Bonnie Raitt - Classic or Dud?

(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!!!!!

otm - the song & the performance & the production all work together to make an incredibly sad, cutting, terribly real-feeling song

Thanks so much for this recommendation Josh. Great album.

I guess it's fairly clear I vote "classic".

CLASSIC. put her on today and nothing could have felt more right

"i can't make you love me" is certainly devestating. her voice, the feel. even her cover of "burnin down the house" sounds good to me.

So's her cover of "You Got It."

she is awesome! My fave 'discovery' of the last year. Every album up through The Glow is solid. I wish I liked Green Light a little better, since it has my main man Ian MacLagan all over it (!!), but that record is sort of where i get off the bus.

she is one of my mom's all time absolute favorites. if only for the simple fact that she's been a badass chick with a guitar and a killer voice for so long, i must say classic.

finally got Luck of the Draw. It sounds like the end of an era --the last of the expensive L.A. studio-rock productions -- but also sounds like the very best that the era could produce.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Kf-BZw1eI Been Too Long At The Fair on The Old Grey Whistle Test 1976. A gorgeous performance.

thats so hot

her first s/t album is pretty sick, huh?

it kind of makes me sad that anyone could call bonnie's music a dud. even if it's not always the most original, the dedication and simplicity that she brings to her work is comforting, beautiful and timeless.

the last of the expensive L.A. studio-rock productions

i really like this description, alfred

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ7ERxMwBW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDUHq26FmrA

(whole show available on YouTube, onv. so good)

never heard her 'angel from montgomery" before. kinda hits it good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe3vb0z7mY

oh yeah, it does. I like it better than Prine's, actually

I mean, it kinda needs a female voice! i think even JP probably feels great that she embraced the song

the other youtube one is even better ... is it 'Old Grey Whistle Test'?

yeah, it was on the 'Old Grey Whistle Test', but it looks like the You Tube bastards deleted it. the version on there rules so hard, if I had the DVD, i'd just go ahead and re-up right now. oh well, here is Bonnie from the same segment doing Joni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Kf-BZw1eI

yeah, between that and hearing megan mullaly's 'far from me' it's been a good week of finding great fem-fronted Prine versions

actually ... I'm totally off base .. "Too Long at the Fair" ain't a Joni song at all, it's by some guy i never heard of .. not sure why I thought it was JM (kinda sounds like her!)

Luck of the Draw is almost a great album; it might have been if she hadn't encased L.A. blooze approximations in amber. The more songs she writes herself, the better the results. "All At Once" brings tears to my eyes.

oh -- Nick of Time's title song really nails middle-age.

"nick of time" is an all-time jam in my opinion & "have a heart" is underrated - that "hey! don't lie to me" opening is great and her "or don't you have a heart?" delivery in the chorus is A+

My problem with "Have a Heart" is the stranded synthesizer.

Homeplate was one of my top ten in the 70s alternative poll thingy earlier this year. She's one of my favorite singers.

She's doing right by me this evening. Not gonna lie.

THIS IS WEIRD. I was going to revive this because I heard "Not the Only One" this morning and remembered, again, what a good example of geezer-rock Luck of the Draw is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4eEG597kME

damn she rules

suck it, hipsters!

One more vote for Give It Up, one of my personal 10 best from the '70s. Rootsy, bluesy, folky, emotive, and chock full of great songs (some her own, and some covers, including the definitive version of "Love Has No Pride", the album closer).

Later-period hits were good too. I still like it whenever "Something to Talk About" comes on the radio.

"Not the Only One" is a beautiful song.

^yes

thirded

I love Luck of the Draw - an almost perfect studio-rock album.

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?)