The Backstory Of A Modern Standard - Bonnie Raitt's
October 27, 2016 11:12 PM   Subscribe

"I could feel her soul when she sang it. It was just one of those moments where the studio disappears, and the whole world disappears, and all that’s there is the emotion of that thing. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what great music and great art is. It just pulls you into the moment and the feeling and emotion of it. I felt like I could feel her heart." - “I Can’t Make You Love Me”: A 25th Anniversary Oral History
posted by beisny (28 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
For those not familiar with Bonnie's earlier work, I highly recommend her first four albums, made in 1971-74. Her incredible slide guitar and her lazy voice are out of this world, raw but tight.

It took me so long to discover this, because when Nick Of Time came out, it was so overplayed, and me as a young snotnosed kid had no time for that kinda bullshit, and I dismissed Bonnie Raitt outright as commercial schlock. Boy was I blown away when someone tipped me off about her early stuff. Now I can accept her later stuff more willingly, knowing she got some real chops.
posted by not_on_display at 11:25 PM on October 27, 2016 [10 favorites]


This song, this song. It.. destroys me. Every. Time. It's talking about my life, in every era of it, in a way I could never articulate if I had a lifetime to.
Thanks for posting this, it's really fantastic.
posted by ApathyGirl at 11:33 PM on October 27, 2016 [6 favorites]


You know how we had a thing for a while, where we as a collective would riff on curses? Like "Yiddish curses for Republican Jews" and others like that?

I feel like we could maybe riff on blessings to.

I'll start: May you, one day, bring into this world some creation that is as beautiful, as heartfelt, as meaningful as "I can't make you love me," even if only for a moment.
posted by migrantology at 12:18 AM on October 28, 2016 [7 favorites]


all I know is if you can hear that song and not feel "guh" that's some potent magic you've got because boy howdy is that song a gut shot.
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:31 AM on October 28, 2016 [5 favorites]


I really like Bonnie Raitt, though I don't often play her tunes these days. But this song popped into my head at the beginning of the week: perhaps I heard it mentioned somewhere? Anyway, her voice here is resigned and pained and plain spoken, and it really sounds like she is speaking right to you. Very hard to listen to it passively.

Great song.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:09 AM on October 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


I played this song over and over for a year. It breaks my heart, and few songs do that. Have loved Bonnie Raitt since oh god I hate to admit how long. It is surprising to me how heartening it is to hear that other people loved "I Can't Make You Love Me" too.
posted by Peach at 3:48 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Knowing what I know about Bruce Hornsby (from meeting and interviewing him; from witnessing him walk off stage when things weren't going his way), I'm not at all surprised to read that he was so reluctant to listen to the demo. "Hornsby filter" is such an apt phrase, though.
posted by emelenjr at 4:17 AM on October 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Thank you for posting!! This was singularly amazing.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:36 AM on October 28, 2016


I love that the list of artists interviewed included Allen Stone, Soak, and...Katy Perry. ಠ_ಠ
posted by pxe2000 at 5:07 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I never understood Deadheads who preffered Hornsby to Brent Mydland
posted by thelonius at 5:08 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


That song...

In high school, in '92, I played in a backup band for a chorus (think Glee, with live band.) One of the soloists did this song - she had a tremendous voice. And I remember seeing my Mom in the audience watching it and she had tears in her eyes.

Dad moved out not too long after that. This had been brewing a while, but the surfaces were cracking and this was the first time I was really aware of it.

Hated that song for a long time. But I get it now.
posted by Thistledown at 5:36 AM on October 28, 2016 [11 favorites]


I have not heard this song in years. The older I get, the more it guts me.
posted by jadepearl at 6:06 AM on October 28, 2016


Her covers of "Love Has No Pride," and "Under The Falling Sky," are far better than "I Can't Make You Love Me," which is just kind of an Easy Listening song.
posted by jonmc at 6:12 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Bonnie Raitt is so good! +1 to not_on_display's point. Her early blues stuff especially is really great. It's tight and talented but understated, and spare in just the right way.
posted by aka burlap at 6:28 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm gonna second jonmc's list and add her cover of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery".
posted by rocket88 at 7:23 AM on October 28, 2016 [7 favorites]


I've liked Bonnie Raitt since "I Can't Make You Love Me" came out when I was 18, though her type of music wouldn't normally be my thing. She's both a good songwriter and an interpreter of other people's songs. "Love Letter" is one of my favourites of hers -- I remember putting it on to write a certain email to a particular guy from my past, and how it accorded with and fed into my mood at the time. Right now I'm listening to her greatest hits album.
posted by orange swan at 7:54 AM on October 28, 2016


Bonnie Raitt is always so vastly underrated. Especially her early stuff. Maybe because she doesn't go around promoting herself all over the place, but lets her terrific body of work speak for itself. Long may she live and sing.
posted by blucevalo at 8:56 AM on October 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


One time maybe 15 years ago, the middle of a weekday, I was in a Goodwill on San Pablo in Oakland, and there were maybe 7 or 8 people in the store, and that song came on, and it was pretty quiet in there otherwise, so it sort of took over, sonicly, and I found myself singing along, as one does, and then registered that the woman on the other side of the pants rack was doing the same, and then I noticed the Goodwill staffer singing along too, and it was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure we were all singing along, and we were like, every ethnicity of person in that Goodwill together, grooving along to Bonnie Raitt. It was such an affecting experience, I still remember it so clearly, it was truly moving.
posted by latkes at 9:18 AM on October 28, 2016 [12 favorites]


I didn't listen to it when I saw this post, but I can hear it in my head. I'm at work and so trying not to cry.
posted by spacely_sprocket at 9:19 AM on October 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Just played it a second time, and it had me tearing up the second time, too. So then I played "Love Has No Pride" for a third session of water works.
posted by tommyD at 9:47 AM on October 28, 2016


The theme song to my first big breakup (that and Everything but the Girl's album Walking Wounded). Still wrecks me.
posted by Bron at 11:19 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Saw her at some scruffy club on North Lamar in 1979 or 80. She was sloppy drunk and an embarrassment. So glad she turned herself around even if she did become more 'commercial'. What a voice she has.

Also, have always loved her dad in Pajama Game. Go watch the movie! Hey Therewas on of the songs my dad used to sing when he was happy.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:51 AM on October 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I love that photo of Bonnie with a Stratocaster in her lap and a silverface Twin in the background.

really wish it was plugged in
posted by rlk at 12:10 PM on October 28, 2016


Knowing what I know about Bruce Hornsby (from meeting and interviewing him; from witnessing him walk off stage when things weren't going his way), I'm not at all surprised to read that he was so reluctant to listen to the demo. "Hornsby filter" is such an apt phrase, though.

That's just the way it is ®
posted by hal9k at 1:04 PM on October 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


For those not familiar with Bonnie's earlier work, I highly recommend her first four albums, made in 1971-74.

Her albums were the Tinder back about that time in college. You're over at her place and saw any or all of those four while flipping through her peach crate? Maybe find some seeds and stems in the inside spine? That would be a girl worth your time getting to know.

(and any early Little Feat would seal the deal)
posted by hal9k at 1:13 PM on October 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Thanks for this post. Great article. Takes me back to the first time I heard this album.
posted by melman at 8:18 PM on October 28, 2016


I never realized Don Was produced that song, it's just so... (forgive me) Not Was. The man has a talent for producing things that sound dated the minute they're in the can. I did enjoy the fact that he basically admits as much, saying he tried to layer up this song, and eventually had to strip it all back down again. Sadly, he did not learn the lesson he should have from this.

That said, I feel Bon Iver is the Jeff Buckley to Raitt's Leonard Cohen. I'm glad a younger artist could bring some attention back to the foundational artists, but neither cover really holds a candle to the original performance.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:11 AM on October 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


Her covers of "Love Has No Pride," and "Under The Falling Sky," are far better than "I Can't Make You Love Me," which is just kind of an Easy Listening song.

Nothing easy about it, if you've ever been involved in or observed the kind of relationship it describes.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:57 PM on October 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


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