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Prisoner In Disguise by Linda Ronstadt (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Prisoner In Disguise
  • Artist name: Linda Ronstadt
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.95

Prisoner In Disguise by Linda Ronstadt

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I reviewed Linda Ronstadt’s Different Drum a couple months ago and loved it, but then reviewed Simple Dreams last month and wasn’t really a fan. That’s about the extent of my experience with Linda Ronstadt.

What I expected

Country rock.

What it was actually like

This was a record that consists entirely of cover songs, and the predominant style was country, but not the good kind of country: overwhelmingly these songs were boring and heavily produced, sanitized country, which I can not recommend. Love Is a Rose was a typical example, and Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox and Roll Um Easy were similar.

On the other hand, The Sweetest Gift was in more of a folk style, and was all right, while Tracks of My Tears was still country, but difficult to hide as a soul song.

Prisoner in Disguise and Silver Blue were both what my brother or I might call “soporific.”

Jimmy Cliff’s Many Rivers to Cross was a fascinating selection for me because I know it as absolutely the worst song on what is otherwise absolutely one of the very best movie soundtracks of all time, The Harder They Come, and since Ronstadt apparently could have had her choice of Cliff songs from that movie, I can’t fathom why she wouldn’t have gone with You Can Get It If You Really Want, which I’m confident she would have nailed.

As for what she actually did nail: she did a fine and memorable rendition of the Motown standard Heat Wave, an outstanding song that really lends itself to someone with an incredible voice like hers. I also appreciate that she didn’t try to get too creative with messing up musical arrangements (at least on the songs that I recognized), which was also the case with her version of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You – Ronstadt’s was quite faithful to the original and quite acceptable.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Classic Lightfoot: The Best of Lightfoot / Volume 2 by Gordon Lightfoot (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Classic Lightfoot: The Best of Lightfoot / Volume 2
  • Artist name: Gordon Lightfoot
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: United Artists Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $5.98

Classic Lightfoot: The Best of Lightfoot / Volume 2 by Gordon Lightfoot

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Summertime Dream last month and was not really impressed.

What I expected

I described “Summertime Dream” as “folky with more of a country sound than rock,” so I assume this will be like that.

What it was actually like

Folky with more of a folk sound than either country or rock. This record started off very slow, and The Last Time I Saw Her was bad enough that I tried to think of excuses not to continue listening, but by Rosanna, the tempo had picked up enough that I could pay attention.

I definitely recognized Something Very Special, but definitely not in a good way – more like if it were included on a movie soundtrack, then that would be my least favorite scene in the movie, the scene that I would have to assume that the director didn’t seriously intend for me to watch.

Long Way Back Home was folky and quite a bit better, but Affair on Eighth Avenue was back to being incredibly boring.

Ballad of Yarmouth Castle was the song that reminded me most of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and it wasn’t easy for me to figure out why, but I think that Lightfoot has this singing technique where he’ll sing a series of lines kind of quietly and then alternating a belted out louder line. There’s probably a name for that, and other singers definitely do it, but Edmund Fitzgerald is full of it, and Yarmouth Castle is too. I don’t really mind it, but I could see why people might find this very annoying.

Meanwhile, listening to Mountains and Marian, it reminded me of… something, but I couldn’t figure out what, and finally I realized that it sounded a bit like Joni Mitchell’s song The Circle Game. Is that crazy?

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Let There Be Music by Orleans (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Let There Be Music
  • Group name: Orleans
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: probably my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $9.89

Let There Be Music by Orleans

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Orleans or heard any of their music.

What I expected

Disco?

What it was actually like

It was not disco, but it was terrible, like the worst of all music genres associated with the 1970s combined with the worst of soft rock across all decades. I don’t recommend listening to it.

Dance With Me was a hit song and it was familiar to me when I listened to it, but that didn’t make it any better. If anything, I kept getting annoyed at the lyric, “I want to be your partner,” as if this group had time traveled almost half a century to be able to use the 2020s “partner” (which a certain kind of person uses instead of “husband” or “wife”) – but clearly they just meant “dance partner” and didn’t anticipate anything (except another couple decades of bad music).

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through

Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m aware that “Jefferson Starship” was a latter incarnation of Jefferson Airplane, but I’ve never listened to this record or any of their records and don’t think I know any of their songs.

What I expected

Hard to say. The image on the album cover reminds me of the Symbionese Liberation Army, which was active in approximately the same place and time that Jefferson Starship was making this record (San Francisco, mid 1970s):

Symbionese Liberation Army

Coincidence? I’m guessing a hybrid of stadium rock and disco-inspired rock.

What it was actually like

Git Fiddler was an outstanding song, kind of what happens when bluegrass meets funk meets jazz. I definitely recommend it, and I enjoyed Sandalphon as well – it’s more difficult to describe, but it sounded like it could have been on an Allman Brothers record.

Sweeter Than Honey was everything I dislike about anti-melodic stadium rock that became popular in the late 1970s and stayed popular through the mid 1990s. It was like someone heard John Cale’s droning sound technique and decided to imitate it, except without having any talent or vision. Miracles was a hit song, but I thought it was terrible.

The rest of the record was boring and unmemorable.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

One of These Nights by The Eagles (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: One of These Nights
  • Group name: The Eagles
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it:

One of These Nights by the Eagles

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m familiar with the Eagles, but not with this record or any of the songs on it.

What I expected

1970s stadium rock.

What it was actually like

I actually did know the title track One of These Nights, a pretty bad disco-inspired rock song. Other songs on the first side were a little better, with parts channeling Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Lyin’ Eyes was also a familiar-sounding country song, the best song on the record by far. The worst by far was I Wish You Peace: slow, boring and whiny.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing