Linda Ronstradt: Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, traces Ronstandt’s life from her childhood in Tucson, Arizona to her massive concerts in the largest stadiums in America. Archival footage from various stages of her life and interviews with Ronstradt’s friends–Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Emmy Lou Harris, Don Henley, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, David Geffen, Cameron Crowe–provide a clear picture of Ronstradt’s rise to stardom.
It becomes clear that Linda Ronstradt could sing nearly anything and make it sound wonderful. She sang popular interpretations of American Songbook Standards with the great Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. Ronstradt sang and performed in The Pirates of Penzance. She sang country-western songs and traditional Mexican canciones. Ronstradt’s relationship with Jerry Brown highlights the segment on romance, but my favorite story was when J.D. Souther asked Ronstradt if she’d make dinner for him. Ronstradt said, “Sure, come to my apartment tomorrow at 6:00 P.M.” When Souther arrived, Ronstradt made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It must have been a great PBJ sandwich because Souther invited Ronstradt to move in with him on the spot.
The heart of Linda Ronstradt: Sound of My Voice centers around the music. Whether it’s Gilbert and Sullivan operetta or traditional mariachi music or covers of Motown songs, the incredible voice of Linda Ronstradt displays her range and versatility. Yet the sound of Ronstradt’s voice gets silenced by Parkinson’s disease. This great documentary ends with tragedy. But the music remains. Do you have a favorite Linda Ronstradt song? GRADE: A
Probably Lowell George’s Willin or Warren Zevon’s Hasten Down the Wind. But I like a lot of others. I would have to avoid her Mariachi recordings since it is not a genre I am fond of. Or standards. One miscue though is Elvis Costello’s Allison. One of my favorite songs but it makes no sense song by a woman.
I should try to see this before it disappears. Still remember her Rolling Stone pictures.
Steve, LINDA RONSTADT: SOUND OF MY VOICE shows the ROLLING STONE covers along with the covers of TIME, NEWSWEEK, etc. with Ronstadt (and sometimes Jerry Brown) on display.
I like so much of her music—perhaps my favorite is her cover of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou.” I’m sorry her voice has been silenced—my mom had Parkinson’s and it’s nothin’ nice.
Deb, sadly Ronstadt’s family history includes several members with Parkinson’s. Love “Blue Bayou”!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9qsDgA1q8Y
Although her version of WHAT’LL I DO was amazing. Anything she sang was amazing.
Patti, after seeing LINDA RONSTADT: SOUND OF MY VOICE I immediately dug out some of my Ronstadt CDs and listened to them. As you point out, she was an amazing singer!
There are so many favorites it is hard to pick a few, let alone one, but there were the Motown covers (Heat Wave, Tracks of My Tears, Ooh Baby Baby), the Orbison (Blue Bayou), Buddy Holly (It’s so Easy, That’ll Be the Day), Anna McGarrigle (Heart Like a Wheel), Teddy Randazzo (Hurt So Bad), Neil Young (Love is a Rose), Dolly Parton (I Will Always Love You), Warren Zevon (Poor Poor Pitiful Me).
Jeff, dozens of songs highlight LINDA RONSTADT: SOUND OF MY VOICE. Excellent music over the decades!
I remember hearing “Different Drum” by the Stone Poneys in the mid-sixties and that would have been the first time I heard Ronstadt although I didn’t know it at the time. After her solo career took off in the seventies it was just one great song after another. I’ll go with the Everly Brothers “When Will I Be Loved” as a favorite.
Michael, like you I first heard “Different Drum” in the late 1960s and loved the voice of the lead singer. Later, I learned it was Linda Ronstadt’s voice that mesmerized me.
Of course: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
It brought fond memories of the Shirelles (while I was still at school, listening to AFN) …
Just a small correction:
It’s Linda Ronstadt – without the extra R
Wolf, oops! I have no idea how that extra “r” snuck in there. Thanks for the heads up!
I was going to school (U of A) when The Stone Poneys had that hit, and beside it being on the local radio a lot, they were in concert then at a smallish club, where I went to see them. I instantly fell for her, she was beautiful. I also really liked the sound. Later, I liked a lot of her songs, and when The American Songbook CDs and played them A LOT. I also got Mas Canciones when it came out, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Really, I guess I like almost all of her work.
Rick, same here. I play Linda Ronstadt’s CDs on a weekly basis while I’m working in the basement sorting out my books. Beautiful voice!
I had a 45 of “Different Drum” before I knew who Linda was. It’s a shame what’s happened to her and Joni Mitchell.
Jeff, you are so right. Linda Ronstadt can’t sing anymore because of her Parkinson’s disease. And Joni Mitchell seems to be at Death’s Door.
I like many of her songs but have a special fondness for “Long, Long Time.” I still kick myself when I didn’t see her at a club in California because I didn’t want to pay the $5.00 cover charge! But this was the early seventies and five bucks was a lot of money!
Bob, I’ve only seen Linda Ronstadt once in concert at Buffalo’s Sheas Performing Arts Center in the early 1980s. Of course, it was sold out. Ronstadt put on a great show! She also performed in Toronto over the years. I wish I’d gone up there to see her.
We saw her a few times, including once doing standards. I may not have recognized all of the songs that time, but she sounded great. And we saw her in PIRATES OF PENZANCE!
Jeff, I regret not seeing more Linda Ronstadt concerts when she was in the area. I would have loved to see her and Kevin Kline in PIRATES OF PENZANCE!
I regret that I never saw her live.
My favorite bit of Ronstadt’s singing is a decidedly offbeat one: “Softly and Tenderly,” a spiritual recorded for the second Trio album but left off of it, finally released years later. Dolly and Emmylou sound fine, but Linda is otherworldly.
Favorite Ronstadt story: When Johnny Cash had his tv show, Linda was a guest star one week. She was a cute young hippie, barefoot and in a short dress. During rehearsal, she and Johnny were on stage, and June was down on the floor. She took one look up at Linda, and immediately called over a production assistant. “Go out to the store and buy that girl some panties!” Linda demurred, saying she soaked up energy through her feet that flowed up her legs and… “Not with my Johnny, you don’t,” said June.
Jeff, great story! I’m not familiar with “Softly and Tenderly” so I’ll have to dig out my COMPLETE TRIO CDs and listen to it. Linda Ronstadt could sound other-worldly at times. Her singing was just sensational!
I am going to go down in my basement to move and sort books after a water tank leak that caused some damage. Also piling CDS into boxes. Not sure if I have any Ronstadt CDS in my collection to play., but may have a LP. If I can’t find one, I will play Emmy Lou Harris. Have you been watching Ken Burns’ Country Music on PBS? I’ll be interested in your thoughts. I have liked most of it, but maybe a little too much Johnny Cash.
Kent, I’m with you on the excess Johnny Cash moments in Ken Burns’ COUNTRY MUSIC. I’m guessing Cash gets the spotlight because of his long career and the amount of film he generated.
My favorite song of hers was either “Willin” (George Lowell cover) or Prisoner in Disguise though there were really too many close ones to count. I spent several years in Tucson (U of Az) about ten years after she had left. Her brother was still police chief. And her father ran a hardware store. I bought some hardware from him once. That does not imply any special connection any deeper than any fan of any of her albums has but I remembered we thought the world of her back in those days. I can’t even remember why. Well there was her singing of course. But something about her personality resonated with all of us (young men and a surprising number of women). She was outspoken politically and lived in a faster paced world than most of us in Tucson then imagined but between her song and her quiet voice and her soulful eyes she seemed like someone you had known in your hometown and cared about all your life. A good musician, singer, troubador has an effect like that. As Robert Graves tried to explain it in the White Goddess a poet (Graves thought that with the Goddess as a muse, poets were ideally men though he did cover some women poets as well – it was a less gender flexible era) tries to sing eloquently on more than one level at the same time using the same words. Linda Ronstadt seemed to do that. She was not a poet in the sense that she wrote lyrics often (I think she co-wrote Lo Siento Mi Vida with a brother) but, oh, what she could do with other people’s words defied description. She was not the only talented musician in that musically gifted age of the world, and the inheritance of our diversity of musical tastes is a great blessing for which I am ever thankful, but for those of us a certain age in a certain part of the world she could work real magic, like Gwydion of Gwynedd she could make you see visions: warm, sad, distant, often lonely, crystal clear and achingly beautiful, and feel things you did not know you could feel. In a word she was and will always be incomparable.
Grady, nicely said! I feel the same way you do about Linda Ronstadt’s talent. It’s hard to think of a singer with her kind of range. In LINDA RONSTADT: SOUND OF MY VOICE, it becomes readily apparent that Ronstadt loved to sing. That’s why it’s tragic that Parkinson’s has stolen her voice.