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When Country Rocker Linda Ronstadt, 28, steps before her chicken-fried crowds wearing shorty cutoffs and loose blouse, the love she describes is less ethereal. With their eyes riveted on her erogenous promontories, her fans usually miss the fact that her songs of passion are leavened with feminine pride and anxiety. Women's music sells. Ronstadt's Heart Like a Wheel album sold over 150,000 units for Capitol Records in its first month of release. Muldaur's first solo album on Reprise sold 750,000 copies.
Hot Cakes, Carly Simon's fourth Elektra album, has sold nearly 1 million units. Carole King's recently released Wrap Around Joy sold over 1 million copies in 14 weeks.
Caught in the wink of a photographer's lens, they stand to gether smiling, rock-'n'-roll women in sequined chiffon and funky jeans. But they pay dearly for success. The rock business is a road business. Once the euphoria of the first room-service sir loin evaporates, they inherit a numbing chronology of concrete tunnels, cold buffets and limousine-driving dopers.
It is a life where one is seldom alone but usually lonely. There are plenty of men, but they are mostly grinning sycophants or lecherous disc jockeys. Yet it is almost impossible to retire; the thrill of recognition quickly becomes an opiate. "I wish I had an alter ego to hide in," says Bonnie Raitt. "This isn't the easiest way to spend one's 20s." Rock women seldom have successful marriages. The exceptions are Carole King, 33, and Carly Simon, 31, who have normal lives simply because they do not tour, and avoid the whole rock world. Known as Mrs. Charles Larkey to her Trousdale Estate neighbors in Los Angeles, Carole King drives her children to school in a pickup and scrupulously shuns all contact with the press and the record industry. When Carly Simon leaves her New York City home and goes on tour, it is to visit her husband James Taylor and maybe join in singing one song.
As a substitute for family stability, rock's other women band together for mutual support. They share warnings about lechers along the concert circuit. They also share back-up musicians and songs. Drummer Jim Keltner works for Muldaur, Waldman and Raitt. Raitt and Ronstadt compete for Songwriter Eric Kaz's tunes. It is a perfect situation for a catfight, but few take place. Says Ronstadt: "Jealousy cripples you faster than anything." But Muldaur adds, "Don't think I don't check out the pipes of every new chick singer."
Checked and approved by both her fans and rock peers, Joni Mitchell is fairly content. A close family relationship brings twice yearly visits back to Saskatoon. Since no concerts are scheduled for the present, she has plenty of time to finish decorating the 16-room Bel Air hacienda into which she settled last month with her current companion John Guerin, 35, a drummer for
Tom Scott's L.A. Express. Usually they stay home and play cribbage.
For Joni, life is very civilized —and perhaps a bit boring. "If I were to write the words I'm feeling now, it would probably read something like 'Zsa Zsa's got her jewels/ Minnie's got her chicken to go/ I've got my corporations/ I'm a capitalistic so and so.' " She refers to two music corporations she owns and some real estate interests.