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"Give It Up"? Hardly ... she was just getting going here!I didn't get to see Bonnie Raitt live until she was a big enough star to fill large concert halls, but whenever I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like to attend one of her appearances in the Cambridge, MA blues clubs where she started out way back when in the early 1970s, this is one of the albums I listen to. "Give It Up," released 1972, was Bonnie Raitt's second album, and it brims with the liveliness of the 22 year-old singer who only recently had nicked a college degree in African studies for a full-fledged career as a musician. Yet, all those live appearances before she landed her record deal had already given her an incredible amount of self-confidence: This was not an insecure, directionless young thing who had barely outgrown her teenage years; nor, for that matter, a high-powered starlet whose career was taking off with rocket speed only to fizzle soon thereafter, as quickly as it had begun. No: this was a young woman who knew exactly where she wanted to go, both musically and lyrically; and all the trademark characteristics of the artist her fans would grow to admire over the course of the following 30 years were already in place, most notably her breathtaking skills as a guitar player, her vocal skills, running the gamut from sassy to sad, and that feeling for the blues which, even at the very beginning of her career, had already gained her the respect of the entire Delta blues elite from John Lee Hooker to Sippie Wallace.
"Give It Up" is a low-key recording with an almost improvised "live in the studio" feeling, and the one impression that stands out more than any other while listening to it is the obvious fun which all participants must have had during its production. Bonnie Raitt was joined for the occasion by multi-talent Freebo, a fixture on all of her early albums as well as at her live appearances, keyboardist Mark Jordan and saxophone player John Payne, both renowned for their collaborations with Van Morrison (on his "Tupelo Honey" and "Astral Weeks" albums, respectively), guitarists T.J. Tindall and John Hall (the latter known for his work with Taj Mahal and Janis Joplin), songwriter Eric Kaz, whose "Love Has No Pride" provides a melancholy conclusion to the album, and a largely Woodstock-based group of equally talented musicians. The photos reproduced on thirteen of the twenty pages of the booklet which accompanies the album amply illustrate the sheer joy involved in the project, and the easygoing companionship shared by its participants.
The album opens with one of Bonnie Raitt's biggest hits to date, the feisty "Give It Up or Let Me Go," written by Raitt herself and featuring Freebo on tuba and John Payne on soprano sax – one of Raitt's many "attitude" songs and, as she wrote almost 20 years later in the liner notes of her "Bonnie Raitt Collection," "you can bet it was just as much fun to be there as it sounds." Two more of Raitt's own creations are contained on the album, in the second track, the contemplative "Nothing Seems to Matter," and the ninth song, the upbeat "You Told Me, Baby." Further standouts are Raitt's adaptation of Chris Smither's "Love Me Like a Man," with lyrics that make it clear that equality in a partnership is ultimately a matter of self-respect and "one of the best modern blues songs ever written," as Bonnie Raitt commented in the liner notes of her "Collection;" "Under the Falling Sky," featuring Paul Butterfield on harp, Raitt's first true rock song and also the first of several Jackson Browne-penned pieces she would record over the course of her career; "You Got to Know How," featuring John Payne on clarinet and one of Bonnie Raitt's many tributes to her mentor Sippie Wallace; and the closing tune, Eric Kaz's "Love Has No Pride," another one of Raitt's earliest signature songs and intensely personal, because at the time of that song's recording she herself had just been abandoned by a lover and, as she later recalled, more or less then "spent a year of gigs trying to sing him back."
"Give It Up" is one of those sophomore efforts which are actually superior to the respective singer's first release; and as is so often the case in those instances, it is a clear indication that this would turn out to be an artist to reckon with for a long time to come. Yet, even though this proved to be the first high water mark in Bonnie Raitt's career, not everybody would probably have dared to prophesize all those years ago that the perky redhead from Southern California who had recorded this album would rise to be one of rock and blues music's longest shining stars. But just in case you forget where it all began for the multiple Grammy Award winner of so many years later, go back and listen to this album and to Bonnie Raitt's self-titled debut, and let their youthful, upbeat charm work on you. And man, don't you ever dare mess around behind my back, 'cause ... "if you want me to love you, you've got to give it up or let me go"!
20 songs from the blues guitar queen's first 20 years.Hearing Bonnie Raitt's music, you'd swear her roots were somewhere in the Mississippi Delta – not, of all places, Southern California. And indeed, the red-haired, freckled daughter of Broadway star John Raitt ("Oklahoma!") fit in badly with the crowd of teenagers who listened to the Beach Boys and other representatives of the so-called "California music," went to the beach and learned how to surf; whereas Bonnie "didn't get tanned and ... lived in the canyon," as she recalls in her biography written by Mark Bego, "Just in the Nick of Time." But by that time, she had already found solace in music: "That was my saving grace. I just sat in my room and played my guitar," she remembers. One day she heard a Newport Folk Festival recording entitled "Blues at Newport '63," featuring John Lee Hooker, John Hammond, Brownie McGee, Mississippi John Hurt and other members of the blues's all-time elite. And Bonnie was hooked: "I tell you, once you get exposed to the blues, you can't get enough."
Thus, it was only natural that she would soon be found more frequently in the Cambridge, MA, blues and jazz clubs than in the hallowed halls of Radcliffe College, where she had enrolled to master in African studies. Before long she had an agent, and began to open for her idols Junior Wells, Arthur Crudup, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and ultimately her mentor, Sippie Wallace, and met singer-songwriters and future soulmates Jackson Browne and James Taylor. In 1971 she was offered her first recording contract. And from her self-titled debut to 2002's "Silver Lining," her over three decades-long career is one of the most amazing examples of personal growth, combined with stellar musicianship and an active voice for society's victims and underprivileged and again and again, for women's rights; even if it would take the music industry until 1989's triple Grammies for the Capitol Records release "Nick of Time" to officially recognize Bonnie Raitt's achievements.
This collection, released shortly after her Grammy-winning album, chronicles all stages of her career until then, drawing on the nine albums she had released on Warner Records before changing labels. It features all-time classics such as "Give It Up or Let Me Go," "Love Me Like a Man," "Willya Wontcha," "Love Has No Pride" (one of her earliest signature songs), her intensely personal interpretation of Randy Newman's "Guilty" (which still cuts so close that she doesn't perform it live as regularly as other songs), the Tex-Mex ballad "Louise," her Al Green-inflected version of Jackson Browne's "Runaway," her hard-driving recording of Bryan Adams's "No Way to Treat a Lady" ("I sing a lot of songs for women who've 'had it,' and this is a powerful dose of that feeling," she comments on the album's liner notes), a rare 1976 live duet with Sippie Wallace on her mentor's "Women Be Wise," and an the Grammy-winning 1985 live duet with John Prine on "Angel From Montgomery," written by Prine but now a signature song for Bonnie Raitt as much as for him.
Much more than a "best of," this is a very personal collection of songs by the singer whose very first female role model was "Gunsmoke"'s red-headed, independent Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake); who learned to successfully compete with boys and men from early childhood on ("I just couldn't stand the way girls got the second best of everything," she recalls in "Nick of Time"), and who now donates the revenue from sales of her signature model Fender Strat to her own project for inner city girls. It amply showcases her feeling for the blues and her extraordinary talent as a guitar player: she is one of the few women who have mastered the bottleneck guitar, a feat she achieved even before her first recording contract, and her slide guitar skills are matched (if that) by only the best in the business.
Bonnie Raitt is rightfully considered part of the all-time elite of blues musicians, and recognized as a peer by the artists she once admired from afar. This album contains excellent examples of her cooperation with many of those artists, who appear on her records again and again – the list almost reads like a blues and rock music "who is who." There are, for example, Junior Wells (harp on "Finest Lovin' Man"), Freebo ([fretless] bass on almost every track and tuba on "Give It Up or Let Me Go"), A.C. Reed (sax on "Finest Lovin' Man"), John Payne (sax on "Give It Up or Let Me Go"), T.J. Tindall (e-guitar on "Under the Falling Sky"), Paul Butterfield (harp on "Under the Falling Sky"), Lowell George (slide guitar on "I Feel the Same" and "Guilty"), Bill Payne (keyboards on "I Feel the Same," "Guilty," "(Goin') Wild for You Baby" and "No Way to Treat a Lady"), Steve Gadd (drums on "What Is Success"), Will McFarlane (e-guitar on "My First Night Alone Without You," "Sugar Mama" and "Runaway"), John Hall (e-guitar on "My First Night Without You" and "Sugar Mama") Jai Winding (keyboards on "My First Night Alone Without You" and "Sugar Mama"), Joe and Jeff Porcaro (percussion on "Sugar Mama"), Norton Buffalo (harp on "Runaway"), Rosemary Butler (backing vocals on "Runaway" and "No Way to Treat a Lady") Waddy Wachtel (e-guitar on "(Goin') Wild for You Baby"), Bob Glaub (bass on "(Goin') Wild for You Baby"), Ricky Fataar (drums/percussion on "Willya Wontcha"), Michael Landau (guitar solo on "No Way to Treat a Lady"), Nathan East (bass on "No Way to Treat a Lady") and countless others.
Intimidated by her mother's skill as a pianist, Bonnie Raitt exchanged keys for steel strings when she was barely eight years old. She later did return to the piano, though, and even if she may not be Martha Argerich (or, for that matter, Marjorie Haydock Raitt), her true gift shines through even there. But even if she had never learned to play anything but guitar ... listening to this album, I doubt we would seriously be missing anything.
Truly a live album to talk about.She had been around for over two decades, appearing live in the Cambridge, MA jazz and blues clubs long before she had her first recording contract. She had been on stage with all the greats of the business. She had received triple Grammies for her 1989 release "Nick of Time." Her fans, ignited by her fiery live appearances, had been clamoring for a live album for years. Yet, it took Bonnie Raitt 25 years, a personal and professional roller coaster ride, and a succession of three bestselling albums ("Nick of Time" and the early 1990s releases "Luck of the Draw" and "Longing in Their Hearts," all produced by Don Was) until finally, in 1995, a series of live appearances in Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon were recorded and blended together in this album, appropriately titled "Road Tested."
When the project was put together, Bonnie called on a number of friends, with whom she had shared the stage many times before and whose songs, having found a whole new interpretation in her performance, had become staples in her live repertoire long ago. And they all came: R&B legends Ruth and Charles Brown ("The jewels in our crown up here," Raitt commented when introducing them on stage), as well as rockers Bryan Adams, Kim Wilson, Bruce Hornsby and Jackson Browne; in addition to her seasoned stage band, led by Ricky Fataar (drums) and "Hutch" Hutchinson (bass), without whom, to this day, a Bonnie Raitt live appearance is simply unthinkable. And as always, Bonnie was deeply appreciative of everybody who showed up for the occasion: "Special thanks ... for coming to add so much to this long awaited project. This was the time and you were the reason," she wrote in the album's liner notes, thanking her musician friends, and in true style, she did not overlook a single member of the audience, either, commenting that "I'd like to thank you up in the balcony, too; I can see you!"
Short of experiencing Bonnie Raitt live on stage, "Road Tested" is the best evidence why rock and blues music, particularly when performed by an artist with such an unmatched passion for her work and skill as a guitar player as is Raitt, is a vastly different experience than listening to a studio album. The blues is meant to be performed live first and foremost; similar to jazz and gospel (and often, more so than rock music) it depends on the spontaneous interplay of the musicians, and the interaction between stage and audience. This is, of course, most obvious in the songs performed as duets here; but just listen to this album's slow, intense version of "Love Me Like a Man;" one of Raitt's oldest songs – it's from her second album, 1972's "Give It Up" – one of those pieces that would have an uninitiated listener, if any such still exist, become absolutely convinced that they're listening to a recording made in a small Southern blues club, not on a big West coast stage. And indeed, immediately after that song follows Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Kokomo Medley," in the introduction of which Raitt quotes her old friend and touring partner's words: "I do not play no rock'n roll" – and she adds that "when he got to playin', man, that's all the rockin' I'll ever need."
Most of the 22 songs contained on this double album are longtime staples in Raitt's live appearances; and given her extraordinary repertoire, it comes as no surprise that this is an outing jam-packed to the brim with gems. CD No. 1 starts with a quintuple slam: Her opening duet with Bruce Hornsby on John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love," one of the standout hits from "Nick of Time" ("When I wrote the song, I had no idea that a pretty redhead named Bonnie Raitt was going to make it such a big thing one day," Hiatt once commented), followed by "Three Time Loser" (originally published on 1977's "Sweet Forgiveness" and one of her trademark "I've had it" songs with lyrics such as "How many hours [for] your love I'm gonna wait? How many heartaches you really think I'm gonna take?"), the Jazz Crusaders' infectious "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" (featuring Bonnie Raitt with Ruth and Charles Brown and Kim Wilson) and one of the hits from "Luck of the Draw," "Something to Talk About." Other standouts on the first CD are "Have a Heart" (likewise from "Nick of Time") and the heartbreaking ballad "Louise" (from "Sweet Forgiveness").
CD No. 2 begins with the title song of "Longing in Their Hearts," Raitt's last studio album before this live double outing, and a small series from that album and its predecessor "Luck of the Draw" ("Come to Me" and the rocking "Love Sneakin' Up on You"), and then Bonnie and crew get ready to bring down the walls again with the Talkin' Heads' "Burning Down the House." Thereafter it gets quieter once more, with Bonnie Raitt's version of "I Can't Make You Love Me" (and again, Bruce Hornsby on keyboards), after which the daughter of pianist Marjorie Haydock Raitt herself takes the keys for the rocker "Feeling of Falling;" followed by a nonstop succession of duets with all her famous guests: from more good oldfashioned rock'n roll in "I Believe I'm in Love With You" to the hard-driving "Rock Steady" with Bryan Adams (who specifically wrote the song for this appearance with Raitt), the ballad "My Opening Farewell" with that song's creator Jackson Browne, and last but not least, perhaps Raitt's biggest signature song, the John Prine classic "Angel From Montgomery," which here becomes an emotional finale, in which she is joined by all of her guests.
"We were going for something really special," producer Don Was, who would pass the helm to Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake for Raitt's next studio album, 1998's "Fundamental," commented on "Road Tested." And something special they created indeed – only to be surpassed by the experience of an entire evening of a Bonnie Raitt live appearance.
Back to basics.When Bonnie Raitt embarked on the production of her thirteenth studio album, 1998's "Fundamental," she had achieved almost everything that a musician can wish for: an exceptionally long career, the respect of her peers and the admiration of her fans, multiple Grammies, and particularly following her last three records, "Nick of Time" (1989), "Luck of the Draw" (1991) and "Longing in Their Hearts" (1994), even the widespread commercial success that her prior albums, despite all acclaim, had not brought her. But as the title track of this 1998 release makes clear, she then decided that it was time to take a step back and "get back to the Fundamental Things;" to "do the braindrain [and] leave it all behind."
And those fans who only had discovered Raitt as a result of the above-mentioned, vastly successful trio of albums were nothing less than shocked: Gone was Don Was's slick, stylish production which had driven the sound of those records. Gone, the pop/mainstream rock overtones. Back in full force was the blues; as raw and low-down as ever. Back in, the rootsy, down-to-earth feeling of Raitt's very first albums, released almost three decades earlier, now tempered by half a lifetime's worth of experience. In also the star production team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, who in the 1990s alone had successfully worked with artists like Los Lobos, Neil Finn and Randy Newman, and had helped advance the careers of such strong female singers as Cheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, Vonda Shepard and the Indigo Girls.
True to its title, "Fundamental" is thus a barebones, stripped down recording which soon had the choir of Raitt's most recently acquired fans howl "underproduced" in utter disgust, while others reveled in rediscovering the singer who once, barely more than a teenager, had awed the music scene with her slide guitar skills, her feeling for the blues, and her energy and determination. The album's opening title track is perhaps the best expression of that feeling, with its relaxed, slightly uptempo blues rhythm, its slide guitar solos, the "live-in-the-studio" sound of its vocals, and its background horn arrangements (by Bonnie Raitt herself), subtly framing her voice without ever getting in the way. It is followed by the slow "Cure For Love," all grating blues guitars, written by Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Louie Perez (Hidalgo also contributed his instrumental talents); succeeded in turn by veteran Chess blues men J.B. Lenoir and Willie Dixon's "Round and Round," and the first of Bonnie Raitt's five own compositions on the album, "Spit of Love;" from the first dark, edgy guitar riff to the lyrics' last line vintage Raitt, likening the destructive force of a dishonest relationship to a slowly consuming fire and to "a rage as old as Hades" (the sinister underworld of Greek mythology). And after she had covered the upbeat "Thing Called Love" on 1989's "Nick of Time," Raitt chose another John Hiatt tune as "Fundamental"'s fifth track, the melancholic "Lovers Will," describing the lengths to which lovers will go for "the thrill that only love can bring" and deploring that they will often throw themselves and their love away without even giving it another thought, only to realize what they've lost when it is too late. – Next is a trio of Raitt's own compositions, the energetic "Blue For No Reason" and "Meet Me Half Way," in turn pleading to restore a bit of spontaneity to our lives and arguing that an already stale relationship will fail entirely if both partners don't equally contribute to its revival; again, both as much classic Bonnie Raitt tunes as the then following calypso-ish "I'm on Your Side," the lyrics of which thematically resemble those of "Meet Me Half Way." The album is rounded out by the gentle country beats of Dillon O'Brian's "Fearless Love," Joey Spampinato's rocker "I Need Love," and the last track (co-)written by Raitt, the reflective "One Belief Away."
In addition to Los Lobos' David Hidalgo (guitars, bass and background vocals on "Cure For Love") and co-producer Mitch Froom (keyboards, bass on "Spit of Love" and accordion – "my mom's," Raitt reveals in the liner notes – on "Fearless Love") Bonnie Raitt could rely, as always, on a group of outstanding musicians, from Dillon O'Brian (background vocals on his own "Fearless Love") to veteran bassist "Hutch" Hutchinson without whom, for so many years now, no Bonnie Raitt record or live appearance has ever been complete. The album's warm earthy sounds are reflected in the subtle glow of the fall colors depicted in its booklet and front cover, delicately blending with Raitt's red hair. But don't let those brown, red and golden leaves deceive you, and don't be deterred by the mixed reactions "Fundamental" has received. Bonnie Raitt's career is far from over. On March 6, 2000, she was inducted into the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame, as – in the words of Melissa Etheridge – "a woman in a man's world, breaking ground, [who] can play as well as any man and still be all-woman [and] burn up the strings with the best. Then," Etheridge continued, "there's that voice, that heartbreaking, soulful, sex-on-a-plate voice." And I think as long as Bonnie Raitt can bend the strings of a guitar, we still have much to expect from that voice. With 2002's "Silver Lining," she released her fourteenth studio album; followed by an eight-months-long tour, featuring triple visits to her native Southern California alone and interrupted barely long enough to allow her to catch her breath before going on the road again this spring. When I saw her towards the end of last year's tour in November, she still looked and sounded as great as if she was just getting into the swing of things. She may have gone back to basics with the release of "Fundamental" – but "basics" has nothing whatsoever to do with "stuck at base line" here. It's a reevaluation of her musical values; nothing more. And I am solidly in the camp of those who applaud her for doing so.
Bonnie Raitt's official website
Themis-Athena's select Bonnie Raitt discography
Themis-Athena's Classic Rock guides: Part 1 and Part 2
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