Finest Lovin' Man
One of only two Raitt originals on her 1971 debut, a horn-backed blues and the album's longest track.
Bonnie Raitt, from Bonnie Raitt (1971)
- Written by
- Bonnie Raitt
- Released
- 1971
- Length
- 4:42
- Album
- Bonnie Raitt
Side one, track four of the debut, cut in August 1971 with Willie Murphy on piano, Russell Hagen on electric guitar, Freebo on fretless bass, Stephen Bradley on drums, Junior Wells on harmonica and a horn section of Eugene Hoffman, A.C. Reed, Maurice Jacox and Voyle Harris. WFUV heard a honky-tonk feel in Wells's harp, and The Current's Cecilia Johnson wrote that Raitt and Murphy let the band simmer it out.
Christopher Treacy of Rock and Roll Globe read the debut's two originals, this and Thank You, as portraits of a gracious, loyal woman who keeps the upper hand: the narrator is proud of how well she treats her man and chides other women. A 3:57 edit opens The Bonnie Raitt Collection (1990).
Live
setlist.fm documents it at the Jabberwocky in Syracuse, New York, on 27 March 1971, and at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia on 22 February 1972. The upload in the hypersongs web is not the studio track but that live WMMR radio performance from Sigma Sound, later released on The Lost Broadcast, and runs well over five minutes.
On stage
- 1971-03-27, Jabberwocky, Syracuse, New York
- 1972-02-22, Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia WMMR radio broadcast, released as The Lost Broadcast
More songs by Bonnie Raitt
Sources
- Bonnie Raitt (album), Wikipedia
- Folk legend Bonnie Raitt's Minnesota-made debut turns 50, The Current (2021-11-16)
- Any Day Woman: 50 years of Bonnie Raitt, Rock and Roll Globe (2021-12)
- Bonnie Raitt, 1971, WFUV (2021)
- The Lost Broadcast: Philadelphia 1972, MusicBrainz