Post by the Scribe on Dec 7, 2022 8:42:20 GMT
Q & A With Linda Ronstadt
www.sfgate.com/music/popquiz/article/Q-A-With-Linda-Ronstadt-3003615.php
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 21, 1998
Several tracks on Linda Ronstadt's new album "We Ran," due this Tuesday, reach back to her earliest days as a folk-rocker on the budding Los Angeles scene. She's joined on the new album by Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, former Eagle Bernie Leadon and, on tracks such as John Hiatt's "When We Ran" and Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," legendary rock producer Glyn Johns.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Linda+Ronstadt%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Tom+Petty%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Eagle+Bernie+Leadon%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22John+Hiatt%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Glyn+Johns%22
Once one of the country's hottest pop stars, Ronstadt, 52, has pursued a dizzying range of styles in recent years, including opera, traditional Mexican music and the popular standard. Though she recently sold her home in Pacific Heights and moved her two adopted children back to her hometown of Tucson, Ariz., she maintains a second residence in San Francisco.
Q: Please clear this up: Your first band, the Stone Poneys -- what was with the spelling of Poneys?
A: You know, I'm a real good speller, and I had a pony, and I never even noticed that. Must have been the record company.
Q: Is there such a thing as the so-called California sound?
A: Yeah! Back in the days when music used to be regional, you didn't hear the same kind of music on the radio in California as you did in New Jersey or New York.
Q: What made the sound distinct?
A: The Byrds were what brought me to California, because I was a folk-music person. I heard them singing (Pete Seeger's) "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "The Bells of Rhymney" and I thought, "Gee, 12-string guitar amplified, and Chris Hillman," who we knew as a bluegrass player. I loved country music, and at that point country music was still considered hopelessly unhip. When I met Gram Parsons and Bernie Leadon, they were like closet country music lovers. We would get together and play these country songs, and it eventually worked its way into our material.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Pete+Seeger%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Chris+Hillman%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Gram+Parsons%22
Q: Did Parsons lead the way?
A: We all sort of did it at once. I can remember my manager at the time saying, "Ecchh. It's too country for rock, and too rock for country. It's too corny." My feelings were hurt, but it was too much a part of who I was. Gram introduced me to Emmy (Emmylou Harris), and Emmy was a folk-music person who had never listened to country music. As soon as I heard Emmy singing, I kind of moved over (laughs). Now we do it together, and that's the best thing.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Emmylou+Harris%22
Q: Another "Trio" record (with Dolly Parton)?
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Dolly+Parton%22
A: No. We've just been doing things together over the years. We don't know whether it'll come out, or when. At this part of my career I can afford to say, "I will only spend time and energy on the things that I absolutely have to do or they'll keep me up at night."
Q: You've been doing that for 15 years now.
A: But now I don't even feel like I have to perform (laughs). The thing I've been obsessed with for years is glass music. On my last two records I used a lot of it, but I did such a job of layering it up that it sounds like synthesizers. Now I've been asked to produce a (glass) record by a classical label. Mozart, of course, wrote a ton of music for glass.
Q: Was "Winter Light" (1994) the first album where you used glass?
A: Yes. My memory is that I was with Van Dyke Parks and Lowell George when I first heard it -- but my memory is so bad! I remember it thrilling me to the center of my being. It might have been on a (film) scoring stage. This would've been, you know, 1971. We'd get up about 10 o'clock and we'd just start exploring. We'd go around to everybody's recording studio and we'd just hang out.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Lowell+George%22
Q: That sounds like what Brian Wilson was up to, exploring unusual sounds for their own sake.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Brian+Wilson%22
A: Yeah. We were very eclectic. It was just a great time. But when the shows moved out of the club level, we stopped seeing each other. Who wants to go to the coliseums? The sound is so bad. It changed the nature of the music profoundly, because subtlety does not prevail in a coliseum. I sang with Placido Domingo one time in a place like that, and I was so disappointed. The orchestra was just a roar. The only performance I've done this year was at a 750-seat hall (in Tucson), and I loved it.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Placido+Domingo%22
Q: Did you move to Tucson for family reasons?
A: I think it was because I was spending a lot of time in Tucson with my family, and when I woke up in the morning, I heard the same birds that I heard as a child. It's really as basic as that. I felt like the tornado had blown me back to Kansas -- this long, treacherous journey, and I made it home safe.
Q: How do you stay connected with people you played with 20 years ago?
A: Bernie Leadon and I were neighbors in Topanga Canyon. It was a completely intimate friendship, like brother and sister. He was playing in my band, and I introduced him to Glenn Frey, and then we introduced Glenn to Don Henley. My manager introduced all of us to Randy Meisner, and that's how we formed the Eagles.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Glenn+Frey%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Don+Henley%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Randy+Meisner%22
Q: Was it exhilarating as your star was rising to watch those guys take off as well?
A: We didn't think about that. We really thought, you know, "Can this drummer play a good shuffle?" We really didn't think about being stars. I've made a lot of attempts to play the music of my heart and failed. Even the stuff that was successful was often to me not a success artistically.
Q: In which cases did both things work?
A: The whole Mexican adventure, and the Nelson Riddle adventure. But in terms of my singing on the Nelson Riddle projects, those were all works-in-progress. (The recording of) "What's New" was literally the first time I ever sang it with accompaniment. I know how to phrase it so much better now. But that was my chance to get at that deeper, richer vein of pop music, which has finally been understood and written about rather extensively with the passing of Frank Sinatra. This was the American Century, and the most unique and largest contribution it gave to the world was the popular song. We didn't give 'em great sculpture in this century, or great painting. But we gave the world the popular song.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Frank+Sinatra%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22American+Century%22
Q: Does a song like "You're No Good" fit into that?
A: Absolutely not. That's a throwaway song. I'm sure the person who wrote it had the best intentions, but you can't compare that to a song by Gershwin. And you can't compare a song like "When Will I Be Loved" to a song by Rodgers and Hart.
Q: How familiar with the Heartbreakers were you?
A: I was very intimidated by them, and I was blown away at how sweet they are. Of course, I always go to their concerts. I saw them at the Fillmore. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. But I don't stay out past 7:30 at night. I sat there in all that smoke.
Q: There's no smoking anymore at the Fillmore.
A: I felt like a diseased lung. I had to wash my hair for three days.
www.sfgate.com/music/popquiz/article/Q-A-With-Linda-Ronstadt-3003615.php
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 21, 1998
Several tracks on Linda Ronstadt's new album "We Ran," due this Tuesday, reach back to her earliest days as a folk-rocker on the budding Los Angeles scene. She's joined on the new album by Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, former Eagle Bernie Leadon and, on tracks such as John Hiatt's "When We Ran" and Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," legendary rock producer Glyn Johns.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Linda+Ronstadt%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Tom+Petty%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Eagle+Bernie+Leadon%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22John+Hiatt%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Glyn+Johns%22
Once one of the country's hottest pop stars, Ronstadt, 52, has pursued a dizzying range of styles in recent years, including opera, traditional Mexican music and the popular standard. Though she recently sold her home in Pacific Heights and moved her two adopted children back to her hometown of Tucson, Ariz., she maintains a second residence in San Francisco.
Q: Please clear this up: Your first band, the Stone Poneys -- what was with the spelling of Poneys?
A: You know, I'm a real good speller, and I had a pony, and I never even noticed that. Must have been the record company.
Q: Is there such a thing as the so-called California sound?
A: Yeah! Back in the days when music used to be regional, you didn't hear the same kind of music on the radio in California as you did in New Jersey or New York.
Q: What made the sound distinct?
A: The Byrds were what brought me to California, because I was a folk-music person. I heard them singing (Pete Seeger's) "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "The Bells of Rhymney" and I thought, "Gee, 12-string guitar amplified, and Chris Hillman," who we knew as a bluegrass player. I loved country music, and at that point country music was still considered hopelessly unhip. When I met Gram Parsons and Bernie Leadon, they were like closet country music lovers. We would get together and play these country songs, and it eventually worked its way into our material.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Pete+Seeger%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Chris+Hillman%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Gram+Parsons%22
Q: Did Parsons lead the way?
A: We all sort of did it at once. I can remember my manager at the time saying, "Ecchh. It's too country for rock, and too rock for country. It's too corny." My feelings were hurt, but it was too much a part of who I was. Gram introduced me to Emmy (Emmylou Harris), and Emmy was a folk-music person who had never listened to country music. As soon as I heard Emmy singing, I kind of moved over (laughs). Now we do it together, and that's the best thing.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Emmylou+Harris%22
Q: Another "Trio" record (with Dolly Parton)?
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Dolly+Parton%22
A: No. We've just been doing things together over the years. We don't know whether it'll come out, or when. At this part of my career I can afford to say, "I will only spend time and energy on the things that I absolutely have to do or they'll keep me up at night."
Q: You've been doing that for 15 years now.
A: But now I don't even feel like I have to perform (laughs). The thing I've been obsessed with for years is glass music. On my last two records I used a lot of it, but I did such a job of layering it up that it sounds like synthesizers. Now I've been asked to produce a (glass) record by a classical label. Mozart, of course, wrote a ton of music for glass.
Q: Was "Winter Light" (1994) the first album where you used glass?
A: Yes. My memory is that I was with Van Dyke Parks and Lowell George when I first heard it -- but my memory is so bad! I remember it thrilling me to the center of my being. It might have been on a (film) scoring stage. This would've been, you know, 1971. We'd get up about 10 o'clock and we'd just start exploring. We'd go around to everybody's recording studio and we'd just hang out.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Lowell+George%22
Q: That sounds like what Brian Wilson was up to, exploring unusual sounds for their own sake.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Brian+Wilson%22
A: Yeah. We were very eclectic. It was just a great time. But when the shows moved out of the club level, we stopped seeing each other. Who wants to go to the coliseums? The sound is so bad. It changed the nature of the music profoundly, because subtlety does not prevail in a coliseum. I sang with Placido Domingo one time in a place like that, and I was so disappointed. The orchestra was just a roar. The only performance I've done this year was at a 750-seat hall (in Tucson), and I loved it.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Placido+Domingo%22
Q: Did you move to Tucson for family reasons?
A: I think it was because I was spending a lot of time in Tucson with my family, and when I woke up in the morning, I heard the same birds that I heard as a child. It's really as basic as that. I felt like the tornado had blown me back to Kansas -- this long, treacherous journey, and I made it home safe.
Q: How do you stay connected with people you played with 20 years ago?
A: Bernie Leadon and I were neighbors in Topanga Canyon. It was a completely intimate friendship, like brother and sister. He was playing in my band, and I introduced him to Glenn Frey, and then we introduced Glenn to Don Henley. My manager introduced all of us to Randy Meisner, and that's how we formed the Eagles.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Glenn+Frey%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Don+Henley%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Randy+Meisner%22
Q: Was it exhilarating as your star was rising to watch those guys take off as well?
A: We didn't think about that. We really thought, you know, "Can this drummer play a good shuffle?" We really didn't think about being stars. I've made a lot of attempts to play the music of my heart and failed. Even the stuff that was successful was often to me not a success artistically.
Q: In which cases did both things work?
A: The whole Mexican adventure, and the Nelson Riddle adventure. But in terms of my singing on the Nelson Riddle projects, those were all works-in-progress. (The recording of) "What's New" was literally the first time I ever sang it with accompaniment. I know how to phrase it so much better now. But that was my chance to get at that deeper, richer vein of pop music, which has finally been understood and written about rather extensively with the passing of Frank Sinatra. This was the American Century, and the most unique and largest contribution it gave to the world was the popular song. We didn't give 'em great sculpture in this century, or great painting. But we gave the world the popular song.
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Frank+Sinatra%22
www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=music%2Fpopquiz&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22American+Century%22
Q: Does a song like "You're No Good" fit into that?
A: Absolutely not. That's a throwaway song. I'm sure the person who wrote it had the best intentions, but you can't compare that to a song by Gershwin. And you can't compare a song like "When Will I Be Loved" to a song by Rodgers and Hart.
Q: How familiar with the Heartbreakers were you?
A: I was very intimidated by them, and I was blown away at how sweet they are. Of course, I always go to their concerts. I saw them at the Fillmore. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. But I don't stay out past 7:30 at night. I sat there in all that smoke.
Q: There's no smoking anymore at the Fillmore.
A: I felt like a diseased lung. I had to wash my hair for three days.