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Ken Sharp, the author of Dreamer: The Making of Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue," has a new interview out via Rock Cellar Magazine with Linda Ronstadt that touches on her admiration for Brian and Pet Sounds. Parkinson's disease has robbed Ms. Ronstadt of her singing voice, and she prefers to live a semi-reclusive life at home. The distribution of her debut live album [i.e. Live in Hollywood recorded for a 1980 TV special] has seen her granting conversations with Rolling Stone and CBS Sunday Morning among others.

https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2019/02/13/linda-ronstadt-interview-live-in-hollywood/ (https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2019/02/13/linda-ronstadt-interview-live-in-hollywood/)
Linda Ronstadt on ‘Live in Hollywood’ and the Singers Whose Voices Have Made Her Cry (The Interview)


Ken Sharp for Rock Cellar: Brian Wilson guested on your Cry Like A Rainstorm album, supplying background vocals for the Jimmy Webb song “Adios.” I know you’re a big fan of Brian as a writer and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.

Linda Ronstadt: I bought Pet Sounds in 1970 and listened to it unendingly, but those songs were very available on the radio. They say the record wasn’t successful at the time but I heard many of those songs on the radio when it came out, “God Only Knows, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Caroline No” and “Sloop John B.” I mean, all those songs were hits.

Today, right, if you get one hit from an album it’s considered a great success, and that had three or four hits. There was an innocence to that record, and an innocence to Brian, that was beautiful.

Before the singing starts on his songs, you’re grabbed by the emotion and wonder of his work. The way the chords were voiced gave it gravitas. There was an inner beauty to those songs; it’s very sophisticated music, and he made it accessible, and that’s a hard thing to do. From Pet Sounds, I really love “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” and I did “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” on my Winter Light record.

“Don’t Talk” is one of the most exquisite and beautifully constructed songs I’ve ever sung; the range and the melody came right out of the faerie bowers. In Ireland they say the faerie’s music was the most beautiful of all. “Don’t Talk” is just such a beautiful melody and such a sophisticated song coming out of a young person, especially at a time when the culture didn’t support that approach to music particularly. It just came out of the sky somehow. The architecture of the song is so exquisitely formed.

If you can sing, it gives you something you can perform on because it goes to all of the beautiful places in your voice. I learned a tremendous amount about singing hearing Brian sing. I love Brian and I love his work. He’s a true genius as a musician and I love the way that he writes harmonies and the way the words fit them in that pure, straightforward way. He’s one of the few that were able to structure harmonies and vocals like the great classical masters. There’s something about Brian’s earnestness and brilliance and his “aw shucks” attitude combined that seeped into the music.

Thanks for posting that. Linda Ronstadt is one of the all-time great vocalists, unquestionably.

Seconding that thank you! Linda is sensitive and perceptive, and she proves it again here in her observations.

Can't ... resist. Another Linda Ronstadt interview I recently encountered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c718aryLEmM

Thank you for posting that...she hit the nail on the head beautifully

I'm much obliged for the thumbs up Mtaber, Don Malcolm, Billy, and SMiLE-addict (that Old Grey Whistle Test vintage mid-'70s interview was a delight).

If you don't have Linda's Winter Light Album, think about getting it. Besides her heartfelt stunning version of Don't Talk, it's an absolutely beautiful recording. I'd easily give it a 5/5 rating. Just lovely indeed.