I have quite a few John Hiatt albums but of the ones I have heard he hasn’t really “done it” for me.
I do have this feeling that I should like him more.
I feel that because I like what he is doing but the end results don’t convince.
The exception (of the few I have heard) is his “Bring the Family” album which I recall reviewing in the University of Queensland student paper, Semper, sometime in 1987.
That album was confident, slick but ragged around the edges with perceptive lyrics. It really did seem to nail the times (1987) and place (Reagan’s America) in both a social and personal emotional way.
Hiatt, though, had been plugging away in the music industry since 1970.
Wikipedia: "John Hiatt was born in 1952 (in Indianapolis, Indiana) to Ruth and Robert Hiatt. When Hiatt was nine years old, his 21-year-old brother Michael committed suicide. Only two years later, his father died after a long sickness. To escape from the stress of his early life, Hiatt watched IndyCar racing and listened to Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and the blues. In his youth, Hiatt reports that he and several others stole a Ford Thunderbird, a crime for which he was caught by the owners but got away with, posing as a hitchhiker. He learned to play the guitar when he was eleven, and began his musical career in Indianapolis, Indiana as a teenager. He played in a variety of local clubs, most notably the Hummingbird. Hiatt played with a variety of bands, including The Four-Fifths and John Lynch & the Hangmen.
Hiatt moved to Nashville, Tennessee when he was eighteen years old and got a job as a songwriter for the Tree-Music Publishing Company for twenty-five dollars a week. Hiatt, who was unable to read or write scores, had to record all 250 songs he wrote for the company. He also began playing with the band White Duck, as one of three singer-songwriters within the group. White Duck had already recorded one album before Hiatt joined. He wrote and performed two songs on their second album, In Season, one of which was the hit "Train to Birmingham" (1972). Hiatt performed live in many clubs around Nashville with White Duck, and as a solo act".
He recorded his first solo album, in a roots rock style, in 1974.
It flopped.
For the next ten or so years he was a critical darling though not a commercial success.
More often than not Hiatt is compared (usually unfavourably) to Elvis Costello. The comparisons are apt as they both come from the same musical sphere and have similar voices.
Sometimes, things happen tom people independently of each other. Then again, sometimes, there are links between people who you wouldn’t even expect know each other. I don’t know if Hiatt and Costello knew each other in the early days (they do now – they performed a duet in 1985) but their musical careers have dovetailed each other from the start.
Interestingly, if anything, Costello (born 1954) borrows his voice from Hiatt who had been recording since the early 70s. Hiatt then (in the late 70s and in search of a career) borrows Costello’s punchy power pop punky sound (his first album was 1977) and attitude though with little success. Hiatt eventually finds his voice and a career (with commercial success) in the mid-80s with Heartland Americana (big Americana) something which Costello would then hop on to in the late 80s.
To this day, despite individual quirky sidelines, their careers seem like members in a mutual admiration society.
Costello, is perhaps the more savvy performer of his own material whilst Hiatt is perhaps, the better songwriter ……
Wikipedia: “Hiatt was working as a songwriter for Tree International, a record label in Nashville, when his song “Sure As I'm Sittin’ Here” was covered by Three Dog Night. The song became a Top 40 hit, earning Hiatt a recording contract with Epic Records. Since then he has released twenty one studio albums, two compilation albums and one live album. His songs have been covered by a variety of artists in multiple genres, including Bob Dylan, The Searchers, Willy DeVille, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Bonamassa, Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night, Joan Baez, Paula Abdul, Buddy Guy, the Desert Rose Band, Jimmy Buffett, Mandy Moore, Iggy Pop, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Rosanne Cash, Suzy Bogguss, Jewel, Aaron Neville, Jeff Healey, Keith Urban, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, Paulini and many others. The Dutch singer/songwriter Ilse DeLange recorded the album Dear John with nine of his songs”
This album comes from that point in time where Hiatt was looking for a career. He hopped on the new wave power pop band wagon and tried his hand at sharp, edgy songs like Elvis Costello and Graham Parker.
The trouble is they watered down the punch.
The album was produced by Hiatt (with Denny Bruce) and John Hiatt so this is the sound they were looking for.
I suspect that Hiatt is a singer songwriter (in style) and the straight ahead punch of new wave power pop doesn’t suit him, at least not from what I hear on this album. He just isn’t angry enough.
I’m sure some approaching middle age rock critics enamoured by the Beatles thought, at the time, that this was punky and edgy, but they were wrong.
It’s not bad but it’s not especially memorable and it is more than a little forced.
This is a pity as there are some good songs here that others could do a better job with, despite the fact that Hiatt wrote them. (Rosanne Cash covered "Pink Bedroom" and "It Hasn't Happened Yet").
Hiatt has the new wave cover art and image down pat – then again despite saying a thousand words pictures can lie.
Especially in rock where "image" sells units as easily as music.
Though not here.
This flopped.
Tracks (best in italics)
- Back To Normal – a new wavish start with a touch of the punchy punky reggae / blue beat. The elvis Costello comparisons are valid but the lyrics are a bit naff and there isnt enough in the melody to make it memorable.
- Down In Front – more power pop than anything else and not to bad because of it.
- I Spy (For The FBI) – The obligatory could cover a la Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. Jamo Thomas had a Northern soul funk minor hit with this in 1966 (#98).I'm not sure what this is about but it’s not too bad.
- Pink Bedroom – some Nick Lowe jangle here. Lame.
- Good Girl, Bad World – Bearable
- Face The Nation – B grade Boomtown Rats.
- Cop Party – The Costello angst it almost works on this ne
- Back To The War – more of the same
- It Hasn't Happened Yet – One of the best songs on the album with a slight Ricky Lee Jones bounce.
- String Pull Job – Not too bad but I have no idea what the song is about.
- New Numbers – not for what I'm hearing. Groan.
And …
This is a hard one. There are some good songs and I do like some of Hiatt's’ later stuff. Will I wake up one day and get annoyed because I had gotten rid of this album?
Will there be some sort of a early Hiatt musical appreciation epiphany?
Maybe.
Probably not.
Who knows.
I may have to flip a coin on this one to see if it is kept.
Chart Action
Nothing no where.
Sounds
http://recordlective.com/John_Hiatt/Two_Bit_Monsters/946b416b-43f8-3e09-97d6-6b618832417a/
It Hasn't Happened Yet
mp3 attached
John Hiatt – It Hasn't Happened Yet
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58hHVlZCfvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTF17vc9HZY
Review
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Bit_Monsters
http://www.allmusic.com/album/two-bit-monsters-mw0000654552
Bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hiatt
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-hiatt-mn0000812046
Website
Trivia
—
Merry Christmas all.
