“Beautiful songs”: The artist Linda Ronstadt was honoured to work with
Linda Ronstadt has enjoyed an incredible career. Not only has she established herself as one of the most beloved voices in the folk world, but her presence in the wider music industry has forever been supportive and formative, as she helped unite the Eagles and worked with a whole host of her peers. Plenty of artists would say that collaborating with Ronstadt was a privilege, but in this instance, she said the pleasure was all hers as she provided vocals to a song she deeply loved.
Throughout her career, Ronstadt has turned her beautiful vocals to so many people’s music. Artists would come and lay their tracks at her feet in the hopes that she might cover it. She sang songs by the likes of Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, the Eagles and a long list of others, always able to take their classic rock or country sound and turn it into something utterly her own. Each time, the effect of Ronstadt’s take on the track would elevate it, as if her golden voice had a Midas touch.
“Linda was our muse and a brave artist who followed her instincts,” Glenn Frey once said. He called her the “the first lady of country rock” and shared his gratitude and joy over the years they spent working together or as friends. It’s a sentiment echoed by so many others who have worked with her too with it seeming to be a mutually agreed fact that Ronstadt’s voice added to any track makes it something special.
But in this instance, it was Ronstadt who was doing the complimenting as her involvement in one album session stood out to her as a true privilege. In 1971, she found herself in the studio with James Taylor, gathered round a mic as Neil Young instructed them to add harmonies and backing vocals to some of the tracks off his 1972 album, Harvest.
“I can’t remember why Neil wanted me to sing with him – I guess he just figured I was there and could do it,” she said, already seeming so humbled by the request from an artist she admired. Naturally, she obliged and went into the studio to add her voice to a collection of songs she hadn’t heard yet.
But when she did, those feelings of admiration only grew. “We went in there, and they were doing ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Old Man’”, she said, adding, “I thought they were such beautiful songs. I loved them.”
Ronstadt had always been a fan of Young’s. On her 1972 self-titled album, she covered his track ‘Birds’, then in 1973, following the release of the tracks she sang on, she joined him on tour. Since then, they’ve dueted countless times and Ronstadt became a regular fixture in the studio, adding vocals to plenty of Young’s tracks.
