Eagles, Linda Ronstadt ’72 Concert Review: ‘Well Worth Catching’
by Best Classic Bands Contributors
Linda Ronstadt performing with Eagles in 1974 (Also pictured is the band’s Bernie Leadon)
Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. Two of music’s biggest acts on the cusp of stardom. The rising stars were all in their mid-twenties when she said to a member of her backup band in 1971, “Hey, Glenn [Frey], you’ve got to meet my friend Bernie Leadon. You guys would probably like to play with each other,” she told Best Classic Bands’ editor Jeff Tamarkin in a 2013 interview. “[My producer] John Boylan was saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to meet Randy Meisner. He’d be good to play in the band on bass.’ Then the minute that Glenn Frey and Don Henley were rooming together they started playing songs. I said, ‘Hey, those are good songs. Keep writing!’ We didn’t think these guys were going to be stars but I knew they were going to have a hit when I heard ‘Witchy Woman.’ I was living with J.D. Souther and they came over to our house to rehearse. We went out just to give them some space and went to the movies for a couple of hours and when we came back, they had worked out ‘Witchy Woman.’ It was a small room and they had been singing for hours in that room and tuning their voices into it and tuning their voices into each other. It was a four-part harmony song and it just exploded out of that room. I went, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a hit for sure.’
Ronstadt was just 26 when she opened for Eagles on December 2, 1972 in Los Angeles. This review appeared in the longtime U.S. music trade magazine Record World shortly thereafter. [Best Classic Bands’ founder is an alumnus of the publication.] Editorial comments have been added in brackets to put certain events in context.
UCLA’s Royce Hall was the setting recently for the country-folk bill of Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. Eagles proved that they are now a polished top rock unit that can undertake any kind of tune and develop an instant rapport with their audience.
Eagles, consisting of Bernie Leadon [25], Don Henley [25], Glenn Frey [24] and Randy Meisner [26] have tightened up their act considerably since their gig at the Santa Monica Civic [held exactly five months’ earlier, on July 2-3, 1972]. Each member is a fine writer as well as lead vocalist and the unity binding their talents together is now shining through. Bernie Leadon played some amazing banjo work on “Earlybird,” one of the highlights of their set. [The song was included on their self-titled debut album, released in June 1972.]
“Take It Easy” and “Witchy Woman” outshined their recorded versions, conveying a personal freedom and gusty vocals which the album does not carry over. [Both songs were also included on their debut LP and reached #12 and #9, respectively, on the Hot 100.] “Dream Baby” provided supreme vocal blendings which reveal them as one of the top country rock groups in the nation. Their music is quite simple but their presentation of songs commands respect.
For an encore they played a medley of Chuck Berry classics including “Carol” and “Let It Rock” which had the audience dancing in the aisles as well as Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and the Asylum [Records] gang all dancing on the side of the stage.
Linda Ronstadt opened the show with some refined country tunes including “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” [It wasn’t until the next year that she recorded the song. And it wasn’t released as a single until 1974 where it became a modest hit on both the pop and country charts] and Patsy Cline’s classic “I Go To Pieces.” [While the song is considered Cline’s signature tune, it was written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard.] Ronstadt has a golden voice with a wide range and she handles any tune like a mother handles a newborn baby. Her delivery is perfect down to the last note, making it difficult to find fault with any song she undertakes. Her interpretation of “Long, Long Time” is a moving journey through a song and time. Just to hear her convey the warmth, emotion and subtlety in that ballad is alone worth the price of an admission ticket.
See for yourself! Watch her perform the song a year later on The Midnight Special
Watch Ronstadt join Eagles for “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” in 1974 on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert
Her set was beautifully paced and also included a song by her guitarist “Balloon” called “Mail Order Dog”; it’s a funny, poetic ditty which one day should become a K-Tel classic! Ronstadt and her gang proved to be in top form, as usual, and hers is an act well worth catching.
[Ronstadt’s recordings are available here. Eagles released To The Limit: The Essential Collection in 2024, as a 3-CD set and as a deluxe 6-LP set on 180-gram vinyl. The title is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]
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2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI’m pretty sure that “Balloon,” who wrote and sang “Mail Order Dog”, was Richard Bowden, later of Pinkard & Bowden and a real unsung hero of the L.A. country rock scene.
Linda could sing the phone book and it would sound great. Easily the best female singer of her generation, she killed it live. I saw the Eagles open for Yes that year, they were already a well-oiled machine.