Review #490: Heart Like a Wheel, Linda Ronstadt
#490: Heart Like a Wheel, Linda Ronstadt
I always bristle at the terms “girl singer” or “chick singer” but Linda Ronstadt owned it. She referred to herself and other women in rock as girls and chicks constantly, because at the time, there really was a big difference in the way boy and girl singers were treated. And Ronstadt wasn’t afraid to point that out to everyone.
“I always feel, when I’m in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys, that they would like to put me in the position of being a groupie or something like that … which really pisses me off,” she says in this interview with other contemporary chick singers. She added that male musicians had an “ego problem.” Which is extra funny, because Ronstadt’s previous touring bands were future members of the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Eagles. I want to reach into the past and tell her that even though girl singers are getting more respect these days, boy musicians STILL have an ego problem. Especially the Eagles.
In any case, Linda Ronstadt was one of the most technically gifted and genre-agnostic singers of the Seventies. She resurrected a good portion of the Great American Songbook, and was able to sing both country and rock & roll, and later on Latin and opera. She paid her respects to both Billie Holiday and opera singer Maria Callas, calling her “the greatest chick singer ever.” Much of her work was cover songs, but she made an art of the cover, enlisting other famous musicians to help make them her own. Check out Emmylou Harris singing in divine harmony with her on Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You),” and Don Henley playing drums on James Taylor’s “You Can Close Your Eyes.”
This record covers all the girl singer-songwriter basics. First we get some rock songs: “You’re No Good” is a sexy cover of a Dee Dee Warwick original. (Yes, Dionne Warwick’s sister. Also, YES, I recognized it from Van Halen’s cover of the same song.) “When Will I Be Loved” is a short Everly Brothers song, filled with male-female harmonies and a slick guitar solo. My favorite rock song was “Willin’,” which straddles the line between country and rock via its sawing harmonica. Give me weed, whites and wine, she sings with angel tones. She’s not singing opera here, but you can hear her bel canto training.
Then there’s the soft stuff, ballads that would make Joni Mitchell proud. “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” changes a Buddy Holly song from a rockabilly classic to a delicate acoustic song, with pretty violins hovering over the melody. “Heart Like a Wheel” borders on operatic, and holds heartbreaker harmonies over more strings. And “Keep Me From Blowing Away” is an atheist’s simple prayer, complete with slide guitar from the Burrito Bros. Sneaky Pete.
Then there’s the country, which I think is where Ronstadt sounds most comfortable. “Faithless Love” is the only original on the album, and was later covered by Glenn Campbell. She’s a dead ringer for Patsy Cline here, if Cline had a stronger upper register. And then there’s country standard “The Dark End of the Street,” which had previously been covered by — you guessed it — the Flying Burrito Brothers. Honestly I can’t choose a favorite. That’s the thing with country classics: they look good on anyone.
Ronstadt’s success was impossible to ignore: she was the first female artists to release four consecutive platinum-selling albums. She dated Jim Carrey and then was engaged to George Lucas, but never married. In 2011, she retired, revealing that due to a case of progressive supranuclear palsy, she is no longer capable of singing. It’s a blessing, then, that she was able to cast her net so far and wide before losing her gift.
Review #489: Back to Mono (1958–1969), Phil Spector and Various Artists
