[waves crashing] [seagull cawing]
[bongos playing rhythmically]
[audience applauds and cheers]
JOHNNY CASH: Right now I'd like you to meet a young lady,
a very lovely young lady,
that I really think has what it takes to be around
for a long, long time to come.
I'd like you to meet Ms. Linda Ronstadt.
[audience cheers]
[You're No Good by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ Feelin' better ♪
♪ Now that we're through ♪
♪ Feelin' better ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm over you ♪
♪ I learned my lesson ♪
♪ It left a scar ♪
♪ Now I see How you really are ♪
♪ You're no good You're no good ♪
♪ You're no good Baby, you're no good ♪
♪ I'm gonna say it again ♪
♪ You're no good You're no good ♪
♪ You're no good Baby, you're no good ♪
Here's a gal who really sings great.
We had her on the show last year and she was sensational.
DICK CAVETT: My first guest occupies a prominent place
in the Top 40 record charts
and she has a big one right now.
HUGH HEFNER: Linda Ronstadt is one of the really great talents
in country music.
Would you welcome please Linda Ronstadt.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Linda Ronstadt.
♪ Now baby and I'm going my way ♪
♪ Forget about you, baby ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm leavin' To stay ♪
♪ You're no good... ♪
Linda could literally sing anything.
♪ No good [No good] ♪
BONNIE RAITT: I don't think anybody has tried more different styles
and nailed it than Linda has.
There's not that many people that can pull off new wave music
and rock and the most beautiful country ballads.
Her range is huge.
JOHN BOYLAN: She decided what she wanted to do.
More important what she was authentic at doing.
And they always told her no, you can't do this,
you'll ruin your career.
She did it anyway.
♪ Good ♪
[applause]
[guitar picking]
LINDA RONSTADT: Someone once asked why people sing.
I answered that they sing for any of the same reasons
birds sing.
They sing for a mate.
To claim their territory.
Or simply to give voice to the delight of being alive
in the midst of a beautiful day.
They sing so the subsequent generations won't forget what
the current generations endured or dreamed or delighted in.
There are a lot of really good singers out in the world.
A lot of better singers than I am.
What I did that was different from other singers,
I did a whole lot of different kinds of material.
People would think that I was trying to reinvent myself
but I never invented myself to start with.
I just kind of popped out into the world.
[gentle guitar picking]
My mom grew up in Michigan.
Her dad was an inventor.
He was the third to Thomas Edison in the number
of useful inventions in the 50s.
He invented the electric stove, the electric toaster.
The thermostat for Westinghouse.
But my grandmother had Parkinson's disease
and he spent all his money trying to find a cure.
And that's what I have now.
My mom was really smart too.
She wanted to study math and physics
and the University of Arizona was really good for that.
She came out to Tucson where she met my father.
My great grandfather Frederick Ronstadt
came from Germany to Mexico in 1839.
My father's father, Frederico, moved to Tucson when he was 14
to work as a wagon maker.
But his true passion was music.
[mariachi music]
So he started the Club Filharmonico Tucsonense.
He was the one who wrote the arrangements
and taught everybody how to play their instruments.
He was like the Music Man.
If you wanted to serenade your sweetheart,
you'd get my grandfather's band to go.
And if you had a wedding or a funeral,
well, they'd show up for that.
First time my mother ever saw my dad he was riding his horse
up the steps of her sorority house.
[man singing romantically in Spanish]
My dad had a lovely baritone tenor voice
and knew a lot of beautiful Mexican love songs
that were rooted in his childhood.
[man singing romantically in Spanish]
He serenaded my mother underneath her balcony.
[man singing romantically in Spanish]
And she fell big for him.
♪ I'm a rambler ♪
♪ I'm a gambler ♪
♪ I'm a long way from home ♪
♪ If you people ♪
♪ Don't like me ♪
♪ You can leave me alone ♪
RONSTADT: I grew up in Tucson
on the last ten acres of my grandfather's cattle ranch.
We were very isolated so if you wanted entertainment
you kind of had to make your own.
[lively old-time music]
There was a lot of music going on in that house.
Some of it came in through the radio.
That was my best friend in the world.
♪ How's about cooking... ♪
We had an amazing radio in Tucson
because it was really close to the border.
[woman singing in Spanish]
We could get the Louisiana Hayride.
♪ Get goin' Louisiana Hayride ♪
♪ No use for callin' de roll ♪
♪ Can't help... ♪
RONSTADT: American standards.
♪ ...loving that man of mine ♪
RONSTADT: But my grandmother and grandfather
were classical music devotees.
[operatic vocalizing]
So I would go over to their house on Saturday morning
and listen to a live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera
and come home and my dad would be playing Mexican songs
on the piano. My mom would be playing
some Gilbert and Sullivan piece.
♪ True peace of mind ♪
RONSTADT: My sister loved Hank Williams.
She loved country music.
♪ I can't help it ♪
♪ If I'm still in love With you ♪
My brother would be singing really high soprano.
He was in a world-class boys choir and he was their soloist.
She wanted to know how to sing so I taught here.
So she learned about vibrato and all that kind of stuff
when she was like five, six years old.
[multiple voices singing]
LINDA RONSTADT: We learned so much about singing from each other.
It was completely incorporated into what we did.
We sang at the dinner table, we sang in the car,
we sang with our hands in the dishwater.
I thought Spanish was this magical musical language.
When I was growing up I thought people sang in Spanish
and spoke in English.
If you spoke Spanish on the playground you'd be punished.
You weren't allowed to do it.
[folk music]
My sister and brother and I eventually formed
a little group. We called ourselves
The New Union Ramblers.
We thought that sounded folky.
Bobby Kimmel was a guitar player that I met in Tucson.
He wrote songs about his own life.
I remember them being one of the best vocal groups
I had ever heard.
[folk music]
RONSTADT: Bobby joined our family group
and then he and I used to play as a duet sometimes.
We played little clubs in Tucson but there wasn't very much
opportunity for us there.
At some point reality stepped in and my sister had three kids.
And then my brother went to work for the police department.
Bobby wanted to earn some money playing music.
So he went off to California.
And I was the last man standing.
[California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas]
♪ All the leaves are brown [All the leaves are brown] ♪
KIMMEL: I went to LA with the intention of forming a band.
When I saw the quality of the singers that were out there
I started writing to Linda saying
if you come out we could form a band and get a record deal.
RONSTADT: I knew they had more clubs to play in Los Angeles.
♪ California dreaming [California dreaming] ♪
PETE RONSTADT: I was telling her this is kind of an iffy thing.
You might starve to death or you might find yourself
washing dishes and waiting tables
before you ever get discovered.
She says I'm willing to take the chance.
LINDA RONSTADT: I was 18 years old.
We had a house on the beach for 80 bucks a month
in Santa Monica.
We split the rent three ways.
It was just great. It was right on the beach.
KIMMEL: Once she got there we got to work right away
and we used to practice every day.
[guitar playing]
RONSTADT: Bobby introduced me to a really good guitar player
named Kenny Edwards and we formed a little band
and we called ourselves The Stone Ponies.
♪ Look out your window ♪
♪ The rain is turning Into snow ♪
We started playing little beatnik dives
and strange pizza parlors, wherever we could get a job.
♪ Oh how you love me... ♪
There was the trip where I heard this band called The Byrds.
They had a light show
and a lot of acid tripping kind of stuff going on.
The Whiskey A Go Go was very rock and roll.
I heard the Doors there and I thought
oh they're be a really hit band if they get rid of their singer.
♪ Go, love Open up the door... ♪
RONSTADT: There was the Ash Grove.
That was where you go for authentic folk music.
It's where I first heard Ry Cooder.
♪ Have you seen that vigilante man? ♪
Ry Cooder was then and now the most amazing guitar player
I've ever heard.
I knew that had good musicians in Los Angeles
but this guy is really something.
I thought I'm staying here.
I'm not going back to Tucson to live.
♪ All over the land ♪
[slide guitar playing]
RY COODER: She came to Los Angeles at a time
when the LA rock and roll scene was in gear and was going.
Because, see, after The Byrds did their thing
with Mr. Tambourine Man,
then the whole damn thing broke loose
and all the record companies when scurrying around
like headless chickens trying to figure out what to do.
Who can sing folk rock
and how can we define what this thing is going to be?
♪ Hey Mr. Tambourine Man ♪
♪ Play a song for me ♪
DON HENLEY: There was a lot of cross pollination
that started happening in the mid-60s, you know,
country music and folk music and rock music started
commingling and blending and you would get all these hybrids.
TV ANCHOR: The Troubadour, just a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard,
is known as an avant garde cafe.
It's the favorite of Hollywood's young and young at heart.
RONSTADT: The Troubadour was where everybody went to hang out
and to be noticed.
You wanted to make yourself known to the record community at
large, you go to the Troubadour, play an open mic night.
JD SOUTHER: I can't even name all the great songwriters
that came through there.
I mean, Laura Nyro, Neil Young,
Joni Mitchell, Tim Hardin,
Kris Kristofferson, Rick Nelson, Elton John,
Jackson Browne.
It was just week after week of amazing,
game-changing songwriters.
♪ Some of them were dreamers ♪
♪ Some of them were fools ♪
♪ Who were making plans ♪
♪ And thinking of the future ♪
I mean, you tried to get a gig at the Troubadour.
You wanted to play the Troubadour.
All kinds of industry people hung around in the bar.
ROBERT HILBURN: The Troubadour is important because
that's where you can get seen.
It was the place to play.
Like the minor leagues in baseball.
This was your chance, this was your great chance.
DAVID GEFFEN: The Troubadour was a bustling place.
They had a hootenanny night where new artists would come
and sing a few songs and I used to go to every hootenanny night
to see if there was anybody really talented.
BROWNE: The Hoot, the Monday night open mic Hootenanny
where you'd wait and get on the list
and you go up there and sing your new song.
[applause]
[various folk music]
SOUTHER: You got two or three songs.
If you were no good you probably didn't last the second song
because were, "Hey, get off!"
And maybe not even the first song.
♪ Oh, you and I, travel to the Beat of a different drum... ♪
RONSTADT: I heard a song called Different Drum
by this bluegrass group called The Greenbriar Boys.
♪ Every time you make... ♪
It was written by Mike Nesmith
who was eventually going to join the Monkees.
♪ You cry and moan And say it will work out ♪
♪ But honey child I've got my doubts ♪
♪ You can't see the forest For the trees ♪
♪ So don't get me wrong It's not that I knock it ♪
♪ it's just that I am not In the market ♪
♪ For a boy who wants To love only me ♪
RONSTADT: We got an immediate response from managers
and people who were interested in our career.
KIMMEL: Herb Cohen was managing Frank Zappa.
We had head that he had been a soldier of fortune.
He was have killed somebody.
He was a badass.
But he was established and he immediately said,
"I can get you a record deal."
♪ I believe And I see no sense... ♪
We recorded a few things, just the tree of us.
Then he took those to the people in power
and said, "I want to record these guys."
Capitol said okay.
We signed papers and we were off and running.
♪ Live without me ♪
RONSTADT: So we recorded it with a mandolin
and a couple of acoustic guitars
and the record company didn't like it.
And so they said well come back, we want to recut the song.
KIMMEL: Certainly everything changed in the studio.
RONSTADT: They had a bunch of strings in there
and it was an orchestra session. I went wait a minute,
this isn't the way I thought about the song.
[Different Drum by the Stone Poneys]
I said I don't want to put it on the record because
that wasn't the way I'd originally envisioned it.
♪ You and I count to the beat Of a different drum ♪
♪ Oh can't you tell By the way I run ♪
♪ Every time You make eyes at me ♪
RONSTADT: It was a good thing they didn't listen to me
because it was a huge hit.
PETE RONSTADT: I'm driving down the road, you know, in my car
listening to KTKT radio and all of a sudden
she's singing Different Drum.
I said wait a minute!
BONNIE RAITT: I loved her voice from the first time I heard her.
I was a freshman in college.
The Stone Poneys, Different Drum.
Yeah, baby!
It was just like wow!
It was just like to pull back the covering
of a fully developed vocal stylist.
♪ Yes and I ain't sayin' You ain't pretty ♪
♪ All I'm sayin' I'm not ready ♪
HILBURN: Most of the time as a critic you're sitting there saying,
"We don't give the artist a plus for this and a minus for this.
This is kind of good, that's not so good."
Bang! It was like a home run.
♪ Goodbye! ♪
♪ I believe in a... ♪
KIMMEL: We were out on this tour
and Herby Cohen comes to my hotel room and says,
"I need to tell you that when we get back to LA,
the band is breaking up."
Everybody said, "I don't know about you two guys
but we want the girl singer."
RONSTADT: The record company wanted to develop me as a solo artist.
Kenny decided to go off to India and find a guru and meditate.
And Bobby started a folk club in LA called McCabe's.
And I was left with what in the world to sing.
I was by myself.
A harmony singer with no material.
HILBURN: The remarkable thing about the Stone Poney days was
she had the nerve to leave a male band
after it had already had a hit and go on her own.
Will you welcome please Ms. Linda Ronstadt?
[applause]
Ronstadt, Ronstadt.
Did anyone ever suggest that that isn't the most musical name
in the world.
That maybe you should change it to Linda Marlow or...
Is there a Linda Marlow?
And once they learn how to pronounce my name,
that leads to free-for-all kinds of variations.
Glenn Campbell once called me Linda Bedstead.
You know, I remember you when you were nothing
but a little Stone Poney.
Oh yeah?
I didn't have any idea what that means.
I know that you were part of a group, right?
Let's see, how do I explain this on television
and not get yelled at.
CAVETT: Oh, then maybe you don't.
[laughter]
- I think I don't. - Oh, yeah?
Oh, is it an inside meaning?
Yeah, it has a lot of different...
♪ Love will abide ♪
♪ Take things in stride ♪
♪ Sounds like good advice ♪
♪ But there's no one At my side ♪
♪ And time washes clean ♪
♪ Love's wounds unseen ♪
♪ That's what someone Told me ♪
♪ But I don't know What it means ♪
♪ 'Cause I've ♪
♪ Done everything I know ♪
♪ To try to make you mine ♪
♪ And I think it's gonna Hurt me ♪
♪ For a long, long time ♪
♪ But I've done Everything I know ♪
♪ To try to make you mine ♪
♪ Think I'm gonna Love you ♪
♪ For a long, long time ♪
I met her in the Troubadour.
She had this hit called Long, Long Time.
[applause]
Apparently she knew who I was
based on a record I'd made with Ricky Nelson.
[guitar playing]
She said I like that band you put together for Rick Nelson.
Could you do that for me?
♪ She's got everything She needs ♪
♪ She's an artist ♪
♪ She don't look back ♪
Herby Cohen was the manager when I met her.
He gave me these tickets to Hawaii
for the Capitol Records convention.
Linda and I show up at San Francisco Airport
to fly to Honolulu and lo and behold there was the FBI
to arrest us for receiving stolen property.
Turns out Herby had bought the tickets in the lobby
of the building from some guy
probably for 25 cents on the dollar
and they were hotter than a two-dollar pistol.
So we spent the day in jail.
[Silver Threads And Golden Needles by Ronstadt]
She fired Herbie and asked me to fill in.
♪ I don't want Your lonely mansion ♪
RONSTADT: I was walking through the Troubadour one night
on my way to the bathroom.
This band Shiloh got up and did my exact version
of Silver Threads and Golden Needles.
♪ Silver Threads And Golden Needles ♪
I just went, "What?"
Does, you know, that solo, I thought, God!
I was appalled that anyone would actually sit down
with one of my records and learn the solo off it
like a Led Zeppelin record.
And I heard the drummer and I thought he was really good.
HILBURN: The drummer was a guy named Don Henley.
HENLEY: Linda's first solo album came out in '69
and I moved to LA in June of 1970.
So my timing was pretty good.
HILBURN: She'd had a bunch of dates back East
and we needed to put the band together quickly.
So I hired him for $250 a week.
[Rescue me by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ Rescue me ♪
♪ I want you in my arms ♪
♪ Rescue me ♪
♪ I need your tender charm ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm lonely ♪
HENLEY: I knew who she was because I had her album.
I listened to that album a hundred times.
She could seem vulnerable and very feminine
but when she opened her mouth to sing everything got different.
It was just incredible.
You knew that there was a very solid core
and a very determined woman.
[♪♪♪]
[applause]
SOUTHER: Just saw her walking past me in the Troubadour
and she looked so cute.
I just grabbed her by the hand
and I said I think you should cook me dinner.
And she said okay and gave me her phone number.
So I called her a couple days
and I said, "Well, you gonna cook me dinner?"
She goes, "Sure, come on over." I came on over
and she made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
And I fell in love with her.
Took her home and the next day I said,
"Listen, let's go get your stuff.
You can live here with me."
♪ I got a feeling called The blues, oh Lord ♪
♪ Since my baby Said goodbye ♪
GEFFEN: John David Souther and Linda Ronstadt.
They were a hot couple.
♪ All I do is sit and cry Oh Lord ♪
♪ That last long day he said goodbye ♪
JD had had a musical duo with a guy named Glenn Frey.
SOUTHER: He was by best friend and first songwriting partner.
We really did nothing but just listen to music and play guitars
and try to write songs and then go to the Troubadour.
RONSTADT: Glenn Frey played pretty good guitar.
So I went and talked to Glenn and said,
"Do you want to do this tour with me?"
He said it would be really cool.
He'd never been on the road before.
HENLEY: Glenn Frey and I shared the $12 hotel room
with two twin beds in it.
It was a very modest tour.
I mean, I remember being in station wagons.
[laughing]
RONSTADT: Rooming together, Don and Glenn each discovered
that the other was a good singer and songwriter.
HILBURN: And that's when they decided to get together and form a band.
That band became the Eagles.
They wished us well.
John was very supportive, Linda was supportive
and they basically said just go for it.
[Desperado by The Eagles]
We didn't have much success with Desperado.
The record company didn't know what to do with it.
And then Linda made it into a classic.
♪ Desperado ♪
♪ Why don't you come To your senses ♪
♪ Come down From your fences ♪
♪ And open the gate ♪
♪ It may be raining ♪
♪ But there's a rainbow Above you ♪
♪ You better let somebody Love you ♪
♪ [Let somebody love you] ♪
♪ Let somebody love you ♪
♪ Before it is too ♪
♪ Late ♪
[applause]
[Heart of Gold by Neil Young]
HILBURN: I knew the Neil Young tour was coming
and I thought this'll be perfect for Linda
because she had sung backup on his big hit "Heart of Gold."
So I called Neil's manager and I said,
"Listen, Linda's the right opening act for this.
You've got to help me out."
And they said, "Well, Neil's gonna go out alone."
♪ I want to live ♪
♪ I want to give ♪
HILBURN: Lo and behold like a week later he called me and he said,
"Neil's done a few dates in Canada
and it's getting him too tired.
He now wants an opening act and you're it.
♪ I never give... ♪
Linda was quite reluctant at the time.
She was so worried about the idea of playing a huge
hockey arena tour at that point in her career.
But we persuaded her that this would be a good thing.
[applause]
RONSTADT: Thank you!
HILBURN: You would occasionally get somebody: "We want Neil!"
But by the time the tour got going, she was holding her own.
♪ I've been cheated ♪
♪ Been mistreated ♪
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
♪ I've been put down ♪
♪ I've been pushed 'round ♪
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
♪ When I find a new man ♪
♪ That I want for mine ♪
♪ Always breaks my heart In two ♪
♪ It happens every time ♪
♪ I've been... ♪
CAMERON CROWE: Here's Linda who I'd never seen live before,
big stage, sold out, huge place.
She comes out there and starts singing and that voice filled
this arena where I had seen concerts for a long time.
Nobody filled this arena with a voice like Linda Ronstadt.
And she just killed it.
She slaughtered this crowd who didn't come to see her
but they sure left knowing who she was.
HILBURN: We did 78 dates in 90 days.
We played before 18,000 to 20,000 people every night.
[guitar playing]
RONSTADT: We got to Houston and there was this new girl singer.
Her name's Emmylou.
EMMYLOU HARRIS: It was 1973 during the one tour I did with Gram.
♪ Call happy calling Children are calling ♪
♪ In line to ride On the merry-go-round ♪
RONSTADT: Emmy started singing and three notes
the entire place was dead quiet.
It was like they had started mass or something.
And she was beautiful, this girl with the long hair
and big brown eyes and I thought
she's doing exactly what I'm doing.
She's doing it better.
♪ Do not worry How it's done... ♪
And for a minute I thought well I can get jealous
and then I won't be able to enjoy her singing.
Or I can just become a slobbering, drooling fan
like the rest of the people in the club.
And hope that maybe I could get her to sing with me.
So I chose the latter as one of the best decisions I ever made.
And Emmy and I became immediate music and social friends.
[applause]
HARRIS: Linda had a lot to do with lifting me up
at a very, very low time in my life.
I had been kind of my way working with Gram Parsons.
I thought I'd found my voice,
I had found something I love to do singing with him.
♪ Love hurts ♪
♪ Love scars ♪
On the road to getting himself straight
he was drinking a lot less, he was loving the work,
we loved singing together, we had a record we'd just made,
and apparently someone showed up with heroin
which he hadn't done in a while and it killed him.
It was devastating to lose him like that.
It was Linda who stepped up as a friend
and we had just met each other.
She brought me out to LA, had me stay at her house
and she talked about me to everybody.
Said how great I was and genuinely loved my singing.
Genuinely made me feel like I had something to offer
at a very low time in my life.
♪ Love hurts ♪
♪ Save me ♪
♪ Free me ♪
♪ From love ♪
♪ This time ♪
♪ Well the train's gone ♪
♪ Down the track ♪
♪ and I'm I'm left behind ♪
KARLA BONOFF: Linda was always very tight with her girlfriends.
They sang together, they shared music together, she was
supportive of me.
I was writing songs and hoping to make my own record
but of course Linda was really coming into her own
and starting to be really successful.
I think a songwriter doing their songs is different
than a singer do their songs.
Some people prefer the songwriter doing them, some
people prefer Linda doing them.
But "Lose Again" she definitely made
into a bigger song.
♪ But nothing can save me ♪
♪ From this b=Ball and chain ♪
Because I couldn't sing it like that.
♪ I made up my mind ♪
♪ I would leave today ♪
I mean Linda came out and turned it into this power ballad.
♪ I know it's insane ♪
♪ Because I love you ♪
♪ And lose again ♪
♪ Oh, I love you ♪
♪ And lose again ♪
BONOFF: Back then there wasn't competition with women.
So I think, you know, women,
there weren't that many of us either.
So I think there was a certain amount of banding together
to sort of share our woman part of it.
This is a song off our new album.
It's about a real special place called home.
That's a Karla Bonoff song.
BONOFF: I had made a demo of Home and we sent it off to Bonnie,
just a complete long shot, and she decided to record it.
♪ Traveling at night ♪
♪ The headlights Were bright ♪
♪ And soon the sun came through the trees ♪
♪ Around the next bend ♪
♪ The flowers will send ♪
♪ The sweet smell of home In the breeze ♪
RAITT: Linda and I are like sisters, around the same age
and we were coming up and had the same mutual
other musician friends and band members
and, you know, it was a community of artists,
it wasn't sexually divided between just the women and men.
We weren't thinking in terms of that.
CROWE: Linda and Bonnie Raitt were two of the first women
that I was able to see as a young journalist
and study the way they operated in this community.
We're going to move into this world where we're running bands
with guys in them but we can also look after each other.
RAITT: I said if I can have it on my terms and you understand
I'm not going to be told how to dress or what music to make.
Great!
We were all throwing away all those conventions, you know.
RONSTADT: The rock and roll culture is so male dominated and it also seems
to be dominated by sort of hostility against women.
That this sort of...
sort of sexual identity that is sort of used as a weapon
against the populace and women in particular
and then everyone identifies with it.
And it's sort of sad to me because what happens is that...
is that rock and roll stars end up isolating themselves
more and more and more, thereby increasing their own feelings of
alienation and anxiety and they wonder why they're so miserable.
That's really when they turn to drugs and destroy themselves.
It's just very silly. It just seems very silly.
They lose the ability to focus on themselves as a person
rather than as an image and that's very dangerous I think.
And there are always a lot of people around them,
managers and scene makers, you know, groupies and whatever,
that are willing to indulge them in anything they want.
It weakens them, it weakens them as people
and it eventually weakens them as musicians.
[Willin' by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ I been warped By the rain ♪
♪ Driven by the snow ♪
♪ I'm drunk and dirty ♪
♪ Don't you know ♪
♪ But I'm still ♪
♪ Willin' ♪
♪ Out on the road Late last night ♪
♪ I'd see my pretty Alice in every headlight ♪
♪ Alice ♪
♪ Dallas Alice ♪
♪ And I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari ♪
♪ Tehachapi to Tonopah ♪
♪ Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made ♪
PETER ASHER: I was in New York and somebody said
you have to go see this girl, she's amazing.
She's one of the best singers you'll ever hear,
she's brilliant.
She's incredibly great looking, she sings barefoot
and will knock you out in every respect and she did.
♪ Whites and wine ♪
♪ And you show me a sign ♪
♪ And I'll be willin' ♪
I was running the Beatles record label Apple.
When Apple started to fall apart and the Beatles were breaking up
and all of that I went to America
and there I was being a manager.
HILBURN: I wanted to go back to work as a record producer
so I suggested Linda go and meet with Peter
which we did and he agreed to manage her.
BROWNE: There was a high bar there.
Peter Asher had hung around with the Beatles.
He expected to make records that are huge successes
and he was poised to do that with Linda
and Geffen was ready to be their record company
that would be there.
DAVID GEFFEN: I started Asylum Records and signed Jackson Browne
and then signing other artists and it turned into what it did.
And I knew when I saw Linda and the Stone Poneys
that she was gonna make it and she was gonna make it
as a solo artist and I knew she was going to be a big star.
She didn't think so.
She had very little confidence in those days.
Linda was feeling like she wasn't good enough
to be on Asylum Records.
I said to her that that was crazy.
RONSTADT: I'm never really satisfied with what I do.
And lots of times I hear that I did something wrong
and it bothers me, it can ruin my day really.
ASHER: Linda never thought she was as good as she was
and that is an interesting paradox
because she's confident about her ideas
but not about herself and not about her singing.
My involvement as a producer with Linda came when she was
having trouble finishing the album that became Don't Cry Now.
And that's when we decided that the next album I would produce
was Heart Like a Wheel.
♪ Some say a heart Is just like a wheel ♪
♪ When you bend it ♪
♪ You can't mend it ♪
RONSTADT: The McGarrigle Sisters, who were these two Canadian sisters,
they were in an odd category.
They didn't fit in pop music, they didn't fit in folk music,
they didn't fit anywhere except they fit in my heart.
We just heard Heart Like A Wheel,
then I went I have to sing it.
♪ When harm is done ♪
♪ No love can be won ♪
♪ I know it happens ♪
♪ Frequently ♪
♪ But I can't... ♪
PARTON: Linda has the ability to hear a song and claim it.
You claim it as your own as a singer.
If you love it like that you get inside it.
You become it.
♪ But my love for you Is like a sinking ship ♪
♪ And my heart is on that ship out in mid-ocean ♪
ASHER: Heart Like a Wheel, she discovered that song,
brought it to me and I loved it.
I thought it was beautiful but I was also thinking
in terms of we should make some hits.
♪ Feelin' better ♪
♪ Now that we're through ♪
♪ Feelin' better ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm over you ♪
RONSTADT: I'm a ballad singer, I like to sing ballads best
but we needed some up-tempo songs for the record
and as an afterthought I had this song
that we'd used to close the show.
♪ You're no good You're no good ♪
♪ You're no good Baby, you're no good ♪
♪ I'm gonna say it again ♪
♪ You're no good You're no good ♪
♪ You're no good Baby, you're no good ♪
ASHER: She knew and loved the song, I knew and loved the song,
and we decided to do a version of that song.
I stayed up all night assembling this very complicated,
intricate layered guitar piece.
We worked very long into like the next afternoon.
And that's when Linda turned up and didn't like it.
She said, "Oh, I don't like it. It sounds like the Beatles,"
which it did sound like the Beatles
but in the end she came around and said,
"You know what, I was wrong. It's great."
[You're No Good by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ I'm tellin' you now baby And I'm going my way ♪
♪ Forget about you, baby 'Cause I'm leaving to stay ♪
RONSTADT: Every song that I sing has a face
that I sing it to, you know.
And so when something happens to me,
it's really funny, I know so many songs.
When something happens to me
the song will occur at the same time.
I'll think oh, this song or that song, you know.
And if it's a song I can sing then I'll have to sing it,
I'll just burn to sing it. I can't not sing it.
♪ I passed you on the street ♪
♪ And my heart Fell at your feet ♪
♪ I can't help it ♪
♪ If I'm still In love with you ♪
He would make the assumption that I was choosing the songs
that we would do on these records or that I was working
out the arrangements or this, that, and the other.
And I would have to keep explaining that
it was Linda and me in that order.
♪ Still in love with you ♪
RONSTADT: My sister used to play all these Hank Williams records.
So I thought I can do that.
♪ Came slowly stealing ♪
♪ As I brushed your arm ♪
♪ And stood So close to you... ♪
SOUTHER: Linda knew a good song
and she knew why it was good and better than that
she knew how to sing it better than you can sing.
When you become that sharp of a song stylist,
you get authorship in a certain way.
I consider her a real author.
She didn't write songs but she made songs happen
the way she wanted to hear them.
♪ I can't help it if I'm still in love with you ♪
RONSTADT: I Can't Help it if I'm Still in Love With You
was a hit on the country charts.
You're No Good was a hit on both the R&B chart and the pop chart.
So I became the first artist to have a hit on all three charts
at the same time.
[applause]
CROWE: Heart Like A Wheel was a huge turning point for her.
The avalanche of success was hitting everywhere.
She was at the forefront of a kind of pop stardom
that hadn't happened at that point
but people didn't notice the difficulty of being a woman,
trailblazing and having the success of a Mick Jagger.
[applause]
[Tumbling Dice by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ People try to rape me Always thinking I'm crazy ♪
♪ Make me burn the candle right down ♪
♪ Baby ♪
♪ I can't stay ♪
♪ Don't need no jewels In my crown ♪
♪ 'Cause all you women ♪
♪ Are low down gamblers ♪
RONSTADT: Now I had gigs like in big sporting arenas,
you know, stadiums and stuff like that.
I knew the name of every arena in the country.
We got a gig tonight at the Spectrum in Philly.
We'll be at the Forum.
Gig tomorrow night at the Garden.
That's where we played.
She was selling them all out.
♪ This low down bitchin' ♪
♪ Got my poor feet a itchin' ♪
♪ Can you see The deuce is still wild ♪
GEFFEN: She was very good.
Audience loved her.
Records sold.
She was on an uphill swing all the time.
♪ Got to roll me ♪
♪ Call me the tumblin' dice ♪
BROWNE: When we did that tour together
we'd take turns closing and opening.
[chuckles]
You know. Try following Linda Ronstadt every night.
♪ Honey Got no money ♪
♪ Sixes and sevens and nines ♪
♪ Hey now baby I'm the rank outsider ♪
RAITT: I went to go see her at the Universal Amphitheater
when she was wearing her Boy Scouts outfit
and was just rocking.
♪ Baby... ♪
BONOFF: Linda was able to be really feminine and sexy
in this world of men and somehow hold onto herself and do that
and use that in the best possible way.
[Tumbling Dice continues]
WACHTEL: There was a lot of dudes running around the stages then.
But we were on the road with Linda and killing it.
She was killing every night.
♪ The tumbling dice ♪
♪ You got to roll me ♪
I know they liked my singing and I know they were proud
of what they were doing but still in rock and roll
the idea that you're actually working for a chick singer,
in their way they sort of saw it as not as cool
as if they were their own rock and roll band
and they were just all the guys.
♪ Baby, baby Got to roll me ♪
BONOFF: There weren't a lot of women musicians
so it was always a band of guys.
There weren't women bass players and women guitar players
and sometimes some of these guys were, they were tough.
RONSTADT: I got a lot tougher and more foul mouthed.
I used to swear a lot.
I mean, I used to talk like a truck driver.
When I think about the way I used to talk, I'm shocked.
[Tumbling Dice continues]
Without having any other girls along on the road,
just automatically you start to imitate them.
[applause]
HARRIS: Linda was never comfortable being on the road
but obviously she did her job and part of her loved it.
Who wouldn't love it?
But I think there was another part of her that went,
"You know, this doesn't feel right."
RONSTADT: If I were going to choose something to do
it would not be to stand up in front of a lot of people.
But I love to sing, I love to sing.
I love music so at some point you do whatever you have to do
to do music.
ASHER: She would confess to me that if she saw people in the front row
and somebody leans over and says something to the person
next to them, she thought they were saying, you know,
she's the worst singer I've ever heard.
I don't like this.
She really believed that.
WACHTEL: You get on the bus at night, card game going on,
everybody blasting music
or everyone else drinking, you know.
A lot of drugs around.
A lot of people would go on stage completely hammered,
completely fucking hammered.
RAITT: Everybody was up at night and when the gig ended
you don't go home and have milk.
It was kind of the nighttime danger fun part about
not having to go to bed.
You know, Keith Richards can do it, so can I.
Linda's thing was diet pills.
ASHER: She went through a phase mostly taking speed
and not eating and being super skinny.
RONSTADT: It seemed like it was so hard to be out there day after day
and to try to get up the energy to sort of do that
when you were just wrung out
from the sense of being dislocated from place.
I was with a bunch of people that were basically earnest
and basically honest
and the kind of paranoia that was introduced by drugs
was so destructive in our ability to communicate
with each other.
That really saddened me.
And then at some point we all just stopped.
[Blue Bayou by Linda Ronstadt]
♪ I feel so bad ♪
♪ I got a worried mind ♪
♪ I'm so lonesome ♪
♪ All the time ♪
♪ Since I left my Baby behind ♪
♪ On Blue Bayou ♪
♪ Saving nickels Saving dimes ♪
♪ Workin' 'til The sun don't shine ♪
♪ Looking forward To happier times ♪
♪ On Blue Bayou ♪
♪ I'm going back someday ♪
♪ Come what may ♪
♪ To Blue Bayou ♪
♪ Where the folks are fine ♪
♪ And the world is mine ♪
♪ On Blue Bayou ♪
CROWE: When Rolling Stone was ready to put Linda Ronstadt on the cover
that was her absolute peak up until then.
♪ If I could only see ♪
Generally it was a very male-oriented
denim-clad warrior cover.
So here comes Linda Ronstadt
and she and Annie Leibovitz put together this photo session
that was like no other cover that had been
on Rolling Stone before.
She was honest
and opened her heart.
She said, "This gets lonely and I don't know where it ends up.
It's an emotional journey
and I'm happy that I brought this kind of joy.
But you know what? When I'm here alone
in this Malibu home that looks very cozy, it's lonely."
RONSTADT: There's a lot of show business people down here, you know.
It's not my style exactly.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you live before?
Nowhere really. I was on the road for about ten years
and I didn't exactly have a home.
♪ On Blue Bayou ♪
[applause]
ANNOUNCER: Singing the National Anthem here at Dodger Stadium,
Ms. Linda Ronstadt.
♪ Oh, say can you see? ♪
PATRICIA CASADO: I remember my dad was watching her at the game.
She sang the National Anthem.
♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪
♪ At the twilight's... ♪
All of sudden there she is.
She'd come in the limo straight to the restaurant from the game
to have something to eat.
My parents had a small restaurant on Melrose Avenue
across the street from what was then KHJ Radio
which was the radio station in the day.
Linda walked in and my dad was wearing a shirt
that we call in Mexico Aloe Vera
and it has four pockets and it's white and she said,
"This is a good place
because he's wearing the shirt my dad wears.
HILBURN: A lot of the people who hung out at the Troubadour
also ate at Lucy's.
Lucy was very shall we say loose with the check
now and again and if we were on hard times.
CASADO: Our customers were not just soon-to-be celebrities
of the industries, they were the oligarch of Los Angeles.
I mean, you're talking old-school money.
There was a big communal table that my father
used to sit everybody at.
So you'd sit with policemen, you'd sit with firemen,
sometimes you'd sit with an actor, sometimes you'd sit...
a football player. You never had any idea who you'd sit with.
What happened was Linda had decided
that she wanted to change the 8-track
because she wanted to hear something else.
So she had to step up on this little wine rack
and at that moment the Governor Jerry Brown comes in
that room and he sees her and it was like wow!
Who's she?
So my father went and he sat them together.
And, well, he fell in love with her.
There was no question about that.
RONSTADT: Jerry likes passionate music.
He likes passionate music, passionate women,
that's his deal.
We had a really good time together.
He went out to run for president for the last couple of months
and he pending for the fact that I got to see him on TV
I may have forgot what he looked like.
But he came back yesterday.
He's gonna make it all better now.
[audience cheers]
That's what he told me anyway.
I have yet to see.
♪ My boyfriend's back And you're gonna be trouble ♪
♪ Hey now, hey now My boyfriend's back ♪
♪ When you see him coming... ♪
HOST: Did you have much of a problem when you're with Jerry Brown
people expecting you to have political views
along the lines of Governor Brown?
Whereas you're a singer, he's a politician.
Our relationship was completely personal,
it wasn't political at all.
So, you know, he did politics, I did music.
- Right. - It's easy to separate that.
You went to South Africa recently.
Did you receive criticism for going there?
As far as I was concerned it was just a gig.
I don't think that if you disagree with the policies
of the government, which I do very definitely disagree
with the policies of the South African government,
I don't think that's enough of a reason not to go
and play music there.
If I did that I wouldn't be able to play in the United State
because I don't agree with their policies about nuclear power,
nuclear warfare.
I mean, my God, we've got this person running the country
that I completely disagree with.
If I decided that I wasn't going to play where attitudes
of racism prevailed, I certainly couldn't play in Australia
or England or lots of places in the United States,
a lot of places in the American South or Boston
which is extremely racist.
I went to South Africa, it has a fascist repressive government.
I'm very interested in the culture down there.
You just got finished talking.
You say why does anyone think I'm controversial.
Do you realized what you've just talked about here?
We've just received all your political views in one blow.
I'm teasing. I'm not putting it down.
I don't think my political views are very controversial.
Who likes nuclear warfare?
I remember her having the Wall Street Journal in her bag
one time in the 70s when she was dating Jerry and I went,
you know, I had thought she was really smart but she's really
well read and very, very up on a lot of different things.
She's as wide ranging in her critical intellectual pursuits
as she is in her music pursuits and you don't find that kind
of depth and eclecticism in pop music.
CASADO: Jerry needed somebody that could be full-time there for him.
You couldn't have two careers in that family.
♪ I never will marry... ♪
There's not enough time.
♪ I'll be no man's wife ♪
♪ I tend to stay single ♪
♪ For my rest of my life ♪
BONOFF: I mean, the same reason I never got married.
I don't know, I think it's hard being a woman
in the music business.
You know, it's a different kind of life.
♪ Rushing waters ♪
♪ Went over my head ♪
RAITT: Well you don't need to get married, you what I mean?
It's like we have our own income
and you don't have to have the state verify
that you love somebody
and when that relationship's over you leave.
Neither one of us are really made for marriage
or I think long-term relationships.
INTERVIEWER: Why did you break up?
I can't remember. Maybe she could tell you.
♪ It's so easy to fall in love ♪
♪ People tell me Love's for fools ♪
♪ But here I go Breaking all the rules ♪
♪ Seems so easy... ♪
RONSTADT: My mom wanted to be a scientist but she had four kids
and I think it was also a little bit of a disappointment.
♪ It's so easy To fall in love... ♪
She always said to me go out and have a life.
You don't just have to get married, there are alternatives.
♪ It's so easy to fall in love ♪
I have to confess, I got a really bad crush on this guy.
We had a little romance for a while but it wasn't long lived.
He dumped me for this pig.
Well, at least I got his picture.
♪ Does he love me? ♪
♪ I want to know ♪
♪ How can I tell if he loves me so? ♪
♪ Is it in his eyes? ♪
♪ Oh no, you make believe ♪
♪ Is it in his size ♪
♪ Oh no You'll be deceived ♪
♪ If you want to know if he loves you so ♪
♪ It's in his kiss ♪
♪ That's where it is ♪
ANNOUNCER: To present the nominees for favorite female
in rock and pop are Teddy Pendergrass and Tanya Tucker.
The nominees are: Linda Ronstadt.
[applause]
Ms. Barbara Streisand.
[applause]
And Donna Summer.
[applause]
You open the envelope.
I'm too nervous.
I'll do the gentlemanly thing here and I'll open it.
- If you will read. - Okay. And the winner is...
Linda Ronstadt.
[applause]
Linda was the queen.
She was like what Beyoncé is now.
She was the first female rock and roll star.
♪ Want love? ♪
♪ Get closer ♪
HILBURN: She was the only female artist the have
five platinum albums in a row and most of them multi-platinum.
♪ Hold my hand ♪
For favorite female in rock and pop...
Favorite country single...
Blue Bayou by Linda Ronstadt.
- And the winner is... - Takes another one.
- Linda Ronstadt. - The winner is Linda Ronstadt.
♪ You make a fuss when her eyes ain't on you ♪
♪ Well give us something to look forward to ♪
♪ Remember all those other girls who ran ♪
RONSTADT: The nature of being a pop musician is that you get
these things that are successful
and you have to sing them for the rest of your life.
Over and over and over again and they start sounding
like your washing machine.
I didn't like singing in big arenas because the sound
was like, you know, you'd hear the guitar solo that
they played last week still ringing around the rafters.
So I started looking for other things to do.
COODER: There is this feeling that she has about the music itself
rather than the career itself.
You know, some people are just hardcore careerists.
There's nothing wrong with that.
You know, it's how your mind works that makes the difference.
It's how you see yourself or how you see yourself in the world,
you know.
And not everybody's a pure art for art's sake
and not everybody's a pure careerist either,
especially in music
because musicians love music or they wouldn't do it.
[light guitar picking]
HILBURN: She wanted to change.
She got tired of doing arena rock,
she wanted to try different things.
RONSTADT: I picked up the phone and called my great friend John Rockwell
who writes music criticism for the New York Times.
I said I hate playing these big sporting arenas.
It's not good for the audience, it's not good for the band.
I want to sing in a theater with a proscenium and a curtain.
He said well the next time you come to New York
I'll take you down to meet this fellow named Joseph Papp.
He has a theater, it's called the New York Public Theater
and he does Shakespeare and he does musicals; he did Hair.
He wanted to do The Pirates of Penzance.
My mom was a Gilbert and Sullivan lover.
She had a big book of Gilbert and Sullivan songs on the piano.
And I actually learned all the soprano parts as a kid.
And I loved singing them
but I never got a chance to in rock and roll.
HILBURN: That was in her roots, that was in her upbringing,
it was part of her authentic musical experience.
RONSTADT: Joe called me and said if I wanted to do the part
I could have it.
And I said no I have to come and audition
because I didn't know whether I could sing it or not.
She wanted to be certain that she would do it well.
They thought being able to say Linda Ronstadt's in it
would be good for business.
But her concern was whether it would be good for the show.
[vocalizing]
SOUTHER: I was there for several rehearsals and she was fabulous.
She just grabbed it by the horns and...
[vocalizing]
RONSTADT: That was the first job I was ever offered
where I actually got to sing like that.
I was delighted, I really was. But I can't do it very well yet.
Because it's really hard. You can't learn that overnight.
- You got to be in training. - In training, yup.
[audience laughs]
GEFFEN: Linda had a great voice and she had a great vision for herself
and she didn't want to just be singing rock and roll,
she wanted to do everything.
♪ Hold, monsters! ♪
♪ Ere your pirate Caravanserai ♪
♪ Proceed, against our will to wed us all ♪
♪ Just bear in mind that we Are Wards in Chancery ♪
♪ And father is a Major-General ♪
KEVIN KLINE: I knew some of her songs, sure.
But operetta?
♪ Prepare! ♪
♪ Unhappy General Stanley ♪
A week into rehearsal we all sang through the score
just sitting in a circle in chairs
and when I heard her voice it was just
this belle canto soprano gorgeous musical,
celestial yet earthy, just pure,
something so pure, it just made me cry.
I just remember just listening to that voice,
it was just singing that stuff...
Touching.
♪ Oh, sisters, Deaf to pity's name ♪
♪ For shame! ♪
♪ It's true that he has Gone astray ♪
♪ But pray ♪
♪ Is that a reason Good and true ♪
♪ Why you ♪
♪ Should all be deaf To pity's name? ♪
BROWNE: Gilbert and Sullivan? Really?
A rock star who has the guts to go out there
and do that kind of musical comedy.
She just didn't care.
To her it was like a mountain to climb.
[vocalizing]
PARTON: Linda can bring herself to sing anything.
She could sing opera, she could do anything with her voice.
I couldn't do all that.
[vocalizing]
RONSTADT: Kevin Kline and I were both nominated
for Tony Awards for that show.
Kevin deserved it more than I did.
All I did was walk around and sing.
[Gershwin-style piano]
My mom died during Pirates of Penzance.
I wasn't with her when she died.
And I just couldn't quite get it through my head
that she was gone out of the world
and I was never going to see her again.
She'd had all these records -- Louis Armstrong,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee.
And I thought I'd like to try to sing some of those songs.
SINATRA: ♪ Only the lonely ♪
When we lived together almost every evening the last record
we listened to was a Frank Sinatra album
called Songs for Only the Lonely.
With Nelson Riddle arranging.
JOE SMITH: Constantly people were telling Linda you can't do this.
I'm guilty.
When she was going to do the Nelson Riddle album
I didn't think it was a good idea,
not because she couldn't do it
but because we had this run going with rock and roll records
and country rock.
RONSTADT: I said I'd like to find somebody that can write arrangements
like Nelson Riddle.
They said why don't you just ask Nelson Riddle?
Well I didn't know he was still alive.
You were the only person that I knew that could do
orchestrations like this.
I didn't know where you were,
whether you'd be interested in working with me.
Whether you'd ever heard of me or not.
And as soon as I started learning the songs
they just got inside me.
I wanted to record them and I wanted to do it
worse than anything I've ever wanted to do.
RIDDLE: I remember your phrase for this.
You said these are songs I cannot not do.
I can't not do them.
At some point it's like falling in love.
Choice doesn't even enter into it.
♪ What's new? ♪
♪ How is the world ♪
♪ Treating you? ♪
I would think oh my God, how can I sing these songs?
Ella Fitzgerald has sung them, Billie Holiday has sing them,
Frank Sinatra has sung them.
♪ Handsome as ever ♪
SOUTHER: She studied all of those records
and she studied every available version she could find
of each one of those songs.
She is a real student.
♪ What's new? ♪
♪ How did that romance ♪
♪ Come through? ♪
ASHER: She told she wanted to get those songs out of the elevator.
She meant that that's the only place you heard them.
And she wanted to point out that that's not where they belong.
They were some of the best songs ever written.
♪ Why am I asking what's new? ♪
SMITH: I went to her house and tried to talk her out of it but
as soon as she told me Nelson Riddle was going to do it,
I said well I'd like to come to the record session.
[♪♪♪]
[singing harmonies]
RONSTADT: When my sister was in high school she got to go
to her senior prom and she got to wear these strapless dresses
with a lot of tool
and I always wanted one of those dresses.
By the time I got to high school
styles had changed and I never got to have one.
So I said I'm going to put a show together,
we're all going to get to wear those dresses.
♪ So dream ♪
♪ Dream ♪
[applause]
JOHNNY CARSON: This is a real treat tonight.
We have three marvelous singers on the show
and would you know how many times they have been nominated
for Grammys between them?
Forty-five times in total.
[applause]
The albums they've all sold are in the multi-millions
and I guess it's taken the ladies about ten years
to get this together where they wanted to work together
and made an album called Trio and it was well worth the time.
The album is described as old-timey but it's sensational.
Would you welcome Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton,
Emmylou Harris?
[♪♪♪]
RONSTADT: I had met Dolly.
I saw her singing on the Grand Ole Opry
and she was a wonder to behold.
What you have in front of you is one of the most beautiful girls
you've ever seen.
She's just gorgeous.
When she opened her mouth and started to sing
I fell on the floor.
She's an amazing singer.
♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪
♪ I'm begging of you Please don't take my man ♪
RONSTADT: I told Emmylou about her
and then Emmy met her somehow.
♪ Jolene ♪
HARRIS: When I made my first trip to Nashville the powers that be
set up a meeting with Dolly and she was making a record
in her studio and it was like unbelievable.
It was better than any Disneyland visit.
♪ Eyes of emerald green ♪
PARTON: They kind of found my music somewhere
and kind of wanted to meet me
and that's kind of how we all started.
RONSTADT: Emmy called me up and she's like Dolly Parton's at my house,
you have to come over.
I was living like 40 minutes away
and I got there in 20 minutes.
She came over and there we were, the three of us
and we were there with our idol Dolly.
They had this big old house, almost like a bunch of hippies
just living up there, different people and musicians.
They had different bedrooms.
It was just a free-for-all kind of house.
A dream for musicians.
And somebody said well sing something.
♪ Bury me beneath the willow ♪
♪ Under the whipping willow Tree ♪
♪ So he may know Where I am sleeping ♪
♪ And perhaps He'll weep for me ♪
So I started singing that
and then they started saying sing that again.
I go "Oh, bury me..."
And here come all these harmonies
and oh it was just chilling, chilling, chilling.
♪ Beneath the willow ♪
♪ Under the weeping willow Tree ♪
♪ Well he may know Where I am sleeping ♪
♪ And perhaps He'll weep for me ♪
When we heard our voices
it was like injecting some kind of serum into your veins.
It was like a high like you've never felt.
We sang first in a living room
and said well this sounds really good.
It was special, it was different.
It was like a sound of sisters, musical sisters.
♪ Won't you bury me Beneath the willow ♪
♪ Under the weeping willow Tree ♪
♪ Where he may know where... ♪
At that moment we thought we have to do a record.
♪ To know know know him ♪
♪ Is to love love love him ♪
♪ Just to see him smile ♪
♪ Makes my life worthwhile ♪
RONSTADT: We learned so much about singing from each other
because you get to sort of be them for a second
when you're shadowing them in harmony.
It's like getting on an eagle and getting to see the world
through that eagle's experience.
I get to sing through Dolly's voice
or sing through Emmy's voice when I sing real close harmony.
♪ Why ♪
♪ Can't he see me? ♪
♪ How I... ♪
The only big disagreements would be are we going to use autoharp
or dulcimer on this song.
- [laughter] - Yeah.
Sometimes we would disagree about who would sing lead
because Emmy and I always wanted Dolly
to sing lead on everything.
Oh, well Dolly will sound great on that.
You sing lead! No, you sing lead!
PARTON: Linda is such a perfectionist.
She's a pain in the ass sometimes
because she is such a perfectionist.
Because she will not have it unless it's perfect.
She used to make me sing those harmonies over and over
and I said I'm going to sing it the same way no matter what.
No, you're not! You're going to hit this one note.
And see I don't know how to, all those intricate harmonies
like Emmylou and Linda do.
I just sing that raw stuff from feeling
and it ain't always proper but it sounds good.
♪ Yes just to know ♪
♪ Is to love love love him ♪
♪ And I do ♪
[applause]
INTERVIEWER: Linda, you've sing just about all types of music.
Light opera; you've been on Broadway, rock and roll, pop.
What's your next project going to be?
I'm going to do an album of Mexican music,
of traditional Mexican music.
I'm kind of a traditional Mexican myself.
You know, I grew up about 40 minutes from the Mexican border,
my family are Mexican, and that is my roots.
That's what I came from and I have been dying to do
this record for years and years
and I'm getting around to it this year.
Boy, I'm going o do it.
[singing in Spanish]
SOUTHER: Our neighbor that lived behind us in the garage apartment
was Harry Dean Stanton, great character actor
and a great singer of Mexican folk songs.
We would hear him up until the wee hours singing
these Mexican folk songs, these canciones.
And Linda knew all those songs.
I don't think people thought of her as...
as Mexican.
It certainly never came up. I never heard it.
I mean, the name Ronstadt is not Hernandez.
Ronstadt is a German-sounding name.
No, she's certainly from Mexican heritage
but it wasn't the most apparent thing.
RONSTADT: I want to see where you put your D.
Say ganador.
Ga...
The phrasing, Ganador.
Ganador.
- Dor? - Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
Is it on the roof of your mouth, the back of your teeth or...
When he asked me if I would sing a harmony on his record
I was completely delighted
because you can only learn by doing. I can't...
there isn't a book you can get, you know,
how do you learn how to be a singer in Spanish?
It's always been a dream of mine to make an album
of these Mexican songs that I learned from my father.
[singing in Spanish]
My father had a beautiful baritone voice.
He sounded like a cross between Pedro Infante
and Frank Sinatra.
Always if there was a dinner party or something he'd get the
guitar out and he'd just sing and I always would fall asleep
in somebody's lap listening to my dad sing some beautiful song.
[singing in Spanish]
We always as a family, we always sang in Spanish.
Even though I didn't understand much of what I was singing,
it was something that I learned to do.
It's kind of like lip reading, you know.
I used to kind of chameleon in harmony along with my father.
[pop singing in Spanish]
To learn to sing that style as a grown-up professional singer,
that took some doing.
[singing continues]
I always forget the beginning where I go through the ending
and it makes it so hard.
Oh yeah. What was it, this way?
Is that how you do it? The Latin way.
Okay, I got it.
[speaking in Spanish]
Okay, I'm learning all these new things.
[mariachi music]
My dad invited me to go to the Tucson Mariachi Conference
and that way I got to meet the Mariachi Vargas.
[mariachi music continues]
Those good bands like the Cobre or the Camperos
or the Mariachi Vargas, you're going to go to a symphony
and you're not going to find better musicians.
They're all virtuoso players.
[powerful violin playing]
I picked a couple of songs.
The band said these songs are very traditional
and they're very difficult to do.
I said well, they're the only songs I know
so we better learn them.
[singing in Spanish]
I went to the president of my record company,
who's a man who genuinely likes music, and I said look,
I made all these records for you, they saw this.
I'm going to do this just for me
and this might be self-indulgent.
If it sells two copies I don't care
but if I can't record this music I'm going to die.
I don't understand any Spanish.
I didn't understand how popular those songs were
but this is a lady who wanted to do it her way
and who was going to say no?
[singing in Spanish]
HILBURN: Canciones de mi Padre, it's the largest selling
Spanish language album in the history of the industry.
That's the whole Linda Ronstadt story right there in a nutshell.
Linda deciding she wants to do something,
the record company telling her she can't.
She goes ahead and does it anyway
and they jump on board as the thing starts to take off.
[applause]
CASADO: Toda la Familia would come and they loved it
because they were here from Mexico.
Even though their kids had grown up here
and become American citizens,
who is this girl singing songs so beautifully.
[singing in Spanish]
COODER: The fact that she went on and did that
and did it in such a big way.
It was a brave thing to do.
Many people would have been terrified
I'll mess up my career.
But obviously she had purpose, personal decision.
It's good.
[singing in Spanish]
[applause]
RONSTADT: To have that traditionalism going along on the bus with me
from town to town where I'd only sung pop music,
to take that part of the dirt with me, you know,
the part of the soil of the land where I came from to Cleveland
and Cincinnati and New York, that was a thrill.
You should have seen Central Park with, you know,
close to a million people in it when the mariachi
got up on stage with their big hats, the place fell out.
They went nuts. There was such a thing of pride
that went from the stage to the audience.
It was just great.
This song was written by me and my father
and it's called Lo Siento Mi Vida.
[singing in Spanish]
My dad died when he was 84.
There was a kind of a peace that happened when he died.
In the three of four days before he died he was reading to us
passages from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book
Love in the Time of Cholera and it was just a great sharing.
It was a different experience being with my father
when he died than it was with my mother.
I knew I was going to miss him but I accepted it better.
[singing in Spanish]
He had what I would describe as a beautiful death.
AARON NEVILLE: I'd seen her on TV and I thought she was great
but when she came to New Orleans she was just
so down to earth and girl next door thing.
And just humble.
She was just a sweet, humble person.
RONSTADT: I'd been in New Orleans for the World's Fair
and somebody said well the Neville Brothers are playing
at some club down in the Quarter. We should go.
We going to get serious, serious right now.
I'm going to turn you on to our brother Aaron Neville.
RONSTADT: Aaron Neville was on stage singing
this beautiful song Arianne.
♪ Arianne is April morning ♪
[audience cheers]
♪ That comes rippling Through my window ♪
♪ She's the smell of coffee brewing ♪
♪ On a quiet, rainy Sunday ♪
NEVILLE: Somebody told me she was in the audience
so I called her up on stage.
Sing some doo wop.
RONSTADT: Usually I'll never do anything like that
because I like to rehearse everything first.
But I wasn't going to say no to Aaron Neville.
NEVILLE: After that I asked for an autograph.
She said To Aaron, Love, I'll sing with you anytime,
any place, anywhere in any key.
[Don't Know Much by Neville and Ronstadt]
♪ Look at this face ♪
RONSTADT: The next morning I woke up
and my first thought was boy I like singing
with Aaron Neville. That sounded pretty good.
And then I thought, you idiot, everybody sounds good
when they sing with Aaron Neville.
I said we got to make a record together and he was up for it.
♪ I don't know much ♪
♪ But I know I love you ♪
♪ And that may be All I need to know ♪
NEVILLE: There were all kind of rumors going on...
They say oh Linda and Aaron got married or whatever.
Just crazy stuff.
♪ Look at these dreams ♪
♪ So beaten And so battered ♪
♪ I don't know much ♪
NEVILLE: The producer told us if you don't make it look real
ain't no sense doing it. So we had to make it look real.
♪ That may be All there is ♪
♪ To know ♪
[Neville vocalizing]
At the studio I said I'll see you at the Grammys.
[crowd cheers]
I had a speech but [gibberish]
[laughter]
Too nervous. I just want to say thank you to Linda first.
And my wife Joelle.
[laughter]
RONSTADT: Aaron and I won two Grammys for that record.
But as time went on there was something really wrong
with my voice.
I just lost a lot of different colors in my voice.
There's a lot of things you do in singing.
You turn your voice to different planes to make different sounds
and I couldn't do any of that.
Turned out I had Parkinson's disease.
Singing is really complex
and I was made most aware of it by having it vanish.
I can still sing in my mind but I can't do it physically.
I sang my last concert on November 7th, 2009.
It was a Mexican show.
SOUTHER: Must have been quite a reckoning
to have this marvelous instrument
that could always hold the notes, hit the notes
and shape the notes,
could no longer hold the notes without quiver.
But there's a lot of good records with
her magnificent voice on them
and I hear her laughing in my head all the time.
I hear that cackle all the time.
I'm sort of never without her.
ASHER: I could imagine not being able to sing for Linda is awful.
But I also know nobody who could handle that kind of change
or adjustment in a more logical and thoughtful
and intelligent way than Linda.
HARRIS: I don't think she misses going on the road.
I don't think she misses making records.
I think she misses singing with her friends
and singing in the living room with her family.
There's just no one on the planet
that ever had or ever will have a voice like Linda's.
RONSTADT: You know, I'm grateful for the time I had.
I got to live a lot of my dreams and I feel lucky about it.
Another person with Parkinson's said that life after death
isn't the question.
It's life before death.
So how are you going to do it?
How are you going to live?
[guitar strumming]
[singing in Spanish]
Couldn't find a part there.
Start right there.
[singing in Spanish]
I don't even have that note in my speaking range anymore.
[chuckling]
INTERVIEWER: Before you said you couldn't sing anymore.
This isn't really singing.
Believe me, it's a few notes.
- But it's not really singing. - Are you enjoying it?
Well, I would enjoy it much more if I could sing
but I can't let them sing this without me.
[chuckling]
It's a family thing.
Shall we? You guys ready?
[guitar playing continues]
[singing in Spanish]
[Linda chuckles]
- Do we get to eat? - Yes.
Good.
♪ I've been cheated ♪
♪ Been mistreated ♪
♪ When will I love be loved? ♪
♪ I've been put down ♪
♪ I've been pushed around ♪
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
♪ When I find a new man ♪
♪ That I want for mine ♪
♪ Always breaks My heart in two ♪
♪ It happens every time ♪
♪ I've been made blue ♪
♪ I've been lied to ♪
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
[guitar solo]
♪ When I find a new man ♪
♪ That I want for mine ♪
♪ He always breaks My heart in two ♪
♪ It happens every time ♪
♪ I've been cheated ♪
♪ Been mistreated ♪
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
♪ Tell me ♪
♪ When will I ♪
♪ Be ♪
♪ Loved? ♪
[applause]
[♪♪♪]
♪ Where have you gone? ♪
♪ My darling one ♪
♪ Are you on your own? ♪
♪ Are you having fun? ♪
♪ Is there someone to hold ♪
♪ When you need it bad? ♪
♪ Is it controlled? ♪
♪ Like the love we had? ♪
♪ Does the day go by ♪
♪ Like a memory? ♪
♪ Do you ever try ♪
♪ To remember me? ♪
♪ In an automobile ♪
♪ Or a crowded bar ♪
♪ Well I hope You're all right ♪
♪ Wherever you are ♪
♪ If you're still within The sound of my voice ♪
♪ Over some radio ♪
♪ I just want you to know ♪
♪ You were always My only choice ♪
♪ And wherever you go ♪
♪ That I still love you so ♪
♪ If you're still within The sound of my voice ♪