The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years

This thread is dedicated to content and mastering discussion of the following release:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7au67uy050jf

It's nice to have all four of her early Capitol albums on two CDs. I count five bonus tracks. I recently bought it and plan to listen and provide feedback in the coming days.

 

Great Steve. Can't wait to hear a sound review.

 

I plan on doing an A/B/C comparison of the new compilation with the 4 original CD's and the 4 original LP's. But so far I've only listened to one song (in the car yesterday) "He Darked The Sun" (one of the bonus tracks). I had erroneously assumed this was the version Linda did on the 1973 LP, Music From Free Creek. But obviously since that was recorded in New York and the "new" version was recorded in Nashville, they are indeed different. So now we have 3 official releases of Linda singing the song.

If you missed the scans from the new booklet (inadvertently posted in another thread) you can view them here and here.

Below are a few more scans. Notice how they used Linda's flower decal from her car as the image on the CD discs...Looking forward to spending some quality time with this music.

 

Does the cover photo look familiar? 20 years ago Capitol used a very similar photo for the cover of another Linda Ronstadt compilation album, Rockfile (Pair PDL-2-1125)...one of their special markets labels. OK...is it the exact same original shot, or 2 different shots taken a second apart?

 

There must be more attractive pictures of her than that one. Why choose such a bland picture?

 

Linda is the ONLY female poster I ever went out to a store and put on my wall. it was the shot of her on stage with the tiny boy scout uniform. Never had another woman on my wall (yep not even Farrah!!!) The scans of the booklet bring my back.....I am picking up this Jewell today!!!!

 

I think she looks beautiful in that shot...

 

Absolutely!! Great picture from that era! It's all in her eyes!

Dexter

 

And that cute little crooked mouth of hers...she was so hot...

 

Amen...the cover of HASTEN DOWN THE WIND gets the job done, too!

 

Got a large cardboard framed copy of that cover hanging on the wall here.



Here are a few more decorating my walls...





Cheap webcam pictures don't do 'em justice...plenty more Linda posters still hanging all over the house, but most are packed away in storage.

 

So, while we're all busy drooling at Linda, has anybody actually listened to the CD yet? How's it sound?

 

Thank You.

 

How about posting that picture?

 

I agree.

That look on her face really does it for me.

 

Well, what's the verdict?

 

Sounded very, very bright in the car--so much so that I had to turn down the volume, very, very low.

 

I always liked her voice.

 

That poster was 30 years old. It went away a loooooooooooooooooong time ago along with my Beach Boys Sunflower poster, Zappa on the toilet and Debbie Harry one with the see thru top on!!! The only poster I still have from back then is a big red one of Randy Newman advertising is appearance on SNL and his first 3 Lps.... If I could only go back in time...*sigh*

 

I still haven't listened to all of it yet...having some equipment complications, but I can say that the overall sound is clearly superior to the 2002 Rhino release of The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt...although there are only a few songs with which to make direct comparisons. I also want to compare the 4 songs on ...Capitol Years to the 4 songs that Steve remastered. I almost said 5, but the version Steve did of "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" was the later version, not the one on the new compilation from Hand Sown...Home Grown. Gotta say that the DCC versions are gonna be hard to beat.

That's Ricky Marotta and Waddy with Linda in the second picture.

 

Well I'm a little miffed at Capitol for promising a 47 track set, then only delivering 46. One of the bonus tracks, "Orange Blossom Special" [prev. unreleased: recorded live at The Troubadour, L.A., July '71] was supposed to be the last track on disc one..at least on this press release from source: Capitol/EMI Music Catalog Marketing. Why do they keep doing this? If they promised 46 tracks and delivered 46, I wouldn't be disappointed at all. The Elektra advance order one-sheets for Linda's Box Set and her Western Wall CD with Emmylou also promised additional tracks...even telling us which ones, then didn't deliver them. Geeze...

When news that Capitol was planning on releasing some of Linda's catalog in a new package, early speculation was that it was going to be a CD version of the 1977 compilation, Linda Ronstadt...A Retrospective (Capitol SKBB-11629). That collection is of particular interest to Ronstadt fans because of the alternate versions of a couple of songs on it. Its version of "Some Of Shelly's Blues" differs from the original on the third Stone Poneys' album. The newer version (with steel guitar) was issued on the 1974 compilation Different Drum (Capitol ST-11269), and that album was eventually released on CD...But the alternate version of "Rescue Me" from A Retrospective has never been released on CD. That's why I was surprised that they didn't use it on this new release. No biggie, the original is fine...it's just a little surprising they didn't take this opportunity to use the rare one.

Speaking of alternate cuts, I should also mention that Linda's version of "Stoney End" on the Different Drum compilation is not the same as her original on Stone Poneys III. There's added instrumentation on the later version.

It kinda bugs me that there's not very much information on many of Linda's albums. I think people would like to know stuff...like on "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" (the version originally recorded in October 1968 and included in this new release) all three of Linda's siblings are singing with her. And nowhere on the new CD does it say that "Can It Be True" was also used in the 1971 film The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker. I'm glad it's finally out on CD (most of us vinyl guys already had the 45), and I'm happy to get any unreleased material, but I want all the facts too...background stories, who played what instruments, exact recording dates, ect. A Retrospective probably comes closest to what I expect in that area. The liner notes for the new CD by Barry Alfonso are well written and and very appropriate for this package...I just want more track details.

I'm glad they included "Kate" which I'm sure features Glenn on lead vocals and Don on drums, but why not make this info available. Most fans of The Eagles probably already have Linda's self-titled album, but maybe more of them would buy the new CD if they knew about this song.

Oh well, guess I'll start searching the inter-web. Maybe I'll find some info I should have gotten from the CD...at least I'll have some fine music to listen to as I search. In spite of all my minor complaints, I love this material. It's so much better than if it had just been a CD of A Retrospective.

 

Are any of the Stone Poney LP's available on CD ?

Charlie

 

All 3 were issued in April 1995, but by December 1997 all were deleted. Stone Poneys Cut-out List

 

Hi Charlie,

I have the cd The Stone Poneys Evergreen vol. 2, also I recall seeing at a record store another title, probably Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt, not sure. Evergreen vol.2 was released by Capitol, CDP 077778012924.

regards,
Helio