The other day I was kind of shocked to read someone making a snarky comment about Linda Ronstadt. Apparently among some people of fashion, as they obviously take themselves for, she's considered to be uncool. What's unfashionable seldom has anything to do with quality in art, fashion has proven itself to be entirely able to disdain the greatest art and champion the most trivial. These days it loves the stupid and ephemerally sensational but most of all the commercial.
I always liked Linda Ronstadt, she certainly had a varied career singing everything from pop songs to Mexican popular songs [ It wouldn't surprise me if that was what made her persona non grata with some fashionable folks.] and lots of other genres including her role as the first Ginger in Carla Bley's jazz opera, Escalator Over The Hill. Her voice was undeniably very good and Ronstadt was enough of an artist to be able to sing the difficult music on texts that don't have conventional or narrative content and make it compelling. She must have had something that one of the great composers of our time saw, singers as good as Jeanne Lee (Ginger 2) and Sheila Jordan were also involved with the original recording.
This weekend I also found out that Linda Ronstadt was forced to retire due to a serious illness. I hope she's as well as can be.
Update: Ah, well, see my post yesterday on that topic. I used to think he lied about what I said because he was functionally illiterate due to having read his own stuff for so many years. Now I think he's just an habitual liar. I don't care if he lies to the c. 35 people who read his lies. They're hardly the whole world.
I agree with you about Linda Ronstadt. I saw her in concert once. She came out into a huge arena in a spotlight and began singing unaccompanied. She it the note like she was ringing a bell, and had us all in the palm of her hand for the rest of the night.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the Carla Bley opera; I'll have to track down that recording.
I understand she was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. She lost her singing ability long before the diagnosis, but now she knows what she's up against.