Post by the Scribe on Aug 6, 2021 7:19:11 GMT
“Round Midnight” (1986, “For Sentimental Reasons” album) and “You Took Advantage of Me”
It’s haunting to realize this was the last track on the trilogy of standards that Linda Ronstadt recorded with the great conductor and arranger Nelson Riddle; Riddle died before the album wrapped. “Round Midnight” has appropriately noir-ish strings and sax and brush drum. While the first album features Ronstadt as a debutante big band singer in white dress and gloves, by the third record she’d moved on to a higher level of confidence, yet lived a little more comfortably in the shadows. Ronstadt’s respectful but not too careful approach to “Round Midnight” elucidates what a lesson about pure depression that song is; meant as lovelorn poetry, in today’s light it looks like a symptom check list for clinical mood disorder. Ronstadt’s low tones and breathy but richly resonant pure notes cloak the song in understanding. The very last notes of the orchestral arrangement signals not only the fall of night but the fall of a great musician in Mr. Riddle; thankfully Ronstadt’s records helped remind another generation of his talent. There are many songs to grab onto from these three albums of standards; “Round Midnight” is a track that grabs you and demands a late-night listen. (If you’d like a jaunty, confident alternative to “Round Midnight”, try the same album’s “You Took Advantage of Me.”)
tomcendejas.medium.com/20-deep-cuts-from-linda-ronstadt-that-reveal-her-artistry-65a9470c7ee2