Peter Asher: The collaborator Linda Ronstadt believes she owes her entire career to
It takes a small army of people to get any casual rock and roll star off the ground. Even if they have one of the greatest God-given gifts for melody and vocal tone, it doesn’t matter in the slightest if there aren’t people there to help prop them up and let audiences know what they have on their hands when buying their albums. While Linda Ronstadt was always one to get the job done on her own, it’s not like she wasn’t grateful for the kind of music legends she had surrounding her.
Before she even got big, though, Ronstadt was already one of the stars of the country rock scene in California. Everyone and their brother had tried moving to Los Angeles with big dreams and an acoustic guitar, but even in the confines of the Stone Poneys, Ronstadt was already looking to break away from the norm, usually playing a handful of songs that could bring the house down like ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.’
Then again, there was a problem trying to get by singing country tunes. Ronstadt could still sing anything and make it work, but even with a band like Eagles backing her, she could only play different standards so many times before she began looking at her as a glorified classics artist instead of a genuine talent.
But when working on her new material, she knew all she needed was a collaborator to push her over the line. So after her self-titled album put her on steady ground, Peter Asher became her go-to collaborator when it came to bouncing ideas off of. Considering his history of working with acts like James Taylor and being one-half of Peter and Gordon, it’s not like she was in shaky hands or anything.
Even if Asher was more of a producer at this time, his strength came in arranging the right songs for her to sing. Eagles may have crashed and burned with Desperado, but the title track seemed destined for Ronstadt’s voice, eventually finding her Neil Young songs to cover alongside JD Souther’s classics.
And considering the massive amount of work that Asher put into recording Heart Like A Wheel, Ronstadt figured that she wouldn’t be a legend today if they hadn’t met, saying, “I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere without Peter. He walked into The Bitter End with his wife one night and we were doing a lot of Cajun stuff. I don’t know if my band was very good. I don’t even remember who was in it.”
Then again, catching Ronstadt in her natural habitat was enough to convince any executive with halfway decent taste. And while albums like Heart Like A Wheel featured a more refined version of what she could do, ‘You’re No Good’ is as cut and dry as it could get, taking the R&B flavour of the original and putting her booming voice on top of everything.
If anything, Asher’s role is a classic example of what a producer should be behind the scenes. Many people might see them as the person who nags the artist to get the song right in the studio, but if someone already has their craft down to a science, all it takes is the right person to put the right songs in front of them so they can soar.
