. As for Americans having no idea about Australia - if it’s any consolation, many have no idea about anything outside the U.S.
 

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Time to get back to a bit more history. The 1970’s wouldn’t be complete without out next artist, a decades long close friend of Emmylou Harris, but whose career went way beyond the bounds of country music to be one of the most successful and versatile female singers of the 20th century - and one of the most successful recording artists of all time. Her extraordinary vocal range, love of multiple music genres, ambition and ability led to her smashing through multiple genre barriers, charting hits in folk ballads, pop, country, country-rock and rock (even dubbed the “Queen Of Rock” - a title she detested). As the most popular female recording artist of the 1970’s, she filled huge arenas and produced an astounding 11 Platinum albums. But as the 1970’s closed, while still at the height of unprecedented success and withstanding constant pressure from the ever risk-averse recording industry, this restless and adventurous artist turned away from mainstream commercial music to explore an astonishing variety of other musical styles, following her own innate musical instincts and desires, performing and recording American songbook standards, jazz, classic Mexican mariachi music that she had grown up with, soul, operetta and even performed full-on grand opera.

Linda Ronstadt was born in 1946, in Tucson, Arizona, into possibly the cities most prominent family. Her childhood was spent with her 3 siblings in a grand mansion on a hobby cattle ranch just outside Tucson. Her father, who had successfully built up a large hardware business and was known throughout Southern Arizona as a community leader, mover and shaker, was of Mexican and German descent (Tucson itself was long a Mexican city before the American military took it in 1856 and thus has long established Mexican families), her mother, of German, English and Dutch descent, was the daughter of the famous, prolific inventor, Lloyd Copeman. Young Linda’s whole family was also musically inclined. Her mother played the ukulele, her father a guitarist who played informally with mariachi bands. It was he who made sure the Ronstadt family grew up on a steady diet of melodies and harmonies, many of which were Mexican influenced. By the age of 6, Ronstadt was singing harmony with her family.

Ronstadt listened to her father's collection of Spanish-language albums as well as to country and western (like so many of her era, Hank Williams was her favourite), blues and gospel. She was also exposed to Top 40 commercial pop on the radio. She first began publicly performing as a teenager in local clubs and pizza parlours with her brother Pete and sister Suzie. She had a rebellious streak that did not serve her well during her years at a Catholic School, where her attire was deemed too alluring and her talk of boys too direct. But Ronstadt was only focused on a future in music. After graduating from High School she enrolled in the University of Arizona, but lasted only a couple of months.

Once at University, in 1964, Ronstadt became romantically involved with Bob Kimmel, a Tucson native who occasionally played bass and guitar for Ronstadt and her siblings - one who later became Tuscon’s chief of police. Kimmel convinced 18 yo Ronstadt to move with him to LA. In 1965, Kimmel enlisted Kenny Edwards and formed the Stone Poneys. The band's entire - albeit short - history was a turbulent affair. Their first professional offer came from Mercury Records, but the trio had to reject it as Mercury bizarrely insisted the folk group record surf rock music. But after the Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the LA club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet, major label Capital signed them and they released a single, ’Some of Shelley's Blues’, in early 1965. The first album was more folk than rock and featured relatively few lead vocals by Ronstadt. It rightly received little notice.

Their only hit as a group came in 1967, when ’Different Drum‘, from their second album, in which Ronstadt was moved firmly into the lead vocalist position. The recently departed Michael Nesmith wrote ‘Different Drum‘ 2 years prior to joining the made-for-TV group The Monkees. He was hoping his group would record it but the show's producers turned him down, although they allowed him to rush through a version as part of a comedy bit on the show. The folk/bluegrass band The Greenbriar Boys recorded it prior to The Stone Poneys - and although the track is credited to the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt, she's the only member of the group actually on the recording. The Stone Poneys had planned an acoustic version of the song, but producer Nick Venet had other plans, figuring that with Ronstadt‘s strong vocals, this could be a hit - but she needed a stronger, more proficient accompaniment than her own 2 band members could provide, so Venet got future Eagle Bernie Leadon, session ace Jim Gordon and jazz bassist Jimmy Bond - and they delivered just as Venet intended, providing a # 13 hit on the pop chart.

As with other songs Ronstadt has covered, she recorded the song from a female perspective rather than the original male perspective it was written in. The song sees Ronstadt relinquish a lover for being too clingy - “… It’s just that I am not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me / Yes, and I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty… ” she sings charmingly. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think she’s declaring her unconditional love for him, instead of dumping him. Which makes this clearly a folk-pop song, not a sad country number (though George Jones appears in the slideshow to the YouTube clip below). This is the song that really launched Ronstadt’s path to stardom -


The very success of ’Different Drum’ spelled the effective end of The Stone Poneys as a band - an almost immediately, they started to become known as "Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys". By that time, intense touring, drug abuse, and a series of disappointing concert appearances as openers for the Doors caused the Stone Poneys to disband. Ronstadt told Rolling Stone that her band was "rejected by the hippest element in New York as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn't bear to look at each other”. When Ronstadt recorded her solo debut “Hand Sown…Home Grown” in 1969, the Stone Poneys hadn't disbanded so much as dispersed, leaving Ronstadt holding the record contract. Fortunately, she was also the member with the clearest star potential, a powerhouse singer who also happened to be gorgeous. The country flavoured “Hand Sown…Home Grown” album didn't make her a star - it didn't chart and its one single, ’The Long Way Around‘ went no further than # 70 on the charts - but it showcases her potential quite effectively. Featured were several covers, including 2 Dylan songs - ‘Baby You’ve Been On My Mind‘ and an enjoyable bluesy honky tonk version of ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ -


Abandoning California for Nashville, Linda Ronstadt next takes a stab at relatively straight-ahead country on her second solo album, “Silk Purse”, famously known for its bizarre cover art of Ronstadt posing sitting down in a filthy pigsty with pigs happily playing beside her. Produced by Elliot Mazer, who'd later be Neil Young's right-hand man, instead of the soft, flowery flourishes of “Hand Sown…Home Grown”, “Silk Purse“ has steel guitars and echoing acoustics, a distinct country sound, but still with a West Coast influence with some luscious strings. Most songs were from emerging songwriters but others were revived, reworked versions of classics. Ronstadt shows her vocal maturity on tracks such as this country standard made famous by Hank Williams, ‘Lovesick Blues’, where she delivers the vocals with such power, she easily matches the legendary Patsy Cline -


Ronstadt’s first solo hit, the haunting, sorrowful ’Long Long Time’ from the 1970 “Silk Purse” album, written by Gary White, the song peaked at # 25 on the pop chart and snuck into the Top 20 on the AC chart. It was recently revived thanks to its inclusion in the acclaimed HBO series The Last of Us. The sparseness of ‘Long Long Time’ highlighted Ronstadt’s milky alto and confirmed her insightful storytelling skills early on in her career -

In a sign of things to come, ‘Long Long Time‘ earned Ronstadt a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance after its 1970 release.

’I’m Leaving It All Up To You’ was written by Don Harris and Dewey Terry and first released by them in 1957, later becoming a #1 hit for Dale & Grace in 1963. Ronstadt gave this R&B classic a real country rearrangement, one suited to the honky tonks and barrooms -


In retrospect, Ronstadt has called her debut period the "bleak years". She was plagued by the stresses of constant touring, difficult romantic entanglements, unable to sustain any relationship for long, not helped by her cocaine use and critical indifference. To make matters worse, she suffered from stage fright and had little rapport with her audiences - "I felt like a submarine with depth charges going off all around me," she later told Time. But, despite her later negativity to this period, her Capital Records albums have, ironically, now become the most sought after albums by collectors. Critics have noted that though their production values were more jangly than her later smoothly produced, more sophisticate chart topping albums, there was greater freshness and experimentation and range in these early albums, delivering a smorgasbord of music styles as she still searched for commercial success that still largely eluded her. Tomorrow will follow her her journey to the top.
 
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Released in early 1972, Linda Ronstadt’s self-titled third album was a pivotal record in her career. It was her first album to enter the country charts, albeit peaking at a modest # 35 - it deserved better. It‘s now considered a front-runner in the emerging country-rock music genre. Some background to the album - While performing at the Troubadour nightclub in LA in 1971, Ronstadt ran into record produce, John Boylan, and working together, they put together a backup band, including Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon (and if those names seem familiar, well collectively they soon became The Eagles). After honing their sound onstage, this bunch went into the studio to record the self-titled “Linda Ronstadt“ album, which has a more relaxed, peaceful, easy feeling than her 2 previous releases. It also has some underrated songs, some of her best.

’I Fall to Pieces‘, written by 2 of the best, Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard, was, of course, first recorded by Patsy Cline in 1961, her recording turning it into one of country music’s greatest standards. Despite the enduring fame of Patsy Cline, Ronstadt was not afraid to release her own version from a live performance at The Troubadour nightclub in March 1971, accompanied by Glenn Frey on guitar and backing vocals, Don Henley on drums and backing vocals, “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow on pedal steel guitar, "Gib" Guilbeau on fiddle and John Boylan on guitar. The live recording was subsequently considered too good to not include 19 months later on the 1972 “Linda Ronstadt“ album. Ronstadt’s live take of the Patsy Cline‘s classic, though little noticed at the time, is now considered one of her best live recorded performances - it’s strong and precise, the strength of her vocals more than matches Cline, with a muscularity that avoids overt homage. Ronstadt’s powerful vocals fully extracts the despairing heartache of the rejected lover who tries - but just can’t - move on -


Jackson Browne had been performing ‘Rock Me In The Morning‘ in concerts since 1970. However, Ronstadt was the first to record it for her self-titled album and also as a single, whose release predated Browne's own single release by 5 months. In the songs Browne was writing shortly before his recording debut in 1972, he continually alluded to apocalyptic events, but never more explicitly than in ‘Rock Me In The Morning‘. Browne said the song, with its reference to the "sisters of the sun," pays homage to his real-life sisters. Browne addressed the gospel and religious issues in the song, saying "… it's not about religion, it's about society ..." The song employs gospel language, but, he said, he “… turns it around 180 degrees... If you heard even 3 seconds of it, you would say, 'well, that's gospel,' but you have to have an idea in a gospel song, and if it's not going to be Jesus, then it must at least be salvation … refuting the traditional and conventional messages of redemption having to do with the straight and narrow. I staked a lot on that song because it was that combination of social awareness and paying attention to what's going on around you with that inner search for spiritual meaning …" - and here’s me, thinking it’s all about sex on a waterbed! Whatever the meaning, Ronstadt breathed full life into Browne's song -


Some may have thought Ronstadt was crazy for taking on the country classic, ‘Crazy Arms’, which had already been a hit for one the very best vocalists in country music history - Ray Price. In his breakthrough # 1 selling recording in 1956, he introduced his new Texas shuffle sound - fiddle, pedal steel guitar, walking electric bass and swinging 4/4 rhythm - dubbed the Ray Price beat (see # 269), that became the basis of so much of country music. His up-tempo honky tonk version just hinted at the lyric’s sadness. Jerry Lee Lewis also released ’Crazy Arms’ as his very first single with a rollicking, light-hearted take of it, piano flourishes and all (see # 349). Ronstadt does a great job on this standard - by slowing the tempo and stretching the vowels, she brings out the underlying pathos and heartbreak of the lyrics -


After achieving very modest commercial success with her 3 solo Capital albums, Ronstadt moved to Asylum Records in 1973 and engaging Peter Asher as her producer and manager. Asher collaborated with her on her first best-selling albums, “Don't Cry Now“ and the platinum ”Heart Like a Wheel”. The albums had tighter, more smooth, sophisticated production standards than her previous recordings and developed the distinctive Ronstadt country rock sound. “Don’t Cry Now”, released in 1973, only peaked at #45 on the pop chart, still the highest in her career at that point. However, album had staying power, spending more than a year on the pop chart, topping out at # 5 on the country chart, gradually and eventually becoming a best-seller over time.

Bonnie Raitt's original recording of the melancholy ‘Love Has No Pride’, written by Eric Kaz and Libby Titus, is an understated treasure, but Ronstadt's take on her 1973 “Don’t Cry Now” album is more impassioned. She sings as though she's overwhelmed with what she's feeling, from the relative restraint of her delivery on - “I’ve had bad dreams too many times / To think that they don't mean much any more …", to the full-on desperation she invests in pleading - "But if you want me to beg / I'll fall down on my knees …”. Jimmie Haskell's tasteful string arrangement underscores the power and pathos of a vocal that stands as one of her more nuanced shows of force. Though the single only peaked at # 51 on the pop chart and # 23 on the AC chart (but did go up to # 6 in Canada), this song now looms much larger in Ronstadt’s music legacy than those numbers suggest -


As mentioned above, Ronstadt’s backing band members, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon, went on to brand themselves as the Eagles. Of course, most associate ‘Desperado‘, penned by Frey and Henley, with the Eagles, whose recording of the song was the titular track on the band’s 1973 studio album. But Ronstadt’s version, released the same year, is the one actually credited by the band for first popularising the song with her haunting vocals and emotive delivery on her early cover of it. Henley described her version as "poignant and beautiful". Ronstadt later said she was depressed during the making of the  “Don’t Cry Now”  album, but tried to channel her emotions into the music. Ronstadt always enjoyed good writing and loved the idea she could “interpret” songs by accomplished lyricists such as Frey and Henley. Few covers come close to inhabiting the sorrow and restlessness of the Eagles original, but Ronstadt’s searing version of ‘Desperado’ even surpasses it -


So we leave off Linda Ronstadt in 1973 with her finally, at age 27, starting to achieve some real commercial succes, with her “Don’t Cry Now” album reaching # 5 on the country chart and # 45 on the pop chart. But tomorrow will chart her course from her still very modest stardom in 1973 on to super-stardom right across the country / pop / rock worlds, smashing through the genre divisions.
 
Today starts with one more track from Linda Ronstadt’s 1973 “Don’t Cry Now“ album, after which she ascended the heady highway up to pop/rock super-stardom with the release of her seminal 1974 ”Heart Like a Wheel“ album. From this point on, similar to what I did with Elvis Presley, my Ronstadt music selection won’t so be her biggest hits or best of selection, but rather, keeping in mind this is a country music thread, a selection of her best regarded, distinctly country or at least country flavoured songs - which will still includes a few of her biggest country-rock hits.

There's a video on YouTube (not this one) of Linda Ronstadt introducing this song - first recorded by the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson in 1956 - as "the first country-rock song I ever learned". ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles’, written by Dick Reynolds (not the Essendon great) and Jack Rhodes, was a hit for Jackson and a country classic that Ronstadt grew up with. The 1963 album "The Everly Brothers Sing Great Country Hits", featured (amongst others) their interpretation of ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles' (see # 398). It had already been recorded by Skeeter Davis, but it is the Everly Brothers cut that most influenced the hit cover by Ronstadt, becoming one of her touchstones.

Ronstadt recorded her first version on her 1969 solo debut album but returned with another version in 1973’s  “Don’t Cry Now“ album. Not only was her voice far more nuanced and richer on the latter recording, but the production also received a facelift with its rockier elements subdued and the country tones brightened, the fiddle player and steel guitarist sharing a solo.

Released as a single in 1974, ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles’ became Ronstadt‘s first Top 20 country hit. She played tambourine on the recording - something she always also did when playing the song live, as in this clip, chosen not because of its sound quality (there’s a selection on youtube, both live and studio, with better sound) but because this one also has Ronstadt’s old backing band, now called the Eagles (as outlined yesterday). “I’d like to introduce someone who was very instrumental in putting our band together and also our favourite girl singer” says Glenn Frey at the opening. Ronstadt really gets inside the lyrics as she defiantly calls out her rich but cheating lover -
"… You can't buy my love with money / 'cause I never was that kind..." -


Ronstadt’s 1974 ”Heart Like a Wheel“ album was the first in a succession of million-selling albums for Ronstadt and widely regarded as a high-point in Ronstadt's oeuvre, described by critic Thomas Erlewine as "… a landmark of '70s mainstream pop/rock“, while John Lingan in Pitchfork wrote "[Ronstadt] had one power, but it was a superpower. Viewed from one angle, Linda Ronstadt’s career is the story of a woman gradually recognizing the power of her own voice. She had the tone early, but you can hear her control improve in each successive album. Her breaths sound more natural, her vibrato becomes more pronounced. By “Heart Like a Wheel”, she’d mastered it“. It is a creative benchmark for both rock and country music and can still be felt today, influencing the work of Miranda Lambert and Margo Price. With this album, Ronstadt had fully unlocked the formula for commercial success - in short, the album changed Ronstadt from just a moderately successful performer to a super-star, the hottest, most successful female singer in the U.S. as the album shot up all the way to top not only the country chart but also the pop chart, with it’s much larger market.

Back in post # 860, I outlined Ronstadt’s key role in assisting Emmylou Harris establishing her career after the death of Gram Parsons - “… Her friend, Linda Ronstadt, whom she met while touring with Parsons, also stepped up, with Harris later crediting her "… for helping and advising me and talking me up like I was the greatest thing since sliced bread". Ronstadt recommended Harris to her record company, Warner, which duly signed her up. …”. So, part repaying her debt of gratitude, Emmylou provides the backing vocals in the first song selection from the 1974 ”Heart Like a Wheel“ album.

Despite the clear overall country-rock direction of the album, one of its most successful singles was a straight-up country classic. As I’ve already mentioned a few times in this history, the shadow of Hank Williams still hung heavily over the country music world in the 1970’s, none more so than with the Outlaws, as we’ve seen. Ronstadt had also grown up a huge fan of Hank’s music and 2 days back, we heard her early career cover of ‘Lovesick Blues’. But here, Ronstadt excels with a standout rendition of one of Hank’s self-penned “pain from real life” songs ’I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)’, a song the “hill-billy Shakespeare“ typically penned using simple words - but just as typically spoke so much truth, plumbing the depths of feelings of heartbreak, jealousy, despair and grief. Ronstadt’s lead vocals don’t fail to miss the wounded heart of this song, which featured some great fiddle playing from David Lindley and pedal steel guitarist “Sneaky“ Pete Kleinow‘s throwback 1950’s honky tonk sound underscoring the heartache.

The vocal blend of Ronstadt and Harris is country gold, especially touching on the lyrics - "… It's hard to know another's lips have kissed you … ”. This peaked at # 2 on the country chart, much like Hank Williams' 1951 original -

Ronstadt’s emotive rendition of ‘I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You)‘ earned her a Grammy - her first of many - for best female vocal performance.

’Willin’ was written by Lowell George while still a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and subsequently cut by George's own band, Little Feat, in a stark acoustic arrangement on their debut and again in a full-band arrangement on their second album, "Sailin' Shoes”. Ronstadt's version splits the difference between those arrangements with prettier vocals and more feeling - just as one would expect from her. Not just anyone could take on this truckie song about “… weeds, whites and wine …” but Ronstadt’s frank portrayal of desolate nights on the road exposed new textures of the Little Feat original. As she muses about pivotal truck stops around the country, like Tucson and Tucumcari, her vocal approach paints a lively, cinematic picture, rising and falling before you. She manages to make the song her own without straying too far from the overall vibe of those earlier recordings just on the strength of her vocal. Though never released as a single, it‘s now one of of those non-commercial songs that have endured and now have a higher reputation than some of her formalistic hits -


When fellow Arizonan Stevie Nicks led a stage full of powerful women in saluting Ronstadt at her induction to the Rock’n’Roll HoF, they chose ‘When Will I Be Loved’ to bring that all-start tribute to a fitting close. And they did so for obvious reasons. Written by Phil Everly, the Everly Brothers' original recording peaked at # 8 in 1960 (see post # 395). Ronstadt later said - “Phil and Don Everly were such good singers and they were one of the foundations, the cornerstones, of the whole rock’n’roll sound”. And like all her greatest covers, Ronstadt's version doesn't sound a thing like the original. Ronstadt’s uncanny ability to record a cover of a song and infuse it with her own distinct musicianship is displayed yet again on this track. The Everlys' record doesn't start with guitars sliding into a chord and just letting it ring at the top of each line. Nor does it have that instrumental break that adds so much to Ronstadt's take. She also changed the order of the lyric verses.

Another from her 1974 album “Heart Like a Wheel”, ‘When Will I Be Loved‘ became a massive pop and country hit, hitting # 2 on the pop chart and (more importantly for this thread) also reaching the pinnacle of the country chart at # 1 in 1975 -


The B-side of the more commercial-sounding ’When Will I Be Loved‘, ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore‘ is the first and most subdued of Ronstadt's 3 Buddy Holly covers - and this one was actually written by Paul Anka. Ronstadt’s interpretation takes its cue from the despair in Anka's lyrics, not the up-beat, jaunty skip in Holly's original take of the song. It moves at a much slower clip to dramatic effect. After setting the tone with a finger-picking pattern on guitar and Ronstadt's wistful reading of the lyrics, it builds into a more fleshed-out arrangement with tasteful strings and “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow on pedal steel guitar -


During the ACM Awards ceremony held that same year, Ronstadt was named best new female vocalist (despite the fact the now 27 yo had been recording for 7 years) and was also nominated for female vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards.

By 1975, thanks to the runaway success of her multi-platinum “Heart Like a Wheel” album, reigning over both the pop and country charts, Linda Ronstadt found herself the biggest female star in American music - and was soon dubbed the “Queen of Rock”. But, unknown to the public at large until some years later, Ronstadt was never comfortable in this position, feeling trapped by her celebrity status into a rock star caricature and pressure to churn out ever more hits - the trouble with finding a “formula” for commercial success is that such success can hence depend on the formula. The last thing Ronstadt wanted was for her music to be formulaic - and some of her rock music hits could be considered so. But for now and for the rest of the decade, Ronstadt dominated the charts - albeit with songs often more pop/rock than country. But this didn’t stop her also mixing in some more quality country into her music, as we will see tomorrow.
 
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Ronstadt was always ambitious in her choice of material. In 2017, Peter Asher, who had produced the eclectic 1975 “Prisoner In Disguise” album, paid tribute to the singer’s ability in this matter - “She’s brilliant at finding songs. Linda introduced me to John David Souther, to Lowell George, even Jimmy Webb. One of Linda’s remarkable abilities is finding songs that she can do and then wrestling a whole new meaning and intensity out of them. When she sings a song you can believe it.” “Prisoner In Disguise” was Ronstadt’s her third straight million-selling album, becoming the first female artist to accomplish this feat. Ronstadt was the first female artist to accomplish this feat. The album also earned Ronstadt another Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, her second to date.

During the sessions for her 1975 ”Prisoner In Disguise“, Ronstadt covered Neil Young’s ‘Love Is A Rose’ (Ronstadt had sung backing vocals on some of the Young’s recordings and also cut Young’s songs ‘Birds’, ‘After The Gold Rush’, ‘Look Out for My Love’ and ‘I Believe In You’.). The track was a part of Young’s ”Homegrown“ acoustic album he recorded in 1974 but never released it until 2020, so he offered it to Ronstadt and she eagerly accepted. Ronstadt’s version has a classic country sound with the strong influence of steel guitar and banjo. Producer Peter Asher brought in David Lindley to play fiddle and Herb Pedersen for the banjo. Former Stone Poney, Kenny Edwards played bass. The result was a # 5 country hit in 1975.

Neil Young wrote ‘Love Is A Rose’ (and the other songs for the ”Homegrown“ album) after a relationship break-up. Roses have long been used as a metaphor for love because of its beauty, but when you pick a rose you get thorns and this is comparable to loving someone. We all know people who gave all their love to someone just to get their hearts broken - this is almost always true to everyone and is the scary part of loving. It‘s always a risk and you will never really know if you’re gonna get hurt or not. The lyrics plays on the idea that we will definitely get hurt when loving someone but are we willing to accept the pain? The answer lies in us and us alone, and if we are willing to risk it all, then we must be prepared with the consequences -
“… I want to see what's never been seen / I want to live that age-old dream /
Come on boy let's go together /Let's take the best right now …” -


As well as covering Lowell George on the ”Prisoner In Disguise“ album – with a version of the Little Feat star’s ‘Roll Um Easy’, on which George played slide guitar, she also delivered a stunning version of Smokey Robinson’s R&B classic ‘The Tracks Of My Tears’, which established itself among the most popular Ronstadt songs after it became a hit in both the pop and country charts.

In 2021, the Miracles' original recording of the soulful gem ‘Tracks Of My Tears’ was singled out in Rolling Stone as no less than the greatest Motown Song of all time. No wonder, then, that Ronstadt's version doesn't stray as far from the original recording as she usually tended to go. But she did add steel guitar, which lends a distinct country flavour to the mix and may explain why this one charted higher on the country charts (# 11) than the pop chart (# 25). Despite it’s country touch, it’s still remarkably Motown-esque, if a shade or two more melancholy and reflective in Ronstadt's voice than Smokey Robinson's -


As we’ve already seen, with her peerless, versatile vocals, Ronstadt regularly turned covers of classic songs into her own signature creations. This 1950’s Buddy Holly tune ‘That'll Be the Day’ - her second Holly cover after yesterday’s ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ - was no exception. Included on her 1976 album “Hasten Down the Wind”, it again had broad appeal (just as intended) hitting # 11 on the pop and # 27 on the country charts.

‘That'll Be the Day’ doesn't sound a thing like Buddy Holly's million-selling hit recording of the song, which topped the charts in Billboard and the U.K. But it feels more like the sort of record Holly would've made than Ronstadt's other hit recordings of his songs. Which is to say it has the feel of an authentic rockabilly record, from the slapback of the echo to the twang of those guitar licks and the doo-wop flavor of those backing vocals. Ronstadt played down the doo-wop, jazz-inflections in favor of vibrant guitar licks and one of her best growls on record - “… That’ll be the day when I die …” she howls about a scorned lover threatening to break her heart. Her delivery is both somber and cunning. The rhythm even swaggers like a rockabilly classic. Ronstadt's version didn't do as well as Holly's but it was the biggest hit on one of Ronstadt's most successful albums -

Ronstadt’s performance of ‘That’ll Be The Day’ earned a Grammy for best female vocal performance in 1977.

Ronstadt’s next album, 1977’s “Simple Dreams”, was the best-selling studio album of her career, and at the time was the second best-selling album by any female artist (behind only Carole King's “Tapestry”), topping the pop charts and also knocking Elvis Presley off the top of the country chart after he had held it for 15 consecutive weeks following his death. The album featured what has become Ronstadt’s most enduring popular song.

Roy Orbison’s beautiful, melancholy hit ‘Blue Bayou’ became Ronstadt’s signature song after she recorded it for ”Simple Dreams” album. It was co-written by Orbison and Joe Melson and was a minor hit in the early 1960’s. Ronstadt's version is a good deal moodier and swampier than Orbison's. The syndrum accents haven't aged well, but the rest of the recording does a brilliant job of underscoring Ronstadt's melancholy vocal. The opening verse is just her and a sleepwalking bass with a hint of percussion, the arrangement taking on more layers, from marimba and steel guitar to some really nice Don Henley backing vocals, as it goes. It’s deceivingly plodding at first, setting the dreamy mood, but once the chorus kicks in, she catapults into the stratosphere with one of her most potent vocals of her career. Adorned with mandolin, marimba and a steel guitar solo by Dugmore, it captures Ronstadt’s vocals at their sparkling, crystal-clear best.

Ronstadt said she drew on the inspiration of legendary Mexican ranchera vocalist Lola Beltrán for her version, particularly for the ending - “She was the main influence. Mexican music does that sort of belting thing and then goes into falsetto like I did at the end of the song. I liked Blue Bayou so much as a Mexican song that I had my dad write Spanish lyrics for it”. She knows exactly how to let a song simmer and build slowly but concisely, reminiscing on lost love and wanting to reclaim that euphoria. The way she sings, it really takes me back to those beautiful Spanish-moss draped Louisiana bayous, with their fishing boats, cajun food and music and laidback lifestyle. Ronstadt's vocal is flawless, from the understated pining of those early verses to the unadulterated show of force that kicks in when she promises - “… I’m goin’ back someday / come what may / to Blue Bayou / Where you sleep all day / and the catfish play / on Blue Bayou …” - and, man oh man, that high note on the last "bayou” gets me every time -

Ronstadt took ’Blue Bayou’ to #3 on the pop chart, #2 on the country and #3 on the AC charts in 1977. It was later certified Platinum for over 2 million copies sold in the US. It was a worldwide smash, charting in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and specially in Mexico, where it topped the charts. The Spanish version of ‘Blue Bayou’ written by Ronstadt’s father at her request, titled ’Lago Azul‘, was released in 1978.

The sad, traditional, ’I Never Will Marry’ has been traced way back to the early 1800’s when it had several names such as ‘The Constant Lovers‘ and ‘The Lover’s Lament for Her Sailor’. The original lyrics describe a young woman who throws herself into the sea to join her drowned sailor love. A.P. Carter “found” this old folk song (along with hundreds of others) during his journeys through the Appalachians, collecting old surviving folk melody‘s and gospel songs from those isolated regions, thus laying the foundation of country music (see post # 117). A.P. Carter wrote a version of these lyrics which was released in 1938 by The Carter Family. Fred Hellerman rewrote the lyrics in 1977 and this new version was released by Linda Ronstadt on her “Simple Dreams” album in 1977. Ronstadt's future Trio partner Dolly Parton supplies unmistakably Parton-esque harmonies on this wonderfully sparse and beautiful rendition of a traditional ballad about a woman who vows she never will marry "… for the only man I ever loved has gone on the morning train…" -


Despite having a string of highly publicised relationships with a string of high profile men in the 1970s and 1980s - including then-California Goverror and Presidential candidatem Jerry Brown, actor Jim Carrey, a 5 year engagement to film director George Lucas and singer Aaron Neville amongst others (I don’t know if any escaped on the morning train), Ronstadt never has married. However she adopted and has raised an infant daughter in 1990 and a son in 1994, who she now resides with back in her original home town of Tucson, after residing in LA for over 30 years and a dozen or so more in San Francisco,

By the end of the 1970’s, Ronstadt’s albums were carefully constructed to appease both the rock and country audiences, mixing traditional material, singer-songwriter angst and a handful of rock ‘n’ roll/soul classics, be they from Motown Records (‘Heat Wave’), Roy Orbison (‘Blue Bayou’) or Buddy Holly (her next hit Holly cover was ‘It’s So Easy’, which very much followed the formula set in ‘That’ll Be The Day’, thus guaranteeing her another hit but offering nothing new). Despite effusive praise from the establishment media and a consistent popularity, this predictable approach resulted in certain formulaic lethargy, and although 1980’s Mad Love showed a desire to break the mould, Ronstadt was increasingly trapped in an artistic cocoon. Now in her thirties, Ronstadt had also had enough of her “Queen Of Rock” image, which she thought was immature, demeaned her as a person and pigeonholed her as a musician.

With 1978’s ”Living in the USA” Ronstadt began experimenting with new wave, recording Elvis Costello's ’Alison‘ and the album was another # 1 hit. On 1980's “Mad Love”, she made a full-fledged new wave record, recording 3 Costello songs and adopting a synth-laden sound. While the album was a commercial success, it signaled that her patented formula was beginning to run out of steam. That suspicion was confirmed with 1982's “Get Closer”, her first album since “Heart Like a Wheel“ to fail to go platinum.

Sensing it was time to change direction, Ronstadt did something extraordinary, starring in a seriously demanding operatic role of Mabel - one of the most demanding parts in the Gilbert & Sullivan canon - in the Broadway production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance (not to be compared with the trashy hack Australian production that had Jon English in it) as well as the accompanying movie. Her unexpected success in the Pirates of Penzance led Ronstadt to collaborate with Nelson Riddle, who arranged and conducted her 1983 collection of classic pop/jazz standards ”What's New”. This was a considerable hit, reaching # 3 on the charts and selling 2 two million copies. Ronstadt's next 2albums - 1984’s ”Lush Life“ and 1986’s “For Sentimental Reasons“ were also albums of pre-rock American songbook standards recorded with Riddle.

Proving she did, in fact, have her limits as a singer, as a child Ronstadt had discovered the Puccini opera La bohème and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told - "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" - but a role like this in grand opera invariably takes years of specialised vocal training. Nevertheless, in 1984, after her operetta triumph, Ronstadt was bravely cast in the role of Mimi at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights, Ronstadt’s performance savaged by the sniffy opera critics. But at least she went out and gave it a go.

In truth, grand opera aside, Ronstadt’s work in this 1980’s period is, artistically speaking, certainly her best, even though she was no longer topping the charts with her mainstream mixture of country, pop, rock, country-rock and soul like she had in the 1970’s. Her years of experience, combined with her ever strong vocal, ensured she was at her peak as she approached her 40th birthday and she collected a host of awards along the way. But Ronstad’s music at this time just doesn’t belong in a country music thread - except … but that’s for a day … or 2 or 3 or whenever I can find the time to o plate it - I’ve just been called back up to Cairns and beyond, so I have to go and pack.
 
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I’ve just found enough time (and some internet access) up in FNQ to scratch out enough to conclude linda Ronstadt‘s story and her contribution to country music - amongst all the other genres she excelled in. As outlined last Saturday, through the 1980’s, Ronstadt projects departed even further from the pop/rockcountry vein Despite failing on her one serious and very ambitious attempt at grand opera, playing Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme, nevertheless she steadily developed more strength and range in her soprano voice - something she rarely needed for her pop, rock and country songs but served her well for operetta and the classic jazz of the great American songbook. But 1987 saw Ronstadt recording a long wished for country album with 2 other country music greats and friends (and as I’ve now featured all 3 here, I can now include this as an addition for all three).

“Trio“ was a dream album when it came out back in 1987. Three of the biggest names and voices in country all gathered together on one record and singing in perfect harmony - Linda, Emmylou and Dolly. The three had long been good friends and long harboured ambitions to work together (note that last week featured Ronstadt backed By Harris and then Parton separately) but conflicting schedules and different record labels, that weren’t always open to collaborative efforts, had made previous attempts impossible. They had actually started sessions for a record together back in the mid 1970’s but unfortunately it never came to anything and none of the tracks from the aborted mid ‘70s sessions were held over for the “Trio“album but a precedent was set that they could work well together and would do so when the opportunity presented itself - and here’s the proof, taken from The Dolly Parton Show c1976, which I think is more interesting than any audio clips of the 4 big hits from the “Trio“ album a decade later -

The “Trio” album was a huge commercial success, achieving platinum status in the US alone and racking up worldwide sales in excess of 4 million, placing it amongst thentop selling country albums ever. The album itself topped the Country chart and crossed over to the Top 10 in the pop chart. They released 4 singles from the album, the most successful being the trio’s cover of Phil Spector’s Teddy Bears hit ‘To Know Him is To Love Him’, which (though far from my favourite) went all the way to # 1. The other three singles, ’Telling Me Lies’, ‘Those Memories of You’ and ‘Wildflowers’ all reached the Top 10, with only ‘Wildflowers’ falling outside the top 5 - it only reached #6! The awards inevitably followed. The album received 3 Grammy nominations and won in the Best Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category. It also won the ACM Album of the Year for 1987 and the CMA award for Vocal Event of the Year.

For her next album, 9 months later in late 1987, Ronstadt triumphed again - with an entirely different form of country music - one perfect for her strong vocals, great octave range including alto soprano and impassioned delivery. And for her, it was a labour of love, later explaining her record labour didn’t want her to do it - but she was now so well established and determined, she called the shots and went ahead and did it anyway.

Ronstadt dived into the music of her childhood, revisiting the traditional Mexican mariachi music that her father used to sing - and that she herself had learned many of them as a child (and I suspect her string vocals and impressive range may have developed as a result), releasing “Canciones de mi Padre” (translation - “Songs of my Father”) an album of mariachi songs. Born and raised in Tucson, Ronstadt was steeped in the music and culture of her father’s side of the family, whose roots were deep in Mexico. Mexican canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. The title “Canciones de Mi Padre” refers to a booklet that the University of Arizona published in 1946 for Ronstadt's deceased aunt, Luisa Espinel, who had been an international singing star in the 1920s. The songs come from Sonora and Ronstadt included her favorites. She also credited the late Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence in her own singing style, and she recallEd how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as child with these mariachi songs.

As a bona fide superstar, Ronstadt enlisted the help of 3 of the best mariachi bands around at the time. tackling a collection of songs from Sonora, Mexico, that harkened back to Ronstadt's family traditions and formative musical memories. Here is one. With mariachi, one must have a very strong, loud voice (like grand opera, it’s traditionally sang without any microphone, and one must muster all the passion you can find - and then fadd some more. So for Ronstadt, it was perfect. Mariachi can be considered a form of Mexican country, albeit with strong Spanish (and hence Moorish) influences in its sound, but the common themes of love, desire, heartbreak, betrayal, grief, despair, hitting the road etc are familiar to country music lovers - but even if you don’t understand the words, you can feel the emotion. A translation of the first verse gives you the gist of this song-
“Ay, how green the laurels are / What fiery roses / If you're thinking of leaving me / better to take away my life /
Lift your eyes to look at me / If you are not engaged to be married …”. It only gets sadder as it goes on.
Source: Linda Ronstadt - Los Laureles lyrics English translation


Confounding the opposition of her label. “Canciones de Mi Padre” immediately became a global smash hit. At 2½ million US sales, its the biggest selling non-English language album in American record history. This album also won Ronstadt the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. It frustrates Ronstadt that, throughout her 50 year career, the media has seldom acknowledged her Mexican heritage, even when she emphasised it by recording her Spanish language albums like “Canciones de Mi Padre” with its traditional Mexican songs that became the biggest-selling non-English-language album in U.S. history. More than once, she has been terse at interviewers who expressed surprise at her recording Spanish language Mexican songs and once on live TV, when introduced as “half-Mexican”, immediately shot back - “no, I’m fully Mexican”.

After the success of the 1987 “Trio” album, it was inevitable a follow-up would eventually come out, but the same scheduling and label problems that had made the first album difficult to make meant that ‘Trio II’ would not emerge until 12 years later. It was also well received critically, but was nowhere near as successful commercially, though it did yield the trio another Grammy Award in the shape of 2000’s Best Collaboration with Vocals for their cover of Neil Young’s ‘After the Goldrush’. "Trio II" was recorded in 1994 but not released until 1999, when Emmylou, Dolly and Linda appeared on Late Show to perform ’After the Gold Rush‘ -

The Glass Harmonica (or Armonica), a rather obscure instrument championed by Ronstadt, was played by Dennis James, who later recalled the performance in an interview with in 2002, saying - “Well, it was a great surprise. A sort of unspoken message in the air to me before the broadcast was "Do not say anything on the air!”. After all, these things are Linda's appearances. When David Letterman leaned over his desk and directed a question to me I simply froze - on playback, I can see myself caught and unable to speak. I received a glance from Linda that said to me it was OK and so when he tried again, I called back a flip one liner and on things went from there” - Dennis James interview- glass armonica project / by Rich Bailey

Ronstadt’s subsequent releases included the jazz album “Hummin’ to Myself” in 2004 and the folk-oriented “Adieu False Heart“ in 2006. A third collaboration with Emmylou and Dolly was discussed but, by this time, Ronstadt had already started to develop the degenerative illness, later diagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy, which robbed her of her singing voice, and so declined to be involved. Instead, the three released “The Complete Trio Collection” in 2016, which combined “Trio” and “Trio II” with a third disc of alternative takes and unreleased material to give a comprehensive edition of the 3 singers’ collaborative works.

Around 2000, Ronstadt noticed she could no longer reach her highest alto sopranonote, but put it down to natural aging. However, over the next decade, her vocals, especially her much cherished soprano that she had worked so much to develop, deteriorated badly and she noticed other health problems. In 2010 she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In 2019, her condition was rediagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative, Parkinson’s-like disease for which there is no known cure. In 2013, Ronstadt had to retire as she had been robbed of her singing voice, ending a career that had made her one of the most popular and accomplished vocalists of her generation. A recipient of 11 Grammy Awards, plus the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, she’s also in the Rock and Roll HoF in 2014 and the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.

Ronstadt also received a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Recording Academy in 2011. Her other honours include the National Medal of Arts in 2014, a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2016 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2019. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice(,is a documentary about her life and career came out in 2019. Ronstadt published the autobiographies Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir 2013, which focuses on her earlier years topping the charts with her blend and variety of pop, rock and country while Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, published in 2019, is more about her “serious” music from the 1980’s until her forced retirement.

One honour is missing in Ronstadt‘s less e - she has not, so far, been admitted into the Country Music HoF - something that’s getting much commentary of late. At age 76, and now retired from all performing for 10 years due to her condition, Ronstadt resides with her adopted son in Tucson. She is politically active supporting various left wing causes, but the one closest to her heart is her campaign to have a completely open border between the US and Mexico without any border checks at all, arguing that Tucson and other southwestern areas are historically Mexican territories. This is consistent with her strong feeling of Mexican identity.

So that’s it until I’m back, perhaps next week, with a much younger sibling of a country music legend already covered here.
 
Can someone (Professor?) please explain to me why I love this song so much?
It doesn’t seem any different from your classic country fare.
But it just kills me!
Maybe because I’m such a Neil Young freak.
Anyway, is it just me or is it that good?

 
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No eye deer said:
Can someone (Professor?) please explain to me why I love this song so much?
It doesn’t seem any different from your classic country fare.
But it just kills me!
Maybe because I’m such a Neil Young freak.
Anyway, is it just me or is it that good?

Click to expand...

Well, I reckon you’ve provided half the answer by owning up to being a Neil Young freak - so it’s natural you’d go for most of his work (though it’s very diverse). But for this sad song in particular, a scientific explanation might also apply (though this applies to so much of country and blues in general, both genres loaded with sadness and woe - and I often feel the sadder and more woeful and miserable the song, the better I feel when listening) -
www.abc.net.au

Do you love listening to sad songs? Here's why

Sad music can make us feel less alone, more validated and, well, anything but sad. Here's what's going on when you crank those melancholy tunes.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Apart from all that, it’s just a bloody good old country song, full of bleakness and despair, just the way I like it.

Funny you bring up Neil Young now, as his name has cropped up quite a bit in the recent features of Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, who all collaborated with him.
 
I’m back from FNQ again but now have to return to the Kimberley on Sunday for a couple of weeks - and again going to some remote places there mostly without internet access. But I’ve got just enough time to cover the youngest sister of a country legend already featured here. I’m sorry but this artist‘s music is very different from all those Outlaws and others like honky tonk king Gary Stewart or country rock queen Linda Ronstadt I’ve covered recently - but I’m compelled to include her as she was simply far too popular to overlook. She also provides an interesting generational contrast with her much older sister, who only performed hard-core traditional country whereas the youngest sibling found her way to success with a more broader appealing (apart from the hard-core country traditionalists) country-pop sound that came to the fore in the late 1970’s, just as the outlaw era started its decline.

Brenda Gail Webb was born in rural Kentucky, in 1951, the youngest of 8 children raised on a meagre coal miner's salary in a humble wooden home in the Kentucky Appalachians that had no electricity, no running water and no inside toilet but was awash with music - “We didn’t have much money but people would come over to hear us sing in the living room”, she later recalled. Three of her siblings became professional country singers, most famously her oldest sister, honky tonk legend Loretta Lynn (see # 489-493). By the time she was born, Loretta, nearly 19 years older, had married, moved right across the nation to Washington state and already had 3 children with one on the way (a theme and title for one of her later big hits).

After the father was diagnosed with black lung disease and forced to retire from coal mining, the family moved to Wabash, Indiana when Brenda was 4, and she started singing along with country and pop songs on the radio at a young age. Thanks to Loretta’s success and generosity, the Webb family was somewhat more comfortable during Brenda’s childhood from age 9 than it had been during Loretta’s impoverished upbringing. Brenda owned a guitar and, unlike Loretta who had grown up surrounded solely by country music, she was able to listen to an eclectic variety of music, including country greats like Patsy Cline, folk artists Peter, Paul & Mary, jazz legend Billie Holiday, Broadway show tunes of the period and, growing into her teens, the Beatles.

Brenda became a fan of her big sister when Loretta began to build her country music career in the early 1960s. But with her own elegant delivery and a warm, velvety voice, dubbed “a diamond in a rhinestone world”, the young Brenda Gail Webb also seemed destined for renown - “I always knew I was going to sing. I sang in the church choir, with swing bands and with my brother’s band at the weekend. I opened for Tex Ritter (see # 179-180) and was so in awe. I had seen all his films. Just to be in his presence was special. I loved playing rodeos and outdoor dates under the stars, I still do. I sang for fun and to be part of it all“. In 1967, while she was still in high school, Brenda was invited to tour part time with Loretta. She was just 16 when she made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage, filling in for an ill Loretta. She sang Marty Robbins’s # 1 hit, the Gordon Lightfoot penned classic ‘Ribbon Of Darkness’ - “I was scared to death but it was incredible. I still have the little shiny silver dress that I wore. Mum made it for me“. Fifty years later, in 2017, Loretta inducted her as a member of the Opry.

In 1970 Brenda signed with Loretta's record company Decca. Upon signing, the label insisted she change her first name from "Brenda" - “I would’ve been Brenda Gayle but they already had Brenda Lee and didn’t want two Brendas”. Shortly thereafter, Loretta drove past a sign for the Krystal fast-food restaurant (which is still there in Nashville) and said to Brenda - "That's your name. Crystals are bright and shiny, like you." Brenda liked it and so it was then that she changed her name professionally to "Crystal Gayle", with "Gayle" taken from her middle name (Gail). She further established herself with regular appearances on Jim Ed Brown’s TV show The Country Place.

In 1970 Gayle recorded her first single with Loretta’s label, Decca. Her initial recordings were all solid country - ’I've Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes’, written especially for her by Loretta, climbed to number # 23. However it was almost a year after her debut record that a second single followed, and the time lapse was a major cause for its failure - the record buying public had forgotten the young newcomer and the song wasn’t strong enough to catch their attention. A few more singles for Decca followed, but when ‘I Hope You’re Havin’ Better Luck Than Me‘ had no luck, bombing in 1972, the company lost interest in her career. Loretta wrote most of her first recordings (‘Sparklin’ Look Of Love’, ‘Mama, It’s Different This Time’) and therein lay the problem - Crystal Gayle sounded too much like her famous big sister, Loretta Lynn.

By this time Gayle had married her high school sweetheart and only ever boyfriend, a young Greek-American. Vassilios Gatzimos, whom she calls Bill. From the outset, he believed in her talent as a singer and urged her to continue with her career, taking over as her manager despite having no experience whatsoever. Over 55 years later, they are still married and he’s still Gayle’s manager. Gayle was grateful for her sister's help at the outset of her career, but they now both realised it was time for her to set her own direction. She emerged from her oldest sister’s shadow after Lynn told her to stop trying to be her - “Loretta got my foot in the door,. But I soon realised I had to make it on my own. She gave me the best advice. She told me ‘Quit singing my songs, and don’t sing anything I would sing because we already have one Loretta and we don’t need another; go your own way, go middle of the road. And she was right, I had to do my own thing and go a different way”. So in 1973, Gayle left Loretta’s label, MCA (formerly Decca) and signed with United Artists. This time around, Crystal was determined to make her own way in the music business with her own style - and very quickly found it, and with it, commercial success.

At United Artists, Gayle was fortuitously teamed with producer-songwriter Allen Reynolds, an astute artist (later associated with the rise of Garth Brooks) who maximised her vocal potential. Reynolds offered Gayle the creative freedom she wanted, and she began to experiment with her style and phrasing (toning down her natural Appalachian “hillbilly” accent) en route to her own distinctive approach. Her first-ever album, titled simply “Crystal Gayle” was released in 1974, and landed her first Top 10 hit, ’Wrong Road Again‘. While Gayle worked to set a name for herself in the world of country music, she joined heaps of country artists (including even Dolly Parton at the time) making their move into the pop market during the mid-1970s. ‘Wrong Road Again’ is one proof to that, featuring instruments that were not normally used in traditional country music. While it failed to cross over into the pop charts, it reached # 6 in 1974. This live clip shows another asset Gayle had besides her voice - her natural good looks and alluring, but innocent, sex appeal - and she took full advantage of it -

Although the song did not make the pop charts, it represents Crystal's first foray into country-pop. It was a springboard into future recordings that did crossover to the pop and adult contemporary (AC) charts.

The “Crystal Gayle” album was a mix of traditional and pop-country (wisely appealing to both markets), and closes with the brilliant but underrated Vince Matthews penned ‘This Is My Year For Mexico’, a solid country song of a restless and under appreciated lover planning on hitting the road, running away from her mundane life, with Mexico serving as a metaphor for escape and freedom. It has some beautifully bleak lyrics -
“… We used to whisper love across the nighttime / Now we never whisper nor recall /
Our love is left upon the shelf of winter / Where the sunlight never touches it at all /
It’s a habit for us to be together / we sit and watch the deadly shadows grow …” -


Written by Allen Reynolds, ’Somebody Loves You’ was released as the first single and title track from Gayle’s second album, released in 1976. Gayle's voice was still growing when this song was produced, even her accent still in transition to a smoother (though some, like me, may say blander) pop sound. In the song, Gayle finds herself endlessly thinking of her ex-lover, who has since gone away. Unfortunately, he left such a challenging trail for her to find him, she tried reaching him through mail and telephone (not so easy back then), all to no avail. Trying everything she can think of, Crystal eventually resorts to telepathy to send him an anonymous mind love message. Giving us a taste of things to come, contemporary chart-pop touches like squelchy keyboards and a twinkling piano were added to her gentle, traditionalist accompaniment - pushing her country sound further over into pop territory (at least that’s how it was seen at the time, but by todays standard, its comfortably country enough). This still didn’t trouble the pop chart but reached # 8 in the country chart and actually went all the way to # 1 in Canada - another foretaste of bigger things to come -


Though Gayle got much help from her country superstar sister, it was ‘I’ll Get Over You‘, the second single released from her “Somebody Loves You” album, that became her absolute golden ticket to stardom and consolidated her control of her career. In 1976, it became her first (of many) U.S. # 1 hits and reached # 2 in Canada. It remains today as one of her best-known songs -


It was on Crystal’s self-titled third album, “Crystal”, released in 1976, that she really defined her sound and the direction she was taking - it‘s classic Crystal. The Rob McDill penned ’You Never Miss A Real Good Thing‘, the second single from the album was the second of her 18 #1 U.S. hits and also topped the Canadian charts, her first song to top both charts -


That’s today’s lot, with Gayle, under the guidance of songwriter/producer, Allen Reynolds, experimenting with music outside the realm of pure country, using instrumentation from mainstream and pop sources. Her music doesn’t impact on me like traditional honky tonk or Outlaw country. It ain’t the type of music I’d consume with a fine whiskey or cold beer - it’s more like background easy listening music to be had with a cuppa tea on a pleasant afternoon, but that’s just me. Commercially it worked - the resulting sound caused a surge in Gayle's popularity, but she had still only dented the lower region of the pop chart. But all this was very soon to change as her pop-country sound really hit its mark - but that’s for tomorrow.
 
Back again to 1976 and Loretta Lynn’s little sister, Crystal Gayle - destined soon to overshadow her traditionalist hard-core country big sister with her special brand of softer, broader appealing pop-country - even venturing into jazz.

In case you hadn’t already noticed from the YouTube slideshows and videos, Gayle, aside from her music, is famous for her ultra-long hair, which she once said was “a source of strength and power”. She was inspired to grow her hair to her knees and beyond after seeing a woman with similar hair in Nashville in the early 1970’s. In 1990, The LA Times described Gayle’s hair as being “ankle-length”, and photos from that era confirm it was so. As long as her hair was (and still is), it comes with its drawbacks, as the LA Times wrote in its article - “Pressure from [Gayle’s] hair’s extreme length gives her headaches and neck aches.” At that time, Gayle said it took 5 hours to wash her hair and let it dry, while combing her hair was the worst part. However, just like Dolly Parton feels compelled to always have the “Dolly” look, Gayle seemingly can’t bring herself to cut her hair - saying that if she did “I would no longer be Crystal Gayle” i.e. for her, it’s a key part of the public persona.

As for her music, today has more pop-country - but this time, with her most memorable song, she finally moves beyond the country charts, conquering the pop-charts and scoring a huge international hit. Suddenly, she’s not just a country star but one of the biggest names in late 1970’s pop music, though her soft-rock and jazz inflected country songs are in contrast to the louder, harder edged, country rock sound of the other female superstar of this period, Linda Ronstadt.

The songs Gayle (or her producer, Allen Reynolds) chose to open her albums were always absolute bangers (that is, for the market they were aimed at), this opener of her 1976 album “Crystal“ a case in point. Recorded at Cowboy Jack Clement’s Jack’s Tracks studio in Nashville, ‘I’ll Do It All Over Again’ is (be warned) the breeziest slice of sugary country-pop you’ll ever bite into - whether you find the taste delicious or otherwise is up to you. Songwriter Wayland Holyfield was known for his honest simplicity in his songwriting, which is what we encounter with lyrics such as - "So you live, and you learn / And never look back at the bridges you burn / And you change, somehow / Oh, I'm a little bit wiser now". The lyrics have an honest yet sort of optimistic twist, acknowledging the mistakes we make in life yet also recognises we can move on - and do it all over again - "… But I know that my heart will mend / And I know that I'll smile again / I'll get back on my feet and then /I'll do it all over again". Crystal sings with an equally optimistic tone in her voice. The instrumentation follows right along with the good feel of the lyrics and Crystal's voice. A simplistic happy go lucky tune -


Even if you’re not familiar with the rest of Gayle’s work, there’s a real good chance you’ve heard ‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue‘ at least a few times in your life. Her signature song and most endearingly popular hit, it represents the pinnacle of her crossover success. Reynolds, feeling that Gayle was poised for a larger breakthrough, encouraged her to record the jazz-flavored pop ballad, which he felt sure had crossover potential. He was right - not only did the song, released in 1977, rocket up to # 1 on the country and crossed over, peaking at # 2 on the pop chart and # 4 on the AC chart. It also became a worldwide hit, topping both the country and pop charts in Canada and a top 5 pop hit in the UK and Ireland, amongst other countries. It’s since been covered by a slew of other artists, including Dolly Parton and Dutch jazz singer, Laura Fygi.

Richard Leigh, had already been responsible for all three of Gayle's previous Top 10 hits when Reynolds approached him to write another. Leigh's landlady – who also happened to be ‘When I Dream’ songwriter Sandy Mason Theoret – suggested to Reynolds he should go round to see Leigh because he’d been feeling “a little down in the dumps because nothing much was happening” after the success of ‘I’ll Get Over You’. So Reynolds popped round and while they were sitting on the floor singing songs to one another, Leigh sang him a song he’d written for Shirley Bassey. “Shirley Bassey my ass, I want that song!”, Reynolds replied upon hearing it. ‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue’ was the opening track on Gayle’s next album, “We Must Believe In Magic”.

A twinkling piano ballad that sounds like the sort of song you’d hear coming out of an exclusive jazz bar at closing time, Crystal recorded ‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue‘ in one live take and got it perfect. The song was tailor made for her -

‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue‘ won the blue eyed Gayle a Grammy for Best Female Vocal. Richard Leigh also won a Grammy Award as the composer of the song. Plus, the accompanying album, “We Must Believe in Magic”, became the first by a female country artist ever to go platinum. After the immense success of her album and single, Crystal Gayle, now fully out of her big sister, Loretta Lynn’s shadow, had the whole world at her feet; seamlessly crossing over into the top end of the pop charts while at the same time she racking up country # 1 hits.

Released as the follow-up to ‘Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue’, the Allen Reynold penned song ‘Ready for the Times to Get Better’ was first recorded by Gayle back in 1976 for her 7 ”Crystal” album. However it wasn’t one of the 3 from that album released as a single at that time. A year later, in 1977 Marshall Chapman took it for a spin on her 1977 “Me, I'm Feelin' Free” album. But Crystal liked this song a lot and wanted to see it released as a single. The runaway success of her previous single and album gave her the clout she needed to get her way, so in 1978 it was finally released as a single. Gayle’s instinct proved right -
it became one of her biggest crossover hits, once again topping the country charts in both the U.S. and Canada and also reaching # 3 on the U.S. AC chart and #4 in Canada -


‘Talking in Your Sleep‘ was released as the first single from Gayle’s ”When I Dream” album in 1978. The song was another huge
# 1 hit on the U.S. and Canadian country charts and also crossed over to # 18 on the U.S. pop chart and # 3 on the U.S. and Canadian AC charts. It also made it to #5 in Ireland and #11 in both the Canadian and UK pop charts, making it Crystal's second biggest selling hit as a solo artist.

’Talking in Your Sleep‘, composed by Roger Cook and Bobby Wood, is a sweeping pop-infused country ballad with wonderfully pretty vocal from Gayle, as she lies awake at night and listens to her lover sleeping next to her as he blabbers on about some other woman - maybe. He doesn’t give away any names so the singer can’t be sure it’s someone else he’s dreaming about, but some of the kinky stuff he’s coming out with has got her seriously worried. To be fair to him though, dreams can be pretty weird. He could be dreaming about a wheelbarrow for all she knows -


Allen Reynolds kept pushing the boundaries of country-pop with the Mark True written ’Why Have You Left The One You Left For Me’. True wrote the song about his wife’s ex-fiancé. The opening track and second single of Gayle’s 5th studio album, “When I Dream”, blends folk harmonies and handclaps with a smooth yacht-rock groove. Its tongue-twisting lyrics were a total change of pace from anything she had ever done. Still, it added another chart-topper to Gayle’s collection, flying to # 1 on the U.S. and Canadian charts and crossing over to #22 (US) and #16 charts in 1978. For her part, Crystal is dealing with an ex-lover who turns up unexpectedly on her doorstep to try and rekindle their love. Not before answering a few questions first though, of course - he’s got some explaining to do. This song opens with Crystal's overdubbed vocal backed with multilayered hand-claps, an effect that catches ones attention right away and establishes a rhythmic pattern which recurs throughout the song.

Lyrically the tongue-twisting lyrics are all about compromise. The lover that left her for someone else is now back knocking on her door. Before she lets him back, she has questions. But so she doesn’t get answers she won’t like, she compromises by letting him know she will not ask the questions again - "You don't have to tell me, and I won't ask again!" The big compromise is that she lets him back in with her giving more than what she's getting - "Okay, come on in! You be my lover! I'll be your friend!". Sounds a bit desperate to me but hey, as long as she’s happy … -


Gayle's albums with United Artists through the later 1970’s typically contained a blend of country, soft blues and pop music, usually blended and sung in a "… rich, soothing voice, like a cold milkshake made with lots of ice cream …", according to the Village Voice. Allen Reynolds, Crystal's longtime producer, is credited with developing her signature blend of soft country/ pop/rock/jazz sound. He worked with her on 10 albums from 1975 to 1982 - of which more will come tomorrow as Gayle continues her runaway commercial success. By this time, Crystal Gale was far more well known in the broader music world than her big sister, Loretta (even though, in the fullness of time since, it‘s Loretta’s traditional honky Tonk music that has endured better, whereas pop tastes rapidly change and move on - Gayle’s music, with a few exceptions, is very much a product of its time. Anyway, tomorrow will take Crystal Gayle’s music, still riding high, into the 1980’s.
 
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By 1980, Crystal Gayle was starting to rack up the awards. In addition to her Best Female Vocal Performance Grammy in 1978 for ‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue’, she also won the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year for 1977 and 1978 and was nominated in 1976, 1979 and 1980 as well as Entertainer of the Year for 1978 and 1979. The ACM awarded her Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1975, followed by Female Vocalist of the Year in 1976, 1977 and 1979. The American Music Awards (AMA) named Gayle as the Favourite Country Female Artist in both 1979 and 1980. In 1979, she became the first American female entertainer to visit and perform in communist China after the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, as well as host her own TV special. But without any scandalous or particularly interesting stories to tell about her life, let’s get on with her music, starting with a selection from her 1978 “When I Dream” album.

After originally being released in 1975 as the B-side to the single ‘This Is My Year For Mexico’ (see 2 posts back), Crystal re-recorded and re-released ‘When I Dream’ as the title track to her 5th album, which peaked at # 2 in 1978. Written by Sandy Mason Theoret, it’s a beautifully understated pop-country ballad about unrequited love. In 1979, it reached # 3 in both the U.S. and Canada and also got into the Top 20 on the AC chart. The theme, melody and even Gayle’s vocals here give this song a distinct musical-theatre feel, like it could be the centre-point for a Crystal Gayle musical on Broadway - not that one is likely to be made, for, unlike so many of our country heroes, her life is devoid of any scandal, alcohol or substance abuse or other high drama. In some ways, her music reflects her life - gentle and dreamy, not lived on the edge -


‘Half the Way’, composed by Ralph Murphy and Bobby Wood, was the first single for Columbia Records, released on the “Miss the Mississippi” album in 1979, which like her previous album, also peaked at # 2. This song symbolised a changed in both musical direction and fashion, the new look and sound of Gayle. It’s up-tempo beat and gently rocking melody went down a storm with country, soft rock and pop fans alike, peaking at # 2 on the country chart and crossing over, reached # 15 on the pop and # 9 on the AC charts. It also became a huge hit in Canada, taking Gayle to # 1 and # 2 on the country and AC charts respectively -


Transitioning to Columbia in 1979 did nothing to loosen Gayle’s hold over the charts. After the crossover chart success of ‘Half The Way’, she achieved her 8th Top 2 (6 of which went to #1) in 1980 with the charming ‘If You Ever Change Your Mind’, the first single release from her # 6 album, “These Days”. In addition to hanging around the country charts for 10 weeks, the song also made it over to the Top 20 on the AC chart -


In the ironically titled ‘Too Many Lovers’, the third single from Crystal‘s “These Days” album, her vocal timing is perfectly on track with the music. Crystal all but ditches the country in favor of a pop-rock flavour that works quite well with her voice. Larry Londin's percolating driving groove of the drums sets the stage for Jon Goin's fiery guitar parts up to his blistering guitar solo with tempered scales that echo the theme of the song while letting go in a direction that brings dynamic and thrill to the song.

Despite the fact this ain’t really a country song at all, it went all the way to #1 on both U.S. and Canadian country music charts in 1981, yet did nothing on the pop or AC charts! About the only way I can explain that anomaly is that it was probably part of the reaction that set in around 1980 against the excesses of the outlaw era, helped by Gayle’s spotless image appealing to the more conservative and suburban part of the country music market -

BTW, I found the song title ironical title as Gayle, in marrying her high school sweetheart and the only boyfriend she ever had, has apparently only ever had one lover for all her life.

The next selection is a 100% authentic country song that appeared in Gayle’s next album, 1982’s “True Love”, in which she surprised many fans by reviving a Jimmie Rodgers song as the albums title track, with the album itself reaching # 3. Written by Rodney Crowell, the lyrics loaded with vivid imagery, the poignant ‘Til I Gain Control Again’ was first recorded by Emmylou Harris in 1975 (see post 862) and has been recorded by various notable artists, including Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Bobby Bare. However, the most popular commercial version is the # 1 hit recorded by Gayle, 7 years after Emmylou’s beautiful original -
“… And like a lighthouse / You must stand alone / Landmark a safe journey's end /
No matter what sea / I've been sailing on / I'll always come back home again …”


So we leave off today in 1982 with Crystal Gayle, still with Allen Reynolds as her producer despite her moving labels to Atlantic, still topping the charts. By now, however, unknown at the time, her days of also climbing to the upper regions of the pop charts were over as the ever fickle pop market quickly moved on with its ever changing tastes. However, Gayle’s loyal middle-of-the-road country fans ensured her continual success into the 1980’s, as will be seen tomorrow - which will also include a couple of selections from an odd - yet critically acclaimed - collaboration between two very contrasting vocalists.
 
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