Memorial Coliseum

November 2, 1977

Few artists embodied the 1970s quite like Linda Ronstadt. With a set of brass lungs and an armload of songs, she was at the center of the California soft rock movement for years. When Ronstadt came to Tuscaloosa in 1977 as a headliner to perform at Memorial Coliseum, local audiences had seen her before. In 1971, she performed outdoors at Woods Quad with a series of other bands such as Goode Creek Symphony, Louisiana rockers Pot Liquor, and Doug Kershaw. At the time her backing band included musicians who later formed the Eagles. In February 1972, Ronstadt opened as show at Memorial Coliseum for Neil Young and his band the Stray Gators. It was cold outside and Ronstadt, performing her best-known songs at the time such as “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” and “Different Drum,” performed barefoot onstage. Much of Young’s concert that night was recorded and released as an album, Tuscaloosa, in June 2018. Danny O’Keefe opened the show, accompanying himself on guitar, bathed in a blue light at centerstage. He performed several songs from his albums, including “The Road,” and his biggest hit, “Goodtime Charlie’s Got the Blues.” Headlining her tour was a significant event for the young singer. She’d just released the album Simple Dreams, which was chock full of radio hits like “It’s So Easy,” “Blue Bayou,” “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” and others. During the tour, Ronstadt would perform a few songs accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. Paul Anka’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” was a favorite. During her Tuscaloosa concert, she introduced the song by referring to a line, “Golly gee” in the song, making the point it was years before such saccharine terms were replaced by phrases like “Oh, f*ck” in contemporary society, which generated big laughs from the crowd. It was warm onstage that night when Ronstadt dumped a red solo cup of water on her face drawing a massive reaction from the sell-out crowd.