Good evening and welcome along again to this week's Old Grey Whistle Test
live from the BBC Television Centre, the theatre here in Shepherd's Bush,
and a concert I've been looking forward to
for a very long time indeed.
It's by way of a prelude in many ways
to her concert this coming Sunday at the New Victoria in London
and it's a pleasure for me to be able to welcome on stage
Bonnie Raitt. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# These men that I've been seeing, baby
# They've got their soul up on a shelf
# No, they could never love me
# When they can't even love themselves
# But I need someone to love me
# Someone who really understands
# Who won't have to put himself above me
# Who can love me like a man
# I never seen such losers people
# Don't think I haven't tried
# To find a man to take me home
# Instead of taking me for a ride
# Oh, baby, I know you can
# Believe me when I tell you that you love me
# Like a man
# They all want me to rock them
# Like my back ain't got no bone
# Want you to rock me
# Like mine was your own
# Ooh, baby, I know you can
# Believe me when I tell you that you love me
# Like a man...
All right, Alan, take it.
# Come home sad and lonely
# Feel like I want to cry
# I need a man to hold me
# I don't need a fool that has to know why
# Cos I need love
# Baby, won't you understand
# Don't go putting yourself above me
# Just love me like a man
# Oooh. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you.
That was a song by a friend of mine from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
where I first started out playing.
His name was Chris Smither.
And this is another gentleman who's tune I like to do.
His name's Joel Zoss.
One time you'll get a chance to see these guys over here.
# Jesus cried, wept and died
# I guess he went up to heaven
# Well, I've been downtown such a long, long time
# Never make it home by seven
# Won't you come and take me home
# I've been too long at the fair
# And Lord, I can't stand it any more
# I went down to Jason's
# Walked until my feet were sore
# But I never knew what laughing was
# Until you walked out the door
# Won't you come and take me home
# I've been too long at the fair
# And, Lord, I can't stand it any more
# You can give my soul to Abraham
# Give my soul to Saul
# Give my bones to Canada
# My teeth, they don't hurt at all
# I don't know who made the highway
# I guess that's just my pride
# But I have heard the Prince of Darkness
# On his charger ride
# The silver blade is gleaming
# The scales are in his hands
# I swear that night is falling
# Don't let me lose another man
# Got to come and take me home
# Lord, I've been too long at the fair
# I just can't stand it any more
# Lord, I just can't stand it any more. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you.
This is a song by a man who wrote many tunes
that Tracy Nelson recorded and lots of other, especially women singers.
He wrote a song I did I think you might have heard over here
called Love Has No Pride.
And this is another one that he wrote.
# I've been romanced and dined and danced
# Crazy nights and wild times
# But life has lost its mystery
# And love is blind
# It cannot find me
# I'm blowing away
# And shadows
# Take my love and leave
# I'm blowing away
# These shadows
# Keep taking my love and leaving me
# I have cast aside
# My foolish pride
# And I'm going down
# For the last time
# I have searched this Earth
# And sailed these seas
# But love is blind
# It cannot find me
# I'm blowing away
# And shadows
# Take my love and leave
# I'm blowing away
# These shadows
# Keep taking my love and leaving me
# I'm blowing away
# And shadows
# Take my love and leave
# I'm blowing away
# These shadows
# Keep taking my love
# And leaving me. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you very much.
Enough of those happy tunes!
There's a woman in America,
one of the few women that recorded back in the 1920s,
a blues singer, she's still alive, she's 77 now
and in better and better health all the time, Sippie Wallace.
I first came over here in 1968 and lived in Arsenal
and got a record from Dobell's Record Store.
And this is one of the tunes of hers I learned off of it.
It's funny to have to go 3,000 miles to get blues records,
but that's the way it goes.
This is something me and girls worked up.
Are you ready?
Mmm, OK girls.
One, two...
# You can make me do what you want to do
# But yo got to know how
# Got to know how
# You can make me cry You can make me sad
# But you got to know how
# You got to know how
# You make me do like this
# You make me do like that
# Oh, baby
# But you better know how
# Once a pal of mine stole a man of mine
# But I got him back now
# I got him back now
# It was the same old song
# She couldn't keep him long cos she didn't know how
# Didn't know how
# But when I love my man
# I make him holler
# Whoa, my
# Yes, sir
# I really know how
# The technique ain't tough
# If you try enough
# You can learn to know how
# Learn to know how
# I might drop a few hints How to strike my flint
# If you want to know how
# Want to know how
# So don't tell me about the life you led
# Don't try to drink me into bed
# No, baby
# That ain't the way how
# You got to take your time
# It ain't no crime if it lasts all night
# You'll be ideal when you begin to feel
# That you're doing it right
# When you love me right
# You'll hear me holler
# Whoa, my
# Yes, sir
# We really know how...
All right, Will, take me to Texas.
# If you stay with me who knows how it will be
# When we finally know how
# We'll get a house in town There's no need to move around
# When you really know how
# Really know how
# There's tricks I don't even know
# Ones we'll make up as we go
# Whoa, baby
# When we really know how
# Ooh, yes, Mr
# When we really know how. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you and let me introduce this band with me now.
Alan Hand on piano.
Will McFarlane on guitar.
Dennis Whitted on the drums.
And Freebo on the bass.
Some of the finest gentlemen I know.
APPLAUSE
Hand me the envelope, please.
A bit of refreshment.
You're so quiet.
I thought you'd all be drunk.
This is a...
I had the pleasure of travelling around
with Mississippi Fred McDowell when I first started playing
and I'd like to do some of his tunes for you.
# When you get home, baby
# Write me a few of your lines
# When you get home, baby
# Write me a few of your lines
# That'll be consolation
# Lord, on my worried mind
# I left my baby
# Standing in his back door crying
# I left my baby
# Standing in his back door crying
# I never felt so sorry
# Lord, until he said goodbye
# Kokomo me baby
# Kokomo me right
# Kokomo your mama
# She'll be back tomorrow night
# And I'm crying
# Hey, yeah, hey, yeah
# Baby, don't you want to go?
# Back to that little nice city
# Sweet home Kokomo
# I'm going to head down to the river
# I'm going to sit down on the ground
# I'm going to head down to the river
# I'm going to sit down on the ground
# And let the waves of the water
# Lord, honey, wash my trouble down. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
# Sitting here worrying
# While you're looking to find yourself
# Somebody else
# With me loving you and wanting you, baby
# You not knowing what you want yourself
# Why do you
# Treat me so mean
# It hurts so bad
# All you want to do is salad bowl and jive
# You don't even know this woman's alive
# And I'm sitting here worrying
# While you're looking to find yourself
# Somebody else
# Oh
# Ain't going to be your sugar mama no more
# Well, you can't have love, people
# When you're still keeping score
# All you pretty boys that used to catch my eye
# I got myself one who wants to satisfy
# Ain't going to be your sugar mama no more
# No more
# Sitting here worrying
# While you're looking to find yourself
# Somebody else
# With me loving you
# Nobody but you
# And you're not even knowing what you want yourself
# All you pretty boys that used to catch my eye
# I just want one who wants to satisfy
# Ain't going to be your sugar mama no more
# No, I ain't going to be your sugar mama no more
# You see darling I need a
# Something like a
# That's more like it
# Ain't going to be your sugar mama no more
# Ain't going to be your sugar mama no more. #
APPLAUSE
This is a tune off my new album by Allen Toussaint.
# So you think the man is crazy
# He eats up your lies
# Like they're good for him
# Apple pie
# He don't even cry
# He's not a fool
# He's just trying to do
# What his heart says to
# To love you
# As you take to the wind
# To the wind again my friend
# As he breaks down within
# Within, within, within
# He waits for you patiently
# Hoping that one day you'll see
# That all he really wants to be
# Is yours and yours alone eternally
# What do you want the boy to do?
# Don't you see you're breaking the child in two?
# What do you want the boy to do?
# All he really wants is you
# He knows what you are
# Still he'll be OK
# Saved the world today
# But you know better
# You don't go around him
# Now and then you promise
# All the way out things that you're going to get
# You will see, you will be
# So damn glad that you finally found him
# Free to go
# As he watches you come and go
# Or you show
# As he watched you promise a zero
# Zero, zero, zero
# He waits for you patiently
# Hoping that one day you'll see
# That all he really wants to be
# Is yours and yours alone eternally
# What do you want the boy to do?
# Don't you see you're breaking the child in two?
# What do you want the boy to do?
# Don't you see that you're breaking the child in two?
# Oh
# Ooh-ooh-ooh
# What do you want the boy to do?
# Don't you see you're breaking the child in two?
# What do you want the boy to do?
# What do you want the boy
# Don't you see you're breaking the child in two?
# That you're breaking the child in two. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you.
What can I say about my wonderful band?
I'll do this last song for my main man.
He ain't my man, he might be yours.
One of my favourite song writers,
somebody I travelled the country with a couple of years ago.
50 cities in a bus.
Mr Jackson Browne wrote this tune.
God, it's in tune. I might faint!
I'll straighten up.
# Warm and lovely mystery
# Fire smiling through
# Before this moment fades away
# I want to know you
# I've got lightning in my pocket
# Thunder in my shoe
# Have no fear, I've got something here
# I want to show you
# Low
# Under the falling sky
# Easily we will lie
# While I bring it to you
# It's a low road
# A high wire going from me to you
# And in your eyes
# The distance left is closing
# I've got a feeling
# Got a feeling in my oceans
# And blood underneath my skin
# That into your bright fields this prison is opening
# Our shadows wake each day
# Though they don't know why
# Hope and try
# Live and die
# So leave them in their frozen world
# Come and be my lover
# If it's only for one stolen moment
# We will live forever
# And it's a warm and lovely mystery
# Can you hear the choir?
# Voices can no longer hold my desire
# So just abandon your history
# And meet me in the fire
# Angels wait to take me higher and higher
# Oh
# Ooh-ooh
# Oh-oh-oh
# Higher and higher
# Oh-oh-oh-oh
# Higher and higher, ooh
# Higher
# Higher and higher
# Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
# Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
# Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. #
Thank you for coming.
APPLAUSE
Whoa!
Looks like we finished a little early.
Got a couple of friends like that, too.
Yeah, yeah, I heard them up in the director's box.
OK, Appleton, this is for you.
# I am an old woman
# Named after my mother
# And my old man is another
# Child that's grown old
# If dreams were thunder
# And lightning was desire
# This old house would've burnt down
# A long time ago
# Make me an angel
# That flies from Montgomery
# Make me a poster
# Of an old rodeo
# Just give me one thing
# I can hold on to
# To believe in this living
# Is just a hard way to go
# When I was a young girl
# I had me a cowboy
# He weren't much to look at
# Just a free rambling man
# But that was a long time
# And no matter how I tried
# The years just flowed by
# Like a broken down dam
# Make me an angel
# That flies from Montgomery
# Make me a poster
# Of an old rodeo
# Just give me one thing
# That I can hold on to
# To believe in this living
# Is just a hard way to go
# Well, there's flies in the kitchen
# I can hear them, they're buzzing
# And I ain't done nothing
# Since I woke up today
# How the hell can a person
# Go to work in the morning
# And come home in the evening
# Without nothing to say
# Make me an angel
# That flies from Montgomery
# Make me a poster
# Of an old rodeo
# You've got to give me just one thing
# I can hold on to
# To believe in this living
# Is just a hard way to go
# To believe in this living
# Is just a
# Hard way to go. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you very much.
We appreciate it. Thank you.