The singer Linda Ronstadt thought was on a “different planet”In an era that was dominated by the greatest songwriters of all time, Linda Ronstadt didn’t enter the music business for a sense of competition. Throughout the 1970s, though, Ronstadt had a front-row seat to watch all of her best musical friends become musical legends. Ronstadt was bound to be the perfect cheerleader for her favourite acts, but the boundaries she broke down for women in rock and roll were beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Stevie Nicks is different from me, or Carly Simon is, Joni Mitchell is different from everybody on the planet. Mitchell might have fallen into the pop category almost by accident, but she didn’t become a legend of music by accident.