The show ended with Linda soothing the audience with the ballad, "Heart like a Wheel," accompanied only by
Gold on the piano. The crowd, up for the last two numbers- "You're No Good" and a razzle-dazzle reading of "Heat Wave"- stayed
up and paid attention.
And it's only love and it's only love
That can break a human being
And turn him inside out
Up near the stage, the audience looked like an assembly of kids getting a light scolding; moustache-fingering
thoughtful, as if listening to a eulogy.
And then there is this..later in the article. I swear this is an amazing interview!! ...Oh.my.goodness...
They say a pro can handle whatever happens, but the trouble with proness is: You start to get unreal and have
fixed lines. To be real like Linda, you almost have to be nervous or embarrassed- or, if someone in the audience is objectionable,
you have to dislike them- not necessarily throw her tambourine- but mentally, you have to.
Joni Mitchell suffered from the same things. She's done shows where she's burst into tears and run off. In
a sense, they're both in the same situation, of trying to say what they think."
But when it comes to story-telling, Joni wins, even with her giggles. Linda, without the aura and the stance
of writer of the songs she sings, can come off like a babbling idiot in comparison. Recently, however, she has learned to
edit herself and now her remarks about the songs she sings are illuminating and to the point.
"I knew people thought I was dumb," she said, "and I encouraged it a lot of times, 'cause I would get onstage
and be very self-conscious." Offstage, "People would get me in situations and actually try to make me feel dumb . . . Yeah,
so they'd have more control over me. Peter and Betsy, I met them in New York five years ago and they were so nice. I always
do better on the East Coast, for some reason. People who I met on the East Coast thought I was neat and intelligent. People
I met on the West Coast thought I was an idiot who always threw drinks around the Troubadour bar, so it was fortunate I met
them on the East Coast. They moved out to Los Angeles and would invite me to parties and Peter was an intelligent person I
could talk to and he would talk back to me like a person, not like somebody he wanted to ball, or somebody he thought was
silly and could push around. All I needed was somebody to react to me like that."
Peter Asher is a thin, red-headed... shy sort... and a teen idol ten years ago
The complete interview can be found on the Linda web site (see URL above), Look in Article&Interviews Section , this
is from Rolling Stone magazine, March27, 1975.
