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Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

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The Linda Ronstadt Coverup!

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974

IN 1970 DAN Wakefield, who had just published his first novel, Going All the Way (a heartbreakingly hilarious chronicle of America's dismal sex life in ...

Linda Ronstadt: Living In The U.S.A.

Review by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978

OVER HER PAST few albums and, curiously, ever since she won a wall full of awards, something has been happening to Linda Ronstadt's "interpretative" powers. ...

Audio interviews

Linda Ronstadt (1976)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1976

Ms Ronstadt talks about being brought up surrounded by music; moving from Tucson to Los Angeles and forming the Stone Poneys; the hit she didn't like, 'Different Drum'; her struggles with managers and producers making her first solo albums; meeting the future Eagles at the Troubadour; the move from Capitol to Asylum; getting together with producer Peter Asher, and strongly identifying with fellow women singers like Emmylou, Dolly and Bonnie Raitt.

File format: mp3; file size: 44.2mb; Interview length: 46' 01"; sound quality: *****

Nik Venet (1993)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1993

From his youth in '50s Baltimore to involvement with Linda Ronstadt and the Canyon Cowboys in '70s L.A., via Kim Fowley, his time at World Pacific and Capitol including producing the Beach Boys and much more: the music biz veteran tells the whole story.

File format: mp3; file size: 108.6mb, interview length: 1h 53' 09" sound quality: ***

Linda Ronstadt (1995)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 February 1995

The First Lady of Counry Rock on a life in music: from Tuscon to LA; the Troubadour scene; hanging out with Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons; exploring standards and Mexican music; singing, production and producers.

File format: mp3; file size: 152.1mb, interview length: 2h 28' 27" sound quality: ***

Peter Asher (2003)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 October 2003

The singer-turned-producer talks about returning to Los Angeles with client James Taylor; the Troubadour scene; the people: Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, J.D. Souther; meeting Linda Ronstadt and being turned on to C&W; fellow businessmen David Geffen and Elliot Roberts, and the rise of the Eagles.

File format: mp3; file size: 59.1mb, interview length: 1h 01' 31" sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

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Linda Ronstadt: Bitter End, New York NY

Live Review by Danny Goldberg, Billboard, 9 August 1969

Bitter End Entranced By Linda Ronstadt ...

Arlo Guthrie, Linda Ronstadt: Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 17 August 1970

Singers Survive Frightful Sound ...

Linda Ronstadt: Get That Ronstadt Message

Report and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 20 February 1971

WELL, MY lady took the message, and she wrote it on the wall: "Linda Ronstadt, EMI Press Reception, 4 o'clock tomorrow." ...

Linda Ronstadt: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 9 May 1971

Bright Song Style Of Linda Ronstadt Lights Up Fillmore ...

Linda Ronstadt: Linda Ronstadt

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, April 1972

THIS PAST AUGUST, a friend and I braved the colorless bullshit of the Troubador in Los Angeles to catch a Linda Ronstadt set, supposedly being ...

Folk Rock Vets: The Eagles Take It Easy & Soar

Profile and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972

LOS ANGELES — The four Eagles — Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley — had barely been introduced to each other when ...

The Eagles/Linda Ronstadt: Los Angeles

Live Review by David Rensin, Music World, January 1973

PERHAPS IT was the atmosphere of a college campus where the audience is usually reasonably intelligent and not prone to yelling "boogie" or "rock and ...

Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt: Winterland, Sand Francisco CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 22 March 1973

Neil Young: A Reminder of Mellower Days ...

Linda Ronstadt: Don't Cry Now (Asylum)

Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 10 November 1973

LOOKING AS she does, an impossibly cuddly chicklet, it's easy to forgive Linda Ronstadt any musical deficiencies. But this album, in fact her first on ...

Linda Ronstadt: Linda's Liberation

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 November 1973

WHEN THE film industry was at its peak and the Hollywood Hills beamed down on the Babylon city in its celluloid wrapper, someone decided that ...

Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, December 1973

WELL, 1973 IS gone and a new year is upon us. The only reason I mention that is because some of you are so dunced-out ...

Linda Ronstadt: Ronstadt Country

Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 16 February 1974

TIME WAS when being a country music fan was difficult going. You could secretly dig people like Dolly Parton or Charlie Rich but it wasn't ...

Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like A Wheel (Capitol)

Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 25 January 1975

LINDA RONSTADT is a remarkable Country Rock singer who sells plenty of records, with Capitol reportedly shifting 150,000 copies of this new one in the ...

Linda Ronstadt, Roger McGuinn: Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 7 February 1975

Linda returns as a superstar ...

Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like A Wheel (Capitol ST 11358)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, March 1975

THIS ALBUM of ten lusciously produced singles is marked by a tonic '50s earnestness that explores a closed set; beyond the singer and her putative ...

Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like A Wheel (Asylum EST 11358); Emmylou Harris: Pieces Of The Sky (Reprise K 54037)

Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, April 1975

OVER RECENT months those familiar figures, the singer/songwriter and the solo artist have made their reappearance on the scene. But if you cast your eyes ...

Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner In Disguise

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, October 1975

AN UNHEALTHY PORTION of the attention devoted to Linda Ronstadt over the years has dealt with her supposed physical attributes at the expense of her ...

Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner In Disguise

Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 11 October 1975

MAYBE IT'S the singer not the song but in the particular case of Linda Ronstadt it is both. Plagued by an unsympathetic selection of material ...

Linda Ronstadt: 'Heat Wave' – The Long Hot Sessions

Report and Interview by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975

"THE BAND HAD been trying to get Linda to add it to her set for quite a while," recalls pianist Andrew Gold, "but we never ...

Linda Ronstadt: Hasten Down The Wind (Asylum)

Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 21 August 1976

LINDA RONSTADT has taken a tip from Carly Simon and taken off her bra for an album sleeve – not that she ever did wear ...

Linda Ronstadt: Hasten Down The Wind (Asylum) ****

Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 21 August 1976

I GREETED the release of this album with the same kind of anticipation one would associate with a new album from the Who or the ...

Linda Ronstadt: Hand Sewn Home Grown

Profile and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 4 September 1976

THE FIRST I heard of Linda Ronstadt was on the radio. Not that I knew who owned those strong vocal chords. All I knew was ...

Linda Ronstadt, Andrew Gold: Odeon, Birmingham

Live Review by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976

Linda warms to a Heatwave ...

Linda Ronstadt: Hey, Mister That's Me Up On The Jukebox

Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 20 November 1976

AT ONE O'CLOCK on a foggy Thursday afternoon, Linda Ronstadt sleeps comfortably on the Glasgow/London express. She does not like to fly. Neither does her ...

Linda Ronstadt: New Victoria, London

Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 20 November 1976

THE VIEW from the stalls at the New Victoria last Saturday night was great, but seen through the lens of a low budget Kodak Instamatic ...

Linda Ronstadt: Greatest Hits (Asylum)*****

Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 25 December 1976

THIS ALBUM is great. Had it been live, it would have been even greater. The twelve tracks here represent some of the very best Linda ...

Linda Ronstadt (1976) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Fall 1976

This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Linda. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Linda Ronstadt: Simple Dreams

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 24 September 1977

THESE DAYS Linda Ronstadt works to a production line formula: You get a nice sleeve (this one is by Kosh, who did a similar job ...

Linda Ronstadt Listens To Your Sleep

Interview by Barbara Charone, Circus, 27 October 1977

Simple Dreams Is The Rock Queen's Latest Treasure ...

Linda Ronstadt: Simple Dreams

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, November 1977

WHEN LINDA Ronstadt dropped her hands down the mike-stand and went to make some small talk with the audience at a New York concert early ...

Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Bishop: Munn Arena, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Bill Holdship, Michigan State News, 14 November 1977

Ronstadt: golden dream for Tarnished Age ...

All Linda Ronstadt Needs Is The Lurv Of A Good Man

Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 7 January 1978

JUST AFTER midnight a large coach pulls up outside a respectable New York City Hotel, precariously perched on the right side of Central Park. Assorted ...

Linda Ronstadt, Female Vocalist of the Year

Profile by John Swenson, Circus, 16 February 1978

At the top in Her Field, She Becomes an American Heroine ...

Linda Ronstadt: Living In The USA (Asylum)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 30 September 1978

LINDA RONSTADT – oh my God, she's so hunky. Those long, bronzed legs, that Ms Piggy face, those capable fingers – is it any wonder ...

Linda Ronstadt: Living In The U.S.A.

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 7 October 1978

HI AGAIN. It's only me and this is only another Linda Ronstadt review. The words 'rock and roll' are used in the ads for this ...

Linda Ronstadt: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, L.A. Weekly, 4 January 1979

Linda Ronstadt: Going Strong ...

Linda Ronstadt: America's Sex Valentine

Profile by Al Aronowitz, Gallery, February 1979

I KNOW AN eighteen-year-old genius named Jimmy Dunbar who thinks the ultimate prize in the ultimate contest would be a weekend with Linda Ronstadt. Not ...

Linda Ronstadt: The Forum, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 10 February 1979

GOING TO a Linda Ronstadt concert, apart from finding yourself in the midst of unbridled passionate devotion like a born-again fanatics convention, is like sitting ...

Lowell George: Festive Wake for an Enigma

Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 4 August 1979

"I FEEL LIKE I'm in an old MGM photo," cracked Bonnie Raitt as she and the other participants in tonight's "Tribute to Lowell George" concert ...

"Tribute to Lowell George" — Little Feat, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt et al: Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1979

Concert Tribute to Lowell George ...

Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt et al: Lowell George Benefit Concert, The Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 11 August 1979

IT'S IRONIC that Little Feat were never adjudged sufficiently commercial to have headlined a concert at Los Angeles' massive Forum, since the place was bursting ...

Linda Ronstadt: Mad Love (Asylum) *

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 23 February 1980

ROBERTSON DIDN'T want to do it. He'd reviewed the last eighty-five Linda Ronstadt albums or some such totally dubious excuse he made up on the ...

Linda Ronstadt: Confessions of an LA Bunnywoman

Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 19 February 1983

IN THE MOUNTAIN of scorn heaped on the Los Angeles musical community, nobody has been maligned more than Linda Ronstadt. The vapid esteem she was ...

Linda Ronstadt: Performing Is Not My Gift

Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, TV Guide, May 1984

SHE LOOKS SO darling, standing there on a Santa Barbara, Cal., stage in front of Nelson Riddle and his 43-piece orchestra, ready for the first ...

An Intimate Conversation with Linda Ronstadt

Interview by Steve Bloom, Downbeat, July 1985

LINDA RONSTADT is into French poodles these days. Basking in the glow of two consecutive platinum albums — filled with orchestrated arrangements of what she ...

Ronstadt's Rainstorm Of Emotion

Interview by Holly Gleason, CD Review, March 1990

LINDA RONSTADT enters the press room at a trade magazine's office in Los Angeles with her five-person entourage, and immediately manages to find familiar territory ...

Ronstadt Proves She Can Go Home Again

Profile and Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 March 1995

LINDA RONSTADT settled comfortably into a couch in her record company offices. The cream-colored ensemble she was wearing emphasized her preternaturally translucent skin. She has ...

Homecoming Queen: Linda Ronstadt

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, April 1995

Thirty years ago Linda Ronstadt left Tucson for the folk-rock Mecca of Los Angeles. Now the first lady of softly streamlined country returns to the ...

Linda Ronstadt: Feels Like Home (Elektra; CD and cassette)

Review by Holly Gleason, The New York Times, 9 April 1995

Linda Ronstadt Comes Full Circle ...

Linda Ronstadt on Emmylou: And Then There Were Two…

Interview by Bill DeYoung, Goldmine, 2 August 1996

CHRIS HILLMAN, who'd introduced Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, played matchmaker another time: Backstage at a concert in Texas, he put the newcomer together with ...

The Linda Ronstadt Interview: Tucson, Arizona, 17 June 1998

Interview by Debbie Kruger, unpublished, June 1998

DK: You are a performer who has covered the most diverse range of genres in popular music, and they are all listed on your bio ...

Linda Ronstadt: Everlasting Linda

Profile and Interview by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, 18 July 1998

IT'S SUMMER IN TUCSON, around 38° C, and Linda Ronstadt is sanguine about the waterlilies sprouting in her pond. The rest of the grounds are ...

Country Rock

Book Excerpt by James Hunter, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1999

COUNTRY ROCK, the incorporation of musical elements and songwriting idioms from traditional country music into late 1960s and '70s rock, usually pursued in Los Angeles. ...

Peter Asher: A World Of Sound

Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, April 1999

"I ALWAYS found the studio a fascinating place," says producer Peter Asher, "and the process of assembling a track and figuring out what each musician ...

The Everly Sisters: Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt

Interview by Bill DeYoung, Goldmine, 24 September 1999

IT TOOK more than 25 years, two divergent careers and plenty of false starts, near-misses and might-have-beens, but Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris have finally ...

The Eagles/Jackson Browne/Linda Ronstadt: Live at Staples Center, Los Angeles

Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 17 February 2000

THE KINGS of Country Rock have been on ice for the better part of two decades. Still, they earned most of their reported $7 million ...

Home At Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt

Profile and Interview by Bill DeYoung, Goldmine, 21 February 2003

THERE ARE many things about her career that Linda Ronstadt wishes she'd done differently. Still, the most successful female singer of the rock 'n' roll ...

Play It as It Lays: David Geffen and Asylum Records

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

This is an excerpt from Barney Hoskyns'  Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons (Fourth Estate, 2005) ...

Big Tit Sue and Bigger Tit Sue: Torrid Tales of the Troubadour

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California', 2006

UP ON THE Sunset Strip, the live scene was hurting. Name bands were now too big to play small clubs like the Whisky: they'd be ...

Capitol at 75

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Capitol 75' (Taschen), 2016

NOTE: Herewith the full "director's cut" version of the historical essay I contributed to the spectacularly lavish Taschen book marking the 75th anniversary of West ...

Why Linda Ronstadt is the Quintessential "Girl Singer"

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, September 2019

I FIRST SAW her at the Bitter End on Bleecker Street in the early '70s; I was in the second row, sipping on an ice ...

Linda Ronstadt and Jerry Wexler on Unreleased 1981 Album Keeping Out of Mischief

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 30 September 2019

The well-received September 2019 theatrically released film documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice altogether skipped Keeping Out of Mischief, the unreleased album of ...

see also Eagles, The

see also Stone Poneys, The

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