The only “original” California artist, according to Linda Ronstadt
When Linda Ronstadt first started making music, she was already at the centre of the musical universe.
Anyone even thinking about succeeding in the record industry was going to see their name in lights whenever they entered Los Angeles, but a lot of them found out about the pitfalls of the industry the hard way. But for all of the sunshine that radiated out of Ronstadt’s music, she knew better than to call herself one of the natives of the region when the country-rock movement began.
Then again, country and rock were always bound to mingle in California. The American South had been a hotbed for every single country star trying to make it big, but since Bakersfield was known as the Nashville of the West, it was easy for people like Gram Parsons and Don Henley to find their way to the city of lights and try to make a name for themselves than try to force rock and roll onto a bunch of people wanting to hear Hank Williams songs.
Outside of country-rock, Los Angeles was always home to the sounds of sunshine. Not everything that came out of the region needed to sound the same half the time, but when listening to everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Eagles to The Byrds, there’s a common thread that makes all of them sound like lazily walking down Santa Monica Boulevard for the first time.
That whole idea may have been a dream, but it was one that Brian Wilson was determined to make a reality. The Beach Boys had been the true golden children of Los Angeles for the longest time, and even if they were far from the greatest musicians in the world starting out, every single piece of music Wilson wrote took the basis of rock and roll and added the kind of beautiful melodies that you would have expected out of the biggest names in the classical world.
And while the 1970s brought everything into better focus in Los Angeles, Ronstadt still felt that Wilson was the true native son of the region, saying, “California was just a lens that focused so many things from around the country. We were all transplants. I think the only original was Brian Wilson.” Looking at what he did for music, though, it was all about more than simply making the odd sunshine rock and roll song.
Wilson might not have been as humble as he could be about his gifts, but that authentic California attitude all came from the hardship that he struggled with as a kid. The days of him tangled in a dispute with Eugene Landy would take years to untangle, and his struggles with his father was also going to be hard to get over, but listening to his music, it felt like he tried to take all of the melancholy and somehow find a way to spin it into a positive whenever he started making his music.
A lot of it came out sounding like sunshine, but there was a lot more nuance going on under the surface. ‘Surf’s Up’ might look like a traditional surf-rock song, but the fact that it’s a virtual symphony behind the scenes is why it remains one of the most beautiful pieces of music that Wilson ever wrote.
There are plenty of transplants that have been able to make California their adopted home like Eagles and Ronstadt, but Wilson’s music of sunshine had a lot more than the sounds of crashing waves. He wanted to make people smile whenever his records came on, and it’s hard to think of anyone not feeling something when those chords of ‘God Only Knows’ start playing for the first time.
