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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
LInda Ronstadt In Her1970s Prime!, July 30, 2003
This is a classic Ronstadt album, recorded when she was really in her prime, busy cranking out the volume of hits and those seemingly effortless and sometimes facile interpretations of other people's songs, showing just how original an artist she was. Like the legendary Johnny Rivers, who always seemed to have a magical touch for turning other people's work into brilliant covers and best-selling albums, Ronstadt here does a star turn with other people's songs. She shows here just how versatile and eclectic her approach to some interesting material could be. From a raucous hit song like "It's So Easy" to a sweet and soulful interpretation of the plaintive "Simple man, Simple Dream", Linda pulls out all of the stops, and although the album was panned critically, it was also yet another of a string of hers to go platinum. Well, so much for them pesky critic fellas! Her fans knew what they liked, and they sure seemed to like this terrific collection of so many different genres gathered under a single tent. The single best effort is likely the reinterpreted Roy Orbison song, "blue Bayou" in which Ronstadt simply soars with a voice that echoes the heartache of someone really longing for home, and which was a number one hit as well. "Carmelita" is a haunting, powerfully performed song. Then too, the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice" proves to be a perfect showcase for Linda's bluesy interpretation of it. With a well-arranged version of the traditional "I Will Never Marry", she give a nice turn at a folk interpretation, and her nice rendition of "Sorrow Lives Here" is done with a country style that is almost bluegrass in its tones and approach. My personal favorite here is the title song, "Simple Man, Simple Dreams", and of course, "Blue Bayou". The title song is, of course quite reminiscent of a number of the songs from her previous albums such as "Hasten Down the Wind", "Prisoner In Disguise" and Long, Long. Time". All in all, this is a terrific album and one that is really a showcase for Linda at her very best. Enjoy!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Linda and her boys capture the landscape of Southern California, February 24, 2006
Simple Dreams to this day remains my Linda Ronstadt desert island disc if, Heaven forbid, I could only choose one. Let others genuflect on Heart Like a Wheel or those three ridiculous, effete Nelson Riddle albums. Ronstadt was always a more convincing interpreter of Eric Kaz than Gershwin or Ellington, which is nowhere more evident than on Sorrow Lives where -- acccompanied by only the late Don Grolnick's piano, mind you -- brave soul Ronstadt takes us on more harrowing curves and hairpin turns than a drunken Diana Ross driving down Topanga Canyon on her way to return some videos to Blockbuster. Indeed, Simple Dreams marked the last time Ronstadt was ever willing to get this down and this dirty, before she sent her chops off for vocal training in preparation for Gilbert & Sullivan. Before she became an artiste. Before she began over-enunciating her t's. Disco be damned, the album spawned four hits that were everywhere during the time, with Blue Bayou enduring to become her own New York, New York. Never mattered much to me that Ronstadt didn't seem to know what she was singing about on Warren Zevon's Poor Poor Pitiful Me or the Stones' Tumbling Dice; Linda was just keeping up with her boys. And there are lots of them, including Eagle Don Henley, Stone Poney crony Kenny Edwards, and the always welcome J.D. Souther. (I can see why she would do him.) Even Andrew Gold, who'd left her stable and was riding the charts in his own right with Lonely Boy, returned to mama in a cameo billed under the alias Larry Hagler. Only Dolly Parton's shimmering guest vocal on I Never Will Marry keeps Simple Dreams from being an all-male affair. Ronstadt would evolve as an artist over the next three decades and build an enviable catalogue that would have seemed unimagineable in 1977, but she would never again make an album as cohesive as Simple Dreams. (Although Cry Like A Rainstorm... comes close, except for those over-enunciated t's - "something's noT quiTe righT..." ) It's a shame to hear her disparage her 70's period as being not very musically interesting for a singer, dissing her hit records as (to paraphrase her) kinda sucking. If that's true, then Simple Dreams sucks. But in a GOOD way. In fact, ALL records should suck like this.
SERVING SUGGESTION: The Main Refrain by Wendy Waldman
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So rich with emotion it's positively embarrassing, March 20, 2003
Linda Ronstadt outdoes even her masterpiece "Heart Like A Wheel" with this alternately tough and tender rock effort graced with the frosting of beautiful photos of la Ronstadt at her most smoldering. Her versions of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy", Stones' "Tumbling Dice" and Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" didn't get much respect at the time from critics, but all these years later sound darn fine. My favorites though are Dolly Parton's sweet lament "I Never Will Marry", the incredibly tender "Maybe I'm Right", and the lonesome "Old Paint". Truly a stunning collection. A bit schizophrenic, but with a super-smooth production that helps the listener ease from one heartbreak to the next.
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~ Linda Ronstadt Aaron Neville
~ Linda Ronstadt Aaron Neville
~ Linda Ronstadt Aaron Neville
~ Linda Ronstadt
~ Linda Ronstadt Aaron Neville
by Linda Ronstadt 
