Raitt began playing guitar at an early age, something not a lot of her high school girlfriends did. "I had played a little at school and at camp," she later recalled in a July 2002 interview. "My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby—nothing more...I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living. I grew up...in a Quaker family, and for me being Quaker was a political calling rather than a religious one."
In 1967 Raitt continued her pursuit in that path when she entered Harvard's Radcliffe College as a freshman, majoring in African Studies. "My plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism," Raitt recalled. "I wanted to help undo the damage that Western colonialism had done to native cultures around the world. Cambridge was a hotbed of this kind of thinking, and I was thrilled."
One day, Raitt was notified by a friend that blues promoter Dick Waterman was giving an interview at WHRB, Harvard's college radio station. An important figure in the blues revival of the 1960s, Waterman was also a resident of Cambridge. Raitt went to see Waterman, and the two soon became friends, "much to the chagrin of my parents, who didn't expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen," recalled Raitt. "I was amazed by his passion for the music and the integrity with which he managed the musicians."
During Raitt's sophomore year, Waterman relocated to Philadelphia, and a number of local musicians he counted among his friends went with him. Raitt had become a strong part of that community, recalling that "these people had become my friends, my mentors, and though I had every intention of graduating, I decided to take the semester off and move to Philadelphia...It was an opportunity that young white girls just don't get, and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything."
Raitt eventually went back to school, but her time performing in Philadelphia had encouraged her to pursue music as a career. When Waterman contacted her and invited her to tour with The Rolling Stones, she made a second trip to the admissions office at Radcliffe and told them, "I'm going to take a leave of absence, but this is only going to last a year." As Raitt would later recall, "Imagine being 20 in 1970—wouldn't you have gone on tour with the Rolling Stones?"
By now, Raitt was also playing both folk as well as rhythm and blues clubs in the Boston area, performing alongside established blues legends like Howlin' Wolf, Sippie Wallace, and Mississippi Fred McDowell, all of whom she met through Waterman. In the fall of 1970, while opening for Fred McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, a reporter from Newsweek Magazine saw her and began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her eponymously titled debut in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of which praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.
While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to universal acclaim, and though many critics still regard it as her best work, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's Takin' My Time was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.
Raitt was beginning to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone Magazine, but with 1974's Streetlights, reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's Home Plate.
In 1976, Raitt made a notable appearance on Warren Zevon's self-titled album with Warren Zevon's friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
1977's Sweet Forgiveness gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway." Recast as a heavy r&b recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics, but its commercial success prompted a bidding war between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia – Warner war going on at the time," recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia...And then, Warners signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia — no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."
Warner Bros. held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, 1979's The Glow, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt would have one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concerts at Madison Square Garden. The shows spawned a three-record gold album as well as a Warner Bros. feature film, No Nukes. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and numerous others.
For her next record, 1982's Green Light, Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records, but to her surprise, many of her peers and members of the press would compare her new sound to the burgeoning New Wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this would have a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Bros.
In 1983, as Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, titled Tongue & Groove, Warner Bros. cleaned house, dropping a number of major artists from their roster. Van Morrison and Arlo Guthrie were two of the most high-profile cases, and the day after mastering was completed on Tongue & Groove, Raitt was notified that she was to be dropped too. The album was shelved indefinitely, and Raitt was left without a label. By now, Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse.
Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City," the anti-apartheid record written a produced by Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt would later travel to Moscow in 1987 as part of the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert later shown on Showtime television. Also in 1987, Raitt would organize a benefit in Los Angeles, for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid, featuring herself, Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Holly Near and others.
Two years after dropping her from their label, Warner Bros. notified Raitt of their plans to release Tongue & Groove. "I said it wasn't really fair," recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ablility to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as Nine Lives." A critical and commercial disappointment, 1986's Nine Lives would be Raitt's last new recording for Warner Bros.
In late 1987 she joined k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocals for Roy Orbison's television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. By now, Raitt was clean and sober, having broken her substance abuse — for which she would credit Stevie Ray Vaughan in a Minnesota State Fair concert[1] the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, she began working on new material. During this time, Raitt considered signing with Prince's own label, Paisley Park, but negotiations would ultimately fall through. Instead she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records.
Raitt had met Was through Hal Wilner, who was putting together Stay Awake, a tribute album to Disney music for A&M. Was and Wilner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine," the lullaby from Dumbo. Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Don to produce her next album.
After more than twenty years of singing and recording popular music, Bonnie Raitt achieved immense success with her 10th album. Released in 1989, Nick of Time went to the top of the U.S. charts and won three Grammy Awards. At the same time, she walked away with a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album "The Healer".
She followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw, then, in 1994 she added two more Grammy's with her album Longing in Their Hearts. Both of these albums were multiplatinum successes. Raitt's collaboration with Was would amicably come to an end with 1995's live release, Road Tested. Released to solid reviews, it sold well enough to be certified gold.
For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different," Raitt said. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on Fundamental in 1998.
In March of 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Silver Lining was released in 2002 while Souls Alike was released in September of 2005.
Stand Up to the Night
Bonnie Raitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And we're runnin', there's no place to hide
There's a time when we have to stand alone
With our eyes on a world that we never have known
Where can you run to
But somewhere inside your heart
What can you hold to
[Chorus]
Stand up to the night
Though it's comin' down on you
You're the only one you have
That you can hold onto
Stand up to the night
Though you're crying no one hears
If you feel your soul would light the darkness disappears
Stand up to the night
There's a time and a place in your life when you realize
That the stranger will always be there
There's a cold in the heart of the world you know
No one cares if the night comes and takes you below
Where can you run to
But somewhere inside your heart
What can you hold to
But all that you were from the start
[Chorus: x2]
The lyrics of Bonnie Raitt's "Stand Up to the Night" speaks about the challenges of facing the darkness within oneself and the world. The song deals with a time when the light inside us dims and we find ourselves running, searching for a place to hide. It talks about the realization that we have to stand alone with our eyes on the world we never knew. The lyrics implore us to confront our inner darkness, to face it head-on, and not be afraid to stand up to it.
The chorus repeatedly encourages us to stand up to the night, to hold onto ourselves, to not be afraid to cry because we are the only ones who can truly hear ourselves, and that something inside us will light the darkness that surrounds us. The song reminds us that we have to look within ourselves, that we can find solace and strength within our hearts, and that we should never forget who we are and where we came from.
Overall, the song is a testament to the human spirit and our ability to overcome adversity. It speaks to anyone who has ever struggled with the darkness in their lives, encouraging them to never give up and to always stand up to the night.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a time when the light inside of us feels the night
There comes a time when we all feel the darkness inside us consuming our soul.
And we're runnin', there's no place to hide
We run aimlessly, hoping to find a place to hide, but the darkness follows us everywhere.
There's a time when we have to stand alone
There comes a moment in our life when we have to stand alone and fight the darkness that's trying to take over.
With our eyes on a world that we never have known
We have to keep our eyes focused on the world we've never known, a world waiting for us to step out of the darkness.
Where can you run to
When there's no place to hide from the darkness, where do you go?
But somewhere inside your heart
The only place you can run to is inside your heart, where the light of your soul resides.
What can you hold to
In the face of the daunting darkness threatening to engulf you, what do you hold onto?
But all that you were from the start
You hold onto the person you were from the beginning, the light that has always been present within you.
Stand up to the night
Face the darkness without fear and fight back with all your strength.
Though it's comin' down on you
Even if the darkness is closing in on you from all sides, don't lose hope and keep fighting.
You're the only one you have
The only person you can rely on in the face of darkness is yourself.
That you can hold onto
Hold onto the light within you, the only thing that can keep you from being consumed by the darkness.
Though you're crying no one hears
It may feel like you're all alone in the face of darkness, but don't let that make you lose hope.
If you feel your soul would light the darkness disappears
As long as you keep the light of your soul burning, the darkness will never be able to consume you entirely.
There's a time and a place in your life when you realize
At some point in our lives, we all realize that the darkness that once terrified us is powerless in the face of the light within us.
That the stranger will always be there
The darkness is always lurking, waiting for a moment of weakness to strike.
There's a cold in the heart of the world you know
The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, with darkness lurking at every corner.
No one cares if the night comes and takes you below
When the darkness comes to take you away, you may feel like no one cares, but that's just the darkness playing tricks on your mind.
If you feel your soul would light the darkness disappears
Keep the light of your soul burning bright, and the darkness will be driven away.
Stand up to the night
Stand strong and face the darkness with all your might.
Though it's comin' down on you
Even when the darkness seems overwhelming, don't let it defeat you.
You're the only one you have
In the end, you are the only person who can save yourself from the darkness.
That you can hold onto
Hold onto the light within you, and the darkness will never be able to defeat you.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: WILL JENNINGS, RICHARD KERR, J A C REDFORD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind