Silk Purse
Studio album by
Linda Ronstadt
ReleasedApril 13, 1970
RecordedJanuary–February 1970
Studio
  • Cinderella Sound
  • Woodland Studios
Genre
Length29:14
LabelCapitol
ProducerElliot F. Mazer
Linda Ronstadt chronology
Hand Sown ... Home Grown
(1969)		 Silk Purse
(1970)		 Linda Ronstadt
(1972)
Singles from Silk Purse
  1. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
    Released: March 2, 1970
  2. "Long, Long Time"
    Released: June 15, 1970

Silk Purse is a studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt. It was released by Capitol Records on April 13, 1970 and was Ronstadt's second solo studio album in her career. Silk Purse contained a total of ten tracks that experimented with country music. It included covers of songs by Hank Williams and Mel Tillis. Featured on the album were two singles. Among them was the song "Long, Long Time", which became Ronstadt's first charting single in the US and Canada. Silk Purse was given positive reviews from several publications including AllMusic and Cashbox. It was Ronstadt's first to make chart positions in Australia, Canada and the US.

Background

Linda Ronstadt had been a member of the folk group the Stone Poneys and they had a top 20 US single with 1967's "Different Drum".[3] The groups two other members (Kenny Edwards and Bob Kimmel) left the Stone Poneys shortly afterward for a quieter existence. Capitol Records wanted to still invest in Ronstadt which forced her towards a solo career. Because Ronstadt was used to having Kimmel write songs to record, Ronstadt needed songs to record. She chose to draw from the catalog of country music which she heard as a child.[4] Country would be the musical focus for her first two solo albums at Capitol: Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse.[3]

Recording and content

Silk Purse was recorded at Cinderella Sound Studios and Woodland Studios. Both studios were located in Nashville, Tennessee. Ronstadt herself also noted that some of the album was also completed in San Francisco, California. The album was produced by Elliot F. Mazer.[5] Mazer was part of a Nashville studio session group called Area Code 615 which played on Silk Purse. "It was an unusual sound for the time with an touching emotional quality," Ronstadt later wrote of the recording experience.[4] The album was produced between January and February 1970.[5]

Silk Purse consisted of ten tracks.[6] Among the album's new songs was "Long Long Time", which Ronstadt had found from its songwriter Gary White.[4] White also wrote the original tune "Nobody's". Gene Clark and Bernie Leadon wrote the song "He Darked the Sun" while Paul Siebel wrote the song "Louise". The latter track was about a prostitute.[5][6] Other tracks were covers of country songs such as Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" and Mel Tillis's "Mental Revenge".[1] One gospel cover is also included titled "Life Is Like a Mountain Railway" and a cover of the R&B song "I'm Leaving It All Up to You".[5][1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideB[7]
Rolling Stone(mixed)[8]

Three months after the album's release, Rolling Stone's Alec Dubro reviewed Silk Purse in the magazine's June 25 issue. "Some of the material is raw imitation and some is more original, but none is very far from the soul of the singer," Dubro wrote. "It is Linda Ronstadt's voice that makes this record; she endows the songs with a feeling that she has shown since the first Stone Poneys' album, and she has developed her Country style considerably since her last album."[8] Lester Bangs also reviewed the album in Penthouse, writing: "Linda Ronstadt's vocal style is like her physical presence: brimming with passion and vulnerability, tremulous, yet possessed of a core of absolute strength."[9]

Music critic Robert Christgau commended Ronstadt for her choice of tunes but noted that "only occasionally – "Lovesick Blues" and "Long Long Time" are both brilliant – does she seem to find Kitty Wells's soul as well as her timbre."[7] Billboard magazine commented that Ronstadt, "has proven she can go it alone [solo], and this album entry makes that even more evident."[2] Cashbox magazine called it "an exceptional LP".[10] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave Silk Purse three and a half stars and wrote, "perhaps she didn't find her voice, not in the way she would a year later on her eponymous record, but this Nashville excursion had a clarifying effect, whittling down the musical excesses and strengthening her aesthetic while winding up a nifty little record in its own right."[1]

Release, chart performance and singles

Silk Purse was originally released by Capitol Records on April 13, 1970. It was the second studio album in Ronstadt's career that solely credited her and not the Stone Poneys. The album was distributed as a vinyl LP, containing five selections on each side of the record.[6] Silk Purse was Ronstadt's first album to make the US Billboard 200 chart, reaching number 103 after ten weeks.[11] On Canada's RPM Top Albums chart, Silk Purse climbed to the number 59 position.[12] On Australia's Kent Music Report chart, it made the top 40, climbing to number 34.[13] Two singles were spawned from the album, beginning with Ronstadt's cover of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" in March 1970.[14] It only charted in Australia, reaching number 100 on the Kent Music Report chart.[15] It was followed by the new track "Long, Long Time".[16] It was Ronstadt's first charting record as a solo artist in the US and Canada, climbing to number 25 on the Hot 100 and number 15 on the RPM Top Singles chart.[17][18]

Reflecting on the Silk Purse to Rolling Stone in 1975, Ronstadt commented, "I hate that album. I'm sure Elliot [Mazer] doesn't think it's very good either. I couldn't sing then, I didn't know what I was doing."[5]

Track listing

Side one[6]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Lovesick Blues"
2:07
2."Are My Thoughts with You?"Mickey Newbury2:47
3."Will You Love Me Tomorrow"
2:27
4."Nobody's"Gary White2:56
5."Louise"Paul Siebel3:25
Side two[6]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Long, Long Time"White4:21
2."Mental Revenge"Mel Tillis2:46
3."I'm Leaving It All Up to You"
2:21
4."He Darked the Sun"
2:40
5."Life Is Like a Mountain Railway"Traditional (arranged by Elliot Mazer and Linda Ronstadt)3:24

Personnel

All credits are adapted from the liner notes of Silk Purse.[6]

  • Fred Catero – Recording engineer
  • Howard Gale – Recording engineer
  • Lee Hazin – Recording engineer
  • Elliot F. Mazer – Producer, recording and mixing engineer
  • Adam Mitchell – Musical director
  • Wayne Moss – Recording engineer

Charts

Chart (1970) Peak
position
Australia Kent Music Report[13] 34
Canada Top Albums (RPM)[12] 59
US Billboard 200[19] 103

Release history

Release history and formats for Silk Purse
Region Date Format Label Ref.
Australia April 13, 1970 LP Capitol Records [20]
North America [6]
Netherlands 1976 [21]
South Korea 1977 [22]
Japan 1979 [23]
North America 1995 CD [24]
Japan 2014 [25]
North America 2015 LP [26]
circa 2020
  • Music download
  • streaming
 Capitol Records [27]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Silk Purse: Linda Ronstadt: Songs, reviews, credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Album Reviews: Pop" (PDF). Billboard. April 25, 1970. p. 56. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  3. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Linda Ronstadt Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir. Simon and Schuster. p. 48-52. ISBN 978-1451668735.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Lewry, Peter (2010). "1: Welcome to the L.A. Rock Scene". Linda Ronstadt: A Life in Music. Andrews U.K. Limited. ISBN 978-1849892483.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ronstadt, Linda (April 13, 1970). "Silk Purse (Original Liner Notes) [North America]". Capitol Records. ST-407 (LP).
  7. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: R". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 12, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  8. 1 2 Dubro, Alec (June 25, 1970). "Silk Purse". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  9. ↑ Bangs, Lester (October 1972). "Silk Purse > Review". Penthouse.
  10. ↑ "Cashbox Album Reviews: Pop" (PDF). Cashbox. April 25, 1970. p. 36. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  11. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2006). The Billboard Albums Includes Every Album that Made the Billboard 200 Chart: 50 Year History of the Rock Era. Record Research, Inc. p. 897. ISBN 978-0898201666.
  12. 1 2 "Search results for "Linda Ronstadt albums'". RPM. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  13. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 258. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  14. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (March 2, 1970). ""Will You Love Me Tomorrow"/"Lovesick Blues" (7" vinyl single)". Capitol Records. 2767.
  15. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. pp. 257, 258. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  16. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (June 15, 1970). ""Long, Long Time"/"Nobody's" (7" vinyl single)". Capitol Records. 2846.
  17. ↑ "Linda Ronstadt chart history (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  18. ↑ "Search results for "Linda Ronstadt"". RPM. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  19. ↑ "Linda Ronstadt Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  20. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (April 13, 1970). "Silk Purse [Australia]". Capitol Records. VMP-1020 (LP).
  21. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (1976). "Silk Purse [Netherlands]". Capitol Records. 10205C-038-80451 (LP).
  22. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (1977). "Silk Purse [South Korea]". Capitol Records. OLE-131 (LP).
  23. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (1979). "Silk Purse [Japan]". Capitol Records. ECS-40101 (LP).
  24. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (1995). "Silk Purse [North America CD version]". Capitol Records. 0777-7-80126-2-7 (CD).
  25. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (2014). "Silk Purse [Japan CD version]". Capitol Records. UICY-76516 (CD).
  26. ↑ Ronstadt, Linda (2015). "Silk Purse [Remastered LP version]". Capitol Records/Varèse Vintage/Universal Special Markets. 302-067-357-1 (CD).
  27. ↑ "Silk Purse by Linda Ronstadt". Apple Music. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
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