In either the summer of 1967 or 1968 my brother
visited our family in Kabul and brought a bunch of albums with him. We were
pretty isolated living there with no contact with music or movies or TV or
news except on a sporadic basis. So I knew nothing about rock music other
than having had to listen to I Am Henry the VIII every day at the pool in
Ankara before we moved further east. Among my brother's bundle were The Doors,
Surrealistic Pillow, Revolver, Sgt Peppers, The Kinks Face to Face and Something
Else and an album by the Stone Poneys. My brother had good taste in music
if nothing else and I listened to those records all summer long.
I loved them all and still do. These groups are all legends today other than
the Stone Poneys who are basically forgotten. But they had a female vocalist
who just soared above the music on songs like Different Drum and Back on
the Street Again. It sent chills down my leg. I thought she was great. And
then never heard of her again until I was in college four years later and
she was leading the way in the new musical genre of Country Rock. That was
when you could pass any woman’s dorm room and hear either Ronstadt or Carol
King or James Taylor emanating from within. She has been a favorite ever
since though I sometimes go years without listening to her. Every now and
then though I get in the mood and play her albums for days.
This documentary answered a question that I always wondered about. What happened
to the Stone Poneys. Turns out the record company wanted her as a solo artist
and told the two men to find other employment. Kind of cruel and typical
of record companies. Ronstadt became huge in the 1970s with multiple platinum
albums, stadium tours, awards, magazine covers - but she tired of this life
and walked away from it in the 1980s. She recorded the great Tin Pan Alley
songs arranged by the man who did it for Sinatra, Nelson Riddle - she recorded
three albums of Mexican music, she did the wonderful album with Dolly Parton
and Emmylou Harris - and still put out the occasional pop album. Then she
lost her voice due to Parkinsons. Her last album was in 2004 titled Hummin'
to Myself of more American standards and it was as always a big hit.
This film covers most of this period including her childhood and only spends
the final few minutes visiting her when the film was made. She sung harmony
to a nephew singing. It is a pretty straightforward chronological documentary
with lots of clips of her and others being interviewed and in concert. It
goes into her musical impact and the singers she assisted - Bonnie Raitt,
Emmylou, Jackson Browne, the McGarrigle Sisters and of course the Eagles.
Henley and Frye had been in her band and left to form their own. Their first
album did not do well until Ronstadt sang Desperado and that changed everything.
For a female at the time she was quite remarkable in driving her own career,
making the music she wanted to, being successful in all of them, having and
keeping close friends (J.D Souther who was her lover for quite a while is
interviewed extensively), played the big arenas, gave up singing when she
didn't feel she could be her best anymore and never got a reputation as anything
but a sweetheart. Obviously, it is sad seeing her unable to sing now but
she seems reconciled to it and thankful for the life she had. There is no
attempt to go deep here and try to understand what drove her for so long
to be the best. And that is fine.
Taylor Swift:
Folklore – The Long Pond Studio (2020) – 7.0
Songs written in Lockdown. During this pandemic and self-quarantine most
of us like me have done nothing particularly special. A few more movies.
A few more books. A few more pounds. But Taylor Swift made an album. A social
distance album. Working with a few other people in different locations they
put this album together. It is a lovely album shorn of all the excess that
has crept into her music lately. Personal and intimate made of small sad
moments in our lives that feel so big to us. Vocals and a few acoustic instruments.
In this video, she and two of them finally get together at her rustic home
and talk about the album, the individual songs and play them all. 17 of them.
It's good to read the lyrics along to it because she has written some simple
but poetic ones. I have never quite figured her out. Self-indulgent in writing
constantly about her life - her songs are almost Facebook confessions in
which she shares details of her love life, her doubts, her conflicts with
friends - and yet she is clearly someone who thinks about her observations
all the time and then captures them in song. Listening to her converse here
it is clear that she is very thoughtful and articulate. She also hated Trump.
So that makes her good n my books for a long time to come.
