April 23, 2009 Earworm

Always a little too ready to reach for her old copies of Song Hits magazine, Linda Ronstadt got a reputation for being a bit of a trash monger. With that aside, there can be no denying that she had a fantastic voice and, when applied to songs in which she was interested, she could own them just as well as her predecessors and, in the interest of fairness, many a fine songwriter benefited when she chose to interpret an unknown; just ask Warren Zevon, Andrew Gold, Billy Steinberg, and Mark Goldenberg.

Legend has it that Mick Jagger told Linda that she should stop soaking in balladry and try her hand at a harder sound and she responded with a decent cover of "Tumbling Dice" for the soundtrack to "FM". Her next album, "Living In The USA", continued the trend with its lead off single, a screaming version of Chuck Berry's "Back In The USA", and, perhaps to make a point, she cut off her hair. The album became the first in history to ship double platinum, sold just as many copies, and her roller skating get up on the cover was said to have increased interest in that pursuit as well. Still clutching her Motown songbook, the second single would be a cover of Smokey's "Ooh Baby Baby" that even Smokey can't deny as being anything but gorgeous.

Next up, an attempt at what was just beginning to be called New Wave with "Mad Love". Containing three Elvis Costello covers - she'd already tackled "Alison" on her last album, much to Costello's dismay - as well as three tracks from future Cretones ringleader, Mark Goldenberg, two oldies - "I Can't Let Go" and "Hurt So Bad" - and, for the first single, the rollicking "How Do I Make You", providing future "Like A Virgin" author Billy Steinberg with his first top ten hit. Reviews, as always, were mixed but most pointed to her take on Neil Young's overlooked "Look Out For My Love" as the best the album had to offer. This was not news to me as it had taken little more than two weeks to wear out the grooves on that particular spot on the album. Within a year, I went through three vinyl copies before letting finally letting it rest.

Over the years, my interest in Linda Ronstadt faded to little more than the occasional grasp for the upper reaches of the volume button whenever one of her older tracks hit the radio and her interests began to stray into areas of which I had little interest, making concept albums that didn't fit my particular concept at the time as well as some pretty wretched AOR records that make my teeth ache to this day. But I recently picked up a second hand copy of her greatest hits and found that it was like visiting with an old friend with whom you could complete each other's sentences. After buying the second volume of greatest hits, being shocked to find "Look Out For My Love" not included, and with my vinyl copy of "Mad Love" somehow lost over the years, I ordered a copy of it on cd. In retrospect, the album holds up just as well as many of those created by some of the female led New Wave acts that followed but, once again, I can't stop playing "Look Out For My Love". I think it is flawless.