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Linda Ronstadt - Simple Dreams Audio CD

A fair review of the Linda Ronstadt "Simple Dreams" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Linda Ronstadt reviews here, or go back to the Linda Ronstadt tabs.

Linda Ronstadt Band: Linda Ronstadt
Title: Simple Dreams
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: It's So Easy 2: Carmelita 3: Simple Man, Simple Dream 4: Sorrow Lives Here 5: I Never Will Marry 6: Blue Bayou 7: Poor, Poor Pitiful Me 8: Maybe I'm Right 9: Tumbling Dice 10: Old Paint

Classic from a classy lady
Although I have to put up with the time and cost incurred in ordering from USA, it's still worthwhile for any collector because of the far superior cover design and packaging vis a vis the Australian version. This is easily the best Linda Ronstadt CD and I would have given it five stars if it was digitally re-mastered.


The Good Linda Ronstadt
Nothing since has compared to this fine work. The best she has to offer. I think they could have left "Old Paint" off of it though.


Linda and her boys capture the landscape of Southern California
Let others genuflect on Heart Like a Wheel or those three ridiculous, effete Nelson Riddle albums. Simple Dreams to this day remains my Linda Ronstadt desert island disc if, Heaven forbid, I could only choose one. Ronstadt was always a more convincing interpreter of Eric Kaz than Gershwin or Ellington, which is nowhere more evident than on Sorrow Lives where -- acccompanied by only the late Don Grolnick's piano, mind you -- brave soul Ronstadt takes us on more harrowing curves and hairpin turns than a drunken Diana Ross driving down Topanga Canyon on her way to return some videos to Blockbuster. Indeed, Simple Dreams marked the last time Ronstadt was ever willing to get this down and this dirty, before she sent her chops off for vocal training in preparation for Gilbert & Sullivan. Before she became an artiste. Before she began over-enunciating her t's. Disco be damned, the album spawned four hits that were everywhere during the time, with Blue Bayou enduring to become her own New York, New York. Never mattered much to me that Ronstadt didn't seem to know what she was singing about on Warren Zevon's Poor Poor Pitiful Me or the Stones' Tumbling Dice; Linda was just keeping up with her boys. And there are lots of them, including Eagle Don Henley, Stone Poney crony Kenny Edwards, and the always welcome J. D. Souther. (I can see why she would do him. ) Even Andrew Gold, who'd left her stable and was riding the charts in his own right with Lonely Boy, returned to mama in a cameo billed under the alias Larry Hagler. Only Dolly Parton's shimmering guest vocal on I Never Will Marry keeps Simple Dreams from being an all-male affair. Ronstadt would evolve as an artist over the next three decades and build an enviable catalogue that would have seemed unimagineable in 1977, but she would never again make an album as cohesive as Simple Dreams. (Although Cry Like A Rainstorm. . . comes close, except for those over-enunciated t's - "something's noT quiTe righT. . . " ) It's a shame to hear her disparage her 70's period as being not very musically interesting for a singer, dissing her hit records as (to paraphrase her) kinda sucking. If that's true, then Simple Dreams sucks. But in a GOOD way. In fact, ALL records should suck like this.

SERVING SUGGESTION: The Main Refrain by Wendy Waldman.


A HUGE Album Back In The 1970's!!!
It almost seemed compulsory to own a copy. This album was HUGE when it was released back in 1977. And now it is 2005 and the tracks on it sound as fresh today as they did way back then. Linda has a unique voice and singing style which is demonstratedin the track " I Never Will Marry" which is a duet with Dolly Parton. Rock guitarist extraodinaire Waddy Wachtel plays on this album which is an added bonus!!!Whenever I play this album it takes me back to a simpler time in my youth when Saturday night meant a HOT DATE and a Drive In Movie!!!.


Cool album!
Memorable tunes include a cover of the Everly Brothers' hit IT'S SO EASY,a cover of the late Warren Zevon's personally penned POOR POOR PITIFUL ME,a cover of BLUE BAYOU,first recorded by the late Roy Orbison and the Jagger-Richards classic TUMBLING DICE. This album spawned more hits than its predecessor,HASTEN DOWN THE WIND. Linda Ronstadt must be a fan of the Everly Brothers since she previously covered WHEN WILL I BE LOVED which was first recorded by the EB. The follow-up album,LIVING IN THE USA would become a hit. .


You can see a complete list of all Linda Ronstadt discography, or go back to the Linda Ronstadt tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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