Book Reviewed: Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, by Linda Ronstadt
I came to love Linda Ronstadt's music ever since I started hearing her songs "Blue Bayou" and "You're No Good" in late 1970s. I have followed her career ever since and recently saddened to hear that she had degenerative neurological disorder for the last 12 to 15 years. "I was struggling to sing for so many years," she told AARP magazine in August, when she revealed her diagnosis. "When I wake up in the morning, I think, "I can walk and I can talk, so it's a good day, you know," she told ABC News recently. Aaron Neville her music collaborator and a close friend recalls his work with Linda Ronstadt and expresses his sadness watching Ronstadt struggle with Parkinson's disease. "It is the most hurting thing in the world," Neville says of her diagnosis.
It is very refreshing to read this memoir that focuses mainly on music. She describes in details the moment she first realized she was a singer at the age of 4 and vividly recounts the musical path she followed. "I can remember sitting at the piano," she writes in the first chapter. She made music with well-known artists like Aaron Neville, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. She recalls; well, Emmy and I can finish each other's sentences. We have the same taste, and same political ideas, and we read a lot of the same books. But it didn't matter, because when we were working together, we had music among the three of us as a common language. Music always started the conversation. Each girl had her own way of dealing with challenges in her music career and ultimately triumphing, as Emmy and Dolly both have done their whole lives.
The biography also makes many references to her romantic involvement with California Governor Jerry Brown. It was hard to imagine that she was a woman who was in the middle of California rock scene would be interested in a person like Brown. She explains that they "had a lot of fun for a number of years. He was smart and funny, not interested in drinking or drugs," which is "a relief" considering her musician friends.
She is currently involved with a cultural group in the East Bay that works with immigrant population that teaches children traditional Mexican music. It is an after-school program; it's absolutely brilliant, she says. It is heartwarming to read her memoir; she is full of positive spirit but also saddening to know about illness. Highly recommended to all music fans!
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