Linda Ronstadt - Lenox Music Inn, Lenox, MA, USA 1972 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

Linda Ronstadt - Lenox Music Inn, Lenox, MA, 8-12-1972 

Paul says: Linda Ronstadt had a hit single ("Different Drum") in 1967 with the band the Stone Poneys, when she was 21 years old. In 1970, after starting her solo career, she had another small hit with "Long, Long Time." But otherwise, she struggled a little bit. She didn't really have a big hit until late 1974, when "You're No Good" reached Number One in the U.S. As a result, there aren't many bootlegs from the earliest years of her music career, and no official albums from that time. 

I'd never come across any bootleg concerts from her prior to 1973. So I was pleased to discover this one from 1972. It's a soundboard bootleg, and sounds great. Yet it's never been widely shared as far as I know, since I couldn't find it on SoulseekQT or popular trading sites. I got it from a streaming source, and had to convert it to audio and cut it up into mp3s. So if you're a fan of her music, this is a great find, with mostly different songs than when she hit it big a couple of years later.

By the time of this concert, Ronstadt had released three solo albums, with "Linda Ronstadt" released in January 1972 being the most recent one. Naturally, most of the songs are from those albums. But one song, "Mail Order Dog," was written and sung by one of the band members, Richard Bowden, and he also talked for about three minutes before it started.

Overall, this sounds excellent, but there were a few problems. The first minute of the first song, "I Fall to Pieces," was missing. I found another version of the same song from a 1973 bootleg, and I used that to fill in the missing section. But I have to admit I didn't do that good of a job with it. The versions were performed somewhat differently, and the sound quality difference is stark, so I'm sure the transition point will stick out for you. But I figure that's better than only half a song. 

It was a similar situation with the last two songs, "Rose City Chimes" and "Rescue Me." That's why all three have "[Edit]" in their titles. For "Rose City Chimes," I mostly just had to patch in some applause at the beginning and end of the song. For "Rescue Me," I had to do that as well. But I also had to patch in about the first minute as well. I took that from her 1972 album "Linda Ronstadt," since the version on that album actually was from a concert.

This album is 40 minutes long. 

01 I Fall to Pieces [Edit] (Linda Ronstadt)
02 Silver Threads and Golden Needles (Linda Ronstadt)
03 talk (Linda Ronstadt)
04 Rock Me on the Water (Linda Ronstadt)
05 Lightning Bar Blues (Linda Ronstadt)
06 Crazy Arms (Linda Ronstadt)
07 How Long (Linda Ronstadt)
08 talk (Linda Ronstadt)
09 talk by Richard Bowden (Linda Ronstadt)
10 Mail Order Dog (Linda Ronstadt)
11 Lovesick Blues (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Long, Long Time (Linda Ronstadt)
13 Break My Mind (Linda Ronstadt)
14 Rose City Chimes [Instrumental] [Edit] (Linda Ronstadt)
15 Rescue Me [Edit] (Linda Ronstadt) 

I didn’t come to Linda overnight and we didn’t see her so much (at ALL? - ED) in the UK (shamefully somehow) and it took me the longest time to really get into her .. . . . . that awesome soaring peerless voice and taste in songs choices to cover,  that I feel like I am making up for it now . . . . listen to this you limey Brits!