Christine, Larry, and Raphael

I just came back from the store where I found out it was Thanksgiving. Raphael was Christine’s best friend, and Larry her first husband. Larry played with The Stone Poneys.

Happy Thanks Giving!

Jon

Linda Ronstadt first met Bobby Kimmel in 1960 while performing gigs in and around Tucson, Arizona with her older brother Peter and older sister Suzi (under the name “The Three Ronstadts”, among others). The three Ronstadts joined with Kimmel and a local banjo player named Richard Saltus, performing locally as “The New Union Ramblers”. Kimmel, who was six years older than Linda, was impressed with the strong voice and enthusiasm of the fourteen-year-old. He relocated to Southern California around 1961 and wrote regularly to cajole Linda into joining him throughout her high school years at Catalina High. ^[1] Kimmel had already met and befriended Kenny Edwards shortly before Linda’s arrival in L.A., and they had started writing folk-rock songs together.

Making the band[edit]

After dropping out of Tucson’s Catalina High School, and completing a semester at the University Of Arizona, Linda Ronstadt decided to move to the Los Angeles area in December 1964 to join Bobby Kimmel and form a band.^[2] Ronstadt described Kimmel’s vision of the band: “It was going to be five people. We had an electric autoharp and a girl singer, and we thought we were unique in the world. And it turned out The Jefferson Airplane and the Lovin’ Spoonful had beaten us.”^[2] The group trimmed down to a trio that called themselves The Stone Poneys. Their (misspelled) name came from Delta Blues singer Charley Patton‘s 1929 song “The Stone Pony Blues” (also known as “Pony Blues”).^[3]

The band was discovered by a couple of music industry executives while rehearsing at a soul food restaurant called Olivia’s, located in Ocean Park, a community between Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Olivia’s was famous for its food and clientele, including The Doors.^[2] In 1965, they recorded the Johnny Otis song “So Fine” and several others. Mike Curb, who at that time was working for Mercury, produced the sessions. The record company wanted them to change the group’s name to “The Signets” and sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do.

Instead, The Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the Los Angeles club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet.^[4] They worked intimate clubs like The Troubadour in Hollywood, where they were opening for such musicians as Odetta and Oscar Brown Jr.;^[2] The Insomniac in Hermosa Beach, where they often appeared with The Chambers Brothers;^[4] and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.

One night at The Troubadour, the band’s first manager, Herb Cohen, told Kimmel in front of Ronstadt: “Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don’t know about the rest of the group”. Linda Ronstadt called this “the beginning of the end”,^[5] although this occurred even before they were signed to Capitol, but Ronstadt insisted that she would not record without the band.^[2] The Stone Poneys broke up briefly in this time period, and Cohen tried to connect Ronstadt with Frank Zappa to make a demo, and also with Jack Nitzsche, but nothing ever materialized (she and Zappa – who were both being managed by Cohen in this time period – would later make a radio commercial for Remington brand electric shavers that was rejected by the company).