Bonnie Raitt: She Writes The Songs

Here are five of the best songs written by Bonnie.

Finest Lovin’ Man

Raitt’s debut mostly rifled through the great American songbook, but this loping, lusty original found the solicitous singer offering to ‘cook it up just right’ for her lover.

From: Bonnie Raitt (1971)

Give It Up Or Let Me Go

Nobody does woman-wronged better than Raitt, and she opened her second album in style with this barrelhouse title track.

From: Give It Up (1972)

Nick Of Time

The title track of her 1989 breakthrough album was a supremely danceable Philly-soul belter with a lyric that nailed her fears of ageing alone.

From: Nick Of Time (1989)

Spit Of Love

There’s a horny resignation to Raitt’s vocal, as she opens the door once again for a duplicitous lover. The guitar solo, meanwhile, sounds positively fuming. “[It’s a song] that I wrote about being jealous,” she explains.

From: Fundamental (1998)

The Comin’ Round Is Going Through

An activist since her Quaker upbringing, here Raitt roasts the politicians over a four-on-the-floor Stones stomp. “I wanted to write a song about how pissed off I was,” she says.

From: Dig In Deep (2016)

One of the first women to work in rock journalism, Jaan Uhelszki got her start alongside Lester Bangs, Ben Edmonds and Dave Marsh — considered the “dream team” of rock writing at Creem Magazine in the mid-1970s. Currently an Editor at Large at Relix, Uhelszki has published articles in NME, Mojo, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Classic Rock, Uncut and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her awards include Online Journalist of the Year and the National Feature Writer Award from the Music Journalist’s Association, and three Deems Taylor Awards. She is listed in Flavorwire’s 33 Women Music Critics You Need to Read and holds the dubious honour of being the only rock journalist who has ever performed in full costume and makeup with Kiss.