On the face of it, the album was no great shakes. Packed full of old songs and contemporary hits. However, ‘Heart Like a Wheel’ was much more than that, and in fact was much more than Ronstadt...
Songs like ‘It Doesn’t Matter Any More’ written by Paul Anka, ‘When Will I Be Loved?’ via The Everly Brothers and ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’ via James Taylor would, in any other hands, more than likely resemble a conglomeration, the result of throwing a bunch of songsheets up into the air and seeing which fluttered down to the ground first. Yet, in Ronstadt’s hands, they all make sense. She delivered here, using her excellent interpretive abilities, in exactly the way she singularly failed to do with her more recent attempts at the Great American Songbook such as 1984’s ‘Lush Life’ or 2004’s ‘Hummin’ To Myself’. On ‘Heart’, however, she believes. There is both passion and drive in her delivery that allows the material to both come alive and sink into your soul.
She is more than ably supported. One of the most appealing and innovative aspects of the entire album was the series of arrangements by producer/manager Peter Asher. Yes, that one. The chap who was part of the successful Peter & Gordon pop duo of the sixties, older brother of Jane Asher, the actress and onetime girlfriend of Paul McCartney. In addition, the supporting musician cast do a cracking job, giving the album a superb, early-seventies period feel.
The album has now been released by Audio Fidelity, the outfit that has arisen from the ashes of the legendary DCC Compact Classics label, as a 24 karat gold CD edition, limited and numbered. Audio Fidelity boss, Marshall Blonstein had always been a big fan of ‘Heart’ and wanted to reissue it as an audiophile edition. “It has that early mixture of California country with just a tad of kick-ass rock’n’roll”, he told me.
When he ran the DCC Compact Classics album, he tried to license it. The problem, which derived from EMI/Capitol in the USA, was that there were no master tapes, they were all lost. “So we contacted Peter Asher who had the original multitracks. He said we could remix the album if we wanted to. We said, no, that’s not what we do. We’re not the painters, we take the paintings and bring them back to their original lustre.”
The project was dropped but, many years later, under the label’s new guise, Blonstein brought up the subject again with Capitol who suddenly announced that the 2-track master had been found. Steve Hoffman was put on the case, he confirmed that the master was the original and so the license was confirmed. “I then thought that it would be a great idea for Linda to place her signature that would show up on each one of the labels. So we contacted her manager who said that she loved the idea. Linda then sent us four different signatures completed in different types of pen thickness.” The results of which, you can see on the accompanying image of the CD.
Let me tell you now that this is a superbly mastered disc, the best method of hearing this album digitally. However, a note for all audiophiles out there; the gold on the CD? It doesn’t make any difference to the sound at all. That is, this CD would sound just as good as a silver disc. Anyone telling you otherwise is suffering from a case of ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ syndrome. Despite the assertions all over the Internet that gold provides greater reflectivity, etc., the gold itself is nothing more than a badge of quality. The real source of the improved sound on this and similar discs is the sourcing of the master tapes and the correct processing of the same.
Blonstein made the point that, during mastering, they do not enhance the master in any way. There’s no toning down of vocals and lifting of bass here. Blonstein’s task is all about seeking clarity: polishing the painting to make the colours more vibrant, as it were. And that processing was partly Steve Hoffman’s own ear, and partly Audio Fidelity’s proprietary CD mastering system, called the Kensei Audio Transposer. “It gives the digital master a softer broader breath, a more analogue feel,” said Blonstein. And that’s exactly what this album gives you proving, once again, that beauty is more than (24 karat) skin deep.
PR
