"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps rule."
Bonnie Raitt's quote reflects her perception that the music industry can be ruthless and superficial, with the primary focus being on financial gain rather than artistic integrity or genuine talent. She suggests that it operates like a treacherous system filled with unscrupulous individuals who exploit artists for their own benefit, often treating them as mere commodities instead of respecting them as creative souls.
"When you're singing the blues, you're not lying—you're telling the truth."
This quote suggests that when a person is singing the blues, they are honestly expressing their feelings or experiences, rather than making things up or lying. The blues genre, rooted in African-American history, often deals with deep emotional struggles such as loss, pain, and hardship. Thus, Bonnie Raitt's quote highlights that the emotions expressed in the blues are genuine and authentic, making it a powerful form of artistic expression and emotional release.
"I don't play 'covers.' I interpolate and interpret my own songs based on what I love about the originals."
This quote indicates that while Bonnie Raitt may perform songs written by others, she doesn't simply reproduce them as they were originally sung (covers). Instead, she infuses her unique style, emotions, and interpretations into the songs, making them her own, based on her admiration for the original versions.
"You have to find what you love and do that every day of your life."
This quote, from Bonnie Raitt, encourages finding personal passion and dedicating one's daily life to pursuing it. The key idea is that happiness, fulfillment, and overall life satisfaction come from consistently engaging in activities that bring joy and meaning. By doing what we love every day, we foster our growth, creativity, and sense of purpose. This perspective emphasizes the importance of self-discovery, purposeful living, and the pursuit of personal passions to lead a meaningful life.
"I believe music is like a medicine, it can heal and uplift people when they're going through hard times."
This quote by Bonnie Raitt implies that music has therapeutic properties; it can bring solace, comfort, and strength to individuals who are experiencing difficult times. Just as medicine is used to cure physical ailments, music can be used to heal emotional or psychological pain. Moreover, like a potent upliftant, music can inspire optimism, encourage resilience, and elevate one's spirits during challenging periods in life.
The anti-nuke movement has important and far-reaching implications for grassroots organizing. 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
Quakers are known for wanting to give back. Ban the bomb and the civil rights movement and the native American struggle for justice - those things were very, very front-burner in my childhood, as were the ideas of working for peace and if you have more than you need, then you share it with people who don't.
- Bonnie Raitt
Nobody taught me to play bottleneck. I just saw it and taught myself. I got an old bottle and steamed the label off, put it on the wrong finger, I basically did everything wrong until I met some of the Blues legends early in my career who taught me another way. I didn't have anyone to tell me women didn't play bottleneck.
- Bonnie Raitt
I'm just glad that I'm the musical equivalent of a character actress, because blues singers can keep singing and having an audience at 35, and someone like Madonna's gonna have to find something else to do, 'cos I don't care how pointy those bras are that she wears, they're still gonna look a little odd when she's 55!
- Bonnie Raitt
I think we have responsibilities to be active in the things we believe in, regardless of what our job is. At least in my lifetime, there has been a tremendous combining of activism and music, that came up in the era of Pete Seeger and the Weavers and Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary.
- Bonnie Raitt
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. 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
I'm happy to say that at 62, I think I've reached that point where stuff doesn't bother me as much, and my gratitude level has gone way up, especially having gone through the loss that I've had, and losing so many of the great artists that I was close to. They taught me how to see it with a grain of salt and a lot of humor and perspective.
- Bonnie Raitt
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