The one song Linda Ronstadt has always regretted not recording
Don Henley has always said that hearing one of the greatest voices ever, in the form of Linda Ronstadt, was a nightly privilege when he was part of her touring band. He also said she was at her best when the music had a certain purity. This has always been something she’s agreed with.
“Sometimes when you’re doin’ simple things around the house, maybe you’ll think of me and smile,” Warren Zevon once sang, the lighthearted and warming sentimentality underscored by a darker reconciliation with terminal illness and impending doom. Zevon was possibly the bravest of them all when it came to facing mortality in music, but he also taught a valuable lesson about grace. That’s the perfect kind of purity that Ronstadt fits like a glass slipper.
Zevon might have been one of the most beautiful writers out there, but he was also, as Bob Dylan once said, “a musician’s musician, a tortured one”. Dylan might be regarded as the inventor of such pain-infused compositions, but Zevon knew the power of infusing dark wit with accessible and polished-sounding music, even if his approach was much more diverse than his counterparts.
Interestingly, Zevon struggled to get a breakthrough in his early years until Linda Ronstadt started performing his music, most notably with her 1976 album Hasten Down the Wind. By this point, his connections in the industry were astounding, considering he had been living with Fleetwood Mac members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
His first album included a number of high-profile contributors, including Nicks and Buckingham, alongside John McVie, Eagles, Ronstadt, Carl Wilson, and others, not to mention the fact that Jackson Browne produced and promoted the entire release, with such endorsements showing others that they had no choice but to stop and listen to what Zevon had to offer.
Despite the evolving nature of the industry, Ronstadt always felt close to the musician, his music touching a part of her soul no one else could. “We were always so connected,” she told Dig. “I knew him by reputation, because he was at the Troubadour club a lot. He wrote such beautiful songs.” Ronstadt appreciated his work so much she even wished she had recorded more of his songs and has regretted not doing so ever since.
The cover that could’ve been
“There are some songs of his I really wish I had recorded, especially ‘Accidentally Like A Martyr’,” she admitted. “I feel like it was a missed opportunity, but I was a bit overwhelmed by doing it at the time.” From his 1978 album Excitable Boy, ‘Accidentally Like A Martyr’ tackles themes of romantic loss with deeply gut-wrenching lyrics like: “Never thought I’d have to pay so dearly / For what was already mine.”
The track was covered by The War on Drugs, and their frontman, Adam Granduciel, elucidated the depth that Ronstadt no doubt would’ve unlocked. “There’s so much to uncover once you peel it back a bit,” he said of the song. “Really sums it all up, you know what I mean?”
It was also a strong contender for the title of Dylan’s 1997 release, Time Out of Mind, and featured on Dylan’s live setlist for weeks while Zevon was dying of cancer. As Ronstadt suggested, however, the song possesses an immensely overwhelming quality, making it an unforgettable tribute to love and loss, resonating deeply with listeners long after Zevon’s passing.
“I loved his songs,” she said. And pretty much all of those songs would have suited her like cream suits strawberries.
