"Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice," New Documentary On the 'Rock Queen'
Documentary 'Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice' Plays It Safe — And Warm. NPR, Sept. 5, 2019.
Quick, name the Mexican-American singer who scored chart-topping hits from the late 1960s to the tail-end of the '80s, who put out six platinum-selling albums in a row in the '70s, and whose former touring musicians went on to become one of the most popular '70s bands. You say you don't know who that guy is? Yes, you do: That "guy" is Linda Ronstadt (those musicians in her touring band were Glenn Frey and Don Henley, who went on to form Eagles.)
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, the new documentary directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (the two also co-directed The Celluloid Closet and Lovelace) seeks to correct the collective memory lapse that affects even those of us who grew up with Ronstadt's music. But as the film makes its case that Ronstadt is an underrated singer and star (as Ronstadt herself explains in one of the film's vintage interview clips, 'The rock and roll culture seems to be dominated by hostility against women,') the documentary also reveals her '70s covers as so polished that they erased what made the original songs they came to overshadow distinctive.
- Film directors Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman tell the story of the "rock queen" using her own words.
Ronstadt made "You're No Good" a hit, but Betty Everett's version (itself a minor hit) took a comparably understated approach that serves the song better. Ronstadt's producer and manager, Peter Asher, who had previously worked at The Beatles' Apple Records (Ronstadt, when she first heard the guitar parts he arranged for "You're No Good" complained it 'sounds like The Beatles') also produced Ronstadt's other '70s hits. Their laid-back, country-rock style makes clear how desperately mainstream music needed the energy of punk, post-punk and New Wave that came in the late '70s and early '80s.
Ronstadt herself has taken issue with some of her '70s hits, including "You're No Good" in interviews, but, except for a line about Ronstadt's distaste for playing the same songs, repeatedly, in arenas, the film leaves out any mixed feelings she has about her legacy. Also omitted are the instances of sexual harassment and verbal abuse she encountered as a touring musician (detailed in her memoir Simple Dreams)...
Read More, https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/757158915/documentary-linda-ronstadt-the-sound-of-my-voice-plays-it-safe-and-warm
Official trailer, 'Linda Ronstadt, The Sound of My Voice'