As a teenager in the late 1970s, I would often DJ for my parents’ parties and the most requested track was Linda Ronstadt’s Poor Poor Pitiful Me (written by Warren Zevon). The song always got everyone dancing and I still remember those parties whenever I hear it, which must be well over a thousand times by now.
The album Simple Dreams, from which Poor Poor Pitiful Me is taken, is a late 70s classic with fantastic production by Peter Asher and beautifully recorded by Val Garay. It features many of Ronstadt’s regulars, including Dan Dugmore and Waddy Wachtel on guitar, Kenny Edwards on bass, and Rick Marotta on drums, among others.
Simple Dreams boasts several classic songs, such as a beautiful interpretation of Blue Bayou, Warren Zevon’s Carmelita, and the Rolling Stones’ Tumbling Dice. It is undoubtedly one of Linda’s greatest records.
Unfortunately, there is little information available about the equipment used to record Simple Dreams. We do know that it was an analogue recording mixed through an analogue console, and Val Garay has confirmed the use of the DBX 160 compressor for the drums. It is safe to assume that studio effects of the time, such as the EMT 250 Reverb, were also utilized. It is however well known, that the then new Aphex Aural Exciter was used to ‘psychoacousticly’ treat the finished album.
