Post by erik on Jul 9, 2022 22:21:24 GMT -5
July 15th will mark the 76th birthday of Linda Ronstadt; and in honor of that event, she will be spotlighted with a bluegrass-influenced version of a Neil Young song that was a minor pop and major C&W crossover hit for her in late 1975.
LOVE IS A ROSE (Linda Ronstadt; Asylum; 1975)—In a career that spanned six different decades, and more musical genres than most people could count or even knew existed, Linda Ronstadt had a lot of really great friends who turned her on to the songs they had written. One of these was Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, whom she met in 1968, when she was at the end of her time in The Stone Poneys, and Young was about to leave the Buffalo Springfield. Over the decades, and out of a close friendship, Linda would become known as one of the best interpreters of Young’s (and a lot of other people’s) songs, beginning with her recordings of “Birds” and “I Believe In You” (both originally on Young’s 1970 album After The Gold Rush). Both songs were done by Linda in her patented and honest country-rock style. Following her massive breakthrough in late 1974 and early 1975 with Heart Like A Wheel, by which she helped to blur some of the lines between pop and country, Linda glommed onto another one of Young’s songs, one that he himself had not yet even recorded. That song turned out to be “Love Is A Rose”, which he had intended to record for an album (Home Grown) that would not be released until 2020. In many ways, Linda saw this song pretty much as a down-home and rural song about the dangers of love. And when she recorded it for what became her eight album Prisoner In Disguise, she took it a step further. With the presence of multi-instrumentalists David Lindley (on fiddle) and Herb Pederson (on banjo), this was about as close as Linda would get on any of her own records to bluegrass, although she was not totally unfamiliar to the genre, having heard a fair amount of it during the beginnings of the early 1960’s folk music explosion. Linda and her record label Asylum got “Love Is A Rose” released as a 2-sided single, with her explosive version of the 1963 Martha and the Vandellas hit “Heat Wave” on the other side. Although “Love Is A Rose” could only muster a #63 placing on the Billboard Hot 100 in early October, it managed to get up to #5 on that same publication’s country singles chart in November, while “Heat Wave” reached #5 on the Hot 100. The song remained a staple of Linda’s concerts for the rest of the 1980’s, and in 2012 was covered by Canadian country singer and noted Ronstadt fan Terri Clark on her album Classic.
LOVE IS A ROSE (Linda Ronstadt; Asylum; 1975)—In a career that spanned six different decades, and more musical genres than most people could count or even knew existed, Linda Ronstadt had a lot of really great friends who turned her on to the songs they had written. One of these was Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, whom she met in 1968, when she was at the end of her time in The Stone Poneys, and Young was about to leave the Buffalo Springfield. Over the decades, and out of a close friendship, Linda would become known as one of the best interpreters of Young’s (and a lot of other people’s) songs, beginning with her recordings of “Birds” and “I Believe In You” (both originally on Young’s 1970 album After The Gold Rush). Both songs were done by Linda in her patented and honest country-rock style. Following her massive breakthrough in late 1974 and early 1975 with Heart Like A Wheel, by which she helped to blur some of the lines between pop and country, Linda glommed onto another one of Young’s songs, one that he himself had not yet even recorded. That song turned out to be “Love Is A Rose”, which he had intended to record for an album (Home Grown) that would not be released until 2020. In many ways, Linda saw this song pretty much as a down-home and rural song about the dangers of love. And when she recorded it for what became her eight album Prisoner In Disguise, she took it a step further. With the presence of multi-instrumentalists David Lindley (on fiddle) and Herb Pederson (on banjo), this was about as close as Linda would get on any of her own records to bluegrass, although she was not totally unfamiliar to the genre, having heard a fair amount of it during the beginnings of the early 1960’s folk music explosion. Linda and her record label Asylum got “Love Is A Rose” released as a 2-sided single, with her explosive version of the 1963 Martha and the Vandellas hit “Heat Wave” on the other side. Although “Love Is A Rose” could only muster a #63 placing on the Billboard Hot 100 in early October, it managed to get up to #5 on that same publication’s country singles chart in November, while “Heat Wave” reached #5 on the Hot 100. The song remained a staple of Linda’s concerts for the rest of the 1980’s, and in 2012 was covered by Canadian country singer and noted Ronstadt fan Terri Clark on her album Classic.