Album Reviews

Back in 1949 Guy Lombardo and then Doris Day had hits with a song called “Enjoy Yourself (it’s later than you think)”. The chipper tune composed by Carl Sigman with lyrics by Herb Magidson advised down in the dumpers to get busy enjoying themselves:
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

Bonnie Raitt’s “Nick of Time” views in a darker, more melancholic light time’s passage. Its release in 1989 struck a morbid, resonating chord with baby boomers then approaching or having hit 40.

To say the song took a generation by surprise and made them contemplate their own mortality would not be overstating its impact. Our time as the “young generation” was over though most of us were too busy having fun to have noticed (and some still are!).

Before the song’s release “Nick of Time” meant “just in time”. Afterwards, the darker double meaning held sway. Despite the downer opener (a gutsy call in my opinion), Raitt’s 10th album was her best seller, topping the Billboard 200 chart and that year winning three GRAMMY® Awards including Album of the Year. Raitt won for both “Best Rock Vocalist” and “Best Pop Vocalist”. With this album Raitt achieved the commercial success that had so long eluded her, though those of us who became fans with 1972’s Give It Up produced by Michael Cuscuna have been with Bonnie all the way through some thin thin and thick thick.

Twenty-five years later the title tune—one of only two songs she wrote for the album— is even weightier. Raitt sings of a friend whose biological clock is running out and she still can’t make up her mind—about choosing a mate or having a baby is left ambiguous. By now that friend could be a grandmother.

Raitt sings of seeing her folks aging and their seeing the same in her. Her father, the Broadway actor/singer John Raitt (“Carousel”, “Oklahoma”, “The Pajama Game”) was 72 at the time. He passed away in 2005 at age 88. Today Bonnie Raitt is 64.

This album, produced by Don Was, who is now president of Blue Note Records, holds up as well today as does Bonnie Raitt. Did you see and hear her at the Linda Ronstadt Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?

So yes the opener “Nick of Time” is a “heavy” but it’s followed by a raucous cover of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love” and from there, thanks to outstanding A&R work the album flows hitch-free between rockers and worthy ballads. Another terrific musical juxtaposition is the jump from the rocker “I Will Not Be Denied” to the ballad “I Ain’t Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again” with Raitt backed by Herbie Hancock on piano. It’s one of Raitt’s finest recorded vocals and it comes midway on the second side. The album end with Raitt’s hard, bluesy bye bye (gotta go ‘cause) “The Road’s My Middle Name.”

Not to be missed. I could blather on about the great rhythm section but I’ll stop. Either you know the record or you’re now moved to get it. If not, I’ve not done my job.

As for the sonics, it was recorded to analog tape by Ed Cherney at Ocean Way, Capitol, Hollywood Sound and The Record Plant. The sound is honest, full-bodied and for a studio production, satisfyingly three-dimensional and dynamic. It’s minimally processed and is sufficiently post the early 80’s Aural Exciter era to have avoided all of that period’s sonic traps, though there are a few of what sound like Yamaha DX7 tinkles. Just a few.

I compared an original Capitol issue mastered at Artisan Sound by Greg Fulginiti, the 90’s era DCC Compact Classics edition mastered by Steve Hoffman and cut by Kevin Gray and this new edition produced and overseen by original producer Don Was and engineer Ed Cherney and cut at Capitol by Ron McMaster.

This one is the best sounding, the original Artisan cut second best and the “audiophile” pressing third. The DCC is overly bright and hard and surprisingly opaque. It’s “hi-fi” in the worst sense of the word. Steve and Kevin have their hits and misses. This is one of their misses.

This reissue is weightier on bottom compared to the original but it doesn’t scream “bass”. It just adds weight lacking in the original. Better yet, the very top end is far cleaner and airier than the original without sounding as if the EQ was grossly pushed. The amount of inner detail revealed—listen to how clearly and easily you can hear the background singers as individual entities—something neither of the previous releases managed as well.

This is the definitive reissue and it was done by a major label, but considering that the original producer and engineer oversaw it, and considering who they are, I’m not surprised.

Pressed by Quality Record Pressings (QRP). The copy I got was flat and quiet—flawless in every way. Highly recommended.