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.
Time Of Our Lives
Bonnie Raitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Not like the last one
This is an upgrade model
The kind that really blows my mind
Back in the fast lane, the get up and go one
I'm leaning heavy on the throttle
Ain't no backing of this time
Ain't that what it's supposed to feel like
When it's right
So let the neighbors talk about us
We're gonna have the time of our lives
And it feels all right
I've got a bad case
Worse than the last one
I've been sweatin' and burnin', fever keep me up all night
I wanna to celebrate
My new opinion
I ain't the same plain jane, keeping it bottle up inside
And when you stop and think about it
Ain't that what it's supposed to feel like
Oh when it's right
Judging by the way I'm feelin'
We're gonna have the time of our lives
I've been waiting just about all my life
Just to see things from the other side
Come on baby we've got to roll the dice
Now's the time to get it right
I've got a suitcase
No need to pack much
Come on and ride with me baby
'Cause we're heading for the county line
Now when you really get down to it
Ain't that what it's supposed to be like
Yeah, when the time is right
Say goodbye to all our trouble
We're gonna have the time of our lives
When you really think about it
There must be a place for you and I yeah now baby
While the neighbors talk about it
Were gonna have the time of our lives
And it sure feels right
And it just feels alright, can you feel it baby?
And I feel all right
And I feel all right
The lyrics of Bonnie Raitt's song "Time of Our Lives" describe the excitement and joy of being in a new and special relationship, one that is an "upgrade model" from previous experiences. The singer of the song is feeling passionate and energized, and is ready to embrace all of the new experiences that come with a new love. Despite any judgment from others, the singer is determined to have "the time of our lives" and revel in the happiness that their new relationship brings.
The lines "I've been waiting just about all my life / Just to see things from the other side" suggest that the singer may have been through some difficult relationships in the past and is now finally experiencing the positive side of love. The repeated emphasis on having "the time of our lives" reinforces the idea that the singer is determined to enjoy this special time to the fullest and is not worried about what anyone else thinks.
Overall, the lyrics of "Time of Our Lives" are about seizing the moment and embracing the happiness that comes with falling in love. It's a song that celebrates the thrill and excitement of new romance and encourages listeners to take risks and enjoy life to the fullest.
Line by Line Meaning
I got a new thing
I have found something new and different.
Not like the last one
It is not like my previous experiences, which were not as remarkable.
This is an upgrade model
It is an improved version of what I had before.
The kind that really blows my mind
It is so impressive that it makes me feel astounded.
Back in the fast lane, the get up and go one
I am moving fast with speed and enthusiasm.
I'm leaning heavy on the throttle
I am putting all my energy into it.
Ain't no backing of this time
I am not delaying or hesitating this time.
'Cause when you really get down to it
This is because, upon deeper consideration,
Ain't that what it's supposed to feel like
This is how it should feel when everything is just right.
When it's right
When things are going well.
So let the neighbors talk about us
We should not worry about what other people say about us.
We're gonna have the time of our lives
We are going to have a great time.
And it feels all right
I am comfortable with this and feel good about it.
I've got a bad case
I have a strong desire for something.
Worse than the last one
This feeling is more intense than my previous experiences.
I've been sweatin' and burnin', fever keep me up all night
I have been feeling intense emotions and anxiety that keep me up at night.
I wanna to celebrate
I want to enjoy and revel in what I am experiencing.
My new opinion
I have a fresh perspective on things.
I ain't the same plain jane, keeping it bottled up inside
I am not the same person as before and I am expressing my feelings more openly.
And when you stop and think about it
When you pause and reflect on it,
Ain't that what it's supposed to feel like
This is how it should feel when everything is just right.
Oh when it's right
When things are going well.
Judging by the way I'm feelin'
Based on how I am feeling,
We're gonna have the time of our lives
We are going to have a great time.
I've been waiting just about all my life
I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
Just to see things from the other side
Just to have a different experience and perspective.
Come on baby we've got to roll the dice
We need to take a risk and go for it.
Now's the time to get it right
This is the perfect opportunity to do something great.
I've got a suitcase
I am ready to leave and go on a journey.
No need to pack much
I do not need a lot to enjoy this adventure.
Come on and ride with me baby
Let's do this together.
'Cause we're heading for the county line
We are going on a journey to explore new experiences.
Now when you really get down to it
When you look at it more closely,
Ain't that what it's supposed to be like
This is how it should feel when everything is just right.
Yeah, when the time is right
When the moment is just perfect.
Say goodbye to all our trouble
Let's forget about our worries and problems.
While the neighbors talk about it
Even if people are gossiping about us,
Were gonna have the time of our lives
We are going to have a great time.
And it sure feels right
I am confident and comfortable with this decision.
And it just feels alright, can you feel it baby?
I am feeling good and I hope you are too.
And I feel alright
Overall, I am happy with the way things are going.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: TERON O. BRYANT BEAL, TOMMY L. SIMS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind