#21 - Linda Ronstadt

Ms. Successful

If there were a diamond-ring award for Rock 'N Roll's most multi-faceted, comprehensively brilliant and magnetically successful musician, it would surely go to Linda Ronstadt.

She met with success over four decades making music, her albums have sold a hundred million copies, she was the first woman performer to regularly sell out arena-sized venues, she easily set the record for successfully recording in the most genres (from her original Folk and Mexican heritage to her ground-breaking Country Rock roots, Pop, Classical, Great American Songbook, even Jazz and Opera) and may well have earned as much money as any other female musician.

Perhaps her greatest legacy is the idea that a star can reach out and highlight talented fellow musicians who've been half-forgotten or haven't yet had that first big break.  She did this, of course, by covering partially hidden gems, skillfully shining them and bringing talent to the fore.

But her crowning glory is her voice, probably a once-in-a-generation affair that will always be with us.

And, if I may, my own favorite: her 1969 "Hand Sown...Home Grown" title.

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

7/6/9/9 = 31 out of a perfect 40

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We've come a long way fact: After her first initial success as a solo country western artist in the early '70s she found it hard to recruit back-up musicians.  Why?  Because males in that era felt somewhat belittled if they were merely sidemen to a woman!  That has quickly changed, and she was a major force driving that revolution.