Post by the Scribe on Jun 6, 2022 20:01:19 GMT
WELCOME HEADS...
...welcome beatnix, welcome hippies too, all are welcome...welcome the cafe hooligan shouting mad poetry on a tuesday afternoon after 3 expressos liberally plied and supplemented with cheap brandy, a hydro reefer and 4 donuts...welcome the layabout who wanders from pad to pad, scarfing free food and enjoying a bonged session with some good hash, welcome to all right thinking cats who know the deal and don't squeal...welcome to you all...
Read more: spaced3saviour.blogspot.com/2009/11/linda-ronstadt.html#ixzz7VSls4QKM
...being the folky first biscuit from this laurel canyon combo, in the tradition of the early sixties folk revival before the hallucinogenic drugs took hold and changed the rules of writing forever...less pop than the mamas'n'papas but less folk than judy collins they existed in a world not loved by AM radio and too quiet for the psychedelic dungeons that were starting to spring up...could well be taken as one of the last vestiges of the coffee house beatnik genre, before it transformed into the hippy mold and out into the square world where the unwashed picked up the worst aspects of hippie freedom ideals and ruined the whole groove...
...this second poneys wax is a dead cert for being produced by andy loog in another universe, parallel or otherways...harpsichords agogo, in a very tasty way...funky hep chamber-music for spring evenings in long gone days when such things were possible...some good artpop use of sixty-stereo-arrangements and muted orchestral vibes help move into pop-ballads a couple of times and the 2-part title song is a beautiful trancy-beatnik folk floater, well eastern and hepcity bound for '67... (on collector/seller lists (without the known involvement of linda) this would be overhyped-otherworldy-psychedelic but that well may be the case in this instance, such is the righteous groove this imparts)...the pop hit on the citizen charts with 'different drum' marked out the destiny for these baskethouse folkies and popstardom found its way to one of them sometime later, and sadly but not unexpectedly this hit single status effectively put paid to any real hep 'art-pop-double-wax' these cats could have put together...very nice and widely unheard due to its future destiny, one year after release, with the cutout bin, and as is the way of the order, brokedown hepcats with a peeper on what could have been in that parallel universe get to hear it and all is as it should be...the topsy turvey hope and substance meets the manisfestation for all who beleive, well formed grist that repays forever and don't disappoint in stormy weather...
...as expected with artists that suddenly take off after many years of trying there's some exploito wax put onto the market to see if anyone's going to bite down and grab some old tuneage that had been left in the vaults gathering dust...in the mid seventies it was time to prise open lindas box of early treasures and spread it over the market place for any late coming 'fans'...this waxing is made up of leftovers/studio tryouts and as such a nice stepping stone from the poneys to lindas solo gig...3 buckley tunes/nesmith/nyro covers and some artfolk/sitar damage...nice addition to the folk/countryrock groove that grew up and around hollywood/laurel canyon back in the day...
...back in those late six-oh times, high up in the rarified hippie laurel canyon air the idea of rekindling the past into new ways of thinking and doing was taking off, due in no small way to those zimmerman basement tape tunes floating on the ether around hep pads making all and sundry want to groove with a 'get back' vibe, getting back to a more natural and organic feel to the sounds, no more acid experimentation...laurel canyon being part of the hollywood area in geographical location and happenstance with its succession of cop and cowboy programs/propaganda flicks/censored news all pouring into the civilians vision/mind, it seemed to the more turned on generation the way 'back/forward' was to graft country music (the sound of the draft dodging hippies enemy/older folks) onto some folkrock/blues spillage to bring about a new blue-collar sound that would unite kids and squares against the real opposition, the military machine that was killing many abroad and at home...(looking back, exactly how this new country rock would bring together hippies and the general population, the brain washed squares, is hard to get a handle on, what with all the squares all marching to the same TEEVEE tune, buying the shoddy goods to keep the empire afloat with imagined affluence, the great unwashed thinking all longhairs were indoctrinated dupes under the control of the communist hoards, all hippie drug taking draft dodgers being brainwashed by the kremlin was a favourite idea propagated by the nixon government lackies)...one of the first canyon efforts was lindas solo foray away from the arty-folk of the stone poneys into a roots amalgam of honkytonk/nashville/rockpop with some fine funky playing by all concerned...much better than many ronstadt watchers have tried to persuade, this is a long way from 'stylish' asylum coke tuneage that would eventually become her calling card...her waxings around the '69/70 axis were a real nice gloop of honky-rock-country-tonk and before that trend homegenized into thin weak blandness and finally disappeared into nothing...
...there sure is some funky stuff going on with this second solo wax, from flat out trailer trash twang to some sure fire funky gospel wailing...from late flowering earthy girl group pop sashaying to hymanal purity folk, it's all well real and down with the 'get back' groove...squeaky fiddles, tambourines and cowbell all add to the flavour making this also a much better LP than a lot of cats were once willing to admit...even the cover has got to be one of the funkiest and that's the plain truth, cuddling up to a pig is funky any way it's looked at, dig the pig...
Read more: spaced3saviour.blogspot.com/2009/11/linda-ronstadt.html#ixzz7VSmJBbOm