indeed, BOS. The LP (Home Plate) is one of her high points -- even tho' it was meant as an attempt to Ronstadt-ize her
This is very surprising to hear: Was Linda even on people's radars before 1975 as anything but an Eagles backing vocalist? That's an awfully quick turnaround time for influence to take hold.
well, yes, very much so. She'd been making solo records for several years at that point --
Heart Like A Wheel was her breakthru, but she had her cult followers, especially within the industry.
Don't Cry Now, which features her cover of "Desperado", came out in '73 and was much-beloved despite not producing a hit single. And HP uses an array of the usual Ronstadt suspects (the Halls, JD Souther, etc). Here's your pal Mr Xgau's review of HP:
"Produced with much tape trickery and laying on of experts by Paul Rothchild, this defeats its own gloss by refining and expanding the conventions of emotive, projective "sincerity" that have informed pop music from Al Jolson to Linda Ronstadt. By her thoughtful phrasing and gentle-to-gritty timbre, by her understated dramatic presence, by the songs she chooses to sing, Raitt makes her "compassion" seem unsentimental and even sharp-tongued without any loss of outreach. I love every cut, from John and Johanna Hall's "Good Enough," her most alluring analysis of a long-term sexual relationship yet, to John David Souther's "Run Like a Thief," which is about going to bed with your best friend's mate.
A."
