“So good”: The best guitar playing Linda Ronstadt had ever heard
All great rock and roll comes back to the guitar in one way or another. Even though many bands have created different textures by adding keyboards into the mix or having a showstopping vocal behind everything, it doesn’t get better than the kind of abandon Chuck Berry played with when he first kicked off Johnny B Goode many lifetimes ago. Although Linda Ronstadt didn’t need anything flashy behind her when making her own masterpieces like ‘When Will I Be Loved’, she always preferred listening to this guitarist ahead of anyone else she worked with.
Compared to everyone else in the Laurel Canyon scene, though, was anyone listening to one of Ronstadt’s records for the guitar? Half the time, her voice was enough to leave anyone absolutely gobsmacked, so having an electrifying guitar player next to her was like the musical equivalent of looking into the sun. Your ears can only take so much at a time.
That’s probably half the reason the Eagles left her side in the first place. No matter how well they played off of Ronstadt in the early years, Glenn Frey and Don Henley were probably going to get nowhere if they kept working on their backing harmonies and played second fiddle to her on tunes like ‘You’re No Good’.
Then again, most guitar players see their instrument as their voice anyway. Looking through the greatest Jeff Beck albums, you’d be forgiven if you thought his guitar was an extension of his soul half the time, especially when working through some of the most lyrical solos of his career on tunes like ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers’.
But even if Beck could lay down a solid groove, Ry Cooder would always hold a special place in Ronstadt’s heart. Even though Beck could create the kind of licks that no one could have conceived, Cooder made the melodies that most singers couldn’t match on their best day, especially when he broke out the slide guitar and made the phrases that could make the most stoic badass break down in tears.
While Ronstadt had come a long way from first hearing Cooder’s guitar in her teens, she still felt that no one could touch what he had done, saying, “He was so good. I thought that if they have such good players around California, then I better stay. He was one of the main reasons I moved to the state. I don’t think that I have ever heard a better guitar player.”
And looking at some of her more acclaimed albums, Ronstadt managed to take those melodic sensibilities into country rock. Even though Heart Like a Wheel feels more like a vehicle for her voice half the time, the reason why every one of the tunes works so well is because of how Ronstadt’s voice blends with the guitar half the time.
It didn’t take her long to play alongside Cooder, either, eventually watching him deliver the perfect guitar lines to her Trio record with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Because even if there’s important chemistry between the members of her backing band, what’s the point in letting someone experiment when the best in the business is right beside you?
