Country-rock pioneer and Country Universe favorite Linda Ronstadt will join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
She will enter popular music’s most elite company alongside fellow inductees Nirvana, Cat Stevens, Hall and Oates, Peter Gabriel, and KISS.
Ronstadt was last nominated seven years ago. During the seventies, Ronstadt was widely regarded as rock’s leading lady, while also commanding respect and success in the country market with her genre-bending Asylum records.
Congratulations to Linda Ronstadt and her fellow inductees.
Enjoy a clip of Ronstadt performing at the Rockpalast Festival in Germany in 1976:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=082KfTzWOxE
I only found out recently that she wasn’t already in the RnR Hall of Fame. Hard to believe that it took so long for her to get elected. Congratulations Linda.
Well, it did take seemingly forever to make this happen; and as a fan I myself have to admit that there was pressure to do it now in part because of her Parkinson’s diagnosis, and the loss of her voice. But now that it’s official, the only thing left to do is feel elation. I think many of her fellow female singers out there, from Emmylou Harris onward, feel the same way.
Nice Linda Ronstadt tribute at the Hall of Fame induction by 5 talented ladies: Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, and Carrie Underwood. They sang Different Drum, Blue Bayou, You’re No Good, It’s So Easy, and When Will I Be Loved.
It was a wonderful tribute, and really one of the high points of the whole ceremony. All five women, plus Glenn Frey, really did Linda justice; and Carrie, I think, outdid herself by singing “Different Drum” in the lead-off. It’s not the easiest song to do, and is really well outside what everyone thinks of as Carrie’s “comfort zone.” But she really did it right; and Linda’s career was, I feel, re-focused on the fact that she was an artist first and foremost, and a “star” second.
Jason,
While you may be right that Ronstadt’s diagnosis sped things along, I have no doubt sshe deserved this induction! I’m not asking this in a jerky way, but are you not aware of her career and far reaching influence on female singers and respect in various genres due to her expansive catalog of diverse music? She’s certainly known for “having a huge mark on music.”
She’s certainly known for “having a huge mark on music.”
Well, so is Rush, albeit in different genres than Linda Ronstadt, but you see how long it took them to get in. In a Rock Hall with any credibility left, Linda Ronstadt would have been put in long ago, certainly before the likes of Donna Summer or James Taylor.
As a fan of Linda’s, let me just say that one of the reasons you may supposedly not hear her influence in current music is because that she is not that kind of performer, someone who is out there seemingly obsessed with getting attention, like a Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus. She is not, and never has been that kind, of woman. Singing was her very life.
But everyone she ever worked with says that she made them better; and several generations of female artists, from her good pal Emmylou Harris to Nicolette Larson, on to Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Patty Loveless, Suzy Bogguss, and Sheryl Crow, and, more recently, Tift Merritt, have attested to being influenced by her heartfelt, passionate, four-octave voice. The influence is there, but you really have to listen close, not just hear.
As long as we’re talking about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I feel I must say The Replacements deserve to be inducted. That band laid the ground work for ’90s alternative and if Nirvana is in the HOF, The Replacements should be as well. But I also like Linda Ronstadt.
I think the real problem with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is that the term Rock and Roll is so ill-defined. Acts like Nirvana and Hall & Oates are not rock and roll. Rap/Hip Hop is not rock and roll. A better name for the place would be Pop Music Hall of Fame because that is what it has become, with a nominating board that seems arbitrary and often random in its nominations
I do agree that Ronstadt is a worthy nominee but I wouldn’t necessarily agree that she was more worthy than James Taylor
Here’s the thing about rock and roll: It may be as ill-defined as it is because it has often borrowed elements from so many other genres. You can’t really describe it or define it, because everyone has had different ideas about it.
Linda may not have thought of herself as a singer of any exclusive style, rock and roll or otherwise, but in her career she did define rock and roll as being a merger of many different genres that existed at its inception back in the 1950s: country; R&B; jazz; gospel; bluegrass; folk; pop; blues. She sang in all of those styles in her time, and I doubt we’ll be able to see that ever again.
Ronstadt’s singing voice, her musicians and her taste in material are in a different universe of greatness compared with the late Ms. Houston, Ms. Jackson and as strong a voice as Streisand had it ain’t as beautiful or heatbreaking as Linda’s. One of the most pure singers that ever existed. She valued her art more than fame (even though she was the most popular female singer for two decades – in many a genre). A most unusual gal and bravo to those who recognize her pioneering role in American music history.
I think that the use of “Rock” and “Classic Rock” as a radio format has blurred the lines in many minds, but “Rock and Roll” is a broader term that does, indeed, include elements of pop, rap/hip-hop, R&B, dance/electronic music, and country. Rock and Rock & Roll are not interchangeable terms.
I am mystified that anyone would claim that Nirvana is not rock and roll. They were the most influential and significant rock band of their generation, and were arguably the last major rock act to be the most artistically significant musical act across the genres. The grunge era really was the last time that rock as a format could be seen as the most representative and forward-thinking format, and, not coincidentally, the last time that rock was the musical voice for our youth.
Hip-Hop, and to a lesser extent, electronic music, have essentially been the only genres to truly play that role in the last twenty years. I think that makes those sounds more in line with the true spirit and history of “Rock & Roll” than most of the warmed-over, derivative rock of today.