#bandleader frog

[singlecelledbutch]

rhythmtober day 4 - underrated character!

nobody talks about the frogs??????? it makes me sad

[anti-socialexperiment]

“Welcome to Bandleader’s spectacular theatre in the pound!”

“Please excuse my thespian vernacular When I say: THOU IST GOING DOWN!”

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

i like how fever has the most games in megamix and yet they still made bad choices. like. where's tap troupe and shrimp shuffle and donk-donk and tambourine??? who wanted figure fighter 2 and working dough 2 and exhibition match??? how did the developers determine what games were "fan favorites" there doesn't seem to be any sort of basis-

[yourbeginneranimator]

Some pointless fact I learned while writing about frog hop:

Bandleader probably has an alto saxophone because of the straight neck.

[rokkazu]

(in the Live House OGU performers group chat)

Blue DJ: hey everyone, I'm gay.

JJ Rocker: yeah no shit

Bandleader Frog: Easy, JJ. Thank you for telling us, Blue. We love you.

Red Rapper: i just hit someone with my car

[octowoman2419]

"i am the most wonderful!"

a drawing of rosaline/the tangotronic's dance partner as wu sheng from pop'n music. this was an idea i had in mind for a while and it was too good not to draw.

according to the pop'n music fandom wiki, wu sheng is canonically a peking opera performer. wonder if rosaline would be a good peking-style opera performer like him, and i wonder if competition could start between her and other performers in rhythm heaven like the pop singer and the frog hop bandleader.

[phroag]

The Frogettes (not to be confused with the Frogettes), are a group of singing and dancing frogs from the video game series Rhythm heaven. The are family who make their money performing. In the game the player plays as one of the background dancers, shaking their hips along with the rhythm, lest they disappoint their family.

Someone once dropped the bandleader's saxophone in a pond. I could not find any fanart of this so I took the courtesy to make it myself :)

[wizardskippy]

somebody in the Stone Story discord server posted a text file of all the quest and legend dialogue so far a while ago (for wiki purposes, but i'm nosy), so here's a collection of all the unused stuff :}

Croaked

Gilbert: "Perhaps you misheard me, stone-head. The frog that now follows you, get rid of it. Feed it the mosquitos it desires, they're up on the Plateau."

Gilbert: "Kevin still follows at your feet. A disappointment, stone-head. If you're looking for something with a hard-shell, the Mushroom Forest should provide. There's also the scarabs on the Plateau."

Gilbert: "The Bandleader still awaits his feast, stone-head. Do you misunderstand that which he desires? The Caves of Fear are home to many terrifying── I mean "tantalizing" things, including one big final course."

Mr. Pallas' Wild Ride

Skeletimmy: "And even though we don't wear our leather jackets anymore, what with the bone-riddling arthritis, we're still in peak fighting form!"

Bad Business

Player: "So about that..."

Hans: "You broke them down into pure Ki? Why have you done such a thing?"

Hans: "And on meine flagship order no less. I've been at the behest of those who cannot do as they've asked. Thankfully I'll be receiving a full refund regardless of this deflated outcome."

Hans: "Mushroom Shop, LLC will endure, as it always has. Keep the Ki and maybe put some of it into your listening skills. Do you have a skill tree for that?"

Hans: "I believe in 2nd chances, so if I'm feeling so inclined I'll reach out if and when meine routes are overwhelmed once more. Farewell ex-hireling."

Hans: "You used the items to make your own item? Why have you done such a thing?" [leads to the dialogue above, i think]

Narration: "You Fissured too far! Hans' requested materials are now gone. He will get in touch if ever you're needed again."

Narration: "You used the shipment for your own purposes! Hans' requested materials are now gone. He will get in touch if ever you're needed again."

Burnout

Rogue: "You don't think there are still snakes in that basket, do you? Hmmm… Could make a game of chance out of it. You know, for the Acropolites."

Rogue: "Have you met the crazy canoe-rowing stone-head? He's a hoot. A big, loony hoot. But not as crazy as everyon── I've said too much."

[nightmaremp]

Weremayhem: Rings of Flames. Ch 12: Fights of the Raging Beast

  The hippo threw a punch at Dr. Teeth. The cheshire smilodon duck and right hook the hippopotamus’ chin. The water horse moves back a bit and rubs its chin. A bruise was forming there already. The doc quickly grabbed the hippo’s arm and slammed the hippopotamus into the wall of the ring. The water horse grunts as its body hits the stone wall hard. 

The large mammal got up off the wall and looked around the ring. The feline was….gone. Where did he go!? 

The hippopotamus starts to walk around the ring in confusion. Suddenly the water horse felt something that ripped through its back. It screams in pain. The hippo turned to see what attacked it but nothing was there. Blood runs down from its back and lands on the ground. 

A loud roar filled the ring. A pain shot through the hippopotamus as a wound appeared on its right leg. The water horse fell to the ground as it put its hands over its hurt leg. Sweat ran down the face of the large mammal. The ice blue eyes of the beast quickly look around the ring. 

Suddenly the hippopotamus felt pain running through its body but it was mostly at….its neck. Its eyes looked at the side of its neck and horror filled the water horse. 

The werechehsiresmilodon was biting its neck. Blood covers the fur of the feline’s snout. The saber fangs of the beast were deep into its neck. The hippopotamus grabbed the feline’s neck and try to pull off the beast. 

When the large mammal grabbed the neck of Teeth, his mind snapped. Dr. Teeth quickly bite down harder and pull. The cheshire smilodon ripped out the vocal cords, veins, and meat of the neck out with one quick movement. 

The hippopotamus’ body went limp and fell onto the sandy ground. Blood ran down and covered the ground. The feline swallows the meat of the hippo….whole. The crowd gasps before cheering for the winner. 

“The winner is the Cheshire smilodon!” yelled Constantine into the microphone. A huge smile covers his face. The crowd was loving the oversized feline. This was great! 

Meanwhile with the mayhem, Janice had covered her eyes to keep herself from watching the fight. She hates fights and violence. The sounds make her spine shake in fear. Her eyes lay flat against her head. The sounds, oh, the sounds make her stomach turn. The white tailed deer waited to throw up so badly but didn’t. 

Floyd was in shock. In all the years he had known the doc, this is something that the red haired male had never seen. Horror filled the gray wolf. It reminds him of something, an event that happened when he was young. The reason for the giant scar on his back. 

Animal let out a whine as he watched the fight on the TV. That wasn’t his bandleader, not his friend, but a monster. The drummer’s tail went between his legs. He covers his eyes and tries to hide from the screen of the TV. 

Lips were just quiet. It didn’t shock him. Dr. Teeth was a hybrid. Wereanimal hybrids are dangerous and should be kept away from. Hybrids are known to be….unstable. The lion shakes his head as he watches the screen as another fight starts. The doc was fighting a wereelephant. The cheshire smilodon had ripped the tusk of the bull elephant off and stabbed them into the large mammal’s skull. 

Zoot had a paw over his mouth. His eyes always stay on the feline. His mind was wondering how they can get the cure for their friend and find a way to get it to him. His tail hit the metal floor of the cage. The sloth’s ears stay flat against his head. 

Each fight gets bloody and more scary. Wounds cover Teeth’s body but that didn’t stop the feline from fighting and killing. Rage was all in his eyes. He was not in control, he was a…monster. 

In the Russian frog’s office, Constantine was laughing as he looked at the amount of money raised every second. “This is great!!” yelled the green frog with a huge smile on his face. His silver bear trap-like teeth shine in the lights of his office. 

“Yay!” replied the electric moohem with smiles on their faces. Suddenly, a phone call came in. The amphibian answered the call. 

“Yes?” asked Constantine. 

“How are the fights going?” asked a deep, gravy, scratchy male voice over the phone’s speakers. 

“They are going great!” replied the green frog. 

“Oh? Good” replied the voice. “I got some news too,” the voice added. 

“Yes?” replied the amphibian. 

“Another one of our markets was blown up” replied the voice with a hint of anger. 

“What!?” replied Constantine. “How?!” thought the russian frog. Anger filled his body. 

“I don’t know but we need to know who is doing this. We only have very few markets left” replied the voice. 

“Goodbye” the voice added before hanging up on the amphibian. The Russian frog huffs some hot air. 

“Great” he mumbled under his breath as he placed his hand on his face. 

Meanwhile in the lab that the building has. Flooyd was walking around the lab in his werefox form. The pink fur male has white and black markings all over his body.  The white markings cover his snout, ears, tip of his tail, and his stomach. 

The black markings cover his hands and feet. His pale yellow eyes look all over the lab. Flooyd gasps as he finds what he was looking for. A small tube of yellow liquid, the cure to the wereanimal rabies. He looked at the tube in his paw. 

“Should I give it to them?” the fox thought. Flooyd shake his head. “I need to. It’s…right” he thought to himself. 

The werefox walks out of the lab and heads to the room where the electric mayhem are being held. He walked into the room. “Hello” said Flooyd as he held the tube behind his back. 

“What the hell do you want!?” growled Floyd. His purplish pink eyes staring down the fox. He bares his fangs at the male. 

“I’m sorry for tricking you guys. So, how about I do something good?” replied Flooyd. 

“Yeah right! What can you do to fix this mess!?” replied Floyd Pepper. The werefox laughs before he reveals the cure to the band. 

“How about this?” replied the fox with a smirk. 

“What is that?” replied Zoot with wide eyes. 

“The cure to the rabies that your pal has” replied Flooyd. The band’s eyes grow wide in shock. 

“Really?!” replied the blue fur male 

“Yep” replied the werefox. He walks over to Lips and hands the lion the small tube. 

“Why are you handing it to Lips?” asked Floyd with a raised eyebrow. 

“Because, Lips will be in the ring with Dr. Teeth next” replied Flooyd with a sigh. 

“What?!” yelled the band in shock and worried. 

“Yep. The boss wants to have a lion to fight Teeth and your trumpet player is our only lion here.” replied the fox. He turned to the blonde male. 

“Listen, you just have to get at least a drop into your pal’s mouth. You need to hide this tube so when Tooth and lops come to get you, they don’t see it. Also don’t rat me out” said Flooyd. 

Lips nods. He placed the tube into his fluffy blonde mane. The tube sits still in his mane. It can’t be seen in his hair. 

“Good luck, you guys” said the werefox before he walked out of the room. He quickly moves far away from the area before anyone thinks something is up. 

[55-degrees-fahrenheit]

things that i found on the paper shin (i ain't reading all of that) fandom

warning before the start: Some of the characters that do not have names (or already had names, but were replaced) are fan-named by the wiki and are not official to begin with (i.e. Cheer Reader Girl being named "Saki Grace").

oh boy here we go

-pop singer (fan club 2) is called annie -ann glerr's full name is annie "ann" glerr (what a coincidence!) -Acrobatic Monkey -the manzai birds are called the "kooky birds" -kanojo is now tanaka's wife -karate joe is a white man -Bandleader is a blue frog who is the bandleader -The Blastronaut's species is "Rocket" -bunbun has a (recolored) sister -the blue birds are geese -ao-kun is called "Cyan" -mc adore is bisexual -munchy monk is a rookie monk in-training -the dough dudes are aliens

-AIIIYYEEEE!! GIRAFFE SIGHTING!!! -q maou is called "Q Dai Maou" -the mochi pounders (i bet no one remembers them) have a page -The Dazzles (megamix) have sisters, The Dazzles (DS) -employee 333-4-591032 is voiced by seth rogan -Pausegills are cod -Quicknibbles are fish -Threefish are bass -The Rap Men (D Red and J Yellow) -The Rap Women (M Love and C Adore) -Yuka is the Tap Trial girl -the rockers are brothers -the shrimp scamperers cause pain and suffering -He is Ecto -Super Treat Spider -the bouncy road guys are 5 years old

-space kicker is nicknamed "Crouch"

and that's it! you've made it

[void-the-bear]

Whoops, my hand slipped

[rhythm-rally]

Hiiii if requests are still open, could you draw the bandleader of the Frogettes surrounded by the Chorus Kids? Thanks a bunch and also I love your art and presence!

They are everywhere.

[tapswitcher-theoneandonly]

Rhythm Heaven Pride Month: Day 15!

Hello bisexual community, here’s your frog

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

fitting view count there-

[dweemeister]

Soul (2020)

2020 dashed the best-laid plans, disrupted dreams, and brought disease. For almost one full year now, COVID-19 has upended society the world over, and taken the lives of almost two million as of the publication of this review. The pandemic, as contemporary readers may notice, has taken its toll on the film industry too. If you are reading this in the distant future, Soul is the first film that I have written in which its release date was delayed and its distribution altered because of the pandemic (from June 19 to Christmas). Pete Docter’s first directorial effort since becoming the chief creative officer of Pixar is part of a phenomenon which may or may not last past the pandemic. Soul, like a few other high-profile releases in 2020 and early 2021, debuted simultaneously in reduced-capacity theaters and streaming, via Disney+. The film itself is middling Pixar. But given the studio’s high quality – albeit sullied over the last decade with underwhelming sequels and glaring missteps from some non-sequels – it is still something worth celebrating.

Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) works part-time as a middle school music teacher in New York City, but quietly harbors dreams of pursuing his dream of becoming a jazz pianist. Taking an opportunity to audition for professional jazz saxophonist Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), Joe receives an offer to play with Dorothea’s band. Ecstatic, speaking giddily on his cell phone on the musical adventure that awaits that evening, Joe has forgotten to look wherever the hell he is walking. As a result, he falls down a manhole, Looney Tunes-style. He awakens as a fluorescent blue-green blob, his soul on a stairway to heaven. No, not yet, Joe says. He runs backwards, but ends up in the “Great Before” – a place where unborn souls are endowed the traits (in the form of a badge) that will direct, but not predestine, the course of their lives. In a case of mistaken identity, the Great Before’s leaders assign Joe to 22 (Tina Fey) as her counselor. 22 has been stuck in the Great Before for eons, fostering a cynical view of human existence that has confounded her previous counselors (“You can’t crush a soul here. That’s what life on Earth is for.”). If you are asking whether or not Joe will be the one that shows 22 life’s beauty, you clearly have never seen a Pixar movie before.

The English-language film’s voice cast also includes Graham Norton as a sign twirler extraordinaire, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, and Daveed Diggs. Veteran actress Phylicia Rashad plays Joe’s mother (who disapproves of his dreams of playing jazz professionally). This is the first Pixar movie without a character voiced by John Ratzenberger.

22 and Joe will prematurely escape to Earth, but the plot is unnecessarily complicated by a body swap and a tired trope of modern animated features: a non-white character accidentally spending more than half the film in the body of an animal. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) and The Princess and the Frog (2009) are among the highest-profile examples of the trope. Like Cuzco and Tiana in those past films, Joe is not white – and, automatically, is someone the likes of whom has very little history of starring in a mainstream American animated feature. To see him lose his bodily agency for almost the entirety of the film is frustrating. The screenwriting team (Docter, Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers) declines to explore Joe’s racial identity, instead favoring the hero’s journey (Pixar has never deviated from this template, but that has not prevented them from making great films) and the predictable pratfalls often present in Pixar’s movies. Soul’s body-swapping comedy not only brushes away any such exploration of racial identity, but relegates the film’s jazz (an African-American creation) as ornamentation, overcomplicates the narrative structure, and interferes with its messaging. None of these issues existed in Coco (2017) – an unabashedly Mexican glimpse into the culture surrounding Día de Los Muertos and Mexican regional folk music all while retaining its primary themes.

Soul shares the introspective spirit of Docter’s previous film, Inside Out (2015). The lack of external adversity in both films allow us to better understand the passions of the main character. Joe’s conflict stirs from within – his dreams and expectations against practicality and unexpected realities. More prevalent than in Inside Out, Soul’s moments without dialogue poignantly depict those contradictions and unmitigated thrills. In Joe’s case, his near-total dedication to jazz is celebrated – never excessively mocked by 22 or any other character. But his passion, the film says (and as revealed through 22’s temporary occupation of his body), cannot alone quench the fullest expression of his humanity. The film is at its best in two types of contradictory moments. The first type occurs while Joe is playing his piano; the other appears when the film stops for several seconds to admire a minor detail, overlooked by everyone passing by except 22, along New York’s streets. In the latter, the film is allowed to take a breath, allowing just the ambient noise to play in the sound mix – the rustling foliage in the wind, the light traffic of one-way streets, the whoosh of passing subway cars. It is the closest Pixar has ever come to refuting Alfred Hitchcock’s flawed, oft-quoted statement that the movies are, “like life with the dull bits cut out.” For it is in some of life’s mundanities that 22 sees life as worth living. It is life’s mundanities that lie at the heart of Soul’s most powerful moments.

With the assistance of a legion of cultural consultants, Soul is, in spurts, a casual, intentionally unremarkable foray into New York’s black community and a faithful depiction of jazz performance. Animation history has long caricatured black roles in various ways, so the Pixar animators took pains to faithfully render hairstyles and varying skin tones to highlight the diversity of appearance in African-American communities. Many reviews of Soul will justly extol the background art, but plaudits must also go to the character design of the numerous African-American supporting figures across the entire film. It endows the film with an authentic vitality that I cannot envision happening in a film released by a studio concentrating on CGI animated features. A short scene to a barbershop underlines this laudable attention.

As a pianist and violinist, one of my personal pet peeves while watching movies is when an actor is fake-playing an instrument – it can be comically, pathetically obvious. I am certainly not the only one, as I’m sure some orch dorks, band geeks, and other instrumentalists might attest. Animated movies are not spared our eyes and ears. Soul, however, represents a glorious break from expectation. In a film already boasting photorealistic backgrounds and uncanny lighting effects, Joe’s piano playing is some of the most “realistic” I have seen in an animated film. His posture and muscular movement made me forget, momentarily, I was watching an animated movie. Perfectly rendered, too, are his fingering patterns (for the sake of consistent character design, Joe has elongated fingers). This musical accuracy extends to all other musicians in the film, too. It is glorious to behold as a musician. Soul could easily have cracked jokes at the expense of Joe’s passion. That the film affirms his love for jazz, all while tempering his desires (through 22, his mother, and other factors), is a high-wire balancing act that triumphs.

Soul’s score is split in two: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails fame (2010’s The Social Network, 2020’s Mank) compose for the scenes in the Great Before and jazz pianist Jon Batiste composes for the scenes in New York. Anyone who has read in my past reviews about my thoughts about film music are probably guessing that I dislike Reznor and Ross’ compositions for film. They would be correct. So far in their nascent film scoring careers, Reznor and Ross’ ominous synths for David Fincher’s movies sound too much like background droning, minimalist aural wallpaper. Their scores – all texture and little else – have no life outside the contexts of the movies they appear in. In Soul, Reznor and Ross develop a soothing synth sound that is some of their most melodic film music yet. It sounds like Jerry Martin’s music for the less interesting moments from the early Sims and SimCity soundtracks. Still, the score – even in its best moments, such as the lustrous cue “Epiphany” – suits the portions of the film it appears in. Perhaps Reznor and Ross are finally making progress towards understanding how melodic structure can dramatically reshape a film’s drama.

Down on Earth, Soul plays the music of Jon Batiste, perhaps best known as the bandleader of his band Stay Human on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Not all of Stay Human’s members were selected to perform for the score, as Batiste chose a handful of musicians from outside his band. The jazz score is mostly original, but includes variations on four pre-existing songs: “Space Maker” (Walter Norris), “Cristo Redentor” (Duke Pearson), “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” (Duke Ellington), and “Blue Rondo à la Turk" (Dave Brubeck). Batiste’s jazz influences are too many to name for a review not solely dedicated to the score, but suffice it to say that Batiste intended his part of the film score to serve as a soft introduction to viewers who might not be accustomed to jazz. In this half, Batiste captures the bustle of New York City with his signature floating piano solos. Backed by tremendous saxophone lines, percussion, and double bass, this is a decidedly acoustic affair in marked contrast to the music of Reznor and Ross. The musical contrast is profound, easing the viewer into Soul’s occasionally chaotic narrative structure. By film’s end, though, despite Batiste’s end titles cover of The Impressions’ “It’s All Right” (a wise selection in no small part due to its lyrics), I wanted more from the jazz half of the score and wished it was held greater prominence in the film. Am I unashamedly asking for someone to hire Jon Batiste and give him the freedom to compose an unconstrained jazz score? Of course!

In a year where straight-to-streaming movie releases have dominated the American film industry, Soul ranked third in viewership behind Thomas Kail’s live stage filming of Hamilton (2020) and Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). Has Pixar righted its inconsistent form apparent over the 2010s decade? Can they ever recover the alchemy that reeled off consecutive pop culture touchstones and wondrous films for fifteen years (1995’s Toy Story to 2010’s Toy Story 3, excluding Cars)? Soul might not be the fair winds needed to steer Pixar from its worst habits, and it is unfair to place such a burden on this film. That fifteen-year run might also never be matched again. For what Soul represents to Pixar’s rather monochromatic leadership and narrative groupthink, it is a fascinating step outside the familiar.

My rating: 8/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

The joys of rediscovering a new favourite

I’ll be the first to admit that for a long time, American singer Linda Ronstadt was just “there” for me. Her music was always on the radio or on MuchMusic, and it seemed she was always doing some power ballad duet with somebody that got saturation airplay. And there was one of her songs that got reworked for a popular toothpaste commercial, too. I never disrespected her; I just never really paid that much attention to her.

Until recently. First, here’s a spoiler break as I will go on a little bit about this iconic singer who I’ve recently gained new appreciation and respect for.

I had a chance to buy a CD box set of some of Linda’s late-1970s albums and found myself impressed with her range and how she interpreted songs. Like Sinatra and Whitney Houston, she wasn’t a songwriter (though she certainly wrote a few, including at least one in Spanish) - her gift was in making songs her own, whether it was adapting early 1960s soul and pop songs like “You’re No Good” or “Blue Bayou” or reinventing classics such as her Great American Songbook project with Nelson Riddle, of which more about later.

Sadly, I have to use past tense because, as those who follow her career know, she was forced to retire in the late 2000s/early 2010s due to the onset of a form of Parkinson’s disease. Now 73, she returned to the public eye last year with the release of a documentary about her life, The Sound of My Voice (which was produced by CNN Films and has aired recently on the network, though it’s also been released to cinemas and DVD), and she also received the Kennedy Center Honors award last fall (alongside Jenna Coleman’s recent All My Sons co-star, Sally Field - Sally and Linda looked like they could be sisters). Sad irony is, despite having this disease and being left unable to sing, Linda is looking healthier today than she did 20 years ago. 

Anyway, I found myself exploring her musical canon recently and I am incredibly impressed with the range of her work. I never really realized that she was a musical polymath - a term I have since seen others use to refer to her.

Who else could, in the space of only a few years, release a pop album that (among other things) included revivals of songs originated by Chuck Berry and Elvis; followed by an album done in near-New Wave style that included versions of songs by another Elvis (Costello); followed by a year performing opera as part of the Broadway cast of Pirates of Penzance (which was then adapted as a movie, which ended up being Linda’s only major film role); followed by another pop album; and then she launched a trilogy of albums with bandleader Nelson Riddle focusing on classic songs of the early 20th century. And somewhere in there, she recorded Somewhere Out There for An American Tail and even duetted with Kermit the Frog and paid Sesame Street and the Muppet Show a few visits.

And that’s not all. Early in her career she recorded, of all things, a surreal commercial jingle for Remington Electric Shavers alongside Frank Zappa. In the 1980s, she took a break from her Nelson Riddle project to record several operatic tracks for composer Philip Glass’ album Songs from Liquid Days (including one song written by Laurie Anderson). A couple years later, she also performed the operatic backing vocals for the original production and soundtrack album to Glass’s science fiction play, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof.

She followed her Songbook project with another trilogy of Spanish-language albums celebrating her Mexican musical heritage as well as a long-planned collaboration called Trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Oh, and along the way she also recorded a new age-style album (including a song done in the Enya style), an album of lullabies adapted from rock songs, and she also found time to record the “Plow King” song for an episode of The Simpsons. Celebrities often talk about “breaking the mold” and trying new things - not always with success. Ronstadt managed to do it; she had the biggest-selling non-English album in US chart history for a while, and despite being told it would fail, her three big band albums with Nelson Riddle were massive hits at a time when people were rocking out to Bananarama. Heck, she even made the charts with that lullabies record.

Ronstadt is a polarizing figure in pop music, of that there is no doubt. Lots of people dislike her work, or her outspoken nature, or the fact she dated the governor of California for a while (before spending several years dating none other than George Lucas, but we can’t blame her for Greedo shooting first!). Whatever. To be honest, anyone who has such a long and varied career is going to be complex.

For me, I’m just enjoying the fact that I’m “rediscovering a new favourite” who has been added to a list of incredible (and sometimes underrated) female singers I’ve rediscovered in recent years. Another is Bobbie Gentry, whose classic “Ode to Billy Joe” is basically a David Lynch film set to music; she also originated another great story-song, “Fancy”, years before Reba did it. Sadly, she dropped out of the public eye completely back in the 1980s and not even a recent Grammy-nominated box set of (almost) every recording she did would bring her into the spotlight. Another is Billie Davis, an English singer who in my opinion recorded the definitive version of “Angel of the Morning” in the late 60s, years before it became a pop hit in the 80s.

I only wish I’d been interested in these performers back when their stuff was easier to find and hadn’t shifted into the “collectables” stream yet. (Seriously, there’s a box set of Ronstadt recordings that came about about 10 years ago that’s now being listed on Amazon Canada for more than C$600! It probably cost maybe $50 when it came out.)