Bonnie Raitt

Loved her version of Angel from Montgomery. Also Love Has No Pride. No one sings about pain and longing like Bonnie.

I liked the same early period of her music as you describe, OP. Many circle of college friends were wild for her and I went to a couple of her concerts.

I don't find that it holds up well, though, and with time her songs and voice lost something. I believe in killing off one's musical favorites and finding new ones, with very rare exception. Raitt fell from grace in my case, and never worked her way back in. If I hear one of what used to be my favorites of hers, it sparks nothing.

My late mother never missed an opportunity to remind us who Bonnie's father was.

She has classic witch-face

I always admired a cover of “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” performed by Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne in tribute to Pete Seeger.

I agree with OP but I’m glad Raitt found greater mainstream success after getting sober. I always wanted her to duet with her dead dad (a la Natalie and Nat) on “Hey There.”

I don’t think I was aware of her before Nick of Time, which I absolutely loved. I then started to hear her older music as well as her new music going forward. It was nice to see her win a big late career Grammy a couple of years ago.

I always got her confused with Olympic speed skaing champion Bonnie Blair!

ICMYLM is one of the best songs ever written and Raitt sings it so beautifully. You can really hear her soul in it.

Actually 1989 was the year her career went into the stratosphere not peaked. Her follow up luck of the draw was even bigger than nick of time.

She continues to tour and she gives GREAT SHOW !

She IS Bonnie Raitt!

R8 I agree. I wept many times to that song.....it felt like it was written about me and my unrequited love.

this 1973 effort still sounds great ...

Bonnie came off very well in the Linda Ronstadt doc from 5 years ago or so..

Ugh, so overrated

Remind me not to invite Debbie Downer r14 to my dinner party.

I've seen her in concert a number of times and she's always great. I just recently discovered she recorded this Bryan Adams song around the same time as the Bonnie version I knew (Bonnie Tyler)

HAVE A HEART sounded like a commercial for heart disease.

I could just listen to Nick of Time and chain smoke through the whole thing….

I think Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw are her masterpieces.

She stole my man!

lol, R20. That’s right- Raitt was married to him at the same time he was on “Roseanne”.

Something that always gets me is how Raitt’s speaking voice is so much more mile than I’d expect. But then she did grow up in LA and went to Radcliffe.

*mild

I saw her in ‘91 touring for her Luck Of The Draw album, and unlike OP I recall Bonnie had a decent handful of her older tunes in her set list. She did an especially good job with “Your Good Thing.” Chris Isaak was the opening act.

Her Green Light LP from the early eighties is quite good. I think Keep This Heart in Mind would’ve been a hit single had it been released ten years earlier or ten years later.

Her debut album has a great version of Since I Fell for You, maybe my favorite.

She was barely in her twenties when she recorded it.

The world could use more nepobabies like this.

One could skip rope slowly through her vibrato 30 years ago.

Now they ask her not to sing near the ocean because the whales drown.

Along with Carole King, she sang background on Irene Cara's song Girlfriends.

Bonnie recorded an album with Prince around the time of Sign of the Times, but it was never released.

R25, agreed it’s a good album. At the time, they tried to market it as a throwback to her earlier sound which it in no way is. If anything, it’s very influenced by the contemporary New Wave sound.

R8 - Bonnie OWNS that song - George Michael and even Nancy Wilson did a version of I Can't Make You Love Me. Both versions are good but next to Bonnie they both sound like cement mixers.

Bonnie's first album - 'Give It Up' is a good one and the album title/song is a great one. A bit honky-tonk in the beginning but it heats up and takes a turn towards Rock & Roll.

My mom loved Nick of Time when I was a kid, she always played it in the car. Lots of Boomer women were into Bonnie Raitt.

“Give it Up” is excellent, R30, but it’s her second album.

Her first album is “Bonnie Raitt” and it was recorded at the site of a summer camp in Minnesota.

“Nick of Time” was a huge, Grammy-winning hit and Raitt just applied the same formula to it that she did to her 70s albums. Some pop songs mixed with some blues and rock songs. Perfect. “The Road is My Middle Name” sounds like it could have come off her first or second album.

[quote]My late mother never missed an opportunity to remind us who Bonnie's father was.

Why? Were they enemies?

Loved her since 1972 with Give It Up. Saw her a little over a month ago at Tanglewood and she sounds great for a woman in her 70s.

One of my favorites from her first album is a rendition of the blues song Women Be Wise. And don’t forget Love Me Like A Man from Give It Up. That could have been a gay blues anthem.

Much as I like Linda Ronstadt, Raitt’s version of Love Has No Pride is in another class altogether.

[quote] Bonnie Raitt

Oooh! Another legend where I can become a human succubus, sing all their songs and steal their career!

One our greatest singers who isn't always appreciated (c.f. several posts on this thread.) From her youth her voice sounded full of hurt and glory... and even over 70 years old she was able to bend a note right into your heart. After a long, long career she won Song of the Year at the Grammys in 2023... "Just like that"

Her "I Can't Make You Love Me" is one of the most beautiful heartbreak songs in the American songbook. If you can listen to her version that song and not feel something, I don't want to know you.

Her style of slide guitar is also really good. She was a musician's singer. My favorite quote of hers was.... "after I got sober I once walked into a room in LA full of pretty famous musicians... and I realized I had sat on every face in the room."

Bonnie's "Nick of Time" and KT Oslin's "80s Ladies" were playlist staples for my mom and her friends back in the day. They were all Boomer women hitting middle age and those songs "spoke to them" lol!

[quote]My favorite quote of hers was.... "after I got sober I once walked into a room in LA full of pretty famous musicians... and I realized I had sat on every face in the room."

And I had sat on every dick in the room!

r39 - Stevie Nicks

I really love her version of “That Song About the Midway” more than Joni’s original.

While I don’t find “Streetlights” the album as good as the albums before or the album immediately after (“Home Plate”), “Midway” and the title song just get me in the heart every time.

Never could figure out why she has an album called “Takin’ My Time” from 1973 but doesn’t sing a song called “Taking My Time” until 1977’s “Sweet Forgiveness”.

R41 I don't like covers of Joni's brilliantly written songs (the quirky melodies fit Joni's voice the best), but I agree Rait's version is better than Joni's.

Angel...

I like her.

She isn't one of my all time favorites musically, but she seems like an interesting person who's lived a lot.

I absolutely agree with other posts that I Can't Make You Love Me is an amazing song, and her version of it deserves all the praise.

I'm on the fence about some of her other music. Some of her stuff is interesting, and some of it (especially after her comeback) is a bit too by-the-numbers for me.

Just Like That was designed to hit you in the feels but damn if it didn't work. She was very classy in her acceptance speech.

She's a...

Once she won all the Grammys, Warner Brothers, the label that fired her and took control of her final album with them, was quick to release “The Bonnie Raitt Collection”.

Letterman '82

Hot dyke

I will always love her first album. It has a much more organic feel as four of the tracks are done live.

So who the hell was Louise and how did she die in such an ugly way?

Men brought Louise ten cent trinkets.

That’s my favorite of hers, r52. Thanks.

Mine too, r53.

She put me into a depressive coma one night after a breakup, when I played I Can’t Make You Love Me on repeat until the sun came up

Oh God yes, r55.

You can’t make me love her.

I was listening to "Three Time Loser" in 1991 when I was moving into my new school, transferring to UMASS Amherst and it was the beginning of the best time of my life. That song means a lot to me.

I sang I Can't Make You Love Me at karaoke one night after a breakup.

I got a standing ovation.

Raitt’s version of “Cry Like a Rainstorm” is also much more emotional than Ronstadt’s.

This thread has me revisiting all her albums from the first one until “The Glow”. Man, what memories.

A red headed Bonnie that DL actually likes!

Friends of mine picked up VIP tickets to a concert of hers, a benefit offered through an event program for American Express Platinum or Black Card holders.The tickets included a private “Meet & Greet” with Raitt. They said she was really standoffish and looked miserable participating in that aspect of the music business. I probably wouldn’t blame her.

You might hope that guests with that form of brief access would be tactful, but I suspect some are socially very “forward” in commanding face time with celebrities. I hate being around that because it makes it so uncomfortable for everyone. She’s a really talented musician and I can easily see and hear why she’s so admired. Yet among the pantheon of performers who hate their fans like Van Morrison and Patti Smith, Raitt may be near them in stature. If I encountered her randomly, I’d definitely leave her alone and not bother her (or any celebrity, for that matter).

I’ve heard that about her as well. Disappointing as the music conjures up this earthy image but she’s still a child of privilege.

In a Rolling Stone article from way back when she was getting the Grammys, Raitt said that her folks didn’t have a lot of celebrity friends -but they WERE friends with Hugh Beaumont.

Of all people.

[quote] A red headed Bonnie that DL actually likes!

And one with a real rack, not those fried egg titties!

I don’t raitt her that highly

I know it’s only her second album but I think “Give It Up” may be her best of all time.

I wonder how these top performers get plugged into these Meet and Greet events. Does her agent/manager insist she do it?

Can you imagine Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin having to deal with this BS?

I’ve heard Bonnie’s a bitch with any fans who talk to her. So it’s not just meet and greet stuff.

[quote]I’ve heard Bonnie’s a bitch with any fans who talk to her.

So she’s JLo?

[quote]Raitt’s version of “Cry Like a Rainstorm” is also much more emotional than Ronstadt’s.

Of course it is, r60. Linda's appeal was the beauty and power of her voice as opposed to her interpretive skills. Her renditions are pretty straightforward.

[quote]They said she was really standoffish and looked miserable participating in that aspect of the music business.

She could just be shy, r63.

Well, mighty tight woman indeed!!

We can’t all have been personal friends with Ward Cleaver.

If were famous I would also hate doing the meet and greet shit. There are so many nutjobs out there.

Meet and greets must be painful. But if you agree to them, at least act decent. I would think she has enough power to say no at this point.

The meet and greet events must get some "I'm your number one fan" Annie Wilkes types. It must be awful for the celebs to remain calm and not freak the fuck out around those kinds of people.

I saw her with Sippie Wallace.

That must have been amazing, Sahron/R77.