0:02

Hang

0:02

on it this week, we get to interview Linda

0:04

Rastette. I know you're

0:06

really excited about this one. Oh my

0:08

gosh. You can't imagine.

0:30

Mid career, she took

0:33

a stand and reclaimed her culture because not

0:35

many people knew that she was

0:37

Mexican American from Tucson. While

0:39

she was making all of her pop music, And

0:41

then in the eighties, she made these Mariani

0:44

albums that just completely blew

0:47

the lid off of contemporary Mariani

0:49

music.

0:50

which is really fascinating because

0:52

I feel like in today's

0:55

world, we're seeing this happen all

0:58

the time now. this has now

1:00

become like the cliched

1:02

story almost where you have like pop

1:04

queens like Selena Gomez, Christina

1:07

Aguilera, all these people who

1:09

do the mainstream pop thing for a bit,

1:12

and then here's the Spanish language

1:14

accent. But during Linda's time,

1:16

I don't think anyone was doing that.

1:18

Right? It was

1:19

a rarity, and I think mostly because during that

1:21

time, you know, she's product of the seventies you

1:24

know, mid seventies, early seventies, rock

1:26

and roll thing. Right? Like, there were

1:28

much more genre specific. And

1:30

record companies didn't take chances And in

1:32

the case of Linda Ronstadt, was something

1:34

that she wanted to do, but

1:36

wasn't really able to do it.

1:59

I did the record

2:02

because I love the song so much. and I thought

2:04

they were better than the songs that I was getting from

2:06

publishers for American pop

2:08

stuff. I just liked it better.

2:10

And suit my boy's bed or two, because I'd tell you,

2:12

since I was a little kid, not professionally,

2:15

but, you know, sing along with the

2:16

records, blah blah blah. And

2:17

my family sings a lot of stuff in Spanish.

2:20

So

2:20

I knew all those songs. And

2:23

it just seemed like they were better song than it.

2:25

And people would like them and they turned out I was right.

2:27

Oh

2:27

my gosh.

2:29

Why were they better to you?

2:31

Better compose and better crafted

2:33

Mexican's bay value poetry greatly.

2:36

We call it a scattering of jades.

2:38

Jade

2:38

being the most precious thing to to

2:40

the Indians. And

2:42

the alliance called poetry

2:44

of Gathering of Jade's they

2:46

value it. They said they think you need poultry

2:48

to state anything philosophical or

2:50

emotional or

2:52

intellectual process.

2:54

can only best be explained through the poetry.

2:56

And so

2:56

I had a whole pile of songs with beautiful lyrics

2:59

to the very poetic images, mostly

3:01

farming and ranching images.

3:03

That's what I I sang Rancheres,

3:06

Himopan goes.

3:07

That's the form of

3:08

Mexican country music.

3:10

We have talked to other artists here on on

3:12

Aladdin about the power and

3:14

the poetry of Ranchettas,

3:17

Baudelaires, things like that from

3:19

the older generation of songwriters.

3:22

One of the conclusions we come to and this

3:24

is something I discovered just through

3:26

living my life is that you can't really

3:28

appreciate the power and the poetry

3:30

of the music unless you've lived a little bit,

3:32

loved and lost, etcetera.

3:34

Well, I appreciate it when I was five years

3:36

old. I don't know how much

3:38

I I live very much short on the side, but I

3:40

I love love the music.

3:42

I just

3:42

it was Sunday afternoon to me when my dad would put

3:45

on some of those records, and we'd all sing along.

3:47

And it was just family and Sunday,

3:49

and beautiful beautiful

3:51

music. The craft is is extraordinary.

3:54

Mexico is such a diverse country. Even

3:57

with its indigenous population, you walk

3:59

three blocks to get a different language, different

4:01

costumes, different music, different

4:04

food, So the cuisine

4:06

in Sonora, Mexico is not anything

4:08

like the cuisine of Oaxaca. If

4:10

you want complex food like that, you have to go to

4:12

Oaxaca. and get

4:14

beaten in tortillas. You had exceptional

4:16

tortillas that are really big, the biggest, big of

4:18

the steering wheel. and

4:20

they have a great

4:21

texture and they use

4:22

a different kind of flower that has flavor.

4:35

Oh my god. you're making

4:37

me so hungry. Yeah.

4:39

There was a time when

4:41

I was a kid where we were

4:43

in Patagonia, Arizona.

4:46

and my dad made us walk across

4:48

the border just

4:50

to get the exact huge

4:53

flour tortillas that you're talking about. like,

4:55

in a day? I took

4:57

them for granted because we had somebody in our house

4:59

that could make them. You have to start when you're a child

5:01

to learn how to make those big ones. but the

5:03

little Gord Beatts are are good too. I

5:05

love those.

5:06

My TL used to bank them outdoors,

5:08

and they come off

5:09

over the fire. and they

5:11

taste it so good when they came out hot off

5:13

a kelala

5:13

with a little butter on them. That's all you need. Or

5:16

some beans, beans and

5:17

tortillas love each other.

5:18

hearing you talk about your your these

5:21

childhood memories and whether food is tied

5:23

into music. I have to take a moment

5:25

to say that for people in my

5:27

generation, I'm sixty four years old.

5:29

People in my generation in even

5:31

older when you made those records, they

5:34

were so appreciated, sincerely,

5:36

and heartfelt appreciation

5:38

for you expressing your

5:40

cultural identity the way we all

5:42

have or the way that we all wanted to.

5:44

It was such a bold cultural

5:47

statement and I talked to

5:49

so many people over the years who said that those

5:51

records, they were special. They're all

5:53

the songs we've heard before, but they

5:55

were special in that being able

5:57

to claim

5:59

or at least respect the identity

6:02

in such a public way. Did you get any

6:04

feedback like that from people when you're out and

6:06

toured touring that record? Well,

6:07

I was very surprised that my hope was

6:10

that people would like the music.

6:11

Any audience, angle audience, Mexican

6:14

American audience, Mexican audience, Mexican audience.

6:16

they

6:16

would just appreciate the music because the music is so

6:18

beautiful. But

6:19

what I found was I I was playing the same venues

6:22

that I played to the rock and roll when I'm towards

6:24

the United States. And

6:25

I got a completely different audience

6:28

from the audience that came here to hear me sing Blue

6:30

Bayou. And

6:31

they were a multi generation audience. It's like

6:33

usually Americans will bring a date

6:36

or

6:36

girlfriend or something like that.

6:37

But

6:38

the executing

6:39

on it is a show of mother, grandfather,

6:42

grandchildren, Every

6:43

generation showed up and they knew

6:46

where to yell and scream and where to be quiet.

6:48

That's the best thing about seeing Joe Mexican. I

6:50

did.

6:50

This is

6:53

the right place and it makes the music crescendo.

6:55

They

6:56

don't clap out of time and they don't sing out

6:58

of tune. Well,

7:00

the other thing is that Mexicans don't buy tickets

7:02

ahead. So every time we went to, we had

7:04

now advanced ticket sales. And

7:06

then the place would be packed for

7:08

the concert. I love it. That was shocking.

7:11

My promoters had to get used to that.

7:14

But, you

7:14

know, Mexicans live in the moment. my

7:17

plan for the future. That's so

7:19

grim.

7:20

Listening to you talk about all of these

7:22

things. You sound so confident

7:25

in yourself and then you're just decision

7:27

to pivot musically like you did.

7:29

Was there hesitation at the time? Or

7:31

were you just like, I know I need to return to

7:33

this part of myself? when

7:35

I was a little girl, I didn't hear groups

7:37

like Trio Tati Adriaguri and

7:39

Trio Calabetas

7:41

seeing what partners and I wanted to learn so

7:43

badly, but I didn't have the lyrics. I couldn't

7:45

learn exactly to sing along with them.

7:48

And finally, I got the lyrics. And

7:51

I just loved that music so much. I

7:53

love a little bit thrown.

7:55

the real about as

7:56

my mendoza They're

7:58

world class wonderful

7:59

singers, and

8:01

they're not in other parts of the world too, but not

8:03

as well as they should have been. Really,

8:06

the easiest path of Mexico.

8:07

Mhmm. And

8:09

so it's

8:11

the most musical album. It's

8:14

really good singer. It's

8:17

the particular kind of music from a certain

8:19

region. My brother and sister and

8:21

I used sing it, my two brothers and I used to

8:23

sing Trios. I included them

8:25

on some of my records. My brother's singing

8:27

his name. You know, they were people that had

8:29

regular lives. They had my sister with a mother

8:31

of five or six. My brother

8:33

was chief of police and two son.

8:35

And they

8:35

didn't sing every day, but I could call them

8:37

up and have them come sing an harmony part, and they did

8:40

it perfectly. We just

8:41

had enough practicing you when we were kids.

8:43

When you

8:44

were taking this music and and making

8:46

it your own and actually producing

8:48

it, how did your relationship to it

8:50

change from when you were a little girl and

8:52

you would sing. The guy that

8:54

co produced my record when

8:56

Fuentes

8:56

there

8:57

owns Marillás. Marillás. And

9:01

I used my dad's biogas on the

9:03

record. He coproducer with my

9:05

producer, Peter Ashford. He

9:06

wanted to do more modern sounding, more

9:09

city sounding up and I kept bringing

9:11

pictures of

9:11

cows and getting them

9:13

on on

9:13

the wall and bringing in these

9:16

ancient monoro orders that I

9:18

loved is child that I wanted to sound

9:19

like this. we

9:45

compromised and we made it. I

9:47

wanted to at least not be any later than nineteen

9:49

fifty nine. But I

9:51

prepared the thirties and forties, from music,

9:53

Mexican music. But it

9:55

just made me more conveyance that

9:56

the stuff I heard as a child was world class

9:59

stuff, and I

10:00

wanted to sing it.

10:02

When you

10:02

first got to Los Angeles, did you think about

10:04

recording in Spanish back then?

10:06

I

10:06

wanted to start recording in Spanish when I

10:09

first arrived in Los Angeles. I

10:10

arrived in Los Angeles with a copy

10:13

of La Negra. And

10:15

I played it for my band, the stone pony

10:17

took the time.

10:25

My

10:30

man made and they couldn't comprehend

10:33

the rhythm. There's just no way they could play

10:35

it. It's counted at

10:37

six eight kind of -- Right. -- call it six

10:39

eight and a half. It's hard to

10:41

count and it's hard to copy. It took me a lot

10:43

of wood shedding to get to be able to sing no

10:45

song and include a lot of falsetto

10:47

too. I recorded Blue

10:49

Bayou in Spanish.

11:02

Anyway, the record

11:05

company wasn't interested in me recording in

11:07

Spanish. and I recorded a song that my bass

11:09

player and I wrote with my dad in

11:11

Spanish.

11:12

the me either That

11:13

make any impression on the record company.

11:15

But I said, I've given you so many hits.

11:18

Maybe what I believe in this record. And

11:20

to their

11:20

credit, they jumped up and helped me promote

11:23

it. and

11:23

my producer and manager Peter Asher was

11:26

really a hero. because he didn't know

11:28

anything about making me a day. He never never heard

11:30

one song. we made

11:31

a pretty good record. Our first record was had

11:34

too much echo on the strings and It

11:36

was too modern. The

11:39

second musketonist was better,

11:41

I think. because

11:42

we we produce it towards an I Mine

11:44

Engineer. Were

11:45

you then always trying

11:47

to find a way to sing in Spanish since

11:50

since he started -- Always. --

11:52

always. Wow. So if you had

11:54

it your way, you would have been singing

11:56

Chava Navaritas since day one. Well, I

11:58

would have been hanging out with a my dad's just

11:59

down to a million dollar theater in

12:02

LA, which I think is closed now, but they were all

12:04

coming through there. I didn't know that. I

12:06

was in my little Hollywood bubble of the the

12:08

trouser tour, you know. And they didn't

12:10

write about it in the newspaper that might have

12:12

asked you about it because was gonna be at the

12:14

million dollar theater. You said, no.

12:16

And I didn't know. I lived in

12:18

a different part of town. So

12:20

I wish I had started out wood shedding with those guys when

12:22

I was nineteen. And I

12:24

didn't know where to find the lyrics. You know, we didn't have

12:26

the Internet then and the

12:29

lyrics were or sometimes printed

12:31

in newspaper print versions

12:33

of concert theatres.

12:35

Mhmm.

12:35

And

12:36

I had one and the

12:39

words for Rovasciano, but that's the

12:41

only thing I can put on the album. But if I've

12:42

been going to Mexico regularly,

12:44

I

12:45

only eight or ten.

12:47

Sorry for

12:47

me to get down to Mexico by myself. But

12:49

if

12:52

I've

12:52

been going regulated in Mexico and looking

12:54

in the supermarkets for those countries, United,

12:56

I couldn't wear more suns. If

12:58

you could go back, would you

13:01

do your career differently? Would you have

13:03

exclusively sign in Spanish your entire

13:05

career? No. I wouldn't

13:07

have exclusively sign in Spanish.

13:08

I was at my police, but I was second

13:11

Spanish a lot earlier. And

13:13

maybe tried to establish an audience in Mexico. I

13:15

mean, people bought the record there,

13:17

great numbers,

13:17

but I didn't

13:19

like to

13:20

perform there because the place is they didn't value it

13:22

on charter music very much. They put

13:24

me on TV and they put the band forty

13:26

feet away. I couldn't see him

13:28

or hear them. They'd make

13:30

me the focus of things. They

13:32

take the Marietta super granted We

13:35

take the songs for Granite, the material for

13:37

Granite. I didn't like that. And

13:39

also, but you had to perform if you're a singer

13:41

on cheddar's, They

13:43

have the rooster fights. You

13:45

stand there in the blood and you're

13:47

you're lit by fluorescent lighting.

13:49

You're lit in my I'm a theater

13:50

act. I'm a concert Or

13:52

it's not a not a bar

13:54

girl.

14:08

I get this.

14:16

get back to our conversation with Linda

14:18

Ronstadt right after this break.

14:20

Support for

14:22

NPR and the following message come from State

14:24

Farm. The twenty twenty two lead spy ancer

14:26

of NPR music. For the past

14:29

three years, State Farm has been a

14:31

proud supporter of the tiny desk

14:33

concert series. which provides a

14:35

unique stage for artists across

14:37

the genre spectrum. While small

14:39

in size, the tiny desk is a large

14:41

in impact. Since the launch of the Tiny

14:43

Desk concert series in two thousand eight,

14:45

nearly one thousand performances have

14:47

been recorded at Bob Boylan's

14:49

festive workspace at NPR headquarters.

14:51

which is decorated with years of music memorabilia.

14:54

Tiny desk concerts attract

14:56

sixteen million viewers

14:58

per month and help unify a

15:00

passionate community around the love of

15:02

music discovery. You can explore

15:04

the latest concerts or browse the

15:06

archives for your favorite artists. at

15:08

NPR dot org slash music

15:11

and keep the discovery going when you

15:13

check out State Farms surprisingly great

15:16

rates. like a good neighbor, State Farm

15:18

is there. You

15:20

know, Linda, what we've been covering on the

15:22

podcast here for the last dozen years

15:24

or so, you know, music industry has

15:26

changed so much that in some

15:28

parts, they actually

15:30

look for artists to sing in

15:32

Spanish now. What a difference?

15:35

Well,

15:35

Selena Gomez

15:36

recorded

15:37

in Spanish. She's got a good accent.

15:39

She's Mexican American.

15:42

I'm

15:42

glad she did. But

15:43

the funny thing is show a

15:45

a band like Los Tigre Zelle

15:48

Norte. We're a fantastic

15:50

band. can out draw the rolling

15:52

stones in any American city practically

15:54

that has a vaccine population,

15:57

but nobody in Anglo

15:59

Music has ever heard of them.

16:00

only Mexican Americans know

16:02

them. So

16:02

in a sense, there's still boxes

16:05

around genres that prevent

16:07

spillover cross cultural spillover, cross

16:09

genres spillover, especially in a case

16:11

like Lastegra's. And

16:12

in some ways, my culture

16:15

that's highly localized. There's a difference

16:17

between TexMAX music and

16:19

Mariani. There's a difference between

16:21

TexMAX music and the equivalent

16:23

Walters, Real Walters,

16:25

and they play them differently in Mexico than they do

16:27

in Texas even though it's recognized supporters

16:30

because Mexicans don't use a blue note

16:32

and Texas Mexico uses a blue

16:34

note. So I'll go him in his place with a

16:36

blue note. It's a subtle nuance that is

16:38

different, but it's different. Mariachi

16:40

isn't There's all kinds of Mexican

16:42

music that isn't Mariachi. and

16:45

it's regional. I love the

16:47

traditional stuff because I love the Maraiage because he can do

16:49

all the regions. But I love to go into the

16:51

regions like you get done and played

16:53

out in the South of Mexico where they have

16:55

different styles of music, different styles of

16:57

dancing. Since

17:23

you

17:27

earlier in your career weren't

17:29

able to quite start

17:31

singing in Spanish in the way that

17:33

you wanted to or at the time that you wanted

17:36

to Is there something we can hear in

17:38

your music that you did end up recording

17:40

in English that was inspired by that or

17:42

that you kinda tried to sneak in from that

17:44

desire to sing in Spanish?

17:46

Where

17:46

did you hear probably it's

17:48

desperation, desperate to do it, and desperate to do

17:50

it well, and that's really afraid that

17:52

I would not. had

17:54

to work really hard to get that step up to professional

17:57

speakers. I'd sing with my family, but I'd sing a

17:59

harmony,

17:59

mouth the words, you know, blah blah. I

18:02

didn't

18:02

know. and I had to be more professional

18:05

for to record. And I was

18:06

learning I got all the stuff that I

18:09

recorded on the first album got way

18:11

better I got to turn around the road, and I started performing it every night.

18:14

And I got real

18:14

confident about it and real creative with

18:17

it. And that some of that

18:19

showed up on Moskantonio.

18:54

So

18:54

was your tendency to do all

18:56

ballots maybe that was a reflection of

18:58

you singing wanted to sing boleros. They

19:00

turned

19:00

out to be very accessible to me because

19:02

I've done the

19:03

record with Nelson Riddle

19:06

and it's the

19:06

same voice that I use. So

19:08

I'd I'd gotten that little instrument

19:10

sharpened up pretty pretty well.

19:13

but I went for country music with

19:15

the Mariachi stuff. And

19:17

then when I say on fantasy,

19:19

I

19:19

went more in urban. One of

19:21

the things that strikes me about

19:24

the Mariani records

19:26

was the way that so

19:28

many people had no

19:30

idea that you had a Mexican heritage?

19:32

Oh, I'd say I'd never

19:35

interview. Is

19:36

there a Mexican American, German

19:38

Mexican? but I have

19:39

White Skin in a German surname. And

19:41

so the fact that my great

19:43

grandfather married into a long established family

19:45

in Mexico, he came in seventeen

19:48

hundreds. This didn't seem to matter to

19:50

them, and they didn't they weren't right about it.

19:52

They just

19:52

ignored it. How

19:54

did that feel to you that they would ignore

19:56

that part of you? my

19:58

peers. Mhmm.

20:00

My dad

20:00

actually was something you played a on a soundtrack when

20:02

you're in a Mexican restaurant.

20:04

You didn't realize

20:06

it was real music. I've

20:07

also identified as Mexican. Was that

20:09

hard,

20:09

though, for you to to have your

20:11

peers think something like that and

20:14

you to to value this music?

20:16

I just figured they needed some

20:19

enlightenment. How do you feel

20:21

about how you're connected to

20:23

your your mexicanness now?

20:26

Well, I

20:26

have a lot to do for the last thirty years of the group called Los

20:29

Angeles -- Ah. -- which is a cultural

20:31

academy, and they

20:33

teach kids have to do the really

20:35

traditional Mexican stuff.

20:37

Traditional dances, traditional instruments, they

20:39

had on a television

20:41

guitar, and things

20:43

that are particularly Mexican.

20:45

They went to Mexico. We took it to Mexico and said

20:47

that they're they remember the heritage of

20:49

Mexico better than we do because things

20:51

are taken for granted. When you

20:52

take your culture to a new place, you want to

20:55

preserve it. You

20:56

keep the music and the food and

20:58

the literature, and you make your life, your

21:00

new life of it. And sometimes people wonder

21:02

caring

21:02

for things

21:03

that that are discarded in the original

21:06

country. Calling back to your

21:07

the library were born in

21:09

your earliest days going

21:12

back and forth, as well as

21:14

the long history of recorded music you

21:16

have, including the Mariani records.

21:18

There is no argument. There is no other way to

21:20

think about you as other than a

21:22

Mexican American from Tucson. Oh,

21:24

good.

21:25

Finally,

21:26

I'm seventy

21:28

six years old. I

21:31

remember telling somebody in an interview in

21:33

Japan that I was picked again and said, no.

21:35

They love Mexican music, by the way, and he

21:37

can. But he

21:38

he wouldn't allow me to be in that that

21:41

category. He said, you

21:42

were the quintessential American girl,

21:44

on your roller skates. And I said, well, guess what, buddy.

21:46

Maybe he's in tortillas.

21:49

On

21:51

behalf of this baby boom in Chicago, I wanna thank you for

21:54

maintaining your ties to your culture and

21:56

expressing it through music because it's

21:58

something that my peers and I

21:59

know my mother really loved that

22:02

record a lot. So that's

22:04

my opportunity to say thank

22:06

you for reclaiming your culture in such

22:08

a very very musical way.

22:10

Well,

22:10

Tayo, thank you, and Tayo listened to the second

22:12

record. It's better than

22:13

the tour show. was just learning on

22:15

the first one.

22:49

Okay. Can I

22:52

just say that it was

22:54

a thrill to be with a banker

22:56

for those recordings? Did I did I

22:58

did I sound too fan girl? You

23:00

did not sound too fan girl. I you

23:02

know what's so funny is I, like so

23:04

I call my dad before

23:07

this

23:07

interview, because

23:07

I was like, this is so crazy. Like, you

23:10

and Linda have lived this

23:12

parallel life in Tucson, like, there's so

23:14

many connections. And he was oh, yes.

23:16

Yes. That's true. And I was like, what was

23:18

it like for you when she released

23:20

that record in Spanish? And he was like, oh, I

23:22

really liked it. And I was

23:24

like, Yeah.

23:24

But it was really exciting.

23:27

Right? Like, to hear that she was doing this

23:29

record and he was like, whoa, I knew she

23:31

was Mexican. Like,

23:33

Yeah. But, like, it was cool and he's like, well, no, but I knew she

23:35

was.

23:35

So, like, she was gonna release a record

23:37

in Spanish. And

23:38

I was like, where did his

23:40

assuredness come from that

23:42

she was I mean, Linda was trying to get back to

23:44

her Mexican identity. I guess my dad knew

23:46

that somehow. I don't know. It was really a

23:48

matter of fact.

23:49

Well, that's interesting because as she said

23:51

in other interviews, you know, her family is so

23:53

well known there. Her siblings, her

23:56

cousins, the rants, that

23:58

family in Tucson is established

24:00

as a Mexican

24:02

American family. Mhmm. And I guess since a few deaths

24:04

coming from from

24:06

Tucson around the same time, he

24:08

probably knew this. He knew the family

24:10

reputation. And I

24:10

think that there was something in Tucson

24:12

at that time. It was a really distinct

24:15

community and and

24:17

culture and space for this

24:19

kind of like really cross

24:22

border existence. Right? Where you had

24:24

all of these second families who had for years been

24:27

crossing back and forth

24:27

across the border. There was a lot

24:30

more

24:30

fluidity in that time. And I think specifically

24:34

in Tucson, it was really a

24:36

town at least the way that

24:38

I've perceived it from my dad's stories that

24:40

was built on that community. the

24:42

way that Linda talks about her childhood. Right? It makes

24:45

sense that it felt so integral

24:47

to who she was. The other

24:49

thing

24:49

that strikes me from the conversation was

24:51

what kind of world or what kind of world

24:53

of music we would have had if

24:55

the record industry had not been

24:57

so close minded and allowed

25:00

her to record in

25:02

Spanish. Right? Oh, yeah. What kind of

25:04

music would we have and what kind of

25:06

musical legacy she would

25:08

have. It's already profound. Mhmm.

25:10

It's already incredibly profound her

25:12

legacy. Yeah.

25:13

I mean, she literally said the words

25:16

desperation. Yeah. Like, she

25:18

so

25:18

so truly desperately wanted

25:21

to honor this part of herself in

25:23

her music. And it's

25:25

just mind blowing to me that it it took

25:27

so long for her to be able to do that. And then

25:29

also, like, the way that it shaped her her

25:31

life and her career since she was

25:34

do that. Almost like, I

25:36

almost got this sense that it felt

25:38

like she has spent the

25:40

rest of her career just

25:42

trying to make up for the fact that she

25:44

wasn't able to honor her

25:46

Mexican self early in her

25:48

career, at least that's kind of what it sounded

25:50

like

25:50

to me. perhaps, but I think

25:53

also when I think of Linda

25:55

Ronstadt, I think of just

25:57

the scope of her musical

25:59

output. I have those albums that she

26:01

did with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra

26:03

where she's singing things

26:05

that Elevitz Gerald and Saravon and all

26:07

the great jazz singers. used to sing the great American song

26:09

book stuff. Mhmm. It's just as good. It's

26:11

just as profound. Right? And

26:13

it speaks to if you have the

26:15

Mariani albums on on one

26:17

hand. Even the first one, even though does she does she

26:20

she likes the second one better. If you have

26:22

those on one hand, right, very vocal

26:25

about that. then on the other

26:27

hand, you have the

26:29

stuff like the Nelson Riddle album. That's

26:31

a bicultural existence that we

26:33

all live. And

26:33

I think that that's something that's really

26:36

cool to think about her now in the

26:38

context of today and where we

26:40

are as as a society at least

26:42

or what we're moving towards and that,

26:44

like, I think people are a lot more

26:46

comfortable with the reality

26:48

of that bicultural existence. for people in

26:50

this country. And I think that, you know,

26:52

the way that she talked

26:54

about distancing herself from

26:57

like, she literally described it, the quintessential

26:59

American girl. She's like, that was not me. That was

27:01

not who I was. And I think that

27:03

I'm so curious to

27:05

think about what would have looked

27:07

like today in that

27:09

she could have both

27:11

embraced that identity and been like,

27:13

I am the quintessential American girl and

27:15

that means that I am both

27:18

riding around on my roller skates and

27:20

listening to Ranchettas in my living room

27:22

and like all of those things are true

27:24

about myself. where would we have

27:26

been if that was the case?

27:28

Hard to

27:28

say, but I am certainly

27:31

glad with what we have. I'm a big

27:33

fan of hers and always have been and It

27:35

was just a thrill to talk to her. And

27:37

it's a thrill to share it with all of you

27:39

who are listening because that's the end

27:41

of this week's podcast. You like that segue? I

27:43

thought that was pretty good. That was your

27:45

best one yet. Feelings, I gotta

27:48

say. You haven't been

27:50

listening to things

27:50

would never been so

27:52

smooth. You've

27:54

been listening to old Latino from NPR

27:57

music. Our editor is the great

27:59

Hazel

27:59

Sills. Our production assistant

28:02

is the O'Reilly. And the

28:03

woman who keeps the trains running on time

28:06

is Grace Chong.

28:07

And also big thanks to our audio

28:09

producer, Ron Skalzo.

28:11

And

28:11

Hefein chief, Keith

28:13

Jenkins, VP of Music and visuals

28:16

at NPR. I'm

28:17

Felix Contreras. I'm Anna Maria

28:18

Sayer. Thanks for listening

28:20

to you next week.