The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years [Original recording remastered, Import]

Linda Ronstadt | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 30, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered, Import
• Label: EMI Europe Generic
• ASIN: B000CEX20O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,473 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resurrection Of Linda's Early Groundbreaking Period, January 24, 2006

By 

Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (Audio CD)

For close to forty years, Linda Ronstadt has been an ultimate gold standard for a great many female singers, especially those in the country and roots-rock fields. Without Linda, we'd be almost certainly deprived of such illustrious heavyweights as Trisha Yearwood, Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, Tift Merritt, and many others. And the five-year period between 1969 and 1974, when Linda was on the Capitol label, is where her reputation as a country and roots-rock icon was established, on four albums--1969's HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN; 1970's SILK PURSE; 1972's LINDA RONSTADT; and her 1974 commercial breakthrough HEART LIKE A WHEEL. Now all those four albums, plus five extra goodies, have been combined on THE BEST OF LINDA RONSTADT: THE CAPITOL YEARS, something that Ronstadtphiles have been itching for, to quote one of Linda's best known songs, for "a long, long time."

HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN, released in the spring of 1969, is arguably the very first alternative country album ever released by a female artist; and for all its crudeness, it has held up quite well, with Linda varying her repertoire between the pure folk-rock of Dylan ("Baby You've Been On My Mind") and the California honky-tonk of "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line" and "Break My Mind." The latter two are examples of where Linda would give current "Redneck Woman" Gretchen Wilson a run for her proverbial money in terms of a tough-mama image.

SILK PURSE, released in early 1970, is largely remembered for its cover of Linda frothing with pigs, and for the fact it remains her only album to be recorded in Nashville. It is almost straight-ahead country. Out of this album, however (one that Linda has always said she hates), came the country-rock classic "Long, Long Time" (a #25 hit in late 1970), along with a juiced-up rendition of "Lovesick Blues."

LINDA RONSTADT, released at the beginning of 1972, found her moving much closer to the country-rock aesthetic, and doing it with the cream of the crop of the L.A. country-rock session mafia, including four guys--Don Henley; Glenn Frey; Randy Meisner; and Bernie Leadon--who would go on to form the Eagles with Linda's blessing. Covers of contemporary songs like Jackson Browne's "Rock Me On The Water" and Neil Young's "Birds" stand proudly alongside honest renditions of such country songs as "Crazy Arms" and Patsy Cline's 1961 classic "I Fall To Pieces"; half of this album was recorded live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in the summer of 1971.

HEART LIKE A WHEEL, released late in 1974, broke Linda to a huge audience and cemented her place in the pop music pantheon, a place that she has never relinquished. No other female singer has proven as capable of mixing straight-ahead rock with the traditional spirit of country as Linda did on this album, where a straight-ahead rocker like "You're No Good" (a #1 hit) stands with a straight-forward country classic like "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You" (a #2 country hit, and one that gave Linda her first Grammy [Best Female Country Vocal]).

But this collection doesn't stop with just the four albums. There are the five previously unreleased tracks. From the HAND SOWN sessions there is "It Won't Be Easy", which sounds like a cross between Indian raga and bluegrass; from the SILK PURSE sessions is an unused Nashville version of "He Darked The Sun" (the one on SILK PURSE itself is more folk-rock, while this previously unreleased one is straight C&W); "Can It Be True?" was the theme song to the 1971 film MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER; and in the same 1971 Troubadour performances that made up the self-titled album, there is a wonderful live version of "Long, Long Time", plus "(Get Up) Kate", a composition by Glenn Frey that finds the future Eagle duetting with Linda on a hard-rocking number about James Taylor's younger sister.

All these tracks, particularly those from HEART LIKE A WHEEL, have been constantly copied in some form or another since at least the late 1980s in Nashville by a staggering number of female artists there, for the obvious reason that Linda is a legend in the country-rock field. But nobody has ever been able to duplicate what Linda pulled off during that fertile period of 1969-1974; and very few (Trisha Yearwood being among those few) have even come remotely close. Whatever one might think of her other endeavors in the areas of big-band, Mexican mariachi, or adult contemporary, this 2-CD collection should leave no doubt as to the place Linda holds as one of the single most influential female singers of all times.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank You, Capitol, January 31, 2006

By 

Hugo (HOUSTON, TEXAS United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (Audio CD)

A huge "THANK YOU" to the powers that be at Capitol Records and most of all to superstar singer, LINDA RONSTADT for reissuing her first four [fine] studio albums in one crystal clear remastered sound package with a few "bonus" tracks included. These Cd albums can still be purchased as single entities, but, the sound on this compilation easily eclipses those. Collectors' and die hard fans' dream project and word to the wise at Capitol Records would be that the next Ronstadt project should be a similar two disc set featuring all three out of print Stone Poneys albums with "bonus tracks", all/any unreleased recordings from the vaults, plus all the sought after rare Linda recordings from movie soundtracks and obscure non-album singles["She's A Very Lovely Woman"-etc.]she recorded and issued while contracted to the label. Though all three Stone Poneys albums were briefly reissued[no bonus tracks/historical notes]circa 1995-96, copies soon sold out and fans are now paying ridiculous prices[up to $100.00 per cd]for highly coveted early Linda Ronstadt music. RONSTADT's artistic influence has been felt deeply within the three generations of musicians who have followed in her musical steps since her much celebrated groundbreaking "Heart Like A Wheel" album in 1974. That album alone would be quite the jewel if issued on an SACD Hybrid edition. Honors for the ultimate Queen Of Country Rock have been overdue for a long, long time.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NEED MORE STARS IN THIS GRADING SYSTEM FOR HEART LIKE A WHEEL ALONE, January 25, 2006

By 

John Jenks (West Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (Audio CD)

When I told my friend Jeff that Capitol was finally getting around to giving Linda Ronstadt's solo albums the reissue treatment, he whined that her beloved, influential masterwork Heart Like A Wheel should be commemorated with its own deluxe edition given its importance to her catalogue. And while I think Jeff's idea is fantastic, I myself had been bellyaching over the wholesale deletion of A Retrospective, the double LP released by Capitol after she jumped ship and went on to unprecedented commercial success for another label. To my delight, Capitol has taken A Retrospective and gone one better by simply putting all four of her solo recordings for them into one package, three of which had for "a long, long time" (ahem) only been available as imports. Oh, yeah, along with some previously unreleased bonus tracks & alternate takes, which is why I suspect many would buy this in the first place. (But they're really stretching it with the inclusion of Kate, recorded live at the Troubadour in 1971, where Linda is essentially a glorified backup singer. Not that I'm complaining, as it's the nastiest groove I've ever heard her tackle this side of Little Feat.) The pops and crackles of the old vinyl have been replaced by an audible tape hiss from the original master sources, but these albums -- particularly her eponymous record in its entirety -- are better than I remember; still, there's no doubt about it: Her pre-Peter Asher albums were unformed & unfocused. Listening to them without the benefit of hindsight, no one would ever guess that this pouty-lipped pop singer with a penchant for hoop earrings & posing in pig pens would ever take a seat alongside Streisand & Aretha as one of the greatest songbirds this country has ever produced.

If there is any criticism, I would say the booklet is a little disappointing, starting with a title a little too similar to other such anthologies (see: Rhino's best-of package from a few years ago). I recall the original LPs listing the musicians for the geeks like me who want to know that stuff, so if you're wondering who that harmony singer is on Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Heart Like a Wheel, you're not going to find it in this booklet. (It's Maria Muldaur, btw.) But with the embarrassment of riches offered up on both of the discs that comprise this package, The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Captol Years earns every one of its five stars.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Judy Collins' Wildflowers.