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.
Sweet Forgiveness
Bonnie Raitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When will I see that you belong to me
When will I learn to take you on my journey
When will I see that you belong with me
Sweet Forgiveness
How can you go my bail
I never really knew that I needed you
Understanding, yeah
How do you set my sail
When will I learn to take you with me everywhere
When will I learn (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter than honey
Give me that sweet forgiveness
Sweeter than wine
Did you ever get lost
In a bundle of the nerves
Did you ever get lost
In a jungle of your own words
You hurt another
Hurt a brother
You hurt a sister or a lover
And then you know right then
You got to just sit back
And wait for the cure
Sweet Forgiveness
How can you go my bail
I never really knew that I needed you
But you were right there
Understanding, yeah
Honey, you set my sails
When will I learn to take you with me everywhere
When will I learn (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter than honey
Give me that sweet forgiveness
Sweeter than wine
Give me that sweet forgiveness
Sweeter than honey
Give me that sweet forgiveness
Sweeter than wine
Give me sweet forgiveness, baby (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter than honey (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter than wine (sweet forgiveness)
Have to give it to me, baby (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter than the wine (sweet forgiveness)
Sweeter, sweeter, sweeter than honey (sweet forgiveness)
Ooh, I'm sweeter than wine (sweet forgiveness)
The song "Sweet Forgiveness" by Bonnie Raitt embodies the quest for internal peace and the struggle for self-realization. The first verse contains the repeated plea to learn how to take someone on a personal journey and realize that they belong together. The chorus then introduces the idea of sweet forgiveness as a solution to this conflict. The singer confesses that they never knew they needed forgiveness until they were right there, waiting to be understood. The forgiveness is sweet because it is comforting, it sets the sails of their life on course, and finally, it is a necessity to take it with them everywhere on their journey.
The second verse takes a different turn and describes a situation when someone gets lost in their nerves or words and hurts somebody they love. They then have to wait for forgiveness, knowing it is the only way to cure the hearts they have broken. The chorus offers this forgiveness as sweeter than honey and wine, emphasizing how vital it is to have it in their lives. The song ends with a repetition of the phrase "Give me sweet forgiveness," reinforcing the idea that this is an ongoing quest for peace that requires constant attention.
The song is a beautiful exploration of the complexities of human emotions and the search for forgiveness in relationships. Forgiveness is not always easy to come by, and some may struggle to forgive themselves or others. Bonnie Raitt captures this struggle poetically and melodically in "Sweet Forgiveness."
Line by Line Meaning
When will I learn to take you on my journey
When will I realize that I need you and bring you along with me on my path.
When will I see that you belong to me
When will I recognize that you are mine and let go of any doubts or fears.
When will I see that you belong with me
When will I understand that we are meant to be together and work towards a shared future.
Sweet Forgiveness
The act of forgiving someone, despite their wrongdoings and flaws.
How can you go my bail
How can you be there for me, supporting and helping me through difficult times.
I never really knew that I needed you
I didn't realize how much I relied on you until I was forced to confront my own struggles without you.
But you were right there
Despite my own blindness, you were always by my side, ready to lend a hand.
Understanding, yeah
You showed me empathy and compassion, helping me to work through my own pain.
How do you set my sail
How do you inspire and motivate me to move forward, providing the guidance I need to navigate uncertainty.
When will I learn to take you with me everywhere
When will I understand the value of your presence and make a conscious effort to incorporate you into all aspects of my life.
Sweeter than honey
The love and acceptance that comes from forgiveness is sweeter than anything else.
Did you ever get lost in a bundle of nerves
Have you ever been so anxious or overwhelmed that you struggled to communicate effectively?
In a jungle of your own words
Have you ever found yourself unable to articulate what you are feeling or thinking, despite wanting to?
You hurt another
Acknowledging times when you have caused pain to those around you.
Hurt a brother
Causing harm to someone you consider family or close to you.
You hurt a sister or a lover
Causing pain to an intimate partner or someone you have strong emotional ties to.
And then you know right then
At this point, you realize that something needs to change.
You got to just sit back
Sometimes, the best course of action is to pause and reflect on your actions.
And wait for the cure
Once you have acknowledged your mistakes, the process of repairing relationships and moving towards forgiveness can begin.
Give me that sweet forgiveness
A plea for forgiveness and a desire to move forward.
Sweeter than wine
The sweetness of forgiveness is powerful and intoxicating.
Have to give it to me, baby
A request for forgiveness that acknowledges the importance of the recipient's role in the process.
Sweeter, sweeter, sweeter than honey
Reinforcing the idea that forgiveness and the love that comes with it is the most powerful force available.
Ooh, I'm sweeter than wine
A personal declaration that the act of forgiveness has made the artist a better, happier person.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Daniel Joseph Moore
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind