How sick is Linda Ronstadt?

She’s in pain quite a bit of the time and home bound. She’s been interviewed a few times lately and seems really fragile. Parkinson’s is sadly taking its toll. I think it’s more advanced than Michael J Fox. She was probably medicated well for the show. She missed her rock and roll hall of fame induction a year or so ago. She can’t stand for long periods.

"Something (you) just read," where? Link, please?

I don't know anything re: Parkinson's. Muhammad Ali is no longer with us, but Alan Alda, Neil Diamond and M.J. Fox are, so . . .?

(She didn't look all that great on the Kennedy Center special. On the other hand, if she were dying, I doubt she would've risked making the trip in the first place, right?)

Love and positive energy to Linda.

R2 It’s in this article. Definitely sending love and positive energy to Linda.

I really enjoyed the movie about her that was released recently. I wasn't a huge fan of hers way back, but the movie really made me realize her talent. She also seemed like a nice, down to earth person who was focused on music and not fame.

That article is from February.

Agree that the documentary is just great.

She got screwed by not adding a couple of "la la"s to the songs she recorded and demanding half the writing residuals.

But she seems to be doing OK financially? I hope she is.

She apparently doesn't have Parkinson's. She has Supranuclear Palsy, which is what Dudley Moore had. The Parkinson's turned out to be a misdiagnosis. They share many of the same symptoms, though.

She's not at death's door. She has Parkinson's disease and as she has said- it's just as likely that something else will get her before it might. PD moves slowly in most people. I think she is a class act and obviously very intelligent. She's also humble. The documentary is great.

I’m the editor at Simon and Schuster who told Linda to get her affairs in chronological order to spice up her biography: Albert Brooks, Jerry Brown, George Lucas, etc. Bitch would not cooperate!

Which deplorable decided to enact revenge after Linda's Pompeo comment?

Mean girl Dolly Parton knocked her to the ground at the Music Cares Grammy event earlier this year.

I’m fascinated by her career. She was beyond huge for a time and then just vamoosed from the spotlight. I’m going to watch that doc.

OP, it was just a quote sloppily used:

When one doctor said because of her advancing Parkinson's Disease she needed to get her affairs in order, Linda joked, "I'll outlive the bastard."

As another poster mentioned, this is an old article. She is 73 years old with some serious health issues. I imagine this would be a factor in evaluating the list of places one will "will likely never visit again".

She was never huge. Her music was popular for awhile on the radio, but she was never a cultural phenomenon in the way that Madonna, Streisand, Beyonce, or Tina Turner were. Her level of success was similar to what Kelly Clarkson achieved at her peak. In other words, nice but nothing special.

Her team is attempting to rewrite history to promote this documentary by overstating her success and influence. No one under 30 knows who she is today. And I can't remember the last time I heard a younger artist mention her name as one of their idols. She's mostly forgotten.

^^^ LR has outlived you by more than two decades, you ol' one-hit wonder, you. And as Ronstadt once told Rolling Stone back in the Seventies:

"I didn't set out to be a star. I set out to be a singer."

And wound up in the same league as Baahbra, Vadge, Tina et.al. anyway.

The documentary is great. I never paid much attention to her, but having seen the film, have so much appreciation for her. They really don’t make them like they used to.

She was huge for a female singer in that period. Or a solo act, male or female, period.

I was born in the mid-70s and her music is some of the first I remember hearing. I thought "Ooh Baby Baby" was the most beautiful thing.

My parents had all her records and were far from hip — if you weren't huge, they didn't buy. They had all the Beatles albums, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Motown biggies, and a Streisand thing or two. But Linda was what they played, all the time.

r14 is either being a troll or really hates Ronstadt. You cannot underestimate her popularity in the '70s and '80s.

BTW, if you haven't seen the documentary, it is going to air on CNN on New Year's Day. I just bought the Blu-Ray but I'm a huge fan.

Thanks for the heads-up, R18. Viva Linda!

[quote]She apparently doesn't have Parkinson's. She has Supranuclear Palsy

Please she has the girl AIDS. It fits the time frame. I swear these celebs will do anything to keep their HIV+ status secret right into the grave

[quote]She got screwed by not adding a couple of "la la"s to the songs she recorded and demanding half the writing residuals.

I resemble that remark!

The police came to her house the other day because she was in her drawers, when it was 20 degrees singing Heat Wave, off key

[quote][R14] is either being a troll or really hates Ronstadt.

I actually like Linda, but she was not nearly as big as the producers of her documentary want you to believe. She was never the biggest female artist during her peak years. She never had the charisma or showmanship to be a huge star.

In the CNN commercials promoting the documentary, they state that she was the first female pop star. That's simply not true. Connie Francis, Streisand, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight were all big pop stars long before she came along.

Her career spans 4 decades that's a pretty big deal. She definitely didn't work the star system as some, she seems to have been dedicated to challenging herself with new and personal projects instead. That's what made Linda special.

Her career spans 4 decades that's a pretty big deal. She definitely didn't work the star system as some, she seems to have been dedicated to challenging herself with new and personal projects instead. That's what made Linda special.

R14 is such a huge idiot. SMDH.

R14, are you 25? She has sold more than 100 million albums and for two decades along with Streisand and Aretha regarded as one of the best voices in the history of popular music in her generation. She was about as big as a recording artist gets.

r23 is also full of shit. First for mentioning Connie Francis in the same post as LR, and then for trying to deny LR's influence as a ROCK star.

LR was big in the 70s, but so were Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Carole King and many others. It was a high water mark in terms of the popularity and diversity of popular female singers, not to mention women who primarily were songwriters like Laura Nyro.

Her version of "Ooh Baby Bay " does not standup to the original by the Miracles and part of her her downfall was covering material she was not equipped to to do well.

Her decline is sad, but I didn't think she rated a Kennedy Center honor. Like Sally Field, she seemed at best second string for that sort of thing. Joni Mitchell, as annoyiong as she can be as a person, was more iconic and probably a greater musical influence on her peers than Ronstadt.

I'm 43 and Linda Ronstadt's heyday was before my time. I don't remember her being a gigantic star in the 80s. I vividly remember Madonna and Tina Turner as being absolutely huge, but Ronstadt was definitely not on that level. Her pop stuff was mostly 70s, by the 80s she was still famous, of course, but was doing the Nelson Riddle stuff and wasn't really getting airplay on top 40 or MTV. I just don't remember her as being a big deal in the 80s, I would say my memories are the same as r14's.

I can tell you that NOBODY who is younger than my age group has any idea who she is.

No, she was by no means a diva. She was too cool for that. She lived the way she wanted, fucked who she wanted, and concentrated on her music without giving too much attention to how she was perceived. I respect her for that.

She was a serious musician, first and foremost.

Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Streisand, Carly Simon, Karen Carpenter, Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross were all bigger than Linda in terms of success/artistry during the '70s.

Linda was know as having a great voice, but her music and style wasn't influential and had little cultural impact. She was more known for being a part of the 70s California rock movement, which included The Eagles, Jackson Browne, etc.

R33, none of the artists you listed, save Streisand, were as consistently successful as Ronstadt. Between 1974 and 1990 she had a dozen albums go platinum, all of them save one. She was as popular as any female singer in the 1970s, her albums were as ubiquitous as the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in that decade. I love Joni but the only time she approached Linda's popularity was Court & Spark. Same for Carole King and Tapestry.

Love her cover of Blue Bayou.

If you were alive in the 70s, Linda was huge. On the radio ALL THE TIME. And the radio was the only place you heard new music. A totally different world.

Linda was the first female artist to sell out arenas and stadiums on her name alone. At one point she sold out two weeks of shows at the Universal Amphitheatre.

Linda was the first solo female artist to have a string of multiplatinum selling albums. And every record she released from 1973 to 1990 has been certified gold or platinum.

Her What's New album from 1983 was the second biggest selling of her career and along with Michael Jackson, Flashdance and The Police was one of the biggest selling albums of that year. She is credited with having brought the standards genre back to mainstream audiences.

Her first Spanish language album is the biggest selling Spanish album in US History with two million copies.

The true queen of musical reinvention, and she has the receipts to prove it.

You can't deny that this is better than anything Ronstadt ever released. Her voice is more pleasant, too.

Linda's memoir was short on salacious details, but she did include a great story about roller skating with Nicolette Larson and Leslie Van Houten (!) on Venice Beach in the late 70s. Leslie's lawyer apparently introduced them when Leslie was out on bail while her case was being appealed. Linda said she was a sweetheart and was shocked to later discover that she was a Manson girl.

Consider it denied, r38. Nicole Larson's voice isn't "more pleasant." And it's indistinguishable from so many, many other voices.

Consider it denied, r38. Nicole Larson's voice isn't "more pleasant." And it's indistinguishable from so many, many other voices.

R30 LR’s best selling album was released in 1989, so you’re wrong about her not having much of a career in the 80s.

What did she say about Jerry Brown? I think they were a couple for a good while.

And yes Linda was big in the 70's. She had a unique sound and lots of emotion in her music. You felt her songs. Lots of hits.

Nicolette Larson had a very warm, lovely voice.

There is nothing gossipy about her book. She pretty much glosses over her love life, which was extensive. She got around, like all rock stars do. Among her lovers were assorted members of the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Jerry Brown, Mick Jagger, George Lucas, Albert Brooks, Bill Murray, Moon Martin, Brett Hudson and Jim Carrey. As for her affair with Jerry Brown, she says that they both knew that their lifestyles would never converge into a permanent relationship, although they remained friends and are to this day on "excellent terms."

The only one I remember her writing much about was J.D. Souther. They seemed to be the most serious. She once ran into Joni Mitchell leaving his place (that story might have been in Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California, which is a great book about this time and place).

I'm a fan of Linda Ronstadt and was a young gay male when she was in her prime. She was big, and at the very least you couldn't escape Blue Bayou. But she is a singer, not a songwriter. What bothers me is that she changed the lyrics to at least two songs. On “After the Gold Rush” she changed Neil Young's lyric “and I felt like getting high” to “and I felt like I could cry”. On the Anna McGarrigle song ”Heart Like a Wheel” she deleted a whole verse (and there were only three): “They say that death is a tragedy/It comes once and it's over/But my only wish is for that deep dark abyss/Because what's the use of living with no true lover”, saving us, I guess, from drugs and self harm.

She actually sang that verse in concert during the Get Closer tour.

J.D. Souther was quite a heartbreaker. He dumped Judee Sill for Ronstadt, and it crushed her. He also had his way with Stevie Nicks; he eventually tired of her too. He must have been some stud.

I don't care about her impact or relevance or importance or merit relative to other singers of her era or any era: I like most of her music, have many of her albums and saw her in concert (encore: Heart Like a Wheel with Andrew Gold on piano).

R23 You are right. Connie was really the first mega star in the new era. Connie first went into the Big Band sound, as Linda later did, and Connie first went into the foreign language recordings, as Linda later did, i.e., Spanish.

I still play the standard albums she did with Nelson Riddle.

Just watched the documentary. I had no idea how smart she is. She’s really amazing.

I never really got into her music (except for a few songs) but she seems like a really lovely person in interviews. I'm sorry she has Parkinsons, I have a relative with that disease and it's terrible. It totally robs you of your independence.

[quote]J.D. Souther was quite a heartbreaker. He dumped Judee Sill for Ronstadt, and it crushed her. He also had his way with Stevie Nicks; he eventually tired of her too. He must have been some stud.

Judging from the size of his crotch, I'd say so.

She’s fine, she sends her love!

Huh. What an odd / ignorant comment to make, R47. I'm pretty sure the younger Ronstadt indulged in at least a bit of drug debauchery - if memory serves, she had to have her nose cauterized precisely because she Hoovered so much blow back in the late Sixties / early Seventies.

I was under the impression That Parton Gal insisted on the "After The Gold Rush" lyric change for the "Trio II" album. Dolly's fan base, like it or not, includes bazillions of evangelicals, Baptists and other deplorables she apparently feared would riot / burn all of her albums if she made any sort of drug reference in her songs (of course, the title of "After The Gold Rush" is, itself, a drug reference, but we'll get to that next time.)

“Linda Ronstadt never stopped singing” - recent Washington Post interview!

She was big in the '70s, but not so much by the '80s. By the mid-eighties Madonna and Tina Turner were definitely bigger than her.

She was skinny in the '70s, but not so much by the '80s. By the mid-eighties Madonna and Tina Turner were definitely skinnier than her.

J. D. Souther was a total stud. Bearded ginger goodness.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote] I was under the impression That Parton Gal insisted on the "After The Gold Rush" lyric change for the "Trio II" album [/quote]

The lyric was changed on Linda Ronstadt's 1995 album “Far From Home”, which did not feature Dolly Parton and which was recorded before 1999's “Trio II”.

Southerdong's original version of "Faithless Love" (which, if you're reading this thread, you may be familiar with from Linda's Prisoner in Disguise album).

I've been listening to all of Linda's albums (iTunes shuffle). I have them on LP and CD, and I transferred the CDs to my computer. Right now: "The Sweetest Gift."

Linda was big enough in the '90s -- not career-wise -- for Howard Stern to call her Blimpa Ronsfat.

She was terrible in The Pirates of Penzance, both in terms of acting and singing. She made Madonna look like Meryl Streep.

I never saw her in La Boheme, but I assume it was just as bad.

^^^ "FEELS LIKE Home."

Also, not true. "Trio II" was recorded first. Then Ronstadt and Harris had their (temporary) falling-out with Parton, because Dollface was too busy trying to launch her ill-fated "Heavens To Betsy" sitcom, and refused to go on tour in support of "Trio II."

LR then erased Parton's vocals from several tracks, got the late, great Valerie Carter to re-do Parton's parts, and used said tracks on "FEELS LIKE Home."

And then the release of "Trio II" got pushed back to '99.

Lengthy article on same in Goldmine Magazine (it was there a month or so ago, anyway.) Google "Goldmine" and "Ronstadt" and "Parton."

Linda acted like a diva during the recording of Trio II. Dolly just wanted to go in and record the thing, Linda wanted to spend days re-recording identical vocals.

She was a huge coke head in the 70s. Allegedly. She once broke her ankle dancing at a July 4th party at Olivia Newton-John’s house.

How in the hell could anyone listen to all of Ronstadt's albums? She is best in very small does. She had a big blaring voice and little finesse as a singer. She admits that herself. In her lovely soprano voice, she is wobbly and unable to sustain intonation or a long note, but that is by far the most attractive part of her voice. But mostly she was a kind of sloppy rock belter. She did learn how to sing better before she lost her voice. But one song every few months is more than enough Ronstadt. The less said about Nelson Riddle recordings, the better. What a voice! How wrong she does it!

She had a very "pretty" voice that lent itself well to certain types of songs. She tried singing all types of styles, but was just not suited to a lot of them. She did lackluster versions of rock songs like "Tumbling Dice" and "Living In The U.S.A." She was equally hopeless singing "new wave" music; she sang silly versions of songs by Elvis Costello like "Alison" and "Girl's Talk.' Costello said they were terrible but it made made money for him he was ok with it.

I listen to her all the time...a couple of hours this morning. She's my very favorite singer. I love her voice. I don't like most of her "rock" songs (That'll Be the Day, Heat Wave, Tumbling Dice, Living in the USA), but I loved her Elvis Costello covers. Her versions of Warren Zevon's and JD Souther's songs are some of the best music I've ever heard, as well as the stuff she does with Emmy.

I also listen to lots of Miles Davis, Mahler, the Beach Boys, and some of Springsteen (1987 and before).

R64 Faithless Love is on Heart Like a Wheel not PiD.

She's just a very emotionless singer. Even when she tries to rock out, she just puts a growl in her voice but there's no real energy there. That Carmelita song ^ could not be more boring. She sings dead on the beat, with very little color to her vocal, no gift for phrasing and very clumsy dynamics. She sounds like she's putting together an Ikea table.

Southerdong! You ain’t kidding. Both Linda and Stevie got to suck on it.

She`s fine! She sends her love!

Was JD Souther really considered a hot piece in the 70s? He's really gnarly looking by today's standards.

Without the sloppy long hair and unkempt beard J. D. Souther was a good looking guy. Must have been good in bed too, seeing as how women were crazy about him.

Dudes were so unkempt in the 70s, with all the long hair and also facial hair. They looked like they were homeless derelicts. Short hair and clean-shaven looks so much better.

"Justine" for R75. I do agree that her voice really wasn't suited for some of the stuff she chose to do, but the good stuff outweighs the bad, IMHO.

I think her version of Ooh Baby Baby is equally as good as the original. Her Desperado cover is amazing too. She sings with great artistry.

I love everything about Mad Love. How to I Make You is one of her best IMHO!

Sylvester's Ooh Baby Baby is the best ever.

And there is this....

I don't know why since I liked all of her contemporaries I never warmed to her.

She was perhaps the end of the musicians

Linda Ronstadt was the furthest thing from a musician. She might have pulled a train of musicians though.

JD. Souther was a hung, skinny dude who I think had the ability to make the women in his life have that "you are the only person alive" feeling while he was dating them....but he changed relationships often.

Stellar piece of dick, though, expert fucker, and he got passed around, too.

She's no good

she's no good

she's no good

Baby, she's no gooooooooooood.........

I saw the brief news report before the Kennedy Center Honors and she did indeed look considerably worse than her last appearances. Hands were very, very shaky. Best portion was where they mentioned Carrie and she essentially ignored the question.

Wonderful vocal performance on Cher's show but she was NOT made for Bob Mackie gowns. Rip it Up is one of her best performances.

^ "Give me the Beach Boys and free my soul...

Give me Denny to fill my hole."

Mmm, who is that at R92

"Wonderful vocal performance on Cher's show but she was NOT made for Bob Mackie gowns."

She was also not made for Cher-like wigs. She was made to wear an oversized curly one on the Cher show. I remember her long ago saying about the incident that she was told 'with your stringy hair you should wear this" and so she wore it saying it was look like a fool or be labeled difficult. So she went along with it. And indeed she does look ridiculous. Wigs were not her style at all.

Dennis Wilson r93 from The Beach Boys.

Dennis Wilson dated Christine McVie for a long time. She tells the story how he tried to landscape a giant heart with flowers into her garden but it was too difficult so the gardeners abandoned the project. Chris got the bill a month later.

R91, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Linda got totally out-sung by Cher. Linda's voice was so cold and one-dimensional back then.

J.D. Souther almost led Hope Steadman astray.

I remember being sick to death of Ronstadt back in the day. She was overplayed to death. I hope to never hear ‘You’re No Good,’ ‘Blue Bayou’ or any of her other dreck ever again.

I'm not much of a fan, but I can hear what's very good about her voice. She's not a great singer and not even one of the great vocalists, but she had the exceptional female voice of her time. That wasn't really a thing back then - to care about a voice with such power and purity. Ronstadt is before my time, but I'm a fan of Trisha Yearwood so I've learned a lot about Ronstadt. There is no bigger fan of Linda than the great Trisha Yearwood.

Anway, my older boyfriend made me a mixtape 20 years ago when I was 23. He put Cry Like a Windstorm and Howl Like the Wind on it by Linda Ronstadt. The song was 10 years old then. THAT's a stellar vocal performance and a bit more soulful than her usual paint by numbers singing. She sounded gorgeous and sang that song in a meaningful way. It's moving, not weepy - the lyrics are pedestrian, but sonically it just blew me away. I wore my earbuds and just loved her sound. I still love that song. Linda sang too many covers in her early career, because she doesn't share the evocative delicacy and riproar of Emmylou or the complex character and gorgeous soulfulness of Bonnie Raitt or anywhere near the musical artistry and audacity of Joni Mitchell. All three of them were much better singers than Linda. Ronstadt's songs and her sound ARE monotonous. There's a nice performance of her singing Anyone Who Had A Heart out there. She seemed to have got it - to be ambitious but shade the lyric and modulate a complex vocal by then. It's still far from the best cover of that song. Ronstadt reminds me of Streisand in this way. She sang to please herself and friends. She doesn't seem much interested in singing for people. Linda figured out how to best sing for her particular voice after she was 40 years old. I'm not trying to be offensive. Her voice was too good to be so awkward and dull. For so long.

I know Linda was talented and I enjoyed several of her big 70s hits, but other than Heart Like A Wheel, I didn't care much for her albums/album tracks. She sang in an operatic voice - too operatic for my tastes.

Her SIMPLE DREAMS & BACK IN THE USA albums in the late 70’s were huge sellers....she was headlining stadium concerts during that period....she just didn’t play the celebrity game...I saw her twice during the MAD LOVE tour and she sounded amazing but wasn’t a storyteller as she didn’t write her own songs...she and Cher were friends back then as well....

She's best when she sings country songs like this.

And this

Why wasn't Dolly Parton a part of her Kennedy Center tribute?

Dolly Parton is probably booked up everyday until 2024 R105. LInda and Emmylou hang out. Dolly doesn't hang out. She pretends to be friends with people because she's so friendly. But her life doesn't work like that. Parton should slow down now though. She's starting to appear desperate and ridiculous. Her voice lasted a long time because she sings in complete modal voice. (look it up) But she's shaky and uncertain now. It came on quite sudden. It's not about to leave her.

Linda looks so frail - that's what's alarming. She wouldn't be singing anymore regardless. She has good ears and high standards. She's would know when to stop, even without Parkinson's. All kind of other reasons why. No one said LInda wasn't supremely talented. She doubts herself in all the right ways. She approached a lot of things wrong musically. She's a smart insightful woman. Dolly is not her great friend - though I am sure they shared some fun times.

^^^ Bitch had stuff t'do!

Dolly could have shown up for me too. Bitch.

Why didn’t Linda perform as part of the “We are the World” recording? Well, why didn’t she?

It wasn’t just “Cry Like a Rainstorm” in the late eighties that was so huge for LR in that decade, she also had “What’s New” in1983 and that was, I believe, her second best selling album after 1989’s “Rainstorm”. Plus she was a member of Trio and that album sold an insane amount of copies. The 1980s was a massive decade for Linda R and so don’t believe the naysayers.

Well done.

Linda was a hugely successful pop singer in the mid-1970s. She was doing stadium tours. She also tried other genres and found big success with "Canciones de mi Padre" and her other Spanish language albums. She has had a long career and did a lot more than the current crop of pop divas.

"Why didn’t Linda perform as part of the “We are the World” recording? Well, why didn’t she?"

She was too smart to take part in that. She didn't want to sing that shit song and be part of that rock star ego trip.

[quote]Linda was a hugely successful pop singer in the mid-1970s. She was doing stadium tours.

No, she wasn't. Only 18 female singers have grossed over $100 million in a single tour, and Linda was not one of them. Therefore, she was NOT a hugely successful pop singer doing stadium tours.

I prefer her 80s and 90s pop albums more than her seventies catalog. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Winter Light, We Ran, and the album she did with Emmylou (without Dolly) are my favorites. I also have a soft spot for Get Closer which was critically panned but has some of her finest work (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and Easy For You To Say).

Quincy Jones DID invite LR to the "WATW" session.

The official line was, she begged off with a cold. But I suspect R113's observations are 'way closer to the truth.

Pretty pretty LR.

I liked some of her songs but I think she's overrated. She had NO stage presence at all; just stood there and sang. One critic said although she was lively and intelligent in interviews she acted like "a dumb kitten" onstage. I guess if you went to see her you'd have to be satisfied with just listening to her voice, because that's all there was.

R116, I don't know. Linda LOVED doing harmonies so I think she might have had a cold. She was not a music snob and since this was for charity, I think she would have done it if she were physically able.

R118 did you see her live or just TV performances? In the documentary she seemed to have a lot of presence.

I would agree that Linda's live performances left much to be desired. She didn't know how to put on a show and her patter between songs was woefully strained. She would agree. The times she loosened up was when she shared the spotlight. Her big band concerts were delightful because of all the duets. On a PBS recorded show, she began cracking up because the bubble machine was so distracting during Mr. Sandman. The audiences went wild.

I loved Linda R when she first started, she reminded me of every girl I had even seen at a dance or a club, who would get up and sing her heart out. Only in Linda's case she could actually sing.

Linda appeared on Hee Haw and did photos like this? She always had a kind of slutty look. Until she didn't.

Furthermore, R119, she may have been TOLD to stay home if she had a cold. Can you just imagine the fallout if Miss Ross had fallen ill afterwards?

Her "sexy" photo session where she's wearing frowsy red lingerie (it looks like it came from a thrift shop) was unfortunate. She really didn't have the figure for it. And she didn't look comfortable doing it.

r114....shut the fuck up. You do realize, right, that concert tickets in the 70s were 6 dollars for the cheap seats and about 12 for premium. They didnt have 500 dollar concert tickets back then....and that was arena pricing.

[quote]She had NO stage presence at all; just stood there and sang.

I don’t see the problem.

Here's a live performance of her in the 60's when this song got a lot of radio play. The Stone Poneys sucked here, but you can hear her voice--no need for editing, running through sound machines, etc.

I was born in 1962 and she was huge in the 70s. She was also one of the first if not the first country/pop stars to really go into other genres. New Wave, Gilbert and Sullivan, Spanish songs, and then standards. Now almost every singer does the standards album, but she was the first.

I just watched the documentary...I enjoyed it, but it was sad. To see and hear her in her prime, and then to see her today trying to sing and shaking badly...it was heart wrenching. I also felt it did nowhere near the justice to her and her career that she deserves. As a Ronstadt fan from the early 70s on, I remember all the highlights from her career. They left out so much. It almost seemed like a teaser for the real film.

She is a sick, sick cunt.

R129:

Not to pick nits at Christmastime, but Carly Simon's "Torch" LP came out 3-4 years before Linda's "What's New" / "Lush Life" / "For Sentimental Reasons" triple whammy.

And the late, great Harry Nilsson beat them both by several years with HIS standards album ("A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night," I think?)

Why ? Because she was right ? Howard Stern is an asshole. Everyone knows it and agrees...including Howard himself...thats his schtick.

Linda suffers from obnoxious personality disorder. People put up with it when she was pretty. But there's always been something very corrective and bitchy about her. If she were brighter it wouldn't be so off putting. But she's of average intelligence and superior outrage.

LR is ALSO a self-made woman, R131. You know, as opposed to being a professional sycophant.

"But she's of average intelligence and superior outrage."

Actually, it's evident from her interviews that she's quite intelligent. You're the one who doesn't sound very bright.

Sorry R129, I forgot about those other two. Like everyone else.

Actually, CS got the idea from Ronstadt. Ronstadt had recorded an album of standards in early 81, but it was shelved and redone with Riddle 2 years later.

^^^^^

[quote]I kept saying, “No, my phrasing isn’t good enough. I don’t have enough technique to do this. I’m too sloppy.”

That's correct Linda.

Tons of people aren't Stern fans, for a long list of reasons. Glad to know Linda's one of us.

That's kind of old man of you R141. That Linda silliness was 30 years ago. I was 13. She attacked Howard Stern's female co-host on the Tonight Show? Linda could have called into his radio show. But she waited for a bigger audience. She's always so bitchy in interviews. She was tacky and rude and obnoxious in that clip. Graceless. I'm sure "Lying Eyes" was written for Linda. There's never any feeling there. HER feeling yes. She's a narcissist. She just pulled some similar shade when they asked her about Carrie Underwood at the Kennedy Center Honors. Linda thinks she's being upright, but she's so often a disrespectful bitch when she needn't be. She was a musical and intellectual lightweight who should have done more with her activism. Because her fame got away from her. Her fake ass I just wanted to sing, I never cared about fame thing is belied by how many times she fucked and fired people, changed bands, demanded new understanding and kept up the fake honoring of others while she endlessly promoted herself. There is no genius at work with Linda Ronstadt. She sang more than okay. And then she got worse.

Carly/r142 - go back to sucking Ben’s cock!

I just watched the documentary. It's very good but I agree with r130 that it's like a teaser. They skipped over quite a bit as the article in r139's post mentions.

They completely skipped over Mad Love, which is one of my favourite Linda albums. There was no reference to the Robin Quivers dispute, although I was surprised there was a reference to when Linda played South Africa in the 1980s. It was controversial at the time. No mention of her contributions to Paul Simon's Graceland album. No Somewhere Out There.

The interviews with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton were excellent and very illuminating. Emmylou is obviously very close to her. I appreciated Dolly's honesty (Linda was a "pain in the ass"). I actually wish they spent more time on the Trio era.

I also liked the Karla Bonoff interview. She basically admitted that Linda's recordings kind of killed any momentum for Bonoff's solo career but was still thankful for Ronstadt singing her songs.

But it's still worth watching if you're a fan.

I love her.

Linda Ronstadt compares Trump to Hitler, says Mexicans 'are the new Jews'

R145 actually, Jews are the new Jews, but I digress.

I watched a couple Carson interviews she did and I was so taken aback by how thin and mousy her speaking voice was; I expected to hear this commanding, husky bad ass broad kind of voice. And it was this high little thing.

R144, Linda gave a more polite version of, Dolly was a pain in the ass. They kept trying to get her to appear for a studio session and apparently she just wouldn’t show up within a reasonable time frame and they couldn’t do it. It had to do with deadlines they all had to meet outside of the recording itself.

It sounded like Linda was saying, I know everyone loves Dolly but this is what happened to me.

R14 is completely wrong. She was massively popular - to say she wasn't is ignorant.

She was pre-video and she also sort of self-dropped out of the scene to do what she wants. She did disappear from US consciousness - but she was never a diva or a major personality, so maybe that's why she has limited influence on younger artists.

I don't think money is an issue - she comes from a very prominent family in Arizona.

She is very sick and hasn't much life yet. Why did someone say she toured all the time? As soon as I saw her, I knew she had Parkinson's. All you can do is accept it.

The documentary airs on CNN tonight.

She's definitely strictly a Boomer thing. She never translated to younger generations like some of her contemporaries like Stevie Nicks. Nobody really knows who she is anymore.

r151....clueless

And r151 is as obsessed with her as he is clueless, r152.

Not clueless at all, Linda Ronstadt was big with Boomers, but her mainstream career really slowed down in the 80s after her big stardom in the 70s. She was nowhere near the level of Madonna, Whitney or Tina Turner in that decade. Nobody under 30 knows who she is, and Gen X was never all that into her.

Yes, r154. You hate her. You keep telling us. And telling us. And telling us. You hate her. We know. You keep telling us.

I don't hate her, I just think history is being rewritten.

Her last hit song was "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville and that was 30 years ago. Dolly Parton has been able to maintain her superstar status all these years, while Linda is unknown to anyone under 30.

Lets see Beyonce on stage in her 70s singing Single Ladies....and Rhianna singing Umbrella...or Brittney sing Baby, One more time...and then you can tell us who is really irrelevant and untalented

No, r156, those are all love notes you've tortured us with in this thread.

R157, are you the Billboard 100 queen? I could not care less if Linda had single "hits." Her albums were always the point, and she made them until she could make them no more.

Don't get between old queens and their divas lol! They're still waiting for Betty Buckley to fill arenas.

If you don't like her, fine, but don't tell those of us who do that we're wrong to do so.

"She never translated to younger generations like some of her contemporaries like Stevie Nicks."

How does Stevie Nicks "translate to younger generations?" I don't think any younger generations know who the hell she is, although maybe they vaguely has some idea who the old lady with the gnarly voice and the shawls who twirls around onstage and sings about witches and gypsies and the velvet underground and crystal visions is. Some singer from some old time band, they probably think, if they even have any thoughts about it at all.

I remember reading an article where she and Emmy Lou complained about Dolly, saying she was more interested in doing movies and publicity for movies. IIRC at one point Linda and Emmy Lou made Dolly promise she would be there for recording and publicity and singing appearances and then Dolly would just not show up. Linda felt she had broken her promises to the trio and Dolly felt Linda was being a pain in the ass. Dolly did not come off well.

r162 unlike you I know many people under 30.

Linda was defending the recently murdered memory of Selena on the tonight show when Howard Stern was making jokes about Selena being murdered including gun shots in the background and saying all of her fans were people who had velvet paintings on their walls!

As a mexican american, Linda was RIGHTFULLY disgusted and angry...and she felt quivers as a woman and a woman of color should have not stayed silent and gone along with stern's remarks....

game, set and match to linda..

Stern would never get away with the shit he said about Selena when she was murdered. It was flat out racist. I was surprised at the time it didn't get more media play and he wasn't crucified for it. He got away with it by claiming "shock jock comedy".

it's weird that the documentary completely skips over the dispute with Robin as well as Linda praising Michael Moore and getting a mixed reaction from her audience at a concert in 2004. It was a big story at the time.

Why in the world would this documentary have mentioned this moment with Robin? It's so peripheral. Robin WHO?!?, already.

R144– the directors of the doc have never made anything about a woman before, and have very little experience with music projects. They optioned her book, and that’s how they got the deal to make the film. James Keach did the only original interview with her . They are fine filmmakers, but this wasn’t that great a film.

Watching her speak in old interview clips.... Is she on The Spectrum?

The documentary also fails to mention her two children...at all.

Maybe she didn’t want them mentioned. They’re private citizens as far as I know. Don’t know the ages.

She’s always been pretty private about her home life. In the film, she says she and Jerry Brown didn’t talk about politics, and their relationship was more about personal things. They probably did talk about politics.

She was much chubbier before she hit big in the 70s i syspect she was told to lose wright. I remember as a child it was a huge deal when she was with Gov Jerry Brown. What’s New was very different and it was even spoofed on SNL with Julia Louis Dreyfus playing LR.

She was doing stadium tours, R114. Learn to Google.

[quote]Linda is unknown to anyone under 30

The queen who keeps saying this needs to shut the fuck up. Okay, congratulations, you've decided that "must be known to everyone under 30" is the only metric worth measuring, but that doesn't mean it's true. It's just some cliche you keep repeating as if it means anything.

"unlike you I know many people under 30."

And they all know who Stevie Nicks is and are fans of hers? I somehow doubt that.

Could we get a count, please, of everyone (besides r157) who gives even one fuck whether Linda is "known to anyone under 30"?

I watched the doc last night and I kind of laughed at the poster above who said she sort of sounded on the spectrum — I mean not quite but he wasn’t totally wrong, I get why he would say that.

I mentioned in another thread (I think it was another one) how I saw an old interview with her the other day and her speaking voice was so different from what I expected.

And...she has children??!? Who were they with?

She has two...a girl Mary (1990) and a boy Carlos (1994)...both adopted when they were infants.

Her speaking voice was a bit odd. It was like she was speaking faster before her thoughts set in.

However her speaking voice now is much clearer. Go figure.

She also had a flat accent..more midwest than Arizona.

Arizonans are mostly midwest and California transplants these days, R181. The big exception is Oklahomans, who suck all round.

Her mother was from Michigan...so she would have acquired her mothers speech patterns

Bump.

She's been dead for a few years already