Garage Sale Vinyl: Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt / Warner Bros. / November 1971
by Christopher Long
REWIND: CHRISTMASTIME, 2022. I’d just scored a mint-condition copy of the 1974 Bonnie Raitt record, Streetlights, at a Florida garage sale — for a buck. Delighted with this discovery, I reached out to my longtime Ink 19 editor, Rose Petralia, to see if she had any interest in me submitting a squirty micro review of this half-century-old record. Rose loved the idea and suggested that it felt like the basis of a cozy weekly column — each installment featuring another of my garage sale vinyl finds. I accepted Rose’s challenge in short order. But what would we call a column about finding old vinyl at garage sales? Hmm.
The Garage Sale Vinyl series launched officially in January 2023, and I spent the entire year dedicated to crafting 50 lively weekly installments. About six months into the series, I was struck with the notion that it might also be the basis of my next book. And in May 2024, the expanded print version of Garage Sale Vinyl arrived in stores and at online retailers via the Arizona-based publisher, Bibliozona Books. I promptly went on a nationwide promo blitz, making numerous in-store author appearances and doing various radio, podcast, and newspaper interviews.
But with stacks of new garage sale vinyl finds now piling up in my man cave, I felt moved at Christmastime 2024 to reach out to Rose about launching “Season Two” of the column. She welcomed the idea. Hmm. Could a GSV book 2.0 be far off? We’ll see. For now, however, I thought I’d kick off 2025 where this column began in 2023, with a classic from “you know who.”
• •
After nearly 50 years of knocking around on the Florida Space Coast scene, I relocated to Altus, Oklahoma late last summer. I could say that I’ve done crazier things before, but I haven’t. This record was one of my last vinyl purchases before leaving Florida. I came across it at a hipster-type thrift joint in Orlando. It cost me a whopping $3. Despite being an original pressing, it plays quieter and cleaner than the over-priced, fancy pants, factory-sealed, new color vinyl releases that I’ve also been hoarding lately.
Over the course of my decades’-long writing journey, I’ve probably written about Bonnie Raitt more than any other artist. And understandably so — she’s Bonnie “F-ing” Raitt. Since I was a kid, her music has brought warmth into my world and beamed sunshine into my soul. So, as I unpacked boxes (and boxes) of vinyl at the new “ranch house” in Oklahoma and prepped to set up my modest hi-fi system, I was particularly pumped to pull out Bonnie’s records, pronto.
Recorded at a makeshift studio in a wooden a-frame located on the grounds of a summer camp at famed Lake Minnetonka, just outside of Minneapolis, the self-titled debut from Bonnie Raitt was an intentionally lo-fi affair. Even by ancient 1971 standards, the four-track production was considered “bare bones.” Hence, the album was decidedly raw and unapologetically real.
Produced by celebrated Minnesota musician Willie Murphy, Bonnie Raitt put the international music scene on notice — Bonnie Raitt was no bubble-headed pop tart. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist was the genuine article: an artist who understood, embraced, and incorporated into her music blues, jazz, R&B, pop, rock, folk, and country. Although it took a couple of records for the general public to catch on, critics “got “ it, straight out the gate.
Featuring a big-city sax contribution from the legendary A.C. Reed, Raitt’s version of the Stephen Stills tune, “Bluebird,” shifted gears effortlessly from Chicago-flavored blues to Sly-style R&B and served as a superb record opener. Driven by John Beach’s glinting piano work and shot-gunned by the roadhouse harmonica of renowned bluesman Junior Wells, the Sippie Wallace number, “Mighty Tight Woman,” is still a nicotine-stained delight.
Raitt established herself, posthaste, as a world-class songwriter, contributing two of the record’s tallest standouts. “Thank You” was a sunny-sounding love song, dripping with honey-soaked vocals and oozing authentic ’70s era flute work from Maurice Jacox, while acclaimed bassist Freebo kept the super-sassy “Finest Lovin’ Man” bouncing along beautifully.
From start to finish, Bonnie Raitt remains a bona fide banger, owning a bounty of highlights. However, for my money, the sultry Buddy Johnson classic, “Since I Fell for You,” and the faithful remake of Sippie Wallace’s cautionary “Women Be Wise” rank among the brightest.
(5/5) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bonnie Raitt Track List
SIDE A
Bluebird (S. Stills) – 3:29
Mighty Tight Woman (S. Wallace) – 4:20
Thank You (B. Raitt) – 2:50
Finest Lovin’ Man (B. Raitt) – 4:42
Any Day Woman (P. Siebel) – 2:23
SIDE B
Big Road (T. Johnson) – 3:31
Walking Blues (R. Johnson) – 2:40
Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead (I. Hunter, C. Paul, W. Stevenson) – 2:53
Since I Fell for You (B. Johnson) – 3:06
I Ain’t Blue (J. Koerner, W. Murphy) – 3:36
Women Be Wise (S. Wallace) – 4:09
