Post by the Scribe on Aug 6, 2021 8:36:39 GMT
DEEP CUT LIVE PERFORMANCE: ‘DOWN SO LOW’
When I first published this list, I shared it in a number of Linda Ronstadt fan groups. Lots of people had suggestions of songs I’d left off that were their favorites, and of course, being a fan myself, I agreed with all of them. But the one performance most often cited was this tour de force, once again from the ‘Hasten Down the Wind’ album, and written by the great blues and country singer-songwriter Tracy Nelson. In the song, a rejected lover seeks to accept the reality that their partner has moved on, but insists that won’t solve the real problem: ‘But it’s not losing you/That has me down so low/I just can’t find/Another man/To take your place.’ We all know this place, this pit of despair from which we try to convince ourselves it’s not the end of the relationship that hurts, but the grief that the person we lost was so perfect for us, we’ll never be satisfied again. The lyrics brilliantly hint at self-deception mostly, but if sung right, it can transform into a midnight reckoning, an expression of depressed yearning that can even convey the potential for recovery and moving on. In order to do that, it must be sung with a near gospel-blues fervor, a signal of resilience that the singer must draw up from deep inside, as though pulling a bucket from a well. And that’s the performance Linda Ronstadt gives here, full of concentration and nuance, and drawn from the deepest well. On the record she gets an assist from a gospel choir, but live, she has to be the entire chorus, and her summoning of all her powers here is devastating and goosebump-inducing and despite the depressive nature of the lyrics, somehow, impossibly, hopeful.
tomcendejas.medium.com/20-deep-cuts-from-linda-ronstadt-that-reveal-her-artistry-65a9470c7ee2