Linda Ronstadt: Simple Dreams (Japanese Pressing) CD Track Listing

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Linda Ronstadt Simple Dreams (Japanese Pressing) (1977)
Simple Dreams (Japanese Pressing)\n\nOriginally Released 1977\nCD Edition Released \n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Featuring a broader array of styles than any previous Linda Ronstadt record, Simple Dreams reconfirms her substantial talents as an interpretive singer. Ronstadt sings Dolly Parton ("I Never Will Marry") with the same conviction as the Rolling Stones ("Tumbling Dice"), and she manages to update Roy Orbison ("Blue Bayou") and direct attention to the caustic, fledgling singer/songwriter Warren Zevon ("Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Carmelita"). The consistently adventurous material and Ronstadt's powerful performance makes the record rival Heart Like a Wheel in sheer overall quality. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com essential recording\nOn its face, Simple Dreams seems a crazy quilt of styles, from the friendly country-rock remake of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," the brooding covers of Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou," and Dolly Parton's "I Never Will Marry" to dissolute tales of rock & roll madness like the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice" and Warren Zevon's "Carmelita" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." Yet Ronstadt is able to keep it all together, proving her interpretive depth and stylistic breadth all at once. Simple Dreams is perhaps Ronstadt's most adventurous rock-oriented album, and, with the exception of the drum sounds, which indelibly identify this as a product of the '70s, it still works. --Daniel Durchholz \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nLinda and her boys capture the landscape of Southern California, February 24, 2006\nReviewer: John Jenks (West Hollywood, CA)\nSimple 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. \n\nSERVING SUGGESTION: The Main Refrain by Wendy Waldman\n\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nFollowing a Formula that Works...But for How Long?, November 8, 2002\nReviewer: S. Sittig "Divawatch" (Washington, D.C.)\n\nWith this follow up to 1976's HASTEN DOWN THE WIND, and 1975's PRISONER IN DISGUISE, Ronstadt sticks to the formula that made the two precursors so successful. It's mostly rock-country-pop, with a Buddy Holly cover (this time it's "It's So Easy")and a Dolly Parton cover (this time it's "I Never Will Marry")mixed in for good measure. This time she throws in a Rolling Stones' cover too. ("Tumbling Dice"). \nRonstadt keeps this songwriting potpourri tied together with her exacting vocal skills and her ear for good production. And as always, she tries her hand at a new songwriter (Warren Zevon) and creates lovely work with "Carmelita" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me".\n\nBut with all this musical melange, the vocal/emotional highlight is still her stunning take on Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou", which has by now become a standard of 70s interpretations. Once again, she seems to really be able to let loose when she tackles something simple, rather than some of her other clever choices.\n\nNevertheless, as successful as this formula has been for Ronstadt and as wonderfully as she pulls it all together on this offering, the listener can't help but feel that some of the bloom is off the rose.\n\nIt's apparent from repeated listens to this album that Ronstadt is growing increasingly restless and in need of a vocal and stylistic challenge. By the time we get to the next album, 1978's LIVING IN THE USA, the formula has grown thin and given all it can, and it starts to show slightly here.\n\nStill, this album would be her last great one of the decade and perhaps her most successful until 12 years later when she released her semi-comeback, 1989's CRY LIKE A RAINSTORM, HOWL LIKE THE WIND.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe rival to HEART LIKE A WHEEL., April 10, 2000\nReviewer: Matt Coker (Davis, CA, USA)\nSIMPLE DREAMS, released in 1977, displayed how far Linda Ronstadt's music had evolved since she recorded "Different Drum" (my favorite song) with the Stone Poneys ten years earlier. SIMPLE DREAMS is the most consistent and satisfying of any Linda Ronstadt collection, equal to HEART LIKE A WHEEL. Linda Ronstadt had a more Rock oriented backing band, and they album has great rockers and even better ballads. The opening track "It's So Easy", is radiant; the best version of the song I've heard. Linda's marvelous on Warren Zevon's "Carmelita", probably my favorite on the album. "Simple Man, Simple Dreams" is equally brilliant. The best way to listen to the poignant ballad "Sorrow Lives Here" would be a dark room with candles. You can hear the ache and sorrow in her voice. The saddness of "Sorrow Lives Here" isn't dispelled by the gorgeous traditional "I Never Will Marry". The scene set is soft and gentle, but demonstrates the remarkable control Linda has over her voice. Another winner is her giant selling single, the superb version of "Blue Bayou". It's breath-taking. Few things in this world are meant to rock as hard as Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and few things do. Linda's voice is just as superior as it is on the ballads, but the tone is different, she rings with agression. The gentle touching "Maybe I'm Right" is throughly wonderful. Linda proves she can rock as hard as the Rolling Stones by covering their "Tumbling Dice", brilliantly I might add. I'm not overly fond of the closing "Old Paint", but that's just me, it's a great Old West song ballad, keeping Linda's Country/Folk roots close to her. SIMPLE DREAMS sold 3&1/2 million copies in less than a years time. Whether you're looking for excellent rockers: "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" OR "Tumbling Dice", affecting ballads: "Blue Bayou", "Sorrow Lives Here" or "Carmelita", or Country/Folk: "I Never Will Marry"; SIMPLE DREAMS has everything. That's why it's one of Linda Ronstadt's best, and one of Rock/Pop music's great classics.\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Dolly Parton, Don Henley, J. D. Souther \nProducer: Peter Asher \n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Linda Ronstadt (vocals, acoustic guitar); Dan Dugmore (acoustic guitar, steel guitar); Waddy Wachtel (acoustic, electric & slide guitars, background vocals); Mike Auldridge (dobro); Charles Veal (violin); David Campbell (viola); Dennis Karmazin (cello); Don Grolnick (organ, Clavinet, electric piano); Steve Forman (marimba); Richard Feves (acoustic bass); Kenny Edwards (bass); Rick Marotta (drums, percussion); Peter Asher (percussion, background vocals); Herb Pederson, Larry Hagler (background vocals).\n\nThis was the fourth in a series of hit albums Linda Ronstadt made in the mid-seventies, starting with HEART LIKE A WHEEL. Like its predecessors, SIMPLE DREAMS is a rich collection of pensive folk ballads, pop with country leanings, and good old rock & roll. Her skill in navigating this rootsy terrain is exemplary, taking her from the swagger of her cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice" to the sweet whisperings of the acoustic "Maybe I'm Right." This record also features some of her most enduringly popular hits, such as "Blue Bayou" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me."\nThe rousing opening track, Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy" featuring her trademark growl, along with "Tumbling Dice" and the playful "Poor Poor Pititul Me," give the record moments of electrifying energy. It's the ballads, however, that comprise the majority of the tunes. Included are two traditional songs, "I Never Will Marry" (featuring Dolly Parton) and "Old Paint," both given simple but lovely arrangements by Ronstadt herself. The melodramatic "Sorrow Lives Here" is almost a hint of what is to come in the form of her collaborations with Nelson Riddle. Her artistry is perhaps best demonstrated in "Blue Bayou;" the shift from the quiet and husky verse to the yearning wail that is the chorus is nothing short of breathtaking.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n3 stars out of 5 - ...[Her] most successful album ever....continuing the commercial mix of classic and contemporary songs with stylish production values....emphasizing her great talent as an exponent of other people's work...\nQ (08/01/2000)\n\n[She] is captured here at the pinnacle of her mid-'70s success....a 10-track collection of hand-picked country-rock covers...\nMojo (07/01/2000)\n\n3 stars out of 5 - ...[Her] most successful album ever....continuing the commercial mix of classic and contemporary songs with stylish production values....emphasizing her great talent as an exponent of other people's work...Mojo (7/00, p.128) - [She] is captured here at the pinnacle of her mid-'70s success....a 10-track collection of hand-picked country-rock covers...\nQ (08/01/2000)\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nThe thing about Linda Ronstadt is that she keeps getting better, and we keep expecting more and more of her. She's always possessed that big, magnanimous voice, but it wasn't until Heart like a Wheel that her interpretive and arranging skills (the latter, and perhaps both, due to the felicitous pairing with producer Peter Asher) fully emerged.\n\nWith Hasten Down the Wind, Ronstadt shed some long-lived inhibitions. Given Karla Bonoff's red-hot, baldly emotional material ("Someone to Lay Down beside Me," "Lose Again," "If He's Ever Near"), she responded with her most personal--even visceral--singing. It doesn't quite make sense to call her highly charged performances relaxed, but certainly she was a lot less stiff than before. Ronstadt had, quite simply, become rock's supreme torch singer.\n\nWhat Ronstadt's blossoming skills suggest is a kind of latter-day Billie Holiday, a woman whose singing constitutes an almost otherworldly triumph over the worst kind of chronic pain. Throughout Simple Dreams (in which Ronstadt and Asher wisely have scaled down the production), the singer evokes a bittersweet world of disappointments, fantasies and cheerfully brazen assertions. What she lacks is the sense of humor and ironic self-effacement that made Holiday such an extraordinarily subtle and intelligent performer.\n\nThat flaw, which was most obvious in Ronstadt's sober reading of Randy Newman's outlandish "Sail Away," is evident here on Warren Zevon's darkly ironic "Carmelita." When Ronstadt, going to meet a dealer, sings, "He hangs out down on Alvarado Street/At the Pioneer Chicken stand" without even a smirk, it sounds as if she doesn't know that a joke, however black, is being made.\n\nAnd all the way through Simple Dreams' first side (which, except for the rousing opener, "It's So Easy," is made up of ballads), Ronstadt fails to step back and take a look at herself. She's just a little too blue for comfort. But that's a piddling complaint because it's a fine side. Ronstadt sings J.D. Souther's modestly self-pitying "Simple Man, Simple Dream" with a thorough sympathy for and understanding of Souther's message--that the lover of simple truths is easily ridiculed. She gets Eric Kaz' complex "Sorrow Lives Here" (Kaz, it seems, is getting ready to challenge Leonard Cohen as the world's most morose songwriter) just right. The lines "Everything seems to spin all around/But I can't see/Whether it happens/With or without me" unite emotional and philosophical confusion dramatically, and Ronstadt sings them as if she wrote them. "I Never Will Marry," the great traditional tune to which Dolly Parton's backwoods harmonies add a gorgeous dignity, should become her signature: it frames her independence and loneliness with enormous restraint and power.\n\nSimple Dreams' second side is better paced and begins with the song, "Blue Bayou," that caused me to compare Ronstadt to Billie Holiday. The transition she makes from the introduction to the chorus ("I'm going back some day, come what may to Blue Bayou") is simply electrifying. What starts out as an ordinary love song becomes a passionate cry for escape that completely transcends the song. Like Holiday, Ronstadt has developed an ability to invest her material with far more than it brings to her -- the wonderful jump to falsetto with which she ends "Blue Bayou" is a great deal more than merely wistful.\n\nSimple Dreams could have used more rockers like the second side's "Tumbling Dice" and Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." Both are strongly male, and Ronstadt's substitution of a female presence (something that occurs throughout the LP and serves as a sort of subtheme) is a joyous "anything you can do" statement. She moves through Zevon's role reversals convincingly, substituting a nicely assonant verse for a more graphic one that she might not have gotten away with.\n\nRonstadt's well-placed grittiness on "Tumbling Dice" (whose brilliant, highly salty lyrics are finally intelligible) matches the song's sense of risk and its keenly expressed bawdiness. "Tumbling Dice" might seem a strange choice of material for Ronstadt, but what she's telling us, I think, is that she can live on the edge with the best of them. And she's damned convincing. (RS 250 - Oct 20, 1977) -- PETER HERBST
This rock cd contains 10 tracks and runs 32min 11sec.
Freedb: 7907890a
Buy: from Amazon.com

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