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Dec 03, 2013 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Linda Ronstadt recently disclosed that she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and can no longer sing. It was a sad final chapter in a singing career that spanned four decades. Simple Dreams finds Ronstadt taking a look back at that 40-plus year career, from early days with The Stone Poneys through her heyday in the ‘70s and later work performing American standards and Mexican folk songs.

Simple Dreams features its share of anecdotes. Ronstadt is privy to The Doors’ Jim Morrison behaving badly in 1968. She discusses verbal abuse at the hands of Jack Nitzsche, occurring when she was on tour with Neil Young. She describes a brief run in with Charles Manson acolyte Leslie Van Houten. But most of these stories are glossed over, without much examination or introspection. The book, which is a short 200 pages, doesn’t delve deeply into much. Ronstadt speaks fondly of relationships with writers Jackson Brown and John David Souther, and also of her artistic relationship with Emmylou Harris, but little interpersonal details are shared. Mostly, Simple Dreams reads like a list of happenings. There is little insight. Little self-examination. Little setting of scenes. It would have been interesting to read about what it was like for Ronstadt coming onto the California soft-rock scene of the early-‘70s or what it was like slogging the road with The Stone Poneys in the mid-‘60s. Or even how she coped with the grand fame she achieved later in her career. But this isn’t discussed. These things are presented as simple facts. Nothing more, nothing less, which leads to an ultimately unfulfilling read.

(www.simonandschuster.com)

Author rating: 4.5/10