So many nails, Robert, hit smack-dab on the head! First of all, Wendy (along with Bonnie Raitt and Carole) was my fave lady rock singer of the '70s! Linda was far too strident and shrill for my tastes, Maria too quirky, and Joni was too delicate (her brilliance I'd finally get as I grew older and wiser...I was only 16 when I first listened to "Blue" upon its '71 release)!
Six of those first seven artists you mention in your second paragraph (we can add Bonnie to this list): It's amazing the monopoly on quality singer/songwriters Warner Bros. had (or, adding Jackson Browne, the WEA family, with his Asylum Records output)...only Carole from that list was the "outlier," holding court at Ode/A&M!
As each Wendy album was released, I kept hoping for the one that not only would "break" her with radio/popularity, but that would grab me, too! I always loved her voice...like Bonnie, her realness and warmth, without the vocal quirks and contrivances seemingly loved by some of the other gals. By the time "The Main Refrain" was released in '76, I was a 21-year-old jock at an FM rocker in Baton Rouge, LA (WFMF), doing the prime-time 7-midnight shift.
I loved each of the 4 of its songs you featured (especially the title track and "Is He Coming at All," but the one I chose to try to make a hit in BR was "Living is Good." You can probably guess how Wendy might've gone over in deep Louisiana, as I tried to play her at least once during each shift! With the switchboard closed, I answered my own phones, and every time I played her, calls of "Play 'Free Bird,'" and similar demands came in!
Your spot-on observation, that "there is a way in how their voices blend that just screams California; the wind in your air, a cool breeze, sun and paradise" is what must've been the motivation for me to MOVE there! Three-and-a-half years later, sure enough, I landed in my apartment in the Valley!
Karla Bonoff (who somehow managed to sidestep Warner Bros, and land on Columbia) was another fave of mine from that time...in fact, one of her songs is my favorite thing Ronstadt ever did: '76's "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me" (from Linda's "Hasten Down the Wind" album), a ballad so beautiful, even Linda dare not over-sing it to its death!
Thoroughly enjoyable, Robert, and thanks for tolerating my trip down memory lane!
Thanks for all the thoughts. I agree...Bonnie Raitt should be on that list and only wasn't included because I'm not well-versed in her 70s albums (I should be but wanted to include artists whose work I know quite well). What's remarkable about Wendy Waldman's records from the seventies is that she continued to have a chance to record them without any overt commercial success - that's faith in an artist that is largely gone these days.
Wendy's career on Warner Bros. is the perfect example of the industry, overall, "back in the day"---the desire to build and nurture long-term careers...the artists, of course, were all over that notion, but the labels (and Warners was the front-runner) had that mind-set, as well!
I think that's why you see the gradual growth (that you so well examined) in Wendy's artistic output...from the folky, message-heavy early stuff to the more electric elements combined with more hooky tunes with the likes of Andrew Gold (her fellow 1970 Bryndle member) pitching in.
Moving to Columbia, it was their mid-'70s, not-so-subtle "memos" to the likes of the folky, 2-album Springsteen, and the Weather Report-like jazz fusion Journey to "give us hit singles" that led to their respective A) massive success and B) long careers of (in this case) two generationally influential artists..."Born to Run" and following for Bruce, and shorter songs and a lead singer for Journey!
Whether Warner's Mo/Joe ever sidled up to Wendy and insisted on hits, I don't know. But, support and encouragement were all but written into The Bunny's artists' contracts...and, they weren't alone. Nowadays, the formula seems to be: 1) Max Martin writes a song, 2) a new pretty face is found to sing it, 3) millions are made all around, and 4) do it all over again. Sad, today, but yesterday's model was certainly admirable...artistic AND commercial results speak for themselves!
Feb 28, 2023·edited Feb 28, 2023Liked by Robert C. Gilbert
Waldman is a new artist for me, so thank you for getting her on my radar.
Muldaur wasn't...or so I thought. I recently picked her up here self-titled debut on a whim. At a closing sale. I knew "Midnight at the Oasis," but wasn't expecting such a deep rest of the record.
I had the same reaction when I bought Maria Muldaur's debut. In fact, it was that album in which Wendy Waldman wrote the last two songs that I first became intrigued by Waldman, an interest that only increased when I bought Muldaur's next two albums (Waitress in a Donut Shop and Sweet Harmony) which include three more Wendy Waldman songs.
Thanks for introducing this singer to me. The mid-1970's was a time when I became bored with rock and was never a punker. So it was sort of a no man's land at the time for my ears.
So many nails, Robert, hit smack-dab on the head! First of all, Wendy (along with Bonnie Raitt and Carole) was my fave lady rock singer of the '70s! Linda was far too strident and shrill for my tastes, Maria too quirky, and Joni was too delicate (her brilliance I'd finally get as I grew older and wiser...I was only 16 when I first listened to "Blue" upon its '71 release)!
Six of those first seven artists you mention in your second paragraph (we can add Bonnie to this list): It's amazing the monopoly on quality singer/songwriters Warner Bros. had (or, adding Jackson Browne, the WEA family, with his Asylum Records output)...only Carole from that list was the "outlier," holding court at Ode/A&M!
As each Wendy album was released, I kept hoping for the one that not only would "break" her with radio/popularity, but that would grab me, too! I always loved her voice...like Bonnie, her realness and warmth, without the vocal quirks and contrivances seemingly loved by some of the other gals. By the time "The Main Refrain" was released in '76, I was a 21-year-old jock at an FM rocker in Baton Rouge, LA (WFMF), doing the prime-time 7-midnight shift.
I loved each of the 4 of its songs you featured (especially the title track and "Is He Coming at All," but the one I chose to try to make a hit in BR was "Living is Good." You can probably guess how Wendy might've gone over in deep Louisiana, as I tried to play her at least once during each shift! With the switchboard closed, I answered my own phones, and every time I played her, calls of "Play 'Free Bird,'" and similar demands came in!
Your spot-on observation, that "there is a way in how their voices blend that just screams California; the wind in your air, a cool breeze, sun and paradise" is what must've been the motivation for me to MOVE there! Three-and-a-half years later, sure enough, I landed in my apartment in the Valley!
Karla Bonoff (who somehow managed to sidestep Warner Bros, and land on Columbia) was another fave of mine from that time...in fact, one of her songs is my favorite thing Ronstadt ever did: '76's "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me" (from Linda's "Hasten Down the Wind" album), a ballad so beautiful, even Linda dare not over-sing it to its death!
Thoroughly enjoyable, Robert, and thanks for tolerating my trip down memory lane!
Thanks for all the thoughts. I agree...Bonnie Raitt should be on that list and only wasn't included because I'm not well-versed in her 70s albums (I should be but wanted to include artists whose work I know quite well). What's remarkable about Wendy Waldman's records from the seventies is that she continued to have a chance to record them without any overt commercial success - that's faith in an artist that is largely gone these days.
Wendy's career on Warner Bros. is the perfect example of the industry, overall, "back in the day"---the desire to build and nurture long-term careers...the artists, of course, were all over that notion, but the labels (and Warners was the front-runner) had that mind-set, as well!
I think that's why you see the gradual growth (that you so well examined) in Wendy's artistic output...from the folky, message-heavy early stuff to the more electric elements combined with more hooky tunes with the likes of Andrew Gold (her fellow 1970 Bryndle member) pitching in.
Moving to Columbia, it was their mid-'70s, not-so-subtle "memos" to the likes of the folky, 2-album Springsteen, and the Weather Report-like jazz fusion Journey to "give us hit singles" that led to their respective A) massive success and B) long careers of (in this case) two generationally influential artists..."Born to Run" and following for Bruce, and shorter songs and a lead singer for Journey!
Whether Warner's Mo/Joe ever sidled up to Wendy and insisted on hits, I don't know. But, support and encouragement were all but written into The Bunny's artists' contracts...and, they weren't alone. Nowadays, the formula seems to be: 1) Max Martin writes a song, 2) a new pretty face is found to sing it, 3) millions are made all around, and 4) do it all over again. Sad, today, but yesterday's model was certainly admirable...artistic AND commercial results speak for themselves!
Well done. Congrats.
Thank you! This means a lot!
Please send me more!! This is excellent!!
Thanks so much - next essay should be out early next week!
Waldman is a new artist for me, so thank you for getting her on my radar.
Muldaur wasn't...or so I thought. I recently picked her up here self-titled debut on a whim. At a closing sale. I knew "Midnight at the Oasis," but wasn't expecting such a deep rest of the record.
You're quite welcome.
I had the same reaction when I bought Maria Muldaur's debut. In fact, it was that album in which Wendy Waldman wrote the last two songs that I first became intrigued by Waldman, an interest that only increased when I bought Muldaur's next two albums (Waitress in a Donut Shop and Sweet Harmony) which include three more Wendy Waldman songs.
Thanks for this. It’s really wonderful. I knew little about her before reading this.
Thanks so much - glad you liked it!
Thanks for introducing this singer to me. The mid-1970's was a time when I became bored with rock and was never a punker. So it was sort of a no man's land at the time for my ears.
You're very welcome!