RONSTADT RULE AND SINGING WOMEN IN THE SEVENTIES

Ronstadt Rule? If you ever commit to an eternal crush, it means forever.

Music women in the seventies were deserving then, and deserving now, none more than Linda Ronstadt.

With their songs more available, “Hey, Siri, play Linda Ronstadt,” they are never far away. In case you think you’re all alone in your crush, here’s Willie:

“There are two kinds of men in this world: those with a crush on Linda Ronstadt and those who’ve never heard of her.” – Willie Nelson

You could say the same about any other women singers from back in the day. Maybe stretch it to the 80’s?

The crush list takes many turns.

This isn’t my list, but it’s a good one.

From Karen Carpenter to Olivia Newtown – John, Helen Reddy, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Anne Murray, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross, Carole King, and Carly Simon, the Seventies were a singin’ decade.

Click the link for each singer’s bio, plus three top hits links.

But are they ‘Eternal Crush’ worthy?

My picks versus Linda Ronstadt:

Judy Collins singing Someday Soon.

On The Smothers Brothers.

Joni Mitchell singing Both Sides Now..

On the Momma Cass Show.

Both songs give the hope that falling in love is worth the heartbreak.

They got me the first time I heard them, and every time I click the Judy and Joan links. I’m going to save this post before I finish so I can hear them on a loop.

Here goes.

Judy has a crush on a guy just out of the service and wants to run away with him. Her parents do not like him because he works the rodeo.

What could go wrong?

She runs off with her rodeo clown, discovers he’s not as funny as she thought, but she can’t go home. Why?

Her father had warned her.

He never had a good word to say to him when he came around. But it’s more than another song about love, hard love, sacrifice for love, live in a small trailer love, eat ramen for a week love.

It’s about an awareness of life beyond the city limits, the county, the state, and joining up when her cowboy comes in from California.

Sound pretty good right about now? Hitting the road with my favorite girl is always a treat.

Hippies, Singing Hippies

Joni Mitchell sang Both Sides Now in 1969. She was twenty six years old.

It was released in 1966. I’ll do the math. Joni Mitchell was born in 1943, so she wrote Both Sides Now in her early twenties.

Moons and Junes and ferries wheels
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way

But now it’s just another show
And you leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away

This was an woman’s anthem of the 60’s.

It fits the message from Stephen Stills’ with, “Love The One You’re With.”

So there you are, rolling around back in the day, gonna do right but not right now, and things get uncomfortable because you have feelings you think the other person shares.

You know they care, everything about them says they care, but they can’t let you know because they follow the ‘Joni Rule.’

“And if you care, don’t let them know, don’t give yourself away,” translates to don’t be the first to want someone more than they want you.

Was she following the Beatles from 1965?

Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she’s gone I can’t go on
Feelin’ two-foot small

Everywhere people stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say

Hey, you’ve got to hide your love away

Follow The Ronstadt Rule Instead

Before they were the Eagles, they were four guys practicing in Linda’s living room.

Ronstadt Rule: Show you care.

She came to LA with a fairy tale dream of making it.

She made it.

Ronstadt Rule: Dreams come true.

She has great fans. Tom Cox is one of them:

. . . these three (early) albums could conceivably be the most dangerous three albums to underestimate in the history of country rock, if not in the whole of rock itself.

But that’s also because, amidst their defiance, amidst all their romantic strength, they are full of admissions of human weakness too: they’re not about becoming a robot or an icy shithead when you’ve had your heart broken; they’re about becoming stronger and more the person you’re supposed to be. 

Ronstadt Rule: Life throws some screwy pitches, but stay in the batter’s box and take your swings.

And turn it up on Blue Bayou.

Then convince me I don’t want to hear Lady GaGa sing Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center with Linda watching.