Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"

 

Danette, Bonnie, and I saw Bonnie Raitt at Chrysler Hall on November 16 (for some reason, there's no entry at setlist.fm).  Just days after her 75th birthday, she still had a big, strong voice, played guitar with authority, and in general gave a great show.  Her first encore was her top-20 single, "I Can't Make You Love Me", from her 1991 LP "Luck of the Draw".  A surprise treat for us was that Williamsburg's own Bruce Hornsby came out and joined her for that song; I did not realize he played on the studio version of that song back in the day.  Listening to it now, it's very clear that it's him playing piano, but if I ever knew this, I had forgotten.  

Each of her shows is apparently a little bit different: for example, Roanoke was treated to her covering "Need You Tonight" and "Burning Down the House".  I would have loved to have seen those, but we'll be happy with Bruce Hornsby as a guest.

Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"

Bonnie Raitt & Band plus Bruce Hornsby, 2024-11-16

The B-52s - Live on SNL (1980-01-26)

 

We saw the B-52s on Halloween night at The Anthem in DC.  We had not seen them before, and given their ages (e.g., Kate is 76), there are surely not many chances left to catch them live.  They gave an objectively great show, even accounting for the fact that it's not 1980 anymore...

Speaking of 1980, Danette often talks about the time she first head the B-52s: their appearance on Saturday Night Live on January 26, 1980.  She would have been 13 at the time, the most impressionable and formative time for receiving new music.  She describes the scenario of digging their kitsch aesthetic and sound, and her father coming in and saying something to the effect of "what is this? this isn't music!" Her father, a musician himself and a very "serious" jazz aficionado, had just unwittingly given the indirect approval that every teenager desires.  She was a B-52s fan from that moment on, as were most of the freaks and geeks of our generation (even before their "comeback" LP "Cosmic Thing", recorded after the death of Ricky Wilson).

Danette enjoyed the show, but was a bit sad that they did not do "Quiche Lorraine" or "Strobe Light" (both from their second LP, 1980's "Wild Planet").  We had a discussion afterwards where I think we finally agreed that while those two songs were popular in her HS circle, they were not broadly popular. 

The SNL performance is regularly deleted from YouTube, so the two songs here are sourced from Facebook and TikTok (we'll see how long they stay up).  It's hard to imagine back to 1980 and understand how irreverent, fun, and fresh this sound was.

SNL, January 26, 1980: "Dance This Mess Around", "Rock Lobster" (both from their self-titled debut LP) (Trivia: the host for that episode was Teri Garr, who died two days before we saw them on Halloween.) 

Pics from October 31, 2024: