"'It will have four pages: P. B. And. J.,' she said. Peanut butter sandwiches with jelly or honey were such a mainstay when she was touring that Neil Young, whom she opened for in the 1970s, still teases her about it by sending texts that just say 'peanut butter.'"
Some very touching photographs at the link.
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I enjoyed many of her songs, but she sounds like a pain in the ass to deal with. It will be nice if she has the juice (like corn!) to get chefs to share their recipes.
I had some thoughts about how the idea of a cookbook with recipes from several Arizona families evolved into one just focused on her, but the amount of criticism coming from Ronstadt in the article made me want to temper my own.
For people who have only heard her pop songs, I recommend the album "Lush Life". I wore out my cassette of that back in the '80s. This has made me think of it again so I saved it to my music library. "Skylark" is my favorite from it.
It will have four pages: P.B. And. J.
When I was six I invented a sandwich called "the super."
Which was peanut-butter, jelly, and banana.
P.B.J.B.
Requires gummy white bread, and strawberry preserves, which is lumpier than strawberry jam or strawberry jelly. And don't try to substitute grape because that shit ain't right.
Ate that sandwich for my entire childhood.
When I was a rebellious teen-ager, I was like, "Mom, please stop cutting it horizontally. It needs to be a vertical cut. Or no cut at all."
She was like, "You can make it yourself!"
(Taste better when she makes it).
Back in the 80s, we listened to the entire album "Get Closer" at least once a day, because one of our sons was so crazy about it that he'd have played it over and over all day if he'd been able to put records on the record player. He gazed at the album cover the whole time it played.
Once when we asked the question "What do you want to do?" He answered: "Do Ronstadt!"
Her politics suck, but one of my favorite female singers. What a voice!
Evolution with a humane touch.
She's as cute a little old lady as she was a cute young woman.
I've always liked her. I spent so many teenage hours with a big pair of headphones on my head listening to her albums. And, as a theater person, I loved her in The Pirates of Penzance. There's actually a youtube video of her in the original New York Shakespeare Festival production. The thing about her was that she was the kind of artist that didn't write their own songs. (In the old school vein of artists like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.) And that is okay since performance and writing are two different art forms. I've always thought it was odd that modern music evolved this mindset that you can't perform it unless you wrote it. That is so dumb because so many great writers and composers are terrible performers. Like I said: different art forms. I remember when she released the album, Mad Love, there were a bunch of "Nu Wave" tracks on it, some of them written by Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello remarked that that album was "shit on vinyl." But that angry young (now old) man notwithstanding, it was an enjoyable album.
My daughter was about 20 when she took me to see Linda Ronstadt in concert with Emmy Lou Harris. There weren't very many people her age there, and at intermission an older woman asked my daughter how she even knew who Linda Ronstadt was. My daughter said, "I loved her singing with all the frogs on the Muppet Show."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmIKfm5iz4
"Once when we asked the question "What do you want to do?" He answered: "Do Ronstadt!"
Ha. I knew a law professor who claimed to have done just that. He said she was not great in the sack.
Linda Ronstadt had kids? I thought she was all "Don't get my wrong. It's not that I knock it. It's just that I am not in the market" about that.
Turns out the kids were adopted. And of course, we all know now that "Different Drum" was written by Mike Nesmith. It would have had a different meaning if he sang it. Woman's prerogative and all that.
Here she is, 1969, so young, with Johnny Cash.
She was one of the great female vocalists in rock.
You need to go to YouTube and listen to this:
https://youtu.be/cIhK9otA0cs
It's about a peanut-butter sandwich, and it smokes just about the entirety of Young's and Ronstadt's collective works. Bold words, I know. True, nonetheless.
Her voice was a magnificent instrument and she knew how to use it. Beyond the pop stuff, the G&S and the Nelson Riddle covers of standards and the border songs as well. Don't talk to me of her politics. Just put on some music. She knew what worked for her.
She was a great singer but turned out to be just another generic lunatic lefty.
Maybe she (like all the others) should just stick to entertaining people...
In her prime she was the best singer in pop music -- untouchable. "You're No Good" with its Beatles-y instrumental break, damn that was a great record. I love it every time I hear it.
Mary Beth above mentioned "Lush Life" which was the first of a trilogy of songwriter standards she did. And she followed that up with an album of all Mexican music (also great). I can imagine the execs at Asylum Records thinking... "well, it's great, but when are the hits gonna come back?" That's the level of star power she had. (couple of years later her duet with the Aaron Neville went to #1)
I was a fan of Linda Ronstadt and Gilbert & Sullivan. I never thought those stars would align, but they did. Bliss. Pour oh pour the pirate sherry. She really did excel in any number of musical genres.....She's having a tough old age. I'm acquainted with Parkinson's Disease. It's no fun and especially for someone like her with her heightened sense of harmony and sensuality. I guess she'll always have those happy memories of evenings spent in the arms of Jerry Brown to comfort her. Anyway, her taste buds remain intact, and she can afford to keep a good cook on staff.
I have a soft spot for Linda. Such a voice and such a babe. But mostly a voice. She sang operetta, torch songs and traditional Mariachi, Mexican stuff, wearing the Mexican dress. I never got the image of her in a Cub Scout uniform out of my mind, but she was so much more.
She was the best thing Jerry Brown ever did.
Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice was a wonderful film. Recommended without reservation.
I can watch that video of Tumbling Dice at the Fox pretty much non stop when I get rolling.
She says now that she didn’t like performing. I don’t think I believe her. She was just so damned transcendent.
"Some very touching photographs at the link."
To which the New York Times replies;
"You’ve reached your limit of free articles."
Also helped Henley and Frey in the early days of their careers.
Peanut butter mixed with honey or Karo syrup, along with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made with homemade strawberry, blackberry, grape and apple jelly/jam were a staple for all of my childhood, up through and including college years.
I saw her open for Young in 1973 at Hampton Roads, and she was positively electric. (Neil was a disappointment, in contrast.) It was widely believed that she slept with whoever her drummer was, and so all drummers wanted to get that job. Everyone was in love with Ronstadt.
This faded for me when she went all political - she was not necessarily a smart person - but i would not wish Parkinson's on anyone.
>> as a theater person, I loved her in The Pirates of Penzance
That's what I mostly remember, though I'm sure I would recognize various other songs if I looked at a list. It was just such a knockout when she launched into "Poor Wandering One."
--gpm
“My daughter was about 20 when she took me to see Linda Ronstadt in concert with Emmy Lou Harris.”
Linda Ronstadt sang duets with a few other singers that were as if their voices weee meant to be sung in harmony, but I think it was just because Ronstadt was that great of a singer. I loved her duets with Emmy Lou Harris and Aaron Neville. She did one song with Phoebe Snow called The Married Men, just beautiful.
Blue Bayou is sung just beautifully by her. Like everything else she sings.
"This faded for me when she went all political - she was not necessarily a smart person - but i would not wish Parkinson's on anyone."
Ha! That someone may disagree with you on politics is no indicator that person is "not...a smart person."
I've always thought it was odd that modern music evolved this mindset that you can't perform it unless you wrote it.
I read an article on that a couple of years ago (wish I could find it easily. . . .) but it was a very 1960s/'70s thing when bands (not so much solo artists, I don't think) felt they needed to write and record their own stuff and not rely on outsiders to actually write their songs. But, I suppose that's where the "singer/songwriter" moniker came from.
There is a great YouTube video of Linda in a trio setting with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. It was fairly recent, as her voice has dropped somewhat and has taken on a reedy quality. Still, she uses it to its fullest.
There's a Simpsons compilation video of five different Christmas episodes and Linda shows up in the one named "Mr. Plow". It's a tiny cameo but hilarious given the plotline.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCl-HXllGI0
"I've always thought it was odd that modern music evolved this mindset that you can't perform it unless you wrote it."
I think it was partly a belief by the young people of the 60s that artists performing only material written by others were "inauthentic," as they were "acting" out in their performances the thoughts and feelings of others; partly because a few artists who became very popular very early on, (e.g., the Beatles) began writing their own material, and others emulated them; and partly a matter of considering where the real money was: publishing royalties. The songwriters make royalties on the sales of their own records of their songs and on the records of other artists singing their songs.
In the mid-60s, she played at the Troubadour a lot. The upstairs dressing room walls were covered with Stone Poneys graffiti. What a voice. Park is a fucked-up disease.
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