I felt Linda played it safe with this biography. I had hoped for more juicy details of the 70's, but she seemed to want to focus on a more positive spin of things. ( )

★ ★ ★

This autobi is true to title.
It revolves around the musical career of Linda Ronstadt.
I appreciated the close look at her career and those instrumental to it.

However, I found it strangely shy of personal detail.
Bear in mind, I have an attachment to her career in a particular era and therefore may be biased.
She did discuss "friends", a little more openly, throughout the latter part of her career.

The book was ending before I realized she had two children.
I didn't see names and wondered if they were the Mary and Carlos to whom the book was dedicated.

I enjoyed reading what I did but certainly had hoped for more ( )

Simple memoir as well and that's a good thing. This book is all about the music at one point she even mentions that her editor had to convince her to add names. Interesting to read about her musical influences and views on listening to music.

I hate to say it but I just didn't like it. Very impersonal, lots of technical music jargon, but nothing about her personal life, her children. She says "My father called and told me my mother died" and then she just goes on with her story and doesn't even say if she went to the funeral! And I know that she was close with her family and they had a good relationship. It just comes off very cold. I was disappointed as I Love Linda Ronstadt and her music. I just didn't think the book was written very appealingly to a reader and fan. ( )

SIMPLE DREAMS, by Linda Ronstadt.

Hey, what else could I possibly say after over five hundred reviews posted on Amazon? I'm still trying to figure out how I missed this memoir when it was initially published nearly two years ago. I ran across it on a bargain shelf at a local department store. A new hardcover for only six bucks! Of course I loved it, just as I have secretly loved Linda Ronstadt for close to fifty years now. Yeah, me and several million other guys. Turns out not only does she have an angelic face, body and voice, she's also a pretty damn good writer. She tells her story of life in the music industry with good grace and lets you know that she's never taken herself all that seriously, which makes me just love her even more. The book reads like a who's who of not just musicians, but quite a few other 'rich and famous' types too. Seems Linda had/has a lot of friends.

I knew she was California governor Jerry Brown's girl friend for a while, but I didn't know she'd also run with New York writer Pete Hamill (whose memoir of his own young years, A DRINKING LIFE, I loved). I was not surprised, maybe even a little glad, to learn of her longtime relationship with her musical collaborator, John David Souther. And I'm sure there were others over the years too. But the thing is, she doesn't get trashy about any of it, and it seems that most of these long-time lovers have remained friends with Ronstadt. That's a kind of class not often encountered in the entertainment industry.

She talks of other friendships too - the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Nelson Riddle, Rosemary Clooney. Literally dozens of friendships and probably hundreds of names are mentioned. I was glad for the index - and also for the discography. She says very little about her adopted children, and not much more about the Parkinson's that has silenced that lovely voice. But what a musical legacy Linda Ronstadt has left us. I am confident that people will be listening to her music for decades to come. In fact I am putting a Ronstadt CD on right now. Gonna sit back and remember how she and I traveled to the beat of a "Different Drum." Highly recommended. ( )