Bonnie Raitt
| Written by: Terry Adams Produced by: Rob Fraboni Album: Green Light (Warner Bros., 1982) |
A wonderfully catchy tune written by Terry Adams of NRBQ that keeps you off-balance to create a fun tension. Most rock songs have 4 measure phrases and each of those measures contains 4 beats with the back beat on beats 2 & 4:
| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4| 1 2 3 4|
This song mixes things up quite a bit. Here's a chart of the first sung phrase ("Just a bunch of guys...")
| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 |
Writers use this mixed-meter technique so that when they finally switch to the normal 4x4 phrase, the listener gets a sense of relief. Anyhoo, that catches my ear along with the sweet chorus, rocking accompaniment with Jerry Lee Lewis-ish piano pounding, great harmony vocals, and a hard-charging guitar solo (I'm guessing by Raitt herself) about 3 minutes in.
Lyrically, it's a basic Friday night cruising song, but when a female sings about "just me and the boys," it adds a whole 'nuther dimension.
Lyrically, it's a basic Friday night cruising song, but when a female sings about "just me and the boys," it adds a whole 'nuther dimension.
Dave Edmunds covered it the same year:
The NRBQ original:
Pick a favorite or two and buy a copy.
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