Linda Ronstadt-Prisoner In Disguise (1975)


 

Artist: Linda Ronstadt

Title: Prisoner In Disguise

Label: Asylum

Format: 8-Track

Catalog Number: ET 81045

Year of Release: 1975

Country and Year of Edition: US 1975

Sell Price: $2.57

Sell Date: 7/4/26

Condition: VG/VG with generic Warner slipcover, untested

Discogs Last Sold: 12/3/21 G/no cover $1.00

Low: $1.00

Median: $1.78

Average: $1.78

High: $2.57

Current low price: $4.95 VG+/no cover

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 1

Have/Want: 6/4

Where Sold: Fort Worth, TX

Time It Took To Sell:  3 years

Where and When Bought: ebay 8-track lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No 

Prisoner In Disguise is a record I never had over the years until it showed up in an 8-track lot a few years back.  I had it's follow-up Simple Dreams on Cassette when it was her new album and I had prior releases like Don't Cry Now and Heart Like A Wheel, but somehow I never bothered to get this although I did have a few tracks on the first Greatest Hits.  Linda holds it in high regard as her 6th record and reminisced about it last year when it had it's 50th anniversary release.  Heart Like A Wheel had already made her a household name and this was her follow-up.

As usual with Linda, song selection is everything.  The Pop hits were Motown standards: Smokey's "Tracks of My Tears" and  Martha and the Vandella's "Heatwave."  The country hit belonged to Neil Young, "Love Is A Rose" from his then scuttled Homegrown album.  His version first showed up on his 1977 Decade compilation, so Linda had this one all to herself for the general public for a time.

My later in life anti-Ronstadt voice bias that I developed made me dread listening to this a bit.  Whatever attracted me to her voice as a kid turned me off at some point compared to the Emmylou Harris or Dolly Partons (whose "I Will Always Love You" turns up long before Whitney Houston claimed it) of the world for country inflicted vocal interpreters of the 70's.  I'm trying to get to the crux of why and I think What's New had something to do with it after her early 80's flirtations with being a straight AOR rock act.  I guess I felt she abandoned "Rock" and my preference for vocals in her later adopted genres were more demure.  The other thing is her Pop hits of the 70's often revolved around 60's AM hits that were better done by the original artists.  Cleaved of their albums you don't get the full picture of her breadth and overall song selection quality. 

Prisoner In Disguise was released at the start of her commercial prime and deserves a certain level of respect for keeping people like Lowell George ("Roll 'Um Easy") and Jimmy Cliff ("Many Rivers To Cross" from The Harder They Come) in the mix.  Her own song "You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down" was pretty good too.  Emmylou in between Parsons & Dylan's Desire joins Linda on "The Sweetest Gift," originally recorded in 1946 by James & Martha Carson.

I have to give this music deference, even if I'd rather hear it as originally issued by someone else.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

A Retrospective (1977)

What's New (1983)

Emmylou Harris-Luxury Liner (1977)

Bonnie Raitt-Home Plate (1975)




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