Bonnie Raitt - Classic or Dud?

I like her as a person, but I'll say dud because I'm realizing I'd rather not hear again the overwhelming majority of songs I've heard of hers.

Fuckin' right on.

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

And I thought that before Pharrell called it "the illest song ever."

if you're shallow enough to cut out large swaths of the musical landscape for being "dadrock," then i don't know. probably better just to keep the blinders on.

i wish i could make a video with dennis quaid.

i mean, yeah, she's white, she went to radcliffe, she sings the bloze, her recent records are slick, she records with El Lay studio dudes, she has boring videos, she's a vh1 staple, all of your friends' parents have her records alongside nanci griffith and those putamayo comps. none of that matters though!

(and I reach my point): Nor would I do Bonnie Raitt such a disservice. She has earned the right to be a classic. Bonnie rocks!!!!!

Warner Bros. should be your next stop then. That will cover her entire career before her unlikely "comeback" at Capitol. First three albums are probably her best. After that the albums get much more uneven, but nearly all of them have some good stuff on them.

In terms of the worst, that's easily the last WB album Nine Lives, completed under desultory conditions. (I like the Toots Hibbert cover though - it was a single.) The Glow isn't good either, but it does have a great Stax/Volt cover, "Your Good Thing (Is About To End)."

"Something to Talk About" was such a unexpected phenomenon. A year and a half after her Grammys comeback, she earns a top fiver played alongside Karyn White and Jesus Jones and Marky Mark. Fully earned too -- she sings and plays the shit out of it.

That's for sure. I didn't realize how miraculous Bonnie Raitt's popularity was until years later.

FWIW Billboard did an oral history on Nick of Time for its anniversary: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8503466/bonnie-raitt-nick-of-time-oral-history-30th-anniversary/

It's a good read for fans and really emphasizes how much she bottomed out and how low the expectations were, even by the people who signed her Capitol (and they liked her). NOBODY in their right mind would've bet on a hit.

I kind of wish she pulled off an album with Prince, but given his luck with everyone else on his label, it probably worked out for the best.

XP ...and then a few years later it gave a name to a now largely-forgotten Julia Roberts/Dennis Quaid romcom!

It's even in the trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxbLkx8A1WI

nice to see all the love for Give It Up and Green Light, HBD rock legend

one of the all-time voices

And Home Plate is yet another 70s peak. The follow-up, Sweet Forgiveness is not quite as good, but she set the bar high, and, as xgau said of this un, Anyone who can induce me to dance to Eric Kaz has got to be doing some kind of job.

said of Sweet Forgiveness, that is.

Way too many pesky ads on this JamBase item, but here's gist:
Bonnie Raitt & Mavis Staples Announce Summer Tour 2022
The iconic musicians will team up for concerts in July, August and September.

By Scott Bernstein Feb 16, 2022 • 8:16 am PST

Only in the midwest and west. The east and southeast get Lucinda Williams, which is...fine, but it ain't Mavis.

Also several with NRBQ, and at least one w Chris Smither, but mostly Mavis or Lucinda:
https://tour.bonnieraitt.com/

Paywalled, but at the library just now, I read WSJ full-page rave for Just Like That, out Friday: Mark Richardson is not the most exciting writer, but we happen to agree on some stuff (like preferring Rust Bucket to Barn), and he's very conscientious, while going almost cut for cut through this one, which is apparently a colorful cohesion of originals and covers whose titles I don't recognize, nothing too obvious. Only thing that worries me: says the sound is "lean," foregrounding her vocals---damn, I always want the sparky details of her arrangements too---oh well, it's self-produced, no Boomer Wizards behind the throne, so maybe.

It's good. I'll have more to say at the end of the week.

Cool, thanks! Was gonna add(And her vocals are always prominent enough, seems like, so crucial need to go lean cuisine.)

The two tracks she's released so far (both originals?) sounded like traditional "old school" productions - blues-rock and R&B that sticks to the basics without too much polishing or tampering. For all I know, they could've been rehearsed then recorded them in one take. I know there's a Toots cover in there too, and I liked her version of "True Love Is Hard To Find."

Looking forward to her tour - last time I saw her was in 2017 at Lincoln Center's annual outdoor summer shows, and in retrospect it was kind of re-assuring to have her up there telling everyone "Don't worry, we can get through this!"

In contrast, the previous year had Patti Smith right after the RNC and she excoriated the GOP for their shameful rhetoric - she threw it back at them when she grabbed her electric guitar and yelled "EXECUTE THIS MOTHERFUCKER!" (since the RNC had chanted "execute Hillary") and unleashed a torrent of brutal feedback.

For whatever reason, I always thought of Raitt and Smith as the grandmothers everyone should have. Like if there's ever a Disney coming-of-age story in need of some stunt casting, I'd have both of them play the grandmothers the main character visits for life guidance.

"Made Up Mind" is an NRBQ cover irrc

Never knew this, but for "Cream" Prince apparently mixed in samples of Bonnie Raitt playing slide guitar. Raitt mentioned this while talking about her aborted collaboration with Prince and how he asked her to teach him how to play slide guitar.

Wow, never heard of that! Well, come to think of it, he did work with Mavis Staples: she was a Paisley Park artist, even. Wonder what the problem was with Raitt? Maybe he was too weird for her, compared to Froom, Was, and so on.

In the recent Questlove and Maron interviews, she said she was pretty hype to work with Prince but, at the same time, wasn't keen about her album sounding overtly Princey, so once they agreed to work together he ditched her for a European tour (the Sign O The Times tour) after she had canceled her own tour. She still sounds a little salty about it.

As well she might!

The beginning of the pre-chorus of "The Longing in Their Heart" where all of the lead instruments drop out except that rad mandolin part and vocals, that's on my list of all-time favorite musical moments.

Never knew this, but for "Cream" Prince apparently mixed in samples of Bonnie Raitt playing slide guitar. Raitt mentioned this while talking about her aborted collaboration with Prince and how he asked her to teach him how to play slide guitar.

― birdistheword, Friday, April 22, 2022 6:55 PM (yesterday)

I wondered why "Cream" sounded like it could be a parallel-universe re-interpretation of "Something to Talk About"; all while the backup vocals on "STTA" sound heavily influenced by the chorus harmonies in "Take Me With U" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". And then the chord progressions on the choruses of "Cream" and "STTA" conclude similarly. Yet both songs were released within a similar timeframe - as if Bonnie and The Purple One were telepathically communicating via the ouroboros of shared influence.

Until today, I had no idea this was the European cover for Nick of Time.

let's give'em something to talk about!

Acid wash covers - they're gonna come back, just like the jeans!

That reminds me of the European cover of White Light/White Heat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Light/White_Heat#/media/File:VUToySoldiers.jpg

Just saw her show at the Beacon. Her singing hasn’t diminished at all - if anything it’s as great as ever, and while the whole show was good (the new material went over well) there were three highlights that towered over the rest: “Nick of Time” (her phrasing was amazing), “Have a Heart” where her phrasing was at times remarkably sexy as if rewriting the song to suggest what the recipient was going to miss (I know she’s much older but that voice can’t be denied), and “Angel from Montgomery” which was incredibly powerful. She has apparently sung it at literally every concert she’s done, and the last time in NYC was with Prine at his Songwriters HoF induction. It’s really astonishing she can sing it so frequently and knock it out of the park every time like it’s never lost any meaning for her, and this time there was even more weight to it, possibly due to Prine being gone.

Lucinda Williams opened. Still on the road to recovery - just singing, no guitar from her yet - but she sung really well, close to if not right on 100%, and her band was fantastic.

When Bonnie Raitt & Her Band Had No Chill On SNL

pic.twitter.com/j4Obatqcx9

— SNL Hosts Introducing the Musical Guest (@snlhostsintro) August 18, 2022

just a btw in very with-it NPR newsletter:

(Meanwhile, the Grammy for song of the year — which honors songwriters specifically — was more or less a total surprise: It went to Bonnie Raitt for her song "Just Like That.")

Xgau was a fan - gave it an A- and put it at #39 on the "Dean's List."

I reviewed it, made my top 40.

Legendary, nigh-universally beloved songwriter in still legendary and beloved shockah.

Her first Grammy (or other award?) for songwriting though---right-?

She's def. quality over quantity in that dept.

Yep - I think her first nomination for songwriting. (I was surprised she didn't get one for "Nick of Time" given how well the album did.)

the album's best written jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnI54ZpTxww

Hold the phone! Her *other* Grammy wins last night: there were three in all:

American singer Bonnie Raitt took home three Grammy Awards this weekend, including one for a cover she did of a Manitoba band’s song.

On Sunday, Raitt won the Grammy for Best Americana Performance for “Made Up Mind,” a cover of The Bros. Landreth’s song from their 2012 album called “Let It Lie." ...Raitt also won the 2023 Grammys for Song of the Year and Best American Roots Song for “Just Like That.”

it's cool that this unknown blues singer has her own thread

I did not know what Wiki sez:

As of 2023, Raitt has received thirteen competitive Grammy Awards, as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[2]

ehhh, think that's actually 14 competitive---read your own lists, Wiki-- oh-ok, one of those is MusiCares Person of the Year, which

is an award presented annually by MusiCares, the charity arm of The Recording Academy, the same organization that distributes the Grammy Awards, to commend musicians for their artistic achievement in the music industry and dedication to philanthropy.[1][2]

I recently heard 'Thank You' from the first album in a cafe and I love it!

I incorrectly thought she was something to do with motorbikes

great song

Before this ol' house computer stalls up again, I better state my theme as quickly as possible, maybe come back to it later:
The theme seems to be replenishment, seeking and by cracky finding, in some forms of what may well be or emphatically is temporary relief, but via the schooling impact of age, of impressions that she gets, ouch-y, as Alfred's review references at the kick-off.
The more inspirational sense of replenishment---the harder kind to find, because so easily confused with greeting card verse etc.---is exemplified by the title track, given a speculative ellipsis when adapted as album title: you can read between the dots if you like, rather than hold a candy cane exclamation mark or auto-inferred period: this last associated (via repeated listenings) to the closure-as-relief-as-replenishment of "Made Up Mind," her other Grammy winner--ah, the peace and quiet, anyway quiet, that will surely come after the sound of a slamming door, as the moonlight shines like gravy on the done deal.
And it ain't necessarily that nobody's home---this may be the same house, with little bits of scrappy keepsakes, landmarks to take us through the rooms and down the hall, to where we say good night, in that familiar way---"eeriely restful," as Pauline Kael once remarked in passing of The Twilight Zone, back in the first years when it was on---ahhh, sleep, don't knock it.
But there's a fallacy being courted, even slo-mo stripp-mined there in the made-up bed-mind, as pointed out in passing by the truth-vampire's enclosed system of perpetual motion replenishment, "Waitin' For Her To Blow": yeahhh, stress-test her road, build her up, break her down, get her to do it to herself, and start all over again. At first I thought of this as a music-biz thing, narrated by her Svengali drill sarge, but I can't say I've ever known of her being associated with anyone like this; she's always seemed self-driven, in good and bad ways (ex-hub and others have remarked on her temper of younger years), and here whatever devil's in her head expresses itself mostly impishly, in co-writing with her male guitarist, and as sung and played, with combo at its best here.
(Should also mention that the Original Steely-worthy arrangements and executions of this alb overall are crucially recalibrated, esp.the speculative spotlights-streetlights of keys. which could be too beguiling, by otm acoustic solo acoustic features, just enough of them, and more often by the well-timed, astringent, expertly probing finger ov slide.)
The brute force of "Waitin'" (one of those songs that I finally realize was always waiting to be written about, while experienced by so many people) is tapped in the one about rousing oneself (may be, at least in some instances, part of the breakdown-buildup in "Waitin'") to be "livin' for the ones that didn't make it," to the extent of looking at what their grandchildren are doing, and "Let it break you": which here sounds like Yeaaahhhhh Let It Rock
(This is the only one that sounds a little stiff too me, although it's great stuff, and certainly a time-honored Stones ritual that maybe only Boomers can get through credibly, or would bother attempting, which is also in part about stiffs, is appropriately or or understandably a mite stiff; I can live with that.
Alfred hears the Toots cover as lacking in skank, but to me the bluesly, muscular pushback, the striving of the sound goes with that of the words, of the obsessive, country-as-blues vision of oroving oneself as love-worthy, proving it past the ostensible love-object, to oneself---and these things can still feel so good when you get back into them again, like the one that's just about all the signs of slipping back toward that funny little thing called love
(Though of course there's also slipping back into that closure thing, the blame game, with more moonlight even, and her solution is to turn it around, or resolve too, while sounding like she knows this won't be more than another move(so: more country appeal!)
I haven't kept up with her albums very well since the 70s, but this set deepens and ages her vintage approach, keeping it potent, hitting harder than ever in some ways, with her classic method of blending x juxtaposing songs from different angles and writers.

Slipstream also gave me the vintage BR buzz, though I didn't listen as much as I have to this, should also give the initially "disappointing" Dig In Deep more spins.

I should have mentioned that her flair on this alb with themes of age, time, mortality---so often such an Ageing Rocker Looks At Life ponderosity, to varying degrees, musically and in doorstop memoirs---first showed in the way she took up "Angel From Montgomery" when Prine released it, I think: a rare theme back when the Average American was approx 23.6 years old; there was that one, and "Hello In There," and uh, "Tears of Rage"? "She's Leaving Home"? Not really the same thing, but about as close as empathy got back then. And, as bird says upthread, she's knocked it out of the park ever since, or often enough: Forever Old! But you can't make a whole album this good about age time etc. without living it, as Alfred indicated at the beginning of his Pitchfork review, and that's not enough, of course: she's got the songs, maybe most of which were written by much younger people--but who feels it knows it, at least some of the time, and she knew when.
Give It Up was also a time-peak, looking back at what she'd learned and aimed for in the 60s, was looking toward in the 70s and beyond, in a moment of sustained balance---wise as a young woman's album and statement could be, limited by that, in a fine way, and antipodal to this album---if you gotta live that long, this is the way to do it.

And now here's a live set Alright at Midnight, from 1976: seems like a good soundboard(?)bootleg, with no info nowhere (except that it's on the Pipe Dream label), and for openers we join "Sweet Home Kokomo" already in progress, but good slide appetizer, and all other tracks seem complete. She follows a totally earned ("Righteous," we said back then)"Love Me Like A Man" with a totally earned as in guilty af "Run Like A Thief," also we get a very tense "My First Night With You," the xpost "Thank You," Bicentennial funk interjections, flashlights of electric piano (didn't catch the name but she says "He
s been playing with Van Morrison), Freebo's bass and tuba, conga ration, a couple of simplified arrangements ("Give It Up Or Let Me Go, "Under The Falling Sky") which totally work---plenty but not too much guitar from Raitt and Will McFarlane, also one of my fave vocals here (even before she hits those high notes) is on A. Toussaint's' "What Do You Want The Boy To Do"---it's 1976, these are the songs she's got!
Boot prob yes, so get it while you can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UkHXOt2cdw

Anyway

In case it's gone by the time you see this, release date is 2022, and here's setlist:

Sweet Home Kokomo (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
1:40

Love Me Like A Man (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:03

Run Like A Thief (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:26

Thank You (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:44

Give It Up Or Let Me Go (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:47

Band Introductions (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
1:38

Sugar Mama (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
4:24

Good Enough (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:06

Walk Out The Front Door (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
4:45

My First Night Alone With You (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:22

What Do You Want The Boy To Do? (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:47

Under The Falling Sky (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:34

Bonnie Raitt
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
1976-05-24 (see notes)

01 //Sweet Home Kokomo
02 Love Me Like A Man
03 Run Like A Thief
04 Thank You
05 Give It Up Or Let Me Go*
06 Sugar Mama
07 Good Enough
08 Walk Out The Front Door
09 My First Night Alone Without You
10 What Do You Want The Boy To Do?
-- Encore
11 Under the Falling Sky
* w/ Freebo on Tuba

The Band:
Jeff Labis - Piano
Will McFarland - Guitar
Dennis Wooded - Drums
Freebo - Bass & Tuba
Begining track 7:
Peter Bonnetta
Roosevelt Sikes

Source: FM > LP(?) > unknown > DAT
Transfer: DAT>Tascam DA-20mkII > coax > Delta Dio 2496 > Wavelab 4.0a (@ 24/48)
Mastering: Wavelab 4.0a > X-Noise (23.1 dB threshold & 85% reduction) + Waves L1-Ultramaximzer (-1 dB left channel + 4 dB threshold increase) > conversion to 16/44.1 > WAV > FLAC
Track 1 begins muddy and indistinct, but improves quickly.
Original uploader's notes:

Broadcast on KSAN. This recording came to me dated "??-??-73." It contains songs that appear on the 1975 album Home Plate and the band here also played on 1977's Sweet Forgiveness, so 1973 is almost certainly wrong.

There are several hints about the correct date. Bonnie Raitt says that Taj Mahal is played at the Boarding House (also in San Francisco) that night and that Chris Smither played at the same venue, which is "my favorite club," about one year ago in February. Unfortunately, neither of those hints has helped me to find a definative date. Bonnie Raitt also says that "We just got off the road, we've been on the road since March 15, and, uh, went to England, had a [great?] time . . . and then spent the last 10 days w/ Little Feat, down through the Southeast . . . ." Finally, at the end of track 9, Bonnie Raitt mentions that there are other fans waiting outside to get into the venue, which suggests that this is an early show and that there was a second performance that night.

According to the liner notes on a Bonnie Raitt bootleg called "Collections" owned by a collector in Europe, this was recorded on 05.24.76 at the Great American Music Hall and broadcast on 05.26.76, (That bootleg contains two songs that are missing from this source: Women Be Wise and You Got To Know How.) So, that's how I've dated this performance. If anyone knows for sure, please let the world know, too.

Mastering Notes:

The original DAT was quite noisy, though not really hissy like an analog tape. There are, here and there, tiny pops and ticks that sound very much like an LP playback, including a few rough boundaries where the recording tape started and stopped. There is also some distortion in the right channel at certain frequencies (check out the piano at the begining of My First Night Without You). None of this is very serious compared to the overall quality of the recording.

I believe that this is an LP > DAT or something similar, and the background noise is a line noise added by the stereo equipment. Whatever it was, I removed it using the X-noise plugin, which required relatively a lot of reduction (23.1 dB threshold, 85% reduction). As for pops and ticks, none of them are loud and you won't notice them unless you're listening to the spaces between songs.

(the "me" in the above is not me.)

KSAN seems to hold on to a lot of pre-broadcast masters so that may exist somewhere. (IIRC a lot of them leaked out some years ago, mostly dating from 1977.)

Here's a great show from a year later - pre-FM master source, though it's missing the opening number.
https://www.guitars101.com/threads/bonnie-raitt-1977-04-23-new-orleans-la-pre-fm-flac.730293/

Thanks TSF, somehow I heard "Labis" and "Wooded" but my brain refused to trust my ears or vice-versa, because they weren't familiar and maybe "lacked" more common syllables or other parts, also didn't hear "Peter Bonnetta" at all (?), but knew about those other guys(used to have quite a nice early 70s LP by Roosevelt Sykes). Thanks bird, will try to nose around that site for link again later; a basketball video just now kept following me around on there (Web Sheriff in disguise?)