Bonnie Raitt Give It Up CD

Her classic sophomore album from 1972 that influenced generations of women in rock. Features 'Love Me Like A Man', 'Under The Sky Falling' & 'Love Has No Pride'. Rhino/Warner Bros. digitally remastered.

Personnel: Bonnie Raitt (vocals, guitar); Freebo (vocals, guitar, tuba, bass); John Hall, T.J. Tindall, Kal David (guitar); Jack Viertel (steel guitar); Gene Stashuk (cello); Paul Butterfield (harmonica); John Payne (clarinet, soprano & tenor saxophones); Marty Grebb (alto & tenor saxophones); Terry Eaton (tenor saxophone); Peter Eckland (cornet); Amos Garrett (trombone); Mark Jordan, Eric Kaz (piano, vibraphone); Merl Saunders, Lou Terriciano (piano); Dave Holland (acoustic bass); Dennis Whitted, Chris Parker (drums); Wells Kelly (drums, conga, cowbell, background vocals); John Hall, Jackie Lomax, Tim Moore (background vocals).
Recorded at Bearsville Recording Studio, Bearsville, New York in June 1972. Includes liner notes by Michael Cuscuna.
Digitally remastered by Teresa Caffin.
Bonnie Raitt may have switched producers for her second album Give It Up, hiring Michael Cuscuna, but she hasn't switched her style, sticking with the thoroughly engaging blend of folk, blues, R&B, and Californian soft rock. If anything, she's strengthened her formula here, making the divisions between the genres nearly indistinguishable. Take the title track, for instance. It opens with a bluesy acoustic guitar before kicking into a New Orleans brass band about halfway through -- and the great thing about it is that Raitt makes the switch sound natural, even inevitable, never forced. And that's just the tip of the iceberg here, since Give It Up is filled with great songs, delivered in familiar, yet always surprising, ways by Raitt and her skilled band. For those that want to pigeonhole her as a white blues singer, she delivers the lovely "Nothing Seems to Matter," a gentle mid-tempo number that's as mellow as Linda Ronstadt and far more seductive. That's the key to Give It Up: Yes, Raitt can be earthy and sexy, but she balances it with an inviting sensuality that makes the record glow. It's all delivered in a fantastic set of originals and covers performed so naturally it's hard to tell them apart and roots music so thoroughly fused that it all sounds original, even when it's possible to spot the individual elements or influences. Raitt would go on to greater chart successes, but she not only had trouble topping this record, generations of singers, from Sheryl Crow to Shelby Lynne, have used this as a touchstone. One of the great Southern California records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
GIVE IT UP is the high point in Bonnie Raitt's early career. On it she brings together her R&B, folk, and straight blues influences with a mellow soft rock approach that would become synonymous with the California FM sound, yet none of these elements dominate--Raitt mixes the sounds perfectly. The result is an accessible, sensual music that never relies on cliché for effect, a sound that laid the foundation for her future commercial success.
Raitt contributes a handful of fine originals here, including the snappy, bluesy "Give It Up or Let Me Go," and the beautiful "Nothing Seems to Matter." Yet her excellent renditions of cover tunes like Jackson Browne's "Under a Falling Sky" and Chris Smithers's "Love Me Like a Man" prove she is as powerful an interpreter as she is as a songwriter. (Raitt's next two albums--TAKIN' MY TIME and STREETLIGHTS--would be all covers). Most impressive is the precise, easy feel of her backing band (which includes saxophonist John Payne and harmonica player Paul Butterfield) and Raitt's blazing slide and smooth, nuanced vocals that never sound contrived or forced. The flawless ease of her performances is what, ultimately, makes GIVE IT UP authentic, endlessly listenable, and one of the era's classic blues-rock albums.

Rolling Stone (10/26/72, p.60) - "...Bonnie comes out on top of the whole thing, her precise, erotic, thoroughly disciplined voice providing a perfect center for this gutsy enterprise...Bonnie Raitt can sing anything right..."