August 17, 2003

Better Raitt than never

Today's musical selection is one of those "I was a fan 20 years before the rest of the world caught up" kind of albums: Bonnie Raitt's Give It Up. Raitt went on to win Grammies (finally), but that was a long way down the road. This album was her second release. It offers a wonderful mix of rock and blues, including the self-penned "Give It up or Let Me Go", Jackson Browne's "Under the Falling Sky," and (probably my favorite) Eric Kaz' "Love Has No Pride." I remember being absolutely astonished (this was 1972, remember) to find a tuba as a featured instrument on the title track, played by a guy charmingly named Freebo. I bought The Bonnie Raitt Collection a while back when I had no working turntable; it's a great introduction to Bonnie, but for the full flavor you need to go back to the individual albums from which those songs were drawn. "Give It Up" is a good start.

Posted by Linkmeister at August 17, 2003 09:16 AM
Comments

I remember listening to "I can't make you love me" getting drunk and throwing up...
Maybe I should forget this song, huh??

Posted by: toxiclabrat at August 19, 2003 11:56 AM

Coincidentally, "Give It Up" was the featured CD on WYEP's "Discumentary" feature on Monday; it stuck in my mind, because I had read this entry the day before. They played a few songs from the album, discussed its place in Raitt's career, and identified other musicians who had an effect on the album.

The Discumentary archive is here; they don't have the "Give It Up" show archived yet, although they do have Raitt's "Nick of Time" album. Archives are in RealAudio format, unfortunately.

Posted by: Christina Schulman at August 20, 2003 07:40 PM

Nothing wrong with RealAudio that I know of (except my 56K modem). As I recall, "Nick of Time" was the Grammy winner, so that's 1989; it took so long for the rest of the music world to recognize her.

Posted by: Linkmeister at August 20, 2003 07:58 PM

I'm profoundly annoyed by all the additional crud and spyware that RealPlayer installs, so I make do without.

I was unaware of Raitt's existence until "Luck of the Draw" in 91 (92?) and the single "Something to Talk About". Oddly enough, that's used as the theme music for a financial call-in show on a local news/business radio station.

Posted by: Christina Schulman at August 21, 2003 07:44 PM

Spyware I wasn't aware of. Lord knows Real tries to get me to upgrade to the paid version frequently enough.

Good choice for a theme song, I'd say. Grins...

Posted by: Linkmeister at August 21, 2003 07:52 PM