Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn’t mean that artists from the rock n’ roll/folk-roots culture – of which he was not really a part – shouldn’t get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists.
BONNIE RAITTPeople write me letters and thank me for turning them on to Fred McDowell and Sippie Wallace, and that’s partly my job this time around.
More Bonnie Raitt Quotes
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Sometimes I’m more true when I’m up onstage than I’m able to be in my regular life. It’s not as exciting to be at home, but I’ve got to learn how to make that work, and then I will be an ordinary woman.
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And just the problem of young women not getting an education, not being able to have an equal position in the cultures all around the world.
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I think we have responsibilities to be active in the things we believe in, regardless of what our job is.
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Distribution has really changed. You can make a record with a laptop in the morning and have it up on YouTube in the afternoon and be a star overnight.
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There were so many great music and political scenes going on in the late ’60s in Cambridge. The ratio of guys to girls at Harvard was four to one, so all of those things were playing in my mind.
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Playing guitar was one of my childhood hobbies, and I had played a little at school and at camp.
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I grew up in Los Angeles in a Quaker family, and for me being Quaker was a political calling rather than a religious one.
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A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it’s done right – like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there’s nothing better.
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Solar power is the last energy resource that isn’t owned yet – nobody taxes the sun yet.
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My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby – nothing more.
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The women’s movement resurgence of standing up for so many things that were kind of sleepy there for a decade or so, there’s been a reawakening and I think the consciousness movement in general is dovetailing with a lot of recovery and self-empowerment.
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I’m in a relationship, and I’ve been in one in a while, but all the people I’ve been with at various points – and I’ve had sequentially monogamous relationships my whole life – were all the right people at the right time.
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Those of us who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s, we had the dream that this could be turned around, and the earth could be back in balance, and that we could level the playing field with men and women and pay, and you know, minority groups having equal opportunity.
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Whether you’re playing it on the guitar or on the dance floor, you’re in that moment.
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Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I’m glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part.
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It can unite kids and musicians, everybody, whether they’re leftist or rightist, or radical, or Republican, because energy is energy. But in fact, it is a real political struggle – it shows people that it’s big business against the people.
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It is still a surprise when people tell me that I’ve had an influence on them, particularly when it’s someone I really respect.
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We did a two month tour with Taj Mahal that was really healing and cathartic and a good distraction after my brother passed away. Then I knew I wanted to take a year off, and it was really nice to have that chance to fall apart.
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I can’t make you love me, if you don’t.
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I’ve been lucky enough that I can gather all sorts of experiences and find inspiration by traveling around and by spending time with people I admire.
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Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that’s you and that isn’t necessarily you.
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I’ll close my eyes, so I won’t see, all of the love that you don’t feel for me.
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It’s incredible to see labor unions and environmentalists getting together to stop the corporate mentality that destroys both jobs and the environment.
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Thank God for Occupy and thank God for ‘The Daily Show,’ Colbert and the rising up that’s going on around the world.
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I think that we have a unique opportunity as performers and artists to be kind of the town criers and also to get more people to listen, so that’s a blessing and a responsibility that I take very seriously.
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I finally learned to accept that I can’t make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House.
BONNIE RAITT