This article, on the 1970 album Silk Purse, is taken from my e-book Linda Ronstadt-A Life In Music which was published back in 2009 (Note: Photos added for this article).
Although it must have seemed like she would never escape the folk music tag things would start to change with her next album. Following on from her first solo release the time came to record her follow-up album. Work on this project commenced in early January 1970 under the guidance of producer Elliot Mazer.
Mazer is probably best known for his thirty-year association with Neil Young and the best-selling album Harvest but he has also produced material by Janis Joplin and worked on the album and film The Last Waltz which featured The Band and a country music star who would become a major part of Linda’s career, Emmylou Harris.
After Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album, it became fashionable to record in Nashville. Elliot Mazer, a New York producer headed there along with four session musicians, guitarist Mac Gayden, bass-player Norbert Putnam, drummer Kenneth Buttrey and keyboard player David Briggs. The plan was to record an album of instrumentals.
To give the tracks a more country feel he called on several other musicians including Charlie McCoy on harmonica, guitarist Wayne Moss, a second keyboard player Ken Lauber, steel guitarist Weldon Myrick, Buddy Spicher on fiddle and, finally, banjo player Bobby Thompson. They recorded under the name Area Code 615, the telephone code for Nashville.
It was McCoy and Buttrey who developed the track Stone Fox Chase which became the theme tune to the long-running British music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test. Introduced by ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris the show would, in the mid-seventies, help introduce Linda to a British audience. Area Code 615’s album was recorded in a converted garage in Madison, Tennessee owned by Wayne Moss and named Cinderella Studios.
In an interview with Country Song Roundup in October 1970, Linda talked about the recording of Silk Purse. “We recorded some of it in Nashville, some in San Francisco, and some of it in New York. The guy that produced it is the guy that produced Area Code 615. So that’s how I ended up working with some of those Nashville musicians.”
Arriving in Nashville she immediately noticed the difference between the Nashville country music scene and the Californian country scene. She recalled that in Nashville they can make an album in just three days, assembly line stuff.
Paperwork logged with the American
Federation of Musicians (AFM) gives more details about these sessions. Although
it is unclear which sessions Linda attended the paperwork does give an insight
into the recording of the album.
Sessions at Cinderella Studios on the 14th and 15th January produced Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Are My Thoughts With You? and Lovesick Blues. Two other songs, I Try Harder and Why You Been Gone So Long were also recorded although no tracks with these titles have ever been released. A month later, on 28th February, at Woodland Studios in Nashville work was completed on Long, Long Time and the following month, finished masters of both He Dark The Sun and Nobody’s were completed.
In March 1970, in advance of the album’s release, a single Lovesick Blues coupled with Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? was issued but, following the unfortunate similar pattern of previous singles, failed to chart. There was a gap of nearly five months before the release of the album meaning any interest the single had created was lost by the time the album hit the shops.
Released in August 1970, Silk Purse (Capitol E-ST 407), showcased Linda’s country
and honky-tonk prowess as well as stepping into new territory. The album was a mix of
traditional country, I’m Leaving It All Up To You, Life Is Like A Mountain
Railway and the Hank Williams classic Lovesick Blues. Mixed in were tracks
that, at the time, were classified as ‘new country’ including Louise.
Silk Purse opens with Lovesick Blues which is handled well as is the Mickey Newbury track Are My Thoughts With You which features some excellent harmonica work. She manages to take the old Shirelles hit Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? and turn it into a country song complete with steel guitar.
Gary White wrote two of the tracks Linda covered on the album. Nobody’s is a well sung soulful song that she handles well but the best track on the album is his Long, Long Time, with its beautiful string arrangement. It would bring her long-overdue success when issued as a single.
White joins her on Paul Siebel’s moving tale about a prostitute, Louise. Asked in an interview whether he knew anyone like Louise, he replied: “God, no! But there were these truck-stop places in the mid-South in my army career in which hookers worked from. You’d see these greasy spoon truck stops with a motel or hotel arrangement kind of thing and women would be working out of there, and that’s, I guess, where that all came from, but there was no one specifically in mind.” The song, delivered with a simple acoustic guitar backing, is definitely a highlight.
The Mel Tillis composition,
fiddle-dominated track Mental Revenge, segues into another country standard, I’m Leaving It All Up To You. The former, with its distinctive alternating
fast and slow tempos, had been covered by many artists, including Waylon
Jennings, while the latter had been a 1963 #1 single for the Louisiana pop duo
Dale and Grace.
He Dark The Sun, written by Bernie Leadon and Guy Clark and featuring Leadon singing harmony is followed by the bluegrass/ gospel track Life Is Like A Mountain Railway on which Linda is accompanied by The Beechwood Rangers.
In 1971 Linda would re-record He Dark The Sun for the all-star album Fire Creek. Although it was printed on the sleeve as He Darked The Sun, it is unknown which spelling is correct. It was recorded in New York along with Living Like A Fool which also appeared on the album. Fire Creek, the idea of a promoter, would give musicians from some of the top rock groups the opportunity to jam with each other. There were members from Canned Heat, Three Dog Night, The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and many more on what ended up as a double album. Jimmy Greenspoon, from Three Dog Night, recalled that Linda was, “...great to work with. She was a sweet and wonderful person with a great voice.” An alternate version of He Darked The Sun dubbed the ‘Nashville Version’ was issued in 2006 on The Capitol Years.
If for no other reason Silk Purse will always be remembered for its cover featuring a demure Linda dressed in an off-the-shoulder blouse and cut-off jeans sitting in a muddy pen surrounded by some pigs! The idea was a goof on her sexy image and a reference to Moonbeam McSwine, the girl in Lil Abner. She was now living in Topanga Canyon, twenty miles west of Hollywood and, as pointed out in Barney Hoskyns Hotel California, Topanga was Laurel Canyon with fewer houses and more space. People were moving there because they could pretend they were in Tennessee or Kentucky or anywhere they wanted to be.
It reminded her of Dogpatch and she would remind them of Moonbeam. “She was real foxy-looking, but she smelled terrible and no guys could get near her,” Linda once said. Mind you getting the photo wasn’t all that easy as she remembered, “I came into their pen with my earrings on and all my make-up. I sat down but they kept running away from me.” It probably didn’t help when she offered them a ham sandwich! She finally sat down with them and got to know them. “They were real sweet. They all wanted to come over and cuddle and put their heads in my lap.”
Alec Dubro, in his review of the album
in Rolling Stone, felt that some people might find the cover pretentious but
his own personal opinion was that it was just beautiful.
In October 1970, Penthouse compared her vocal style with her personality when they said “Linda Ronstadt’s vocal style is like her physical presence, brimming with passion and vulnerability, tremulous, yet possessed of a core of absolute strength.”
With Silk Purse, it seemed that Linda was finally moving away from her folk image and nearer to the kind of music she was keen to record. The un-credited sleeve-notes praised her, “Her soul shines through when she’s working hardest... when she can pounce on her music... create fireworks on stage... in recording studios...become part of Bob Dylan... sway with what Billie Holiday felt... take an ounce from Edith Piaf... crawl into a bushel with Jerry Lee Lewis... dig Hank Williams’ brand of blues and cry with Johnny Cash. She’s Linda Ronstadt. She believes in reincarnation... she has within her the force, the power of all that is music.” Despite still trying to find her way it is true that she was picking up on each artist’s strengths.
Dubro, again in Rolling Stone, echoed this, believing that she was doing the right kind of material and that, if she could find good songs and sort out the dull material, she could have a successful career.
Unfortunately, Linda didn’t share his confidence in her abilities and actually hated the album as she would recall to Ben Fong Torres in a 1975 Rolling Stone interview. “I hate that album,” she said. “I’m sure Elliot doesn’t think it’s very good either. I couldn’t sing then, I didn’t know what I was doing.” She attributed part of the blame to the musicians and style of music. “I was working with Nashville musicians and I don’t really play country music; I play very definitely California music, and I couldn’t communicate it to them.” On listening to the album, which admittedly is a mixed bag, it is hard not to feel that she is being overly critical of her own abilities and talent.
However, there was one song on the album
that she did like, Gary White’s Long, Long Time, undoubtedly one of her
greatest ever performances. It was a song that she really believed in despite
people telling her it was a ballad and would send people to sleep. She fought
hard for the song and, although not totally happy with her performance, was
convinced it would be a hit and in the end she was proved right.
Unfortunately Capitol Records did not share her enthusiasm and ignored the song, only releasing it as a single after Los Angeles radio airplay forced a change of heart. They may have agreed to its release but told Linda in no uncertain terms not to bring them another country single.
Released in September 1970 it became
Linda’s first solo hit reaching #25. Meanwhile the album spent ten weeks just
outside the top 100. Long, Long Time also gave Linda her first Grammy
Nomination. Along with Dionne Warwick’s I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Bobby
Gentry’s album Fancy, Anne Murray’s Snowbird and Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough by Diana Ross, she was a contender in the ‘Best Contemporary Vocal
Performance, Female category. The song was up against strong competition and it
was no surprise that Dionne Warwick walked away with the honour although Linda
was no doubt pleased, and rightly so, with the nomination. She didn’t need to
let this affect her as the years to come would find her making several
thank-you speeches of her own.
