Bonnie Raitt Give It Up 1972

I hadn't listened to this one in a while, and thought I'd go back for an old one since I've mostly focused on contemporary releases lately. I have fond memories of this record, and it has remained in the primary stacks all these years.

As it turns out, I wasn't quite as thrilled as I sometimes am with a classic from the past. So I'm not sure what this review may add to the fray, but let's try to see it through some kind of objective lens.

Bonnie's voice is flat out lovely throughout, and her high register is clear as a bell. The songwriting is from A-listers, but some of the material does not revisit that well, being of the early-seventies singer-songwriter fare that today rings just a little too twee.

The good ones: the New Orleans horns, excellent lyric, and Bonnie's own slide on Give It Up Or Let Me Go (from Bonnie's pen), the R&B chestnut I Know, Bonnie's guitar and vocal on Love Me Like A Man, the sexy New Orleans vibe on You Got To Know How, and Bonnie's fine rendition of Eric Kaz's Love Has No Pride.

Everything else is good. Bonnie does the melancholy as well as anyone, and Spent Too Long At The Fair is one of those. Jackson Browne's Under The Falling Sky plods along. Bonnie's Nothing Seems To Matter is not great, but the guitar interplay and sax almost save it. Half the record is great, and the other half just sounds too much like 1972. Of course, it was actually 1972 at the time.

For a vinyl collector, Bonnie's early work is readily available used, and worth it just about every time. Not perfect records, but darn good ones. This is one of those.