Yesterday afternoon, I found myself searching for several hours through boxes upon boxes – no, not at the Archives, but in our attic. When we moved from the apartment to the house in early 2014, I think everyone but us was surprised at just how much stuff we had accumulated through the years, with the vast majority of it being things that most folks would have churned into the second-hand market (or trash) long ago. I’m talking books, books and more books, plus CDs, magazines and assorted odds and ends, knick-knacks of every sort.
I didn’t find what I was looking for – Linda Ronstadt’s excellent memoir, Simple Dreams – but did come away with a few things of interest, including a September 1981 Circus, October 1980 Trouser Press, a November 1978 magazine called New Wave Rock and, as seen to the left, the 1978 Rolling Stone with Linda Ronstadt on the cover. I’d forgotten that we had it. The last led me, a little bit later, to sift through quite a few of the Linda clips on YouTube, including this one distributed by Reelin’ Through the Years Productions:
And this one, which lifts her performances of “Tumblin’ Dice,” “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” and “Love Me Tender” from the FM movie:
So, for today’s Top 5: Linda Ronstadt, Volume II. (Volume I can be found here, though some of the chosen clips have since gone AWOL from YouTube.)
1) “Desperado” & ”You’re No Good.” Linda sings the classic Eagles’ song, which she recorded for her 1973 album Don’t Cry Now, and “You’re No Good” on the 1974 Johnny Cash: A Concert Behind Prison Walls TV special.
2) “Hey Mister That’s Me Up on the Jukebox.” The James Taylor-written song comes her sixth LP, Prisoner in Disguise, which was released in September 1975. This performance, if the notes are correct, hails from December of that same year. (The video goes wonky at the 1:48 mark, but is cool to watch up until then.)
3) “Blue Bayou.” Linda’s cover of the Roy Orbison classic hails from her 1977 album, Simple Dreams. The concert was shot in Atlanta that year.
4) “I Knew You When.” From her oft-overlooked 1982 album, Get Closer. The Joe South-penned song was a hit for Billy Joe Royal in 1965.
5) “Lies”/“Tell Him.” And a twofer from Get Closer: covers of the Knickerbockers’ “Lies” and the Exciters’ “Tell Him.”
And two bonuses…
This seductive rendition of Jimmy Webb’s “Easy for You to Say,” also from Get Closer…
…and Linda’s delightful 1986 Tonight Show appearance promoting For Sentimental Reasons, the final part of her Nelson Riddle trilogy, and the Round Midnight box set, which collected all three of the LPs.
The Old Grey Cat 
My decades of accululation was neatly cut in half when we moved from our first home to our new home in 2000. I regret parting with some of the stuff but overall know it was the right thing to do, the smart thing to do cuase I have been gathering even more stuff.
Mom is not the hippest of women though she will proudly tell you she’s on “The Facebook” though she is just a lurker – only posting comments on other people’s posts and never making any post of her own. And she is woefully out of touch with pop culture from the past 40 years but man she loves thgat George Carlin bit about Stuff and misquotes it all the time.
Though she no longer maintains a residence here, Ronstadt will always be a Hideaway Hometown Girl. That RS cover is prime pretty Linda (the very definition of her name in Spanish) and she had the vocal chops that made her more than just a pretty face. She remains one of the very few – less than a handful – of artists that we could appreciate as a family when i was growing up.
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