Gimme One Reason To Stay Here

The song "Gimme One Reason To Stay Here" was running through my head, as it does for an hour or two every few months, and I finally got frustrated by the fact that I know the first line, and about a third of the lyrics randomly for the rest of the song.  Because I really like it.  So I looked it up under Bonnie Raitt, who I thought had sung it in the 80s. Tracy Chapman kept showing up, but I associate her with the 2000s, and I knew it was way before that. Maybe even the 1970s?  Maybe it was some classic blues number that they covered.

No, it's Tracy Chapman, who wrote it in the 90s, which surprised me. It sounds like Raitt.

Which gets one immediately thinking, it that fan fantasy way "I'll bet Bonnie liked that song when she heard it." Then right on the heels of that, "I'll bet Chapman liked Raitt." No guarantee of that, of course.  Musicians are temperamental people, jealous about their sound, and the two of them may seethe with resentment about each other for all I know. Still, it's worth checking out. 

I apologise that for whatever this was, President and First Lady Obama and a lot of pretentious white people were at the event. I'd love to kick Barack and Michelle about this, but really, when you are president you have to go for lots of stuff for appearance's sake and it's not fair to hold it against them. Bluesy numbers are essentially SWPL* music "black music that black people no longer listen to, like gospel, blues, and classic hip-hop." Nothing against Chapman or Raitt.  I'll bet Robert Johnson would have loved listening to both of them.

 *Follow that link. It is still spot on.