Better Raitt than never

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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.

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  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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…

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