Monday, April 21, 2014

My Music Monday

I was chatting with my friend, Geoffrey, the other day and somehow got on the discussion of Linda Ronstadt.

I think it was mostly about talking about her refusal to attend the Rock n Roll Hall o'Fame induction ceremonies.

While she does have Parkinson's Disease and can no longer sing, she got a sly jab in at the Hall by saying, she relegates travel for only important events.  She also said she has never sung for accolades or prizes.

True to form, she has never kept any of her Grammys and has given them all away to some record store in Portland, OR.

She also says she's never considered herself a rock singer.  And in actuality, that is correct. It's not that she hasn't touched the genre, but she's done folk, standards, mexican, operetta, adult contemporary and country.  Of her 30 original albums, less than a third of those would even dare be considered 'rock'.

She had a great voice, but I love her work with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton on their two Trio disks.  Even Ronstadt says she works better singing with other people than on her own.

I had read way back in 1978 that the three wanted to record together. It did not happen for another nine years with the release of Trio.  And Trio II, while recorded five years after the first, wasn't released until 1999.

After our convo, Geoffrey posted their song, "High Sierra" on Facebook (the YouTube link is here). It's a great song and I almost used it here too, as it's been playing in my head ever since. But I'm going with something different.

On II, they covered Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush". I wasn't sure how it would go since Young's is so great - so iconic, but it works well.  Parton takes lead vocals, Ronstadt mostly the high harmony, Harris the low. But when their voices blend, it's great.

When there was uncertainty about Trio II ever seeing the light of day (in an alleged conflict with Parton), Ronstadt took Parton's voice off the song and had Valerie Carter (a singer from the mid-70s who never broke through) replace Parton's portion. Ronstadt released the song on one of her solo disks. Except for Carter, everything is identical.

And the Ronstadt-Harris-Carter version is nice, but the Parton one is much much better.

It's an ok video, but a crappy copy of an ok video. Still, it's about the music.

3 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

my fave trio song - those memories of you.

Bob said...

Thanks for that.
I am a HUGE Ronstadt fan, and love the collaboration of these three women as well.

Unknown said...

I have been listening to Linda Ronstadt since Thursday last. Thanks for this.