Word: ronstadt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...evocation of the early days of rock. The selection is even more significant when compared to one of her early numbers, "Heat Wave," a 1963 hit by Martha Raye and the Shirelles. That song was a tremendous hit, and deservedly so, but it was actually a bit out of Ronstadt's range. When she realized the song was too high and too powerful for her, Ronstadt finally dropped it from her concert repertoire about a year ago. By contrast, the Holly song on Simple Dreams is just a little softer, just a little slower, and as a result it sounds...
...best, but it its interesting to hear it sung by a woman. In fact, this cut may be the best on the album. The remaining seven songs on the album (which total up to a mere 32 minutes of music - those record companies really bleed you dry) further demonstrate Ronstadt's recently-found maturity. They range from mediocre, like "Maybe I'm Right," to excellent, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," a Warren Zevon song featuring strong, thoughtful phrasing and solid lyrics...
...point is that all the songs were selected with Ronstadt's abilities in mind. The arrangements, instrumentation--which features strong guitar playing by Waddy Wachtel and some acoustic guitar by Linda--and mixing all emphasize her talents to good effect...
Simple Dreams has more of a blues feeling than any other Ronstadt album. The mood is over-whelmingly downbeat, despite the occasional rock tunes. The lyrics, as in "Sorrow Lives Here," largely reflect the lonely-woman-of-the-world image that Ronstadt has always projected...
Women have never been fully accepted as rock stars--the image is a purely masculine one, as witnessed by the criticism levelled at Janis Joplin's femininity. What remains for women, and especially for women of Ronstadt's beauty and talent is a large but seemingly limited repertoire of blues-oriented music, running along the twin themes of loneliness and/or broken romances. Perhaps that is all that sells, and in the record business, as in any other major industry, sales...