New Wax Wednesday

Is it love, or lies? Well, when it comes to the sound and content of Linda Ronstadt’s rightly hailed September 1975 opus on Asylum, Prisoner in Disguise, it is very much of the love variety. In celebration of this important mid-’70s LP’s 50th anniversary, Mobile Fidelity has just seen fit to reissue PiD as a 180g 2LP 45rpm edition — and (spoiler alert) I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

According to MoFi, the new Prisoner reissue was sourced from the original analog master tapes via the following steps: 1/4in, 15ips Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe. This new edition of PiD was pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and the 2LP 45rpm set comes housed in a Stoughton Printing gatefold jacket with each LP residing in its own respective MoFi-branded plastic-lined inner sleeve — and it also retains the charm of the original Asylum LP’s gatefold presentation, which saw the balance of the lyrics for all 11 of its songs written out in the hands of the respective songwriters who penned ’em. This release of PiD is also intended to fete the ongoing Elektra 75 campaign. (Elektra was founded in 1950, and the Asylum label that PiD initially appeared on had been merged with Elektra in 1972.)

The SRP for the MoFi PiD is $59.99 — which is standard for their 180g 2LP 45rpm releases — and you can order it now from Music Direct here, and/or via the official MD link graphic that appears a number of grafs below, just above the tracklisting section. You can also order PiD directly from MoFi themselves here, if you also want to take some time to peruse their other fine releases to possibly add to your LP coffers (as I often do myself, I must admit).

Some further Prisoner stats now, by way of the official press release and the usual MM additions, including quotes. A platinum-certified success and the follow-up to November 1974’s Heart Like a Wheel, Ronstadt’s No. 1 breakthrough album on Asylum, Prisoner in Disguise is said to have “cemented Ronstadt’s status as the leading female voice of the 1970s” — and that statement is pretty much right on the mark. Working again with producer Peter Asher and joined by an elite lineup of top-tier musicians including James Taylor, JD Souther, Russel Kunkel, Emmylou Harris, and others, Ronstadt delivered a masterclass in emotional interpretation and genre-blending artistry on the 36-minute PiD LP.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been fifty years since the initial release of my sixth solo album, Prisoner in Disguise,” Ronstadt observed in a newly penned personal letter that was included as part of the press materials for this MoFi reissue. She continued, “I remember being very glad to get a demo from my friend Neil Young. [. . .] I was immediately taken with a song called ‘Love Is a Rose.’ It became the opening track on the album.”

“Love Is a Rose” is also a sublime, magical spin to start the MoFi PiD proceedings (LP1, Side One, Track 1), with Herb Pederson’s clear-as-day banjo opening up the track all nice ’n’ fingerpickin’ clear in the right channel before Linda’s on-point vocal emerges straight down the middle. Overly expressive shouter-singers should take more than a few notes from how Ronstadt approaches each line here, and the way she intuitively gets across songwriter Young’s intent. This is an interpretive skill set she evidences on every track on PiD, truth be told. Oh, and those handclaps by producer Peter Asher and acoustic guitarist Andrew Gold in the back half, balanced with Russell Kunkel’s understated drumming, and the harp solo by Jim Connor — this is how you produce and congeal master performers at the top of their game.

Ronstadt’s remarkable ability to reimagine songs from across the musical spectrum shines all throughout PiD. Her Motown-inspired rendition of “Heat Wave” (LP2, Side Three, Track 1) became a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s probably the loudest track on the entire album — sans for “Roll Um Easy” [LP1, Side One, Track 3], a bold Little Feat cover featuring Featsman Lowell George turning in some truly greasy slide work). Relative to some of the more delicate arrangements here, those volume swells make some semblance of sense, as I think it’s more a function of these cuts likely being intended as FM radio and/or chart tracks more than anything else. (And I still quite dig all those “yeah-yeahs!” Linda adds in here, there, and everywhere on “Heat Wave,” I gotta say.)

Meanwhile Ronstadt’s understated, tender cover of The Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” (LP1, Side Two, Track 1) is one that reached the Adult Contemporary Top 5. “Smokey [Robinson] has a beautiful, soprano-like voice, and sings in my keys,” Ronstadt noted in that aforementioned letter. “So, I could easily sing along with him on the radio. This made me want to record the song.” In that very same letter, she also recalled a backstage poker game with Smokey and her band four years prior — a band that then included eventual Eagles stalwarts Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Linda then somewhat humorously recounted admonishing Frey not to win against Smokey because she had a crush on him, and “he wouldn’t like me if he lost too much money to my guitar player.”

The title track, “Prisoner in Disguise” (LP1, Side Two, Track 2), was written by the late, great JD Souther, and it remains one of the album’s most poignant moments. “I sang the opening verse with just JD on acoustic guitar,” Ronstadt recalls in that letter. “Listening to it now, I am struck mostly by JD’s utterly original harmony vocal.” Her and JD’s voices blend like so much aural butter, if you will — and they’re perfectly draped by David Campbell’s string arrangement too.

When I spoke with JD in February 2016 about his time working (and living) with Linda, he said to me, point blank, “she’s the best listener I know,” and then he followed that statement by adding, “I’m on the record for wanting to see everything of hers re-released in the highest quality possible.” (If you want to read my extended interview feature with JD, which was compiled from a pair of interviews we did together in 2016 and 2018 and posted on September 18, 2024, in homage to his passing, go here.)

JD also confirmed with me that, in 2016, he had four sets of speakers in his then-preferred listening space. “What I listen to almost all the time, I’m almost embarrassed to tell you — they’re the same JBL 4310s Linda and I listened to when we were living together,” he admitted. “I also have some JBL 4311s and some Tannoys, Genelecs, and Yamahas, but the ones that I really like are these big, warm 4310s and 4311s. Those JBLs were definitely built to last. They’re wonderful, and they’ve definitely got that deep midrange that you talked about with Linda.” Regarding her and JD’s listening habits during their cohabitational days, Linda herself told me in April 2014, “I would give anything to have my old McIntosh amplifier and big JBL speakers back! It was just heaven. We would put on a record, sit down, and really listen. The speakers would be at arm’s length from your ears, and it was just fabulous. I’ll never forget how those songs sounded. That was my going to college for music. That was my higher education for music — spending all of those hours in front of those speakers.” (Ours too, truth be told!)

Also unforgettable is Ronstadt’s pastoral duet with Emmylou Harris on “The Sweetest Gift” (LP2, Side Three, Track 3), which essentially foreshadows their later work together on the multi-album Trio project with Dolly Parton — who herself penned “I Will Always Love You” (LP2, Side Four, Track 2). As good as that version is — emotionally open and declarative but not overblown, along with piano, steel guitar, and string accompaniment to boot — it’s hard for anyone to top Whitney Houston’s 1992-recorded career moment with it.

Ronstadt assessed the Trio’s output during our 2014 interview like this: “We were united for the best sound we could get, and that was it. That was what we were chasing.” Frankly, that statement essentially describes the aural character apparent on most every LP Ronstadt has cut during her stellar six-decades-plus recording career — and, more specifically, very much that of Prisoner in Disguise.

As to my ratings, the Music for PiD gets an unabashed 9.5, while the Sound of this new MoFi edition gets a hearty and hale 10.5. Each LP was well-centered, deep black, and quiet. Whether I played them on a budget turntable (i.e., one with an SRP under $400) or my high-end go-to table (which cost somewhat more than at least 10x that one), I could hear everything I expected — and wanted. Yes, the overall clarity and dynamics were indeed better pronounced on my high-end table, but budget-minded analogists will also be able to enjoy the benefits of the MoFi PiD LPs without a doubt. This new edition outshines my admittedly worn-out 1975 Asylum pressing, and it’s more than a worthy successor to MoFi’s own 2008 half-speed-mastered edition, which “only” appeared on a single LP at 33⅓rpm. Splitting the 2025 edition of PiD across four sides at 45 lets it all breathe, essentially functioning like a sonic menthol lozenge that’s cleared up your playback passageways.

I leave you with one other telling statement from my 2014 interview with Linda: “A lot of what I recorded was so intended for the hi-fi, audiophile kind of listener.” Testify! Without question, you should be able to hear Ronstadt’s prime playback intention all throughout the new MoFi 180g 2LP 45rpm version of Prisoner in Disguise.

LINDA RONSTADT
PRISONER IN DISGUISE
180g 2LP 45rpm (Asylum/Mobile Fidelity)

LP1, Side One
1. Love Is a Rose
2. Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox
3. Roll Um Easy

LP1, Side Two
1. Tracks of My Tears
2. Prisoner in Disguise

LP2, Side Three
1. Heat Wave
2. Many Rivers to Cross
3. The Sweetest Gift

LP2, Side Four
1. You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down
2. I Will Always Love You
3. Silver Blue