Post by the Scribe on Jun 5, 2021 9:06:13 GMT
FROM THE STARS AND STRIPES ARCHIVES
Linda Ronstadt, off Broadway, 'at wits' end' looking for new songs
www.stripes.com/news/linda-ronstadt-off-broadway-at-wits-end-looking-for-new-songs-1.79821
KEN GEORGE/STARS AND STRIPES
By DAVE ORNAUER | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: September 14, 1981
Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor
TOKYO — Linda Ronstadt fans already have waited almost two years for her next album — but take heart, she says, the wait is nearly over.
She's going back to the studio soon to finish up a half-completed record that is expected to be released early in 1982.
Ronstadt, who recently completed a six-month stint as "Mabel" in the Broadway play "Pirates of Penzance," told Pacific Stars and Stripes that two reasons she has not produced an album for so long are because the play took up so much of her time and because "the songs are really getting harder and harder to find."
"I'm at my wits' end," she said of her search for quality songs. "I had recorded half my (next) album, but didn't have enough songs to finish ..." when she took the "Pirates" role. Now that she's out of the play, she said, she'll have time to find the elusive songs.
The singing superstar said the process of putting together an album is a matter of hearing new material and deciding what to do with it. "You have to decide at some point whether to try something trendy, or something that's classic or ... to integrate the two in some way," she said. "It just gets down to songs ... they are the most important things. You hear something you like and then you record it."
Ronstadt, in Tokyo with singer-writer-guitarists James Taylor and John David (J.D.) Souther for a concert in nearby Yokohama, is best known for mellow, acoustic country-rock songs. But she proved her ability to rock in her last three albums.
In the mid- to late '70s, she scored with Warren Zevon's driving rocker "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice," Chuck Berry's "Back In The U.S.A." and "It's So Easy" by Buddy Holly.
On her latest release, "Mad Love," there were three cuts by Elvis Costello, a noted new-waver.
J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt
KEN GEORGE/STARS AND STRIPES
Is Ronstadt going new wave? She said no.
"He (Costello) came out with a new album with a lot of songs that I liked," she said. "People often think there is some premediated scheme as to why you pick material ... It's because you ran into a song and you liked it ... It really is as simple as that."'
Answering questions easily, Ronstadt was enjoying herself, trading quips with Souther.
Could Souther describe life with artists Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey in a shabby $100-a-month apartment 10 years ago, someone asked. "Not really," he replied. "I could," Ronstadt chimed in mischievously. She didn't.
Does Souther agree with the new wave music and the artists who perform it? "I'm not really in agreement with anybody. Or anything," he said. Ronstadt added, "I can vouch for that!"
In contrast to Souther's and Ronstadt's liveliness, Taylor was quiet for the most part, keeping his hands folded and his eyes away from faces.
He did, however, show one flash of humor, saying about his arrival in Tokyo: "I can't think of a more appropriate place to be right now and I can't wait to arrive."
Taylor has made his name with quiet acoustic sounds. He has charted "Fire And Rain," about his heroin addiction of more than 10 years ago; "You Got a Friend," written by his friends Gerry Goffin and Carole King; "How Sweet It Is" with his wife Carly Simon; and others.
Though Souther is noted more for writing songs for stars like Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt than for performing, he charted a 1979 FM hit, "White Rhythm and Blues," which appeared on Ronstadt's Living In The U.S.A. album.
Taylor and Souther collaborated late last year on Taylor's "Dad Loves His Work" album, from which came. the Top 10 smash "Her Town Too."
Both said that chances are they'll continue working together.
"He is a good friend of mine," Taylor said: "We do have a couple of tunes we've been working on, a couple of irons in the fire."
Souther added, "We started (putting) another song together. It's pretty, kind of like 'Her Town.' It would really be nice if we could rock it some time, but at the moment ... well ..."
Answering a question about new wave music seriously for a moment, Souther said he refers to call it "new music" and the people who play it "new bands."
Among the new wave bands, Souther enjoys The Clash and Talking Heads. He shuns punk-type bands like The Ramones.
He said he wouldn't know how to draw the line on what is new wave and what is not. "I think of things that sound loose and kind of uninhibited as being rock and roll" and lighter, more inhibited sounds as something else, he summed up.
Linda Ronstadt, off Broadway, 'at wits' end' looking for new songs
www.stripes.com/news/linda-ronstadt-off-broadway-at-wits-end-looking-for-new-songs-1.79821
KEN GEORGE/STARS AND STRIPES
By DAVE ORNAUER | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: September 14, 1981
Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor
TOKYO — Linda Ronstadt fans already have waited almost two years for her next album — but take heart, she says, the wait is nearly over.
She's going back to the studio soon to finish up a half-completed record that is expected to be released early in 1982.
Ronstadt, who recently completed a six-month stint as "Mabel" in the Broadway play "Pirates of Penzance," told Pacific Stars and Stripes that two reasons she has not produced an album for so long are because the play took up so much of her time and because "the songs are really getting harder and harder to find."
"I'm at my wits' end," she said of her search for quality songs. "I had recorded half my (next) album, but didn't have enough songs to finish ..." when she took the "Pirates" role. Now that she's out of the play, she said, she'll have time to find the elusive songs.
The singing superstar said the process of putting together an album is a matter of hearing new material and deciding what to do with it. "You have to decide at some point whether to try something trendy, or something that's classic or ... to integrate the two in some way," she said. "It just gets down to songs ... they are the most important things. You hear something you like and then you record it."
Ronstadt, in Tokyo with singer-writer-guitarists James Taylor and John David (J.D.) Souther for a concert in nearby Yokohama, is best known for mellow, acoustic country-rock songs. But she proved her ability to rock in her last three albums.
In the mid- to late '70s, she scored with Warren Zevon's driving rocker "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice," Chuck Berry's "Back In The U.S.A." and "It's So Easy" by Buddy Holly.
On her latest release, "Mad Love," there were three cuts by Elvis Costello, a noted new-waver.
J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt
KEN GEORGE/STARS AND STRIPES
Is Ronstadt going new wave? She said no.
"He (Costello) came out with a new album with a lot of songs that I liked," she said. "People often think there is some premediated scheme as to why you pick material ... It's because you ran into a song and you liked it ... It really is as simple as that."'
Answering questions easily, Ronstadt was enjoying herself, trading quips with Souther.
Could Souther describe life with artists Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey in a shabby $100-a-month apartment 10 years ago, someone asked. "Not really," he replied. "I could," Ronstadt chimed in mischievously. She didn't.
Does Souther agree with the new wave music and the artists who perform it? "I'm not really in agreement with anybody. Or anything," he said. Ronstadt added, "I can vouch for that!"
In contrast to Souther's and Ronstadt's liveliness, Taylor was quiet for the most part, keeping his hands folded and his eyes away from faces.
He did, however, show one flash of humor, saying about his arrival in Tokyo: "I can't think of a more appropriate place to be right now and I can't wait to arrive."
Taylor has made his name with quiet acoustic sounds. He has charted "Fire And Rain," about his heroin addiction of more than 10 years ago; "You Got a Friend," written by his friends Gerry Goffin and Carole King; "How Sweet It Is" with his wife Carly Simon; and others.
Though Souther is noted more for writing songs for stars like Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt than for performing, he charted a 1979 FM hit, "White Rhythm and Blues," which appeared on Ronstadt's Living In The U.S.A. album.
Taylor and Souther collaborated late last year on Taylor's "Dad Loves His Work" album, from which came. the Top 10 smash "Her Town Too."
Both said that chances are they'll continue working together.
"He is a good friend of mine," Taylor said: "We do have a couple of tunes we've been working on, a couple of irons in the fire."
Souther added, "We started (putting) another song together. It's pretty, kind of like 'Her Town.' It would really be nice if we could rock it some time, but at the moment ... well ..."
Answering a question about new wave music seriously for a moment, Souther said he refers to call it "new music" and the people who play it "new bands."
Among the new wave bands, Souther enjoys The Clash and Talking Heads. He shuns punk-type bands like The Ramones.
He said he wouldn't know how to draw the line on what is new wave and what is not. "I think of things that sound loose and kind of uninhibited as being rock and roll" and lighter, more inhibited sounds as something else, he summed up.
