Canciones De Mi Padre
January 16, 2015 5:55 PM   Subscribe

Linda Ronstadt - Canciones De Mi Padre Complete Concert (YouTube) ​"Entire performance of Canciones De Mi Padre, Spanish for Songs Of My Father. During Linda Ronstadt's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on April 10, 2014, Glenn Frey of The Eagles speech mentioned the album is the biggest non-English language seller in American record history. Linda Ronstadt's 1987 album has been RIAA certified Double-Platinum with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. Linda Ronstadt won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album at the 31st Grammy Awards."

Song list from YouTube:
1. Los Laureles
2. Por un Amor
3. La Ciagarra
4. La Bamba
5. Hay Unos Ojos
6. Dos Arbolitos
7. La Barca de Guaymas
8. Amorcito Corazon
9. El Cascabel
10. La Rielera
11. El Adios del Soldado
12. Yo Soy el Corrido
13. El Gusto
14. El Caballito
15. El Sol Que Tú Eres
16. El Jarabe Tapatío
17. Y Andale
18. El Crucifíjo de Piedra
19. La Charreada
20. Canción Mixteca
21. Volver, Volver
​ ​Background​ ​on Canciones De Mi Padre​ ​from Wikipedia:
"The album was released in late 1987 and immediately became a global smash hit. At 2 1/2 million US sales, it stands as the biggest selling non-English language album in American record history. This album has been RIAA certified Double-Plat​​inum (for over 2 million US copies sold) and also won Ronstadt the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album at the 31st Grammy Awards.

"These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. The title Canciones De Mi Padre refers to a booklet that the University of Arizona published in 1946 by Ronstadt's deceased aunt, Luisa Espinel who had been an international singer in the 1920s.[3] The songs come from Sonora and Ronstadt included her favorites on the album. Also, Ronstadt has credited the late Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence in her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo ​'​Lalo​'​ Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as child with these songs.[4]

"In the accompanying printed material, each song's Spanish lyrics were paired with an English translation and a discussion of the song's background or its significance for Ronstadt (omitted on the CD). Rubén Fuentesserved as musical director/bandleader. Follow-up albums include Mas Canciones, Frenesí, and the Rhino Records compilation Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas, which collects songs from the previous three Spanish-language albums.

"As of 2012, Canciones De Mi Padre had sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide."
The same Wikipedia page notes simply and with no explanation: "This album was deleted in 2013 – in the United States – after more than 25 years in print."

Notably, Rolling Stone gave the album two stars in its 1988 review, calling the album "a fascinating bit of eccentricity from a most unlikely source."

Previously: The Expanded Universe begins expanding
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (29 comments total) 40 users marked this as a favorite
 
Totally random but semi-related, earlier today I was watching The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" in which she appears as a guest, along with Adam West.
posted by Fizz at 6:06 PM on January 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


A lot of Miss Linda's work is out of print now. But does that mean anything anymore when we are Spotifying and iTuning? (Real question)

I was still shocked, though.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 6:07 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yes I found it kind of shocking and wanted more of an explanation, but did not go the extra distance to google it to find out. I assume it has something to do with music execs not valuing Ronstadt, or Mexican-American music? Perhaps that's very uncharitable of me, though.

Concert starts off with a bang with the visuals: a giant fan background "curtain" that fans open and accordions to reveal the singer herself in a sparkly (super sparkly, and presumably traditional) performer's costume. Mariachi band lines the stage. In fact the whole thing is heavy on visuals with props, "smoke" (dry ice) , there's a giant train, etc. And the singer's voice seems as strong as ever, pretty amazing that this is on YouTube and I was happy to find it.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:15 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Linda Ronstadt is a National Treasure. The loss of her voice is a tragedy.
posted by Floydd at 6:21 PM on January 16, 2015 [6 favorites]


Linda Ronstadt's late period career is just one amazing thing after another. Three big band albums with Nelson Riddle, Canciones de me Padre, the Jimmy Webb-centric album Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind, TWO MORE Spanish language albums, Winter Light (possibly a perfect album, but didn't gain any traction in the marketplace)... That's a truly solid decade of really amazing music.

It's sad that most of it is so unfamiliar with people who love great music, because that was a completely great run of music that I really love.
posted by hippybear at 6:22 PM on January 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


I'm not sure how it went for her at other venues, but I remember seeing her perform with the mariachi in nothern Michigan and let me tell you, pretty much no on in that crowd had paid attention to the name of her show or her description. They saw "Linda Ronstadt" and imagined her singing You're No Good or something. As soon as the mariachi kicked up, there was a steady stream of people leaving. Refunds were demanded. I worked in the box office for the venue years later and people still spoke of it. That and a screening of My Own Private Idaho (also at a northern Michigan venue!) are the two times in my life where I enjoyed the entirity of a thing that pissed off much of the audience to the point where they left before it was over.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 6:28 PM on January 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


Um.... That "previously" link in the FPP is one of the most sideways related (if related at all) previously links I've ever seen.
posted by hippybear at 6:31 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


A lot of Miss Linda's work is out of print now. But does that mean anything anymore when we are Spotifying and iTuning? (Real question)

It would matter to me because I prefer how music off of CD works with my stereo system. I found a used copy of Cry Like A Rainstorm... a couple of years ago to replace my cassette copy and was very very happy to have it.
posted by hippybear at 6:33 PM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


I imagine the catalog redaction has to do with the fact that she can no longer support the records with concert appearances. Even an occasional TV appearance would probably have been enough to keep them in print but, sadly that's no longer possible.
posted by cleroy at 6:43 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Señor Plow no es macho
Es solamente un borracho...

posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:56 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


For all the covers she's done over the years--and she's always had great taste in songs--I've always thought that her Canciones work showed some of her best singing. While I enjoyed her work with Nelson Riddle--pioneering the pop/rock dive into the Great American Songbook that was often ill-considered (coughRodStewartcough)--the soul and spirit she brought to these rancheras came from a more authentic? more impassioned? place than even her best English-language work. It's like she's singing from deep in her gut to do this music, whereas some of her other work was more like clothing donned. I had the pleasure of seeing her as Mabel in Pirates in Central Park, and, charming as she was, it was as if she were trying on "coloratura soprano."

Thanks for posting this.
posted by the sobsister at 7:08 PM on January 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


Her voice is amazing and mesmerizing - but I don't think it matches the Mariachi all that well as arranged. Either she needs to speed up and keep time, or they need to slow down to give her vocals room to do their thing.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:45 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I saw her do this album in San Francisco and enjoyed it very much. Some of her Nelson Riddle covers, though, just kill me. They've become "the standard" for me.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:55 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


Such a treasure.
posted by drlith at 8:00 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


She contributed a nice version of Perfidia to the Mambo Kings soundtrack (though I remember the version on the CD as being in a faster tempo and in English).
posted by goofyfoot at 8:07 PM on January 16, 2015


She was all over the Push-button AM Dial in my mom's 1971 Volkswagen SuperBeetle in the early 70's. As was everything.

"Yes I found it kind of shocking and wanted more of an explanation, but did not go the extra distance to google it to find out. I assume it has something to do with music execs not valuing Ronstadt, or Mexican-American music? Perhaps that's very uncharitable of me, though."

Album rock and FM radio are the effect but not the cause I think. In the late sixties/early seventies you would hear the Beatles and Motown and hippie blues [stolen] and Stand up Preachers on the same station. Then the markets divided concurrent with racial tensions - thankfully for only a brief period.

Weird to think that MTV wouldn't play Michael Jackson because black guy.

Anyway here is my favorite Linda Ronstadt song that after 44 years I still can't sing. The Stone Poneys (feat Linda Ronstadt) - Different Drum (1967)

posted by vapidave at 8:14 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


Oh man, we had this recorded on VHS, gotta send this to my pa!
posted by Mister Cheese at 8:36 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Let me be the first in this thread to admit that I had a HUGE crush on Linda Ronstadt in the late 60's.

I followed her career through all of its iterations, she never disappointed. The sadness I felt when she lost her voice was immense, my generation lost one of it's most significant singers.

Thanks for the FPP...
posted by HuronBob at 8:46 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


For me, Linda Ronstadt is proof that as we humans mature, we mature not only biologically, but in our tastes as well.

Me, as a 10-year-old, when Mom or Dad put a Linda Ronstadt cassette into the Suburban's tape player: "Oh my gawd, do we really have to listen to this??" [*pouts for 45 minutes*]

Me, as a 40-year-old, hearing her first vocals from the opening track of Canciones de mi Padre: "Holy fucking shit, that woman!"
posted by mudpuppie at 8:58 PM on January 16, 2015 [7 favorites]


Oh, and thanks a bunch for the YouTube link, by the way.
posted by mudpuppie at 8:59 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


As a reminder that everything she sings from beginning to end is pretty much gold.
posted by blucevalo at 9:52 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


So many memories! This album, and 70s AM radio, and The Muppet Show. Gracias, JCiFA!
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:21 PM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


As Dave Holmes says (no. 80), "Linda Ronstadt: criminally underrespected."
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:30 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


I came here for Señor Plow too.
posted by colie at 1:23 AM on January 17, 2015


Linda Ronstadt was and is fully awesome. As a teen I didn't care much for her late seventies-early eighties forays into New Wave - to me her voice was all wrong for it - but that big belty mezzo is perfect for mariachi, fado, what have you.

See also Paula Frazer of Tarnation, who's a contralto.

I also loved her seventies work like Someone to Lay Down Beside Me. That tune still holds up very well.

Like others I am shocked that the mariachi album is out of print. I plan to listen to the entirety of the album as linked by jcifa today.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 3:55 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


I need this! Los Lobos' La Pistola y el Corazon is one of my favorite things in the world. I don't know where to begin with Latino music, so it helps me to have this stuff filtered by people who do. Also, this helps me keep my Spanish fresh because it's easier to understand in a lyrical cadence & I can memorize lyrics.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:52 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Cd copies can be had used on Amazon for a semi-reasonable price, and it is available on iTunes. Still kind of odd that it's OOP, considering its success.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:05 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Agreeing with sobsister- I've loved Linda forever and avidly consumed everything she ever did. These vocals are her best. For whatever reason, her singing itself is just amazing. I listen to my CD (thank god I still have both Canciones CDs at hand) just to wallow in the beauty of it.

People can't fathom someone with that kind of natural ability these days. I think when modern ears, who did not have the advantage of growing up with that voice coming out of our radios on the regular, hear Linda, she almost comes across as some kind of freak. She's too good. Too rich, too powerful, too emotional. Not sure if I'm expressing that right.

Her like will not be seen again.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:24 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


People can't fathom someone with that kind of natural ability these days.

The sad thing is, we actually have artists with that kind of natural ability recording even today. Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey, hell even Lady Gaga (her acoustic performances on a piano during her Howard Stern interview prove this)... The problem is that modern production doesn't allow them to USE the natural gifts they have to any degree. They get buried and ruined, and so yeah, it's entirely foreign to the modern ear. Truly a shame, because we have a wealth of talent hiding behind production bullshit.
posted by hippybear at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2015


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