Bonnie Raitt Just Like That... 2022

Bonnie Raitt is having one heck of a late career surge. At 72, she has done it again, making the kind of blues/pop/rock/folk that she has always produced, and doing it as well as ever. With her last two releases, the 2012 career highlight Slipstream, and 2016's Dig In Deep, we now have the trifecta that eludes so many artists, three great ones in a row. Given the quality of her work over the years, it should not come as any surprise, and yet it is no less an impressive string of exceptional work.

All the elements are here. Bonnie is first a singer of great depth, one of those who inhabits a lyric. If you don't choke up when she sings a sad one, there's something wrong with you. Then there is her gifted way with slide guitar. Never flashy, and always perfect for the song. She also has an ear for great songs, and always finds some classics from a wide array of writers, plus she writes several strong ones herself. And she is once again using her touring band, and they are a very talented group. Ricky Fataar drums, Hutch Hutchinson bass, Kenny Greenberg guitar (long-time guitarist George Marinelli on two tracks), and new keyboardist Glenn Patsche. It is a well-oiled machine. Recorded and mixed by Ryan Freeland, who did similarly fine work on the two before this one.

The record kicks off with the upbeat Made Up Mind, which starts things off in fine style. Al Anderson's Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart has a laid back tempo and some tasty slide from Bonnie. Livin' For The Ones is a Stones-y rocker from Marinelli and Bonnie that rocks more than most and features hot guitars. Bonnie's own Just Like That is a tender acoustic ballad that tells an intense story of love and loss. When We Say Goodnight starts slow, then picks things up, and ends with a hot guitar/keyboards jam. 

Your Jones is always just around the corner is the message of Waiting For You To Blow, a funky workout featuring Patsche on the Hammond B3 and electric piano. Slow burner Blame It On Me has one of those killer close-miked Bonnie Raitt vocals, plus more fine slide guitar and B3. Love So Strong is a Toots Hibbert reggae tune that lets the band stretch a bit. More funky electric piano and slide light up Here Comes Love, and Bonnie's pen closes the record with the sweetly moving Down The Hall, a story of a prison hospice, played on acoustic guitar and organ, with another touching vocal.

If you've liked her recent work, this won't disappoint. If you haven't heard Bonnie since 1989's Grammy-winning  Nick Of Time, you've been missing out.

John Hiatt Bring The Family 1987

In The Absolute Sound magazine May/June edition, they updated and published their Super LP list, an extensive listing of LPs that have better sound than most. There's a lot of classical music entries, but there is also a pretty extensive list of great pop/rock and jazz LPs as well. One of those is John Hiatt's 1987 classic Bring The Family. The record is nicely recorded and does indeed sound great, and the band (Hiatt on guitar and vocals, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums and Ry Cooder on guitar) is superb.

If you haven't heard it, you must. It is another record that should be on my perfect records list, every song is just plain killer. Hiatt has made several that approach its greatness, but he hasn't bettered it.

I listened to it not too long ago, but the featured list made me pull it out and listen again. Not only is the band unusually talented, but Hiatt brings one of the finest set of masterfully written, heartfelt songs ever recorded, and he sings the daylights out of them all. His vocals are close-miked and you can feel the choke in his voice on the sad songs. But it is certainly not all sad, with Memphis In The Meantime, Thing Called Love (made famous by Bonnie Raitt), Thank You Girl, and the humorous Your Dad Did.

But those ballads are strikingly beautiful. Have A Little Faith In Me is as perfect a love song as any ever sung. Learning How To Love You is right there with it, an ode to staying with the learning curve for the payoff. Lipstick Sunset is as melancholy and sweet as a song about imperfect love can be. Tip Of My Tongue tells the story of the man that said the wrongest thing ever, and paid the highest price.

I broke your heart
With the back of my mind
From the tip of my tongue
To the end of the line

 

You couldn't say how much it hurt you

And I couldn't see the damage I'd done
'Til I watched the greatest love I've known
All come down to a slip of the tongue

 

Well I'd take it back
But time won't let me
No, time just takes
You further away

 

I watched you pack
A house full of memories
Where did you go
Lord, what did I say?

 

I broke your heart
With the back of my mind
From the tip of my tongue
To the end of the line

Songwriters

I recently had a chat or two with my brother about songwriters. First it was an article about Carole King, and then it opened up to songwriters in general. He posited that Lennon and McCartney were the best because they wrote so many great songs and no two were the same.

Not too long ago Rolling Stone did one of their lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters, and those lists they love so much are enough to drive just about anyone crazy. I was apoplectic by the time I read through the list, but I think they do it on purpose just to yank your chain. I was reminded of many great songwriters, and just aghast at some of the choices. 

So what is the criteria to be one of the greatest songwriters. Is it how many you write? Is it consistency of quality? Is it chart position or sales? Are a few absolutely amazing songs enough to qualify? Is it the variety of songs in different styles that sets a writer apart?

I have my own biases of course, but I've always said that bands are generally better with more than one songwriter, either when two work as a team or when two writers each contribute to a band's material. Things are just more varied this way, because any one songwriter only has so many song ideas and/or styles to contribute. Of course there are exceptions.

Rolling Stone listed Bob Dylan as #1, and then McCartney as #2, and Lennon as #3. I really think they should have listed Lennon/McCartney as a team at #1 or #2, rather than list them separately. Neither of them wrote as many consistently great songs after the Beatles than they produced together. So I guess the consistency thing is big for me. I can see going with Dylan as #1, but frankly, his work for almost twenty years between 1978 and 1997 includes many weak songs.

The list reminded me of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Holland/Dozier/Holland for their work at Motown and beyond. In rock/pop, the Jagger/Richards team, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson, Prince, Elvis Costello, John/Taupin and Ray Davies all deserve accolades. Singer/songwriters Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and Lucinda Williams wrote plenty of great ones. But some of the choices Rolling Stone made seem designed to push my buttons. Stevie Nicks, Neil Diamond, Max Martin, Bono and The Edge? Oh, please.

The Beatles made something like 13 studio records. Not too many bands or artists have made as many, and as many solid ones, as Lennon /McCartney produced. There are a few artists that have come close over a longer period of time of course, but to me it seems they all put out a few stinkers along the way. Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Willie Nelson- they all seem to lose out in the consistency category at least.

Some people are naturally gifted. But even naturally gifted songwriters have to really work for it most of the time. I think it is reasonable to say that the song is more important than any other element. There's just not much you can do with a lousy song.

Ten Years After

Ten Years After were early English blues enthusiasts that, along with John Mayall, Yardbirds, Chicken Shack, early Fleetwood Mac, Cream, and others, took the American export and repurposed it for the rock market. Ten Years After had the lightening fast guitar hero in Alvin Lee, but the whole band were a talented group that could drive a blues riff into your head with sustained vigor.

They managed nine records in the UK top 40 (four top 10) and six in the US top 40. US sales improved after the release of the movie Woodstock, which featured Ten Years After's I'm Going Home in a smoking hot performance. They toured extensively and had one top 40 single in the US, the somewhat out of character I'd Love To Change The World in 1971.

Their eponymous debut from 1967 is a hot number that includes solid versions of Willie Dixon's Spoonful, Sonny Boy Williamson's Help Me, Al Kooper's I Can't Keep From Crying, Sometimes, and several good ones from Alvin Lee's pen. Keyboardist Chick Churchill gets a highlight on Adventures Of A Young Organ. It is a strong debut, showing off the bands many strengths and displaying just a bit more jazz influences than most blues-rock of the time.

Next up was the live Undead 1968. The live setting shows off Lee's hot guitar chops and snarling vocals, and the whole band cooks. A hot version of Woody Hermann's Woodchopper's Ball and the first recorded version of I'm Going Home (in a modest six-minute version) are highlights. The original's five songs are nicely augmented by four extra tracks on the 2002 CD reissue.

Stonedhenge 1969 is a studio album written entirely by Alvin Lee and the band members. Beside some strong songs from Alvin Lee, including the jazzy shuffle Woman Trouble, the slow blues of A Sad Song, the driving Speed Kills, and the rocking I'm Going To Try and Hear Me Calling, each other member gets a feature. Drummer Ric Lee does a drum solo version of Three Blind Mice, and keyboardist Chick Churchill and bassist Leo Lyons both perform solo pieces as well. It is almost there, but Alvin Lee's best songs are yet to come, and the solo band member's features could have made room for more rocking.

1969 also saw the release of Ssssh, one of their better records overall, and the beginning of their run of solid studio outings. I reviewed it here back in 2014. All eight tracks are strong, and Lee snarls out the vocals and plays lightening fast runs on the guitar while one of the best driving rhythm sections in blues-rock just push the songs into your ears. The rockers Bad Scene, Stoned Woman, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, The Stomp, and Woke Up This Morning never let up, while Two Time Mama features nice acoustic guitar, and If You Should Love Me is a strong mid-tempo ballad.

We are into the best period for the band, and Cricklewood Green 1970 continues and expands on the excellence of Ssssh. The rockers here are all solid, including organ and guitar driven Sugar The Road, the driving Working On The Road, the seven-minute showcase 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain, the hit single, stomping Love Like A Man, and the slow burn of As The Sun Burns Away. Add to that the jazzy Me And My Baby, and one of Lee's better ballads, the haunting Circles, and you've got a sure winner. It is easy to see how it was their highest charting record.

1970 also saw the release of Watt. It is hard to believe that Watt came out between Criclewood Green and A Space In Time, two of their best records. The singing and playing are all fine, but the songs are just not as strong as either of those other two. It sounds like Alvin Lee needed more time to write some better ones, so these could have mostly been the bonus tracks on the reissue thirty years later. It's not terrible, but it is almost entirely unnecessary, especially compared to their best work. 

A Space in Time 1971 saw the band broaden their sound with more acoustic guitar, and even strings on Over The Hill. The single I'd Love To Change The World was their biggest hit, mixing acoustic guitar verses with searing leads on the chorus and breaks. It's killer, but not really like much else they had done, and was rarely performed live. And while the album features more ballads and mid-tempo material than usual, there's solid rock here too with One Of These Days, Baby Won't You Let Me Rock 'n' Roll You, I've Been There Too, and Let The Sky Fall. The record plays well, and is consistently strong.

1972 brought Rock And Roll Music To The World, and they continue to offer their driving blues-rock they had become known for by now. Strong songs include Standing At The Station, Choo Choo Mama, You Give Me Loving, and the boogie title track. Some of the rest feels less fresh, and the limits of Alvin Lee's songwriting shows up again as it did on Watt.

1973 saw Recorded Live, a respectable live recording with some questionable song selections, including the I Can't Keep From Cryin' Sometimes/Extension on One Chord jam that takes up all of side three. Everything is done to the nines, and yet the album doesn't feel all that cohesive. There's good versions of One Of These Days, You Give Me Loving, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Choo Choo Mama, and I'm Going Home (again).

Positive Vibrations 1974 was released just before the band broke up, and as such probably didn't receive much record company push. A mix of hard rockers and a few mid-tempo numbers, it's a pretty good one overall. Rockers Nowhere To Run, Going Back To Birmingham, It's Getting Harder, You're Driving Me Crazy, and I Wanted To Boogie are all quality Ten Years After, and most of the material holds up well. But Alvin Lee had one foot out the door, and the record only made it to #81 in the US, and didn't chart in the UK at all.

Alvin Lee continued on as a solo act and with bands Ten Years Later and The Alvin Lee Band. He made a dozen studio solo records between 1973 and 2012. In 1989, he reunited with the original members for About Time, a decent record with some good songs and some weak ones, and the band sounds good. It suffers from Lee's guitar sound, that over-driven, pure tone heard on Boston and Journey records of the same time period. Lee's guitar sound in the seventies was always a bit more organic. They toured together off and on until 2003 when Lee left and the band replaced him with Joe Gooch, with whom they recorded several more albums. Alvin Lee died in 2013 from complications from surgery.

When they were hot, they were hard to beat. They deserved more fame than they achieved. Their debut is a landmark given that it came out in 1967. Ssssh and Cricklewood Green are the bomb, the pinacle of their work, and A Space In Time is excellent. Positive Vibrations is a strong swansong, and should have sold better.

Marti Jones Match Game 1986

Marti Jones didn't make any bad records. Any and all of her releases are worth your coin, and most of them are excellent displays of carefully chosen, well-written folk-pop mixed with the best of Don Dixon's writing credits, and also Dixon's most attentive productions. After her 1985 debut Unsophisticated Time featured that exact formula to near perfect results and limited sales, they tried one time to make a rock record.

And what a record it is. Unlike any of her records (although the excellent Live At Spirit Square also rocks at times), Match Game is singular in it's rocking, and yet maintains the organic sound that Dixon applies to all of her recordings. This is especially important because it was 1986, and this record eschews the slick sound of the eighties (think Pat Benatar), and instead sounds like those fine Bowie and Mott analog recordings of the early seventies.

The record includes premiere songwriting throughout. Dixon brings his Be Myself Again, Touch Tone, and Inside These Arms, all solid efforts. And then there's Bowie's Soul Love (a wonderful version), Dwight Twilley's Chance Of A Lifetime, Elvis Costello's Just A Memory, Paul Rogers' Soon I Will Be Gone, Marshall Crenshaw's Whenever You're On My Mind, Liam Sternberg's Crusher, John David's It's Too Late, Reed Nelson's We're Doing Alright, and Robert Barone's Foolish Lies. The record is a study in great songcraft.

And then there's the guest list of musicians: Mitch Easter, Ricky Bird, Darlene Love, Vinnie Zummo, Treva Spontaine, Marshall Crenshaw, Robert Crenshaw, Paul Carrack, T-Bone Burnett, Micky Curry, Rick Ford, and of course Don Dixon. Every note is in place perfectly. And Dixon's production captures it all in vivid, analog glory.

Lest we forget, there's Marti's clear, beautiful alto voice and inspired use of said instrument to illuminate every lyric. More forceful (yet still somehow casual) on many of these songs than on much of her material, it brings out the best in her.

There is not another record quite like it. Not just in Marti's oeuvre, but anywhere really. I didn't remember it when I made a list of perfect records, but that was my omission, and a terrible mistake. One of my favorite artists in a singular moment early in her career.

The Grateful Dead

I suppose I should open with a disclaimer before I hear all kinds of noise from serious Deadheads. I'm not a serious Deadhead, or anything close, I don't own all their records, and there's many of them that I used to own that have been removed from the stacks. But I like some of their music a lot.

Overall I think of them as having a less than stellar recording career. I tend to like studio records more than live ones, and the Grateful Dead struggled to make the most of their studio time. More on that after I very briefly deal with their recorded live legacy.

The Grateful Dead made a lot of live records, and if you include the retrospective releases, the number is quite staggering. I know Deadheads that swapped tapes and talk about this show or that show as classics, but I just don't have the time to listen to three years of Dead shows to find the great ones. I like Live/Dead 1969 a lot, and the Dark Star/St. Stephen/The Eleven medley that takes up the first three sides is very fine. I also liked Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses) 1971, which included two sides of concise tunes that feature a super hot band and great songs. Europe '72 is a solid and sprawling 3-LP set featuring more acoustic guitar driven versions. After that I never felt like I needed more live material, although I do own a few of the retrospective releases on CD, and they document good shows. The trouble is finding the ones you might want in an overwhelming sea of choices.

Back to their studio work. The early records never quite did it for me. Grateful Dead 1967, Anthem of the Sun 1968, and Aoxomoxoa 1969 are all generally well regarded, but only Aoxomoxoa ever really impressed me. I'm not a huge blues fan, and much of their work is blues twisted around folk and psychedelia that just doesn't connect with me. Your results may vary. While I'm delving into their lesser studio work, let me just say that most of what they did in the studio is disappointing. They made a total of thirteen studio records (fourteen if you count Ace- see below) from Grateful Dead 1967 to Built To Last in 1989. Everything after 1976 is less than terrific- Terrapin Station, Shakedown Street, Go To Heaven, In The Dark, and Built To Last. These records aren't terrible, but there always seems like something is missing. The 2015 2-CD The Best of The Grateful Dead on Rhino is a fine collection that touches on all of their studio recordings, and is as good a sample as one could expect.

So which records are worthwhile? Well, 1970 was a good year, producing both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, what I would say are their two best studio records. Both feature a lot of acoustic guitars and folk/country/blues sounds, and both include stellar songs. American Beauty had the hits with Truckin', Sugar Magnolia and Friend of the Devil, and also maybe their most beautiful song lyric, Ripple. Workingman's Dead is my vote for their best work, with Uncle John's Band, Casey Jones, Easy Wind, Dire Wolf, and Cumberland Blues, and not a single clunker. Consistently solid clear through. 

That just leaves 1972-1975 left to discuss. Both Wake Of The Flood 1973 and Blues For Allah 1975 have moments of brilliance. Both also see the band's sound branching out into jazz and world music influences, and both sold quite well. I bought them both when they came out, and purged them both many moons ago. They're not bad, but they're also not their best work. Two more from the early seventies do qualify with their best work. The first is From The Mars Hotel 1974. It contains many great songs and relatively upbeat performances with U.S. Blues, Scarlet Begonias, Unbroken Chain, Pride of Cucamonga, and Ship Of Fools. It is hard to believe that it came between Wake of the Flood and Blues For Allah, as it is a pretty straight forward rock record between two seemingly odd diversions. And that leaves only Ace 1972, Bob Weir's solo debut, but a Grateful Dead record in all but name only. And a mighty fine one at that. Packed with great songs Playing In The Band, the lovely Cassidy, the humorous Mexicali Blues, the rocking Greatest Story Ever Told, and frequent live staple One More Saturday Night.

So, here's my personal best of their studio work, ranked in this order: Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, Ace, and From The Mars Hotel. For live material, I'm partial to Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses) and Live/Dead (interestingly, their first two live releases).

There are no less than 165 (!) retrospective live recordings to choose from including the Dick's Picks series, the Road Trips series, the Dave's Picks series, and some seventy one-offs released between 1991 and 2022, not including six others released while they were still together. So if you're really interested (or crazy), you can fill your head with live performances from throughout their 20 year career, and decide for yourself which version of Dark Star is the best.

The Hollies The Hollies Greatest Hits 1973 and Hollies Live (Hollies Live Hits in the UK) 1977

Between 1966 and 1974 The Hollies had 6 top 10 singles in the US, and 12 in the top 40 (1966-1983). They were even bigger in the UK, where they had 18 top 10 singles and 29 in the top 40, between 1963 and 1988. As British Invasion groups go, they had a lot going for them. Lead singer Allan Clarke with harmonies from Tony Hicks and Graham Nash made them one of the stronger vocal groups, and the three were also quality songwriters, although they recorded many songs from other writers. The 1973 Greatest Hits contains all of their top 10 US singles except 1974's The Air That I Breathe (which was added to the 2002 reissue). So you get Carrie Anne, Bus Stop, On A Carousel, Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, Just One Look, Pay You Back With Interest, Look Through Any Window, Stop, Stop, Stop, and several more. It is packed with great songs, and spectacular harmony singing. Even when Nash left in 1969 to form CSN, Terry Sylvester was clearly up to the high harmony parts that Nash sang.

Hollies Live 1977 (with a different cover and titled Live Hits in England) is a very well recorded live album that includes several songs from the four years between these records. The Air That I Breathe is here as well as Springsteen's 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), Another Night, I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top, and I'm Down. There are seven songs that are on both records, so they are not nearly identical, and both have lots to recommend them. The original singles on Greatest Hits are all classics, and include Graham Nash's distinctive, slightly nasal high register that has a certain indisputable magic. But again, Sylvester can also hit all those notes, and the tight ensemble playing and more recent songs on the live set show a band that wasn't yet ready for nostalgia in 1977.

You can't go wrong with either of these. Both are currently available in vinyl and CD versions.