Bonnie Raitt’s sophomore album, “Give it Up,” was released to critical acclaim in 1972. By this time, Raitt was already an established political activist, and the liner notes dedicate the LP to the people of Vietnam — whose plight was close to her heart — but also to “the loving memory of a dear friend,” that of her great mentor, Fred McDowell (via Mark Bego’s “Just in the Nick of Time“). McDowell had died of cancer on July 3 of that year at the age of 68, according to The New York Times. His obituary noted the musician’s popular resurgence in his final years, a twilight success helped in part by the efforts of Dick Waterman and, as a supporting artist and friend, Bonnie Raitt.
Per “Just in the Nick of Time,” Raitt and McDowell had planned to record a duet together of the McDowell classic “Kokomo” for inclusion on the album but were unable to complete it before his death. According to Waterman, what upset Raitt most about McDowell’s passing was that they had lost the opportunity to promote the ender bluesman even further. “[I]t hit her really hard,” he told Bego. “It was almost as if she was angry that they just didn’t have a little more time — she could have done it for them. As her popularity was climbing and helping them was a real motivation, those men just ran out of days.”
