Disco de Linda Ronstadt: “Prisoner In Disguise [Slimline]”

After watching yet another installment of American Idol I happened to revisit this great album and realized that none of the contestants are within a solar system of Linda's voice. When an artist has had as many hits and accolades as she has in her career it's easy to forget what an incredible stylist she was. And this album shows it all. She can go from haunting on the title cut, to heartbreaking on "Hey Mister," to spiritual on "Many Rivers," and to from-the-gut power on the end of "Heat Wave" effortlessly. It's hard to name another female vocalist as versatile as Ms. Ronstadt.

Linda's great winning streak as a singer, begun by the mass success of HEART LIKE A WHEEL in 1974-1975, continued with this hugely successful 1975 album, which found her mining a lot of different areas.

She gets to sing a traditional country duet with her pal Emmylou Harris ("The Sweetest Gift"), she does reggae ("Many Rivers To Cross"), she even steps into bluegrass territory (Neil Young's "Love Is A Rose"). Her remakes of such Motown standards as "Heat Wave" and "The Tracks Of My Tears" are far better than what such know-nothing Ronstadt bashers as Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau might lead you to believe.

But Linda really does herself proud with her definitive, and I do mean DEFINITIVE, rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You." She sings this song with a warmth, sensitivity, and drama that was totally absent in Whitney Houston's uttterly revolting remake for the movie THE BODYGUARD.

It's no secret that Linda became one of the most respected (and possibly intimidating) female singers in history. This glorious collection from the Queen of Country Rock is further proof of that.

This album, like so many of Linda's albums, contains plenty of covers. Among them are Love is a rose (Neil Young), Hey mister that's me on the jukebox (James Taylor), Roll um easy (Little feat), Tracks of my tears (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), Heat wave (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas), Many rivers to cross (Jimmy Cliff) and I will always love you (Dolly Parton) - quite a variety of sources including folk, rock, Motown country and reggae, reflecting Linda's eclectic musical tastes.

The other songs might be covers or originals. They are two John David Souther songs (the title track and Silver blue), one Anna McGarrigle song (You tell me I'm falling down) and the traditional-sounding Sweetest gift - this song is a duet with Emmylou, which has since been covered by the Judds and by Trisha Yearwood.

Somehow, Linda and her producer, Peter Asher, managed to create a cohesive album from an unlikely collection of songs. My favorite tracks are I will always love you (the earliest cover of this song that I know of, recorded just a few months after Dolly's original), Love is a rose, Tracks of my tears and Sweetest gift, but there's a lot of wonderful music here. Among her rock albums of the seventies, my favorite is Simple dreams but this one is a close second.

After the chart-topping success of HEART LIKE A WHEEL, Linda Ronstadt released PRISONER IN DISGUISE in 1975, an extremely successful follow-up effort which bolstered her standing as one of America's most popular singers. Opting not to fiddle with a formula that was working, Ronstadt delivered another collection of well-crafted, carefully arranged rock, pop and country songs that showed off her talent for covering good tunes and rendering them in a way that allowed the melodies to soar on the strength of her graceful voice.

The album yielded two strong singles: an exuberant version of the Motown classic "Heat Wave" and a silky-smooth rendition of Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby Baby," featuring lyrical alto saxophone touches by veteran session man David Sanborn. Ms. Ronstadt makes great use of the poignant ache in her voice on elegaic ballads like James Taylor's "Hey Mister, That's Me Up on the Jukebox" and Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which she sings with considerably less vocal histrionics than Whitney Houston would in her remake of the tune some 20 years later, which is a good thing.

Linda Ronstadt's 1975 album PRISONER IN DISGUISE is a timeless classic. Every song is a gem and there's something different about each one. Her interpretations of each song is a nice reminder of why she is a master interpreter of song. While everyone hypes up Whitney Houston's bland version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You", Linda Ronstadt's version is the best cover version I've heard of the song. She brings love and warmth to the song, unlike Whitney's blaring vocals which distract from the beauty of Parton's lyrics. Linda does great covers of the Motown classics "Heat Wave" and "Tracks of My Tears". Some other favorites of mine on the album include "You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down", "Prisoner In Disguise", "The Sweetest Gift", "Many Rivers To Cross", "Love Is A Rose", "Hey Mister That's Me Up On The Jukebox", essentially every track is a winner. This is the real deal here, just real talent. A classic album that should not go unnoticed.