“Expected so much”: The artist Linda Ronstadt thought she let down
Unlike most in the Lauren Canyon talent pool, Linda Ronstadt never set out to truly “make it”. In fact, the mere opportunity to step away from the more vapid and realistic world of work and into the music scene in itself was pure magic to someone like Ronstadt, who was grateful for anything that allowed her to live in a world she never thought she would be accepted into.
With an enthusiastic heart and an eye for accompanying talent, Ronstadt was a welcome presence in the Californian music scene, nudging her way in like an unsuspecting addition to a party that long needed someone so fresh-eyed and willing to mix things up a little. That said, being welcomed didn’t necessarily mean onwards and upwards, either. In fact, many of Ronstadt’s memories of this time are somewhat ambivalent.
According to Ronstadt, while Laurel Canyon was a hazy concoction of bustling excitement and opportunity, it was also a place where people too often played it safe, and a complex community where entitlement and toxicity often flew under the radar of normalised culture. “It wasn’t completely pleasant,” she once told Mojo, recalling how she often felt like many kept to themselves “in case you had the wrong opinion.”
This conditioning of the less established, aspiring musicians, who were grateful to be included, into submission to the louder few who set the tone could have pushed Ronstadt into the shadows, hidden in the safety of background noise, where history rarely happens. However, that initial delicacy soon evolved into a sharper presence, strengthened by the wisdom that real art rarely stays silent.
As a result, Ronstadt poured her heart into every project, no matter the ambiguity she developed toward her own work, allowing her know-how and naturally wise intellect to guide her in ways that impacted not only how others were influenced but also how they pushed themselves in an already intensely competitive scene. However, this heightened standard on Ronstadt’s part meant sometimes getting it wrong, no matter how much it felt right.
This was the case for Jimmy Webb’s comeback record, Suspending Disbelief, which Ronstadt put everything into. However, while some acknowledge its greatness in varying ways, it flopped completely, which gave Ronstadt an understandable feeling of guilt. “I was so sorry it wasn’t successful,” she said, “I really worked hard on it and gave up a lot to do it. I couldn’t get people to listen to it. Jimmy expected so much and felt so let down by the record company.”
Still, Ronstadt’s accountability proves she always had something many didn’t: modesty. From the beginning, Ronstadt saw the cracks in the perfect fantasy of the burgeoning scene, guided by her attention to detail when it came to those who were in it for the right reasons and those who were just along for the party. This healthy scepticism meant she always tried her best, even when things weren’t necessarily meant to be.
And while she missed the mark with Suspending Disbelief, there’s always warmth in the underlying sincerity of her intent, even when failure creeps in. At the same time, Ronstadt never really felt that her own work was worth listening to, either, meaning that, while it didn’t accrue the numbers she wanted for Webb, it didn’t remove from the enjoyment many fans still extracted from the project.
