The songwriter Linda Ronstadt thought was “one of the best that ever came out of rock ‘n’ roll”
She may well have captured the hearts and minds of rock’s dearest fans with her covers of The Rolling Stones, but no matter which way you cut it, Linda Ronstadt was a country girl through and through. With a voice that poured like liquid gold, Ronstadt was gifted enough to sing pretty much anything put down in front of her, but she felt most comfortable when presented with country or blues.
The singer’s second album, Silk Purse, released in 1970, saw her delve straight into country and provide a whole heap of brilliance. ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ and ‘Lovesick Blues’ were not only standout tracks but a reminder of her penchant for the genre. The record would launch her career in earnest and send Ronstadt into the airwaves and American homes.
But while Ronstadt has always been a country fan, she can’t help but be swayed by the rhythm of rock and roll. Speaking to Uncut about Silk Purse, she said: “By 1970, all of us at The Troubadour [in LA] were listening to traditional country, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard. But we were also laminating rock ‘n’ roll over the top. They needed to have a little bit more aggressive interaction, we thought. I liked Merle Haggard but also Chuck Berry, so you try to get them both in there! I went to Nashville to record Silk Purse, but Californian country has a different groove to it.”
From then on, Ronstadt would operate as a perfect conduit for California country, a genre flecked with the rebellious attitudes of rock without ever losing itself entirely. The greatest example of this was her self-titled third record from 1972. Released on Capitol, the LP would not only become a cult classic later in life, having commercially flopped at the time, but inadvertently put together the members of Eagles for some of their earliest collaborations.
The members of that band came from a whole host of different corners of the country but seemed to congregate in California. It proved to be a Mecca for musicians at the time. She told Uncut: “A guy like Bernie would come from Florida, or Glenn would come from Michigan, or Don from Texas, and by the time they got to California, the Californian sensibility would put its own little spin on things. Then it would be broadcast to the world.” One other pilgrim to the West Coast was an artist so talented, Ronstadt would label him as one of the greatest in rock history.
“Neil Young is another one,” she explained. “I still think he’s one of the best guys that ever came out of rock ‘n’ roll, he’s just brilliant.” It would seem that the praise was reciprocated as Young asked Ronstadt to help him record some of his upcoming classic album Harvest after meeting at a show: “After we finished, Neil Young said he was gonna go do some recording and asked if I’d come and sing a harmony. James Taylor was on that same show, so he came along to play. He wound up playing a six-string banjo. We recorded ‘Heart Of Gold‘ and ‘Old Man’. It took us all night – it was dawn and snowing when we came out.”
It’s an idyllic image, and it perfectly captures the spirit of the time. California had reinvigorated its roots and become a spot for gold mining once more. Long gone were the prospectors of old; now, a different kind of hopeful was arriving on the West Coast, trying to strike it rich. If there were two people who typified that, then it was Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt, two stars who clearly had a lot of love for each other.
