Take Things in Stride
Take Things in Stride
What Linda Ronstadt Taught Me About Jealousy
“She got Kate Bushed!”
Turning Kate Bush into a verb wasn’t something I’d planned. But it was the perfect shorthand in a discussion I was having with my friend Megan on the phone about the now-famous episode three of The Last of Us. I haven’t watched the show, just to be clear. Anything with even a faint whiff of any sort of post-apocalyptic doom makes me uneasy. I don’t fancy the idea of having to fend for myself in an ever-changing, terrifying landscape. I get edgy if I have to, for some reason, sleep with the wrong pillow.
But I know all about episode three of the show because after it aired three different friends texted to tell me “don’t worry, Linda Ronstadt is trending on Twitter but she’s not dead”. She was trending because her song ‘Long Long Time’ was used in that particular episode. Her streams or downloads or whatever we use to measure musical popularity at this point in time, apparently went up close to 5000% in the aftermath of the episode. Very similar to the phenomenon I wrote about last month, where Kate Bush enjoyed instant, sky rocketing popularity after ‘Running Up That Hill’ was featured on Stranger Things. Hence my statement about Ronstadt getting Kate Bushed.
If anyone ever turns my name into a verb, I hope it’s related to the popularity of my art increasing by 5000%.
I came to Linda Ronstadt embarrassingly late in life. It was 2019, and I was in Toronto for a Sleater Kinney show that ended up being my last concert before COVID happened and ruined everything. I spent a few days in the city visiting friends before the night of the show. My friend Mona planned us a day of vegan food excitement and suggested that we also go see a movie. When she chose Sound of My Voice, a documentary about Linda Ronstadt I admit I thought “…Linda Ronstadt?” But I love music documentaries and I was dizzy from vacation freedom and vegan donuts so I was game for anything.
If you haven’t seen Sound of My Voice, I really recommend that you watch it as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if you like Linda Ronstadt or music documentaries in general. It is an amazing ride. It made me fall fast and hard for her, and I started collecting her records as soon as I got back home. In the space of a few hours, Ronstadt went from “that lady who sang that cheesy song with Aaron Neville in the 80s” to one of my absolute favourite performers.
One of the more touching aspects of the film is how it chronicles Rondstadt’s friendship with another one of my favourite ladies- Emmylou Harris. It was Ronstadt who, after Gram Parsons died and Harris wasn’t sure what to do next with her life and career, suggested that they live together for a while in Ronstadt’s California beach house. It was there that Emmylou, with the love and support of her friend, put her life back together and dealt with her grief. We all have Ronstadt to thank for the Emmylou who rose from the ashes of that difficult time.
But even before that, the film shows Ronstadt reacting to seeing Harris perform for the first time.
“She’s doing exactly what I’m doing,” Ronstadt recalls thinking. “She’s doing it better. I can get jealous and then I won’t be able to enjoy her singing, or I could just become a slobbering drooling fan like the rest of the people. So I chose the latter and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
This week I listened to the audiobook of Really Good, Actually, a new novel by Monica Heisey. I’d never heard of Heisey until a few weeks ago when the press surrounding the book’s release amped up and seemed to flood my social media feeds. From what I gleaned from the press prior to actually experiencing the book itself, Heisey was a talented writer and comedian who had the enviable gig of being a writer on Schitt’s Creek before writing this novel and getting a real slam bang book deal for it.
Jealousy is a hard part of being a writer who is connected in any way to the publishing industry. At each step of the process there is always someone who seems to be doing it better than you. Someone is writing more words per day. Someone’s manuscript needs fewer edits. Someone’s query letter is garnering more requests from agents. Someone got offers from three agents instead of just one. Someone’s book sold quickly, at auction, in a two book deal, for a six figure advance. Someone’s review average is higher on Goodreads. Someone is going on a bigger book tour. Someone’s second novel has blurbs from all the right people on the cover.
It literally never ends. And it is hard to handle. When I downloaded the audiobook of Really Good, Actually I joked to a friend that I had to read it quickly, before I got too jealous of its success to enjoy it. I had that same choice that Linda had when she first heard Emmylou. Let jealousy ruin it, or become a fan.
Really Good, Actually is a fucking amazing book. I loved it. I laughed out loud more times than I could count. I also murmured “oh nooooooo” several times as the main character, a perfectly flawed female lead, got herself into yet another embarrassing scrape. Halfway through the book, sitting in the bathtub listening to a particularly hilarious and harrowing chapter I thought “I could never write a book like this.” It was a compliment, a positive realization that what this other author had done was amazing and so totally different than the direction I’m going as a writer. And that was great. I started recommending the book to everyone who I thought might enjoy it. Slobbering fan, indeed.
Jealousy has its place. It can be complimentary, it can keep us working towards goals, give us something to aspire to. But it shouldn’t ruin our enjoyment of things. Imagine if Linda Ronstadt hadn’t made friends with Emmylou Harris, hadn’t lifted her up and helped her become the incredible artist she is. And, oh my god, what if they hadn’t formed Trio with Dolly Parton? What if their version of ‘After the Gold Rush’ didn’t exist? I hate to think of it.
All this to say, Linda was right about not letting jealousy take over and ruin your enjoyment of someone else’s beautiful art. And if that alone isn’t worth a 5000% increase in popularity, then I don’t know what is.
Songs - February 2023
After The Gold Rush - Trio Sorry, Neil. This is my favourite version. Even though the idea of Dolly Parton ever, for any reason, lying in a burned out basement is hilariously ridiculous to me.
Timberline (Demo)- Emmylou Harris Emmylou singing in harmony with herself in this demo is just extraordinary.
Desperado - Linda Ronstadt Linda also had a big role in getting The Eagles together and is credited with popularizing this song for them.
I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory - Kathleen Edwards A song about being friends with people making the same kind of music as you and working to compute where you all fit in.
Feelings - February 2023
This month it seems appropriate to go back to recommending some romance books.
Ali Hazelwood had a bonkers amount of success with her first book, The Love Hypothesis and there was a lot of hype around her second book that came out last year, Love On The Brain. I loved both of her novels, so I was surprised that I also enjoyed this collection of three linked novellas, Loath to Love You. The novellas came out in digital formats in between the publication of Hazelwood’s two novels, but just recently were released as a physical book collecting all three. The female leads of each story are all friends, which gives the collection a nice through line. And, as the title reveals, these are all versions of the popular ‘enemies to lovers’ trope that Hazelwood does very well. It can be tricky to manage having characters hate each other while remaining sympathetic (and horny) but she does a commendable job. This would be a great collection to keep around if your brain is tired and you’d like to read in small doses to start off your 2023.
Exes and O’s by Ottawa native Amy Lea got a lot of great press before it was even released, including some starred reviews. I was very excited to get into it and was not disappointed. It has some plot points in common with High Fidelity (which will always be a favourite of mine) in that the female lead revisits all her past boyfriends. Except in her case, she’s looking for a ‘second chance romance’. Along for the ride is her sarcastic and handsome male roommate and I’m sure you can see where this is going. I liked this book because the main character is goofy and flawed and accepts her own eccentricities instead of feeling the need to become “more mature” or whatever. It also had great secondary characters and so many parts that made me actually laugh out loud, to the point where my husband came to find me to see what was going on. He thought I’d discovered a particularly great meme or something. Anyway, highly recommend both of these for your romantic Valentines reading list, if you have such a thing.
Thanks for reading! See you next month.
Instagram : @JenniferWhitefordWrites
Twitter: @jenniferw613
Razorcake columns, reviews, interviews etc
My debut romance novel, MAKE ME A MIXTAPE is coming from Doubleday in 2024.