Panther's picks - Linda Ronstadt: Hasten Down The Wind - 1976
This was quite a solemn, serious and poignant album from Linda Ronstadt, with a couple of upbeat exceptions. As always with her stuff, the music quality is top notch too. Also notable was the cover to the album, which was one that got teenage boys such as myself all hot under the collar back in 1976. No bra necessary in those hot South-Western evenings, it seemed.
The album begins in comparatively low-key fashion with an appealing ballad in Lose Again, which, while country in essence, has a big rock band backing on the chorus - full drums and bass and a rock guitar solo mid-song to boot. The Tattler is slightly gentler and more melodic and once again it is a country rock ballad. A tattler is a gossip, by the way. The tone for the album is pretty firmly set by these two openers. That tone is not changed by the walking pace slowie If He's Ever Near. Thus far, we have ourselves a pretty sleepy album.
Things change now, though - Linda always liked a rocking cover version (often a Buddy Holly one) and she delivers a great one here in That’ll Be The Day. As always, she gets it spot on. Surprise, surprise, however - Lo Siento My Vida is a sleepy Mexican ballad, sung in Spanish, to bring the pace back down again.
Hasten Down The Wind is a beautiful Warren Zevon piano, strings and bass ballad with something of a Jackson Browne feel to it. It's simply lovely.
An unusual addition is a short a capella version of The Melodians’ reggae number, Rivers Of Babylon, with “oh Far I” sung as “over I”. Funnily enough the next track, Give One Heart, is a slightly reggae-influenced one. It breaks out into some fine country rock half way through as well. Try Me Again is also a muscular serving of country rock, with the emphasis on rock, with lots of attractive backing vocals and rock guitar breaks.
The mood quietens down again with a late-night cover of the romantic standard Crazy. Down So Low is magnificently soulful, with a real mournful gospel feel to it. The album ends with an emotive (but slightly overblown in places) ballad in Someone To Lay Down Beside Me. It's ok, but a tad clumsy on the chorus when compared to the rest of the album.
Albums like this don’t require too much track-by-track analysis, they are just pleasant from beginning to end, politely unthreatening, but, again, there’s nothing wrong with that.
