Karla Bonoff, “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me”

Here’s another post of mine from Larry Haley’s The Bop Shop.

Linda Ronstadt had an almost-hit with this song the year before its writer, Karla Bonoff, released it on her debut album. Linda’s version is kinda sweet, but Karla’s is one of my favorite songs from the seventies.

Karla’s vocal has more emotional urgency, Waddy Wachtel’s guitar bites harder, and the chorus kicks it like the one in the Peter Asher-produced Ronstadt version only hints at.

Now the thing is, this album was produced by former Stone Poney Kenny Edwards — a prolific session guitarist and songwriter, but with only a (literal) handful of album credits as producer (most of which were Karla Bonoff albums). He certainly got it right on this, his first try.

play Karla Bonoff’s “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” (1977) on YouTube