Bonnie Raitt had already been a Warner Brothers Records artist for seven years but had eluded superstardom when she and another group of high profile celebrities (including Bruce Springsteen, Crobsy, Stills, & Nash, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Orleans’ front-man John Hall, and others) banded together to present the No Nukes rally and concert in New York City during September, 1979. The event was done to raise awareness and turn public opinion against the use of nuclear power in the United States. This was a timely issue, since the accident at The Three Mile Power Plant in Pennsylvania, the…entire summary

Bonnie Raitt - vocals, guitar
John Hall - guitar, vocals
Dennis Whitted - drums
Will McFarland - guitar, vocals
Freebo - bass, vocals
Bill Payne - piano, vocals
Rosemary Butler - vocals

Bonnie Raitt had already been a Warner Brothers Records artist for seven years but had eluded superstardom when she and another group of high profile celebrities (including Bruce Springsteen, Crobsy, Stills, & Nash, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Orleans’ front-man John Hall, and others) banded together to present the No Nukes rally and concert in New York City during September, 1979. The event was done to raise awareness and turn public opinion against the use of nuclear power in the United States. This was a timely issue, since the accident at The Three Mile Power Plant in Pennsylvania, the death of Karen Silkwood, and the film The China Syndrome had recently dominated world news.

Raitt had written “No Nuke Blues” specifically for the event, and used her time on the stage to praise the cause. The rest of her brief set is taken up with great versions of popular songs from her catalog, including a funky re-make of the Sam & Dave classic, “Ithank You,” and a stirring reading of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery.” She closes with a raucous version of her 1972 breakthrough song, “Give It Up Or Let Me Go.“

While Ms Raitt’s intentions were entirely noble, in retrospect, the exposure she gained from the worldwide radio broadcast of the No Nukes rally (and the concert film of the event that released some months later) invariably boosted her career and put her in the league of her No Nukes peers, such as Crosby, Stills, & Nash or James Taylor. No Nukes and Raitt’s performance was an important event, because it had picked up where The Concert for Bangladesh had left off in terms of getting young people together to facilitate social change. Although No Nukes didn’t stop the use of nuclear power, it did help bring about considerably stronger safety measures.

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