Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice — 2/5
I am intrigued by Linda Ronstadt because I generally love her music (and think 'Different Drum' is a top 50 all-time banger) but have no idea who she is or her place in the pantheon. And so, as one might, I think a documentary might help me. And it does, and it does, to some degree. I know what she was, I know her place in things; in the fairly linear and-then-this-happened Wikipedia article of a movie, I understand that she was big time big time, but it brings me no closer to understanding the her beneath that. The movie shows me that she had multiple gifts. Her voice, of course, but greater than that is her taste in things; knowing what good songs are and how to make them great, how to identify talent and bring them together. (She brought the Eagles together; she sang others' songs but they became her songs. She's essentially a Great American Songbook singer for a later age.) Her gift was variety, of being bored of being singular. ("Different Drum" in that way not only birthed her but defined her.) Her gift is that she is something we can prop up on a stage without the politics of a person getting in the way of enjoyment of a person. (Her voice is for everyone. Her opinions are for no one.) Her gift is control of her image, which the documentary gladly cedes to her. (So: great singer, boring subject.)
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