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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.

Bonnie Raitt

The fact is that this conversation is going on at every level at every age, we’re all going, “God, what a jerk I’ve been,” “How could I have married that guy?” or “How could I have done this or that?” With time, this is the gift of being older, that you get to look back and say, “It wasn’t all about them.”
BONNIE RAITT

Age Best Guy Look Looks Married
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

House Play White
I don’t want to discredit people’s opinions of me, but you talk about the violin or the cello or lead guitar where you have to learn tons of chords, that’s much more difficult.
BONNIE RAITT

Guitar People Want
With the new ways of getting music out, you don’t need a label if you’re a legacy artist.
BONNIE RAITT

Artist Legacy Needs
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Birth Roles Thinking
It’s incredible to see labor unions and environmentalists getting together to stop the corporate mentality that destroys both jobs and the environment.
BONNIE RAITT

Corporate Environment Jobs Together Work
Ugly ducklings don’t turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make.
BONNIE RAITT

Duckling Lakes Swans Ugly
The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.
BONNIE RAITT

Celebrated Encourage Made Resources Style
Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste.
BONNIE RAITT

Less Life Mighty Waste
The generation I grew up in was the beginning of “stand up for yourself,” whether being a singer-songwriter or a feminist. In my college years, the feminist movement was really coming to fore, so we wouldn’t have put up with guys treating us less than equal.
BONNIE RAITT

College Equal Feminist Years
I’m sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It’s just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist.
BONNIE RAITT

Artist Jobs Musicologist Writing
Solar power is the last energy resource that isn’t owned yet – nobody taxes the sun yet.
BONNIE RAITT

Energy Lasts Sun
I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.
BONNIE RAITT

Full Life Music Outside Really
I’m glad I get singled out for my slide guitar-playing, which isn’t that difficult to do. I didn’t take guitar lessons, but I just love the way it sounds, almost like the human voice.
BONNIE RAITT

Guitar Human Lessons Voice
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Corny Done Political
I don’t know that I’m unique in that people relate to my music, but I would hope people would say that I’m honest and that I do the best work I can possibly do instead of coasting.
BONNIE RAITT

Honest People Unique
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Afternoon Generations Morning Record Stars
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Energy Radical Real Republican Struggle
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Able Home Learn Ordinary Regular
Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I’m glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part.
BONNIE RAITT

Citizen Important Issues
With slide guitar, you’re just hanging this piece of glass on your hand. It’s a really beautiful instrument in that it’s so responsive, you’re just slipping your hand back and forth.
BONNIE RAITT

Beautiful Glasses Guitar Instruments
Even if the writers don’t get paid enough most of the time, unfortunately – but there’s never been a more amazing flow of information on all of the issues. I would love to see a revival of what we had against the war in the ’60s – we could do thes
BONNIE RAITT

Against Information Love Unfortunately
I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.
BONNIE RAITT

Music Real Thinking
People 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.
BONNIE RAITT

Around Partly People Thank Time Write
I don’t want to sound like a self-help book, but it really has been transformative for me to take a look at my relationships in a new way and see my part in them. Everybody’s going through that.
BONNIE RAITT

Book Everyone Relationship Self Sound
There’s a balance between ballads and kick-ass songs.
BONNIE RAITT

Ass Ballads Between Difference Kick Songs
When you love a song so much you have to sing, you know how you feel – it releases something in you that resonates as true, whether it’s James Brown or Joni Mitchell.
BONNIE RAITT

Brown Feel Resonates Song True

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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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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