Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir By Linda Ronstadt

In this memoir, iconic singer Linda Ronstadt weaves together a captivating story of her origins in Tucson, Arizona, and her rise to stardom in the Southern California music scene of the 1960s and ’70s.

Born into a musical family, Linda’s childhood was filled with everything from Hank Williams to Gilbert and Sullivan, Mexican folk music to jazz and opera. Her artistic curiosity blossomed early, and she and her siblings began performing their own music for anyone who would listen. Now, twelve Grammy Awards later, Ronstadt tells the story of her wide-ranging and utterly unique musical journey.

Ronstadt arrived in Los Angeles just as the folk-rock movement was beginning to bloom, setting the stage for the development of country-rock. After the dissolution of her first band, the Stone Poneys, Linda went out on her own and quickly found success. As part of the coterie of like-minded artists who played at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood, she helped define the musical style that dominated American music in the 1970s. One of her early back-up bands went on to become the Eagles, and Linda would become the most successful female artist of the decade. She has sold more than 100 million records, won numerous awards, and toured all over the world. Linda has collaborated with legends such as Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, J.D. Souther, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Bette Midler, and Frank Sinatra, as well as Homer Simpson and Kermit the Frog. By the time she retired in 2009, Ronstadt had spent four decades as one of the most popular singers in the world, becoming the first female artist in popular music to release four consecutive platinum albums.

In Simple Dreams, Ronstadt reveals the eclectic and fascinating journey that led to her long-lasting success. And she describes it all in a voice as beautiful as the one that sang “Heart Like a Wheel”—longing, graceful, and authentic. Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir

Psst...This book is now available, September 17.
Excellent interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air: http://tunein.com/radio/Linda-Ronstad...

I've been in love with Linda Ronstadt's voice since I first heard her belt out “You're No Good” through the earpiece of my transistor radio back in junior high. After reading this memoir, I've fallen in love with Linda as a person. What a gracious, level-headed, gentle, modest lady she is. And if she didn't already have enough talents, we can now add writing to her list of creative abilities. The entire book has a mellow vibe. Even the unpleasant events are related with equanimity and with generosity toward those who wronged her.

The subtitle of the book is “a musical memoir,” and she does limit what she shares about her personal life. This is not an autobiography in the traditional sense of the word. After the opening chapters about her upbringing in Arizona, the rest of her story stays focused on the evolution of her musical career.

Linda doesn't dish a lot about the people who have shared her life. There are only two brief mentions of Jerry Brown, with whom she had a highly publicized relationship. Likewise, there are only a few sentences about her children, and she never uses their names. Everything else is about the music, but there are plenty of entertaining and unsettling stories to keep things lively.

The seeds of Linda's musical versatility are rooted in her childhood, where the various generations of her family enjoyed everything from classical to mariachi music. Her huge success came from a combination of talent, flexibility, and being in all the right places in an era when country, rock, and folk music were merging and evolving into something new.

She always returned to her roots when deciding on a new musical project. From Pirates of Penzance to great American standards to songs in Spanish, she writes “the music I heard...before I was ten provided me with material to explore for my entire career.

This is a memoir without a lot of fluff, coming in at less than 300 pages. Highly recommended for her fans, as well as anyone interested in the American music scene from the '60s and '70s all the way up until she retired in 2009.

Rating = 4.5 stars Hardcover It pains me to write this. I have waited for this book since I learned of its inception. I own her albums, I've gone to many a Ronstadt concert. Simple Dreams is very light in the details and a slim volume of anything at all new. If you've been a fan of Ronstadt over the years - as I have, most assuredly - you will know pretty much all of what she has to offer here.

Over the years, she had admitted to and discussed her various boyfriends, both long-term and short term in articles and interviews. It's kind of incongruous to now refer to these relationships as sweethearts and keeping company (Jerry Brown). It's almost too Victorian and almost feministically backward for a woman her age and with her long career highlights. Although she says the book is not about her personal life but about the music, she was at one time engaged to a music producer while working on her Cajun music projects (no mention of him) and before that, was involved with other musicians (Lowell George of Little Feat, for one). She recorded her music for a period of time while involved with George Lucas as Skywalker Ranch. He wanted to marry her. This sudden demureness doesn't make sense and sounds phony.

Her children appear from almost out of nowhere, and I'm sure her readers would like to know more about them, not intimate details (I understand Ronstadt's need for family privacy), but how she came to be a mother. This topic is skipped over almost to the point of being insulting to her son and daughter. She talks more about her childhood pony.

Another reviewer said ... And I would've liked to understand how or why she came to be such a notoriously fan-unfriendly entertainer. She seems the loyal, gregarious sort, yet not at all toward the people who are largely responsible for her commercial success. Why?

Excellent question! It made me think of something I heard her say just recently.

Ronstadt said, in an interview just last week to promote this new memoir, that she's strapped for cash. A friend and I wondered how that could be, especially after all these years and all her successes? She complained that song writers make all the money, and she made her money mainly with touring after recording and releasing her albums, which she can no longer do. Did she agree to this book, a very slight volume, to make a few bucks? Was she at all concerned with doing anything other than filler/fluff, writing about topics she's already addressed?

I feel somewhat duped :-(

I really do wish Ronstadt well, and I do hope she follows up this very tenuous volume with her life after a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. There is more to tell, and her fans are interested. Hardcover
She has a unique legacy of music spanning rock, Broadway, traditional American, opera, children’s and Mexican songs. The book is about that music - not about Linda Ronstadt. While it says this in the title, I think fans will be disappointed; it is a very withholding memoir.

The content includes snippets about phrasing, vocal range, the sound of vowels, the technology, arrangements, rehearsals and choice of material. As close to anything personal are the pages in the beginning about her family and at the end about her father’s death (leaving the reader to speculate about the one sentence on her mother’s death).

The narrative is arranged in short vignettes. The later chapters have more substance than those on her early career, but all are sketchy. There is a lot of name dropping throughout.

Could it be so simple? She moved to LA and after one (two?) open mike performance(s) at the Troubadour was asked to open for Odetta… and then was offered a recording contract?

Some chapters have interesting caveats such as what happens at the first get together of a Broadway cast or that country record producers use focus groups to determine whether the fans like happy or sad songs.

In the Epilogue, teenage children magically appear.

A good example of how withholding this book is the topic of why Ronstadt has retired. I have read that she can no longer sing due to Parkinson’s. In the book she merely refers to voice deterioration after 50. If Parkinson’s is an unsubstantiated rumor, it is widespread enough that it should have been addressed. While it may be overlooked that a “musical memoir” ignores an artist’s children, I do think fans who have supported Ronstadt all these years deserve fuller explanation for her early retirement.

While stingy about her life, for a book this size, Ronstadt is generous with photographs. They represent most phases of her career. The book has a good Index and a Discography.

Since Ronstadt has done little song writing, she has no royalties. I’ve read that this was the motivation for writing this book. While this might satisfy Ronstadt’s need, it will not meet the desires of her fans. Perhaps she is holding back for volume 2 or merely hoping this will suffice. When I finished, I looked at the cover photo and it seemed to coyly say, like a kid with their technically completed homework, “Can I go out now?”

I’m not sure how to rate this, because it is genuine (no ghostwriter) but its limited writing on its limited scope makes it a limited book.
Hardcover Loved this simply, beautifully written memoir by Linda Ronstadt. It only covers a musical history with tiny bits of non-musical personal history but every bit of information about her childhood was really special. It was clear to see how very much her early years informed her musical choices later in life. Loved this book so much <3 Hardcover I have been listening to a lot of Linda Ronstadt's music again lately. It was the soundtrack of my late teens and twenties and I've never tired of her musical sensibilities. I could listen to anything she sang, even la Boheme. Some reviewer complain there was no personal dirt, no real mention of lovers, etc. I shrug my shoulders. Linda was always about the music. It's what I love about her. I saw her in Central Park singing Gilbert and Sullivan, I bought all her albums up to the late 80s. No one will ever sing like her. She was simply the best. Hardcover

Free read Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir

I only recently became a huge fan of her so there is not much to say about the contents. However, I was intrigued to read this because Linda voice is mesmerizing, there is hardly anything like it.. Songs like Blue Bayou, You're no good and other iconic songs. Yet this book was not compelling enough for me to read through the childhood or her music career but I will not mind watching interviews of her. It was sad to read about her Parkinson; disease,that left her singing voice obsolete. There is this one quote that summarized how she felt about singing different genres.

The only rule I imposed on myself, consciously or unconsciously, was to not try singing something that I hadn't heard it by then, I couldn't attempt it was even a shred of authenticity. At the time, struggling with so many different kinds of music seemed like a complicated fantasy, but from the vantage point of my sixty- seven years. , I seen it was only a simple dream.

I felt that this was a powerful quote, it spoke on the heart of singer and how she only wanted to sing songs that mattered to her.. I wish I can say the same about other singers who is not sucked into being a puppet with labels..Sorry long tangent but I am passionate about music so I tend to go overboard.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, Ronstadt is one talented singer that deserves all accolades that she received! Hardcover In her own words, the life, music and career of Linda Ronstadt. She knew EVERYBODY and played music with most of them. She keeps it positive with lavish praise for all the people she worked with.

Having been a singer myself, I loved all her descriptions of how she taught herself the different registers of her voice, her phrasing, and the many styles she mastered from folk to rock to standards to Mariachi to opera. A huge adventure in singing.

As far as her personal life goes, she is circumspect. She kept company with many men, she never married.

I have seen the bio pic The Sound of My Voice and the two are excellent companions. Hardcover As a teenager I loved Linda Ronstadt's music, and that love continued into my adulthood. Unlike many (if not most) of contemporary singers, Linda Ronstadt is also a consummate musician. She grew up in an extremely musical and well-educated family and relied upon that upbringing and musical knowledge to achieve more than most singers could ever hope of achieving in one lifetime. She has excelled at singing/recording everything from country, rock, opera and Mexican music to beautiful old standards. She has sung and collaborated with some of the best musical professionals in the business: Peter Asher (her manager), Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Nelson Riddle, Aaron Neville, Emmylou Harris, and Nicolette Larson, to name just a few.

Ronstadt's memoir encompasses her lively and loving childhood and personal relationships along the way, but it primarily focuses on her musical journey. She made many memorable and close friendships in the music business, and she is clearly a beautiful human being, inside and out. I was impressed that she knew Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison and that she was a close friend to Rosemary Clooney who I adored. Quite frankly, Linda Ronstadt is an amazing woman of phenomenal talent, and I highly recommend her memoir. Hardcover I've been on a memoir kick lately -- Penny Marshall, Debbie Reynolds, Garry Marshall, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Marlo Thomas. A little gossip, a little show business history, some behind the scenes insight, they're fun and they usually don't leave much of an impression. I don't know how much of Linda Ronstadt's memoir I'll remember, but it is the best one I've read so far.

Ronstadt's writing style is simple and direct. It's a pleasure to read. She seems to have written the book without a co-writer, but there may be more information on that when the book is released.

This is truly a musical memoir -- she includes little that doesn't have to do with making music. There are no shocking revelations and it seems that she has remained friends with every man she ever had a long-term relationship with. The only stories that show people in an unfavorable light are about Jim Morrison's threatening behavior and one or two others in the same vein.

She goes into detail about the decisions she made about trying different types of music and how it was often a fight, since once people have you categorized, they don't like you to change, when it comes to music or almost anything else for that matter.

Ronstadt says that she's retired from singing now, though that seemed hard to believe when I first read it. The interview and article in AARP online revealed that she says she has Parkinson's Disease and leaves her unable to sing. The article also mentioned some pretty heavy drug use in her past, which she glossed over in the book. In any case, she certainly has a good start at making writing a second career. Hardcover Ronstadt addends her title with the phrase, A Musical Memoir, and to this she holds fast. Simple Dreams is a highly-compartmentalized recounting of the history of her voice. Confined to musical influences, musical experiences and musical exploration, what we have here is not an individual's journey through life but the chronological narrative of a talent. And while it is Linda's prerogative to restrict her recollections to the professional, I find that the story suffers in the absence of her humanity.

Upon finishing this memoir I realized, sadly, that I did not know how she felt about much of anything. Not sure if she ever got married. Not sure where her two children came from. Not sure what she believes about love or hate, loneliness, despair, rapture, rage - none of it. I remain completely unaware of any emotional crisis she may have faced or conflict she may have struggled with. And to imagine these elements of existence didn't play a part in her artistic history is to do that history a grave disservice.

Linda Ronstadt is on the very short list of phenomenal female singers of our time. I think it takes more than vocal dexterity to make that list. It's a shame she does not.

Hardcover