Instantly, I knew
it was the best thing I'd ever been a part of.
“I'll close my eyes, then I won't see
The love you don't feel when you're holding me
Morning will come and I'll do what's right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight”
Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ is a perfect song.
Just ask Phil Collins. Or Missy Higgins. Or Charlie Puth, who calls it “the Grandaddy song of them all”.
Charlie Puth Covers Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” Live on the Stern Show
Howard Stern: What is it about this Bonnie Rait song? Why are you doing this cover out of all the covers you … could possibly do?
Charlie Puth: I think I just wanted to play the grandaddy song of them all. The most beautiful, tormented but still … you don’t know what you want your heart to feel when you hear this because it’s so beautiful musically but it’s such a painful message to hear that you can’t make somebody love you. And I just don’t know if there will ever be a song that’s written like this. I think this song took the slot. And it’s, it’s just, it’s just a song that I wish that I wrote.
Bon Iver - I Can't Make You Love Me / Nick of Time
I’ve gone searching for ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’s’ best covers (Joy Oladokun’s, with Jason Isbell on guitar is a great example), but still, Bon Iver’s remains the zenith.
‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ was written by Nashville writers Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin who said: “we'd worked on this song for more than six months. One day, [Mike'] said, 'Come up to the living room,' where his piano was. He sat down and started playing this melody, and it was one of the most moving pieces of music I'd heard. I mean, it hit me in a hard way ...”
“Instantly, I knew it was the best thing I'd ever been a part of."
Inside a Magical Home with Breathtaking Views of the Coastal Landscape
On the original recording of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, Bruce Hornsby played keys.
You already know Bruce Hornsby because you’ve heard his song ‘The Way It Is’ sampled on the Tupac’s song ‘Changes’.
Here is Hornsby and Bon Iver, live, covering ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’.
Hornsby, and specifically his song ‘Barren Ground’ provided the inspiration for ‘Beth/Rest’, arguably one of Bon Iver’s best songs.
Like Deadheads swapping cassette tapes, there is a devout community of Bon Iver aficionados, sharing best versions of live songs. Indeed, even poorly recorded, live Bon Iver transcends the recorded experience. This is the best version of Beth/Rest.
And here is Hornsby himself, playing ‘Beth/Rest’ live with Bon Iver. Just listen to those keys, especially from around 3:30. Unmistakeable.
“This is a song that came from all my Bruce listening over the decades.”
Beth/Rest Bon Iver with Bruce Hornsby
“Our love is a star
Sure some hazardry
For the light before
and after most indefinitely”
Four years ago, Bon Iver’s founder Justin Vernon shared that after a period of musical burnout, the four CERCLE shows they played at the Opera House in 2016 were: “one of THE highlights of any of our lives as artists”.
Of the Opera House itself, he said: “The building has power. You know, you walk and you see it for the first time, and it’s … stunning. It does something, you know what I mean? And that art, that architecture, that true vision plays in this world and is more important than we give it credit for.”
Bon Iver 2016 | CERCLE back in time with us | House Vault | Ep 3
Some of the songs those CERCLE shows have since been released, most notably this breathtaking acapella version of ‘Heavenly Father’.
I like to think that Vernon’s yelp at 2:06 is the exact moment he rediscovered his connection to playing the music live.
“That’s how this should feel. That’s us at our best.”
Bon Iver - "Heavenly Father" (Acapella) | Live at Sydney Opera House
Paul Keating’s description of the Opera House, applies equally to Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’: “like all great art, [it] never weakens. No matter how often you see it or from what angle you look at it or in what light it is cast, it always hits you in the heart because it is simply so good.”
No matter how often you hear it
it always hits you in the heart
because it is simply so good.
Bonnie Raitt & Bruce Hornsby - I Can't Make You Love Me
“Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
You can't make your heart feel something it won't
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power
But you won't, no you won't
Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't”