As well, it nearly took him that long to find his own style. Hiatt began his solo career in 1974, and over the next decade he ran through a number of different styles from rock & roll to new wave-esque pop before he finally settled on a rootsy fusion of rock, country, blues, and folk with his 1987 album 'Bring the Family'. Though the album didn't set the charts on fire, it became his first album to gain some major commercial success, and several of the songs on the record became hits for other artists, including the aforementioned Raitt and Milsap. Following its success, Hiatt became a reliable hit songwriter for other artists, and he developed a strong cult following that continued to gain strength into the mid-90s.
While he was growing up in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, Hiatt played in a number of garage bands. Initially, he was inspired by the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, and the music of those two artists would echo strongly throughout his work. Out of all the bar bands he played with in the late 60s, a group called The White Ducks was the one that received the most attention. Following his high-school graduation, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 18, where he landed a job as a songwriter for Tree Publishing.
For the next several years, he wrote and performed at local clubs and hotels. Within a few years, his songs were being recorded by several different artists, including Conway Twitty, Tracy Nelson, and Three Dog Night, who took Hiatt's "Sure as I'm Sittin' Here" to number 16 in the summer of 1974. Eventually, his manager secured him an audition at Epic Records, and the label signed him in 1974, releasing his debut album, Hangin' Around the Observatory, later that year. Despite their critical acclaim, neither Hangin' Around the Observatory nor its 1975 follow-up Overcoats sold many copies, and he was dropped by the label. By the end of the year, Tree Publishing had let him go as well.
Following his failure in Nashville, Hiatt moved out to California. By the summer of 1978 he had settled in Los Angeles, where began playing in clubs, opening for folk musicians including Leo Kottke. With Kottke's assistance, Hiatt hired a new manager, Denny Bruce, who helped him secure a record contract with MCA Records. Slug Line, his first record for MCA, was released in the summer of 1979. Where his first two records were straight-ahead rock & roll and folk-rock, Slug Line was in the new wave vein of angry English singer/songwriters like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Joe Jackson, as if Hiatt was vying for the role of the American angry young man. The new approach earned some strong reviews, yet it failed to generate any sales. Two Bit Monsters, his second MCA album, faced the same situation. Although it was well-received critically upon its 1980 release, it made no impression on the charts, and the label dropped him.
Apart from working on Two Bit Monsters, Hiatt spent most of 1980 as a member of Ry Cooder's backing band, playing rhythm guitar on the Borderline album and touring with the guitarist. Hiatt stayed with Cooder throughout 1981, signing a new contract with Geffen Records by the end of the year. Produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), his Geffen debut All of A Sudden was released in 1982, followed by the Nick Lowe/Scott Matthews & Ron Nagel-produced Riding With the King in 1983. As with his previous records for Epic and MCA, neither of his first two Geffen releases sold well. By this time, Hiatt's personal life was beginning to spin out of control as he was sinking deep into alcoholism. Around the time he completed 1985's Warming Up to the Ice Age, his second wife committed suicide. Following the release of Warming Up to the Ice Age, Hiatt was dropped by Geffen. By the end of 1985, he had entered a rehabilitation program. During 1986, he remarried and signed a new deal with A&M Records.
For his A&M debut, Hiatt assembled a small band comprising his former associates Ry Cooder (guitar), Nick Lowe (bass), and Jim Keltner (drums). Recorded over the course of a handful of days, the resulting album, Bring the Family, had a direct, stripped-down rootsy sound that differed greatly from his earlier albums. Upon its summer 1987 release, Bring the Family received the best reviews of his career and, for once, the reviews began to pay off, as the album turned into a cult hit, peaking at 107 on the U.S. charts; it was his first charting album. Hiatt attempted to record a follow-up with Cooder, Lowe, and Keltner, but the musicians failed to agree on the financial terms for the sessions. Undaunted, he recorded an album with John Doe, David Lindley, and Dave Mattacks, but he scrapped the completed project, deciding that the result was too forced. Hiatt's final attempt at recording the follow-up to Bring the Family was orchestrated by veteran producer Glyn Johns, who had him record with his touring band, the Goners. Despite all of the behind-the-scenes troubles behind its recording, the follow-up album, Slow Turning, actually appeared rather quickly, appearing in the summer of 1988.
Slow Turning, like Bring the Family before it, received nearly unanimous positive reviews and it was fairly well-received commercially, spending 31 weeks on the U.S. charts and peaking at 98. Within the next year, Hiatt successfully toured throughout America and Europe, strengthening his fan base along the way. Inspired by the success of Hiatt's two A&M albums, Geffen released the compilation Y' All Caught? The Ones That Got Away 1979-85 in 1989. That same year, other artists began digging through Hiatt's catalog of songs, most notably Bonnie Raitt, who covered "Thing Called Love" for her multi-platinum comeback album, Nick of Time.
In 1990, Hiatt returned with Stolen Moments, which was nearly as successful as Slow Turning, both critically and commercially. "Bring Back Your Love to Me," an album track from Stolen Moments that was also recorded by Earl Thomas Conley, won BMI's 1991 Country Music Award. By the time "Bring Back Your Love to Me" won that award, it had become a standard practice for artists to cover Hiatt's songs, as artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Ronnie Milsap, Suzy Bogguss, and Iggy Pop all covered his songs in the early '90s. In 1993, Rhino Records released Love Gets Strange: The Songs of John Hiatt, which collected many of the cover versions that were recorded during the '80s and '90s.
During 1991, the group that recorded Bring the Family — Hiatt, Cooder, Lowe, and Keltner — re-formed as a band called Little Village, releasing their eponymous debut in early 1992. Based on the success of Bring the Family and Hiatt's A&M albums, expectations for Little Village were quite high, yet the record and its supporting tour were considered a major disappointment. Later, the individual members would agree that the band was a failure, mainly due to conflicting egos.
Hiatt decided to back away from the superstar nature of Little Village for his next album, 1993's Perfectly Good Guitar. Recorded in just two weeks with a backing band comprised of members of alternative rock bands School of Fish and Wire Train, the album was looser than any record since Bring the Family, but it didn't quite have the staying power of its two predecessors, spending only 11 weeks on the charts and peaking at number 47. The following year, he released his first live album, Hiatt Comes Alive at Budokan? Hiatt left A&M Records after the release of the record, signing with Capitol Records the following year.
Walk On, Hiatt's first Capitol album, was recorded during his supporting tour for Perfectly Good Guitar and featured guest appearances by the Jayhawks and Bonnie Raitt. Walk On entered the charts at 48, but slipped off the charts in nine weeks, indicating that his audience had settled into a dedicated cult following. Fittingly, after 1997's Little Head quickly came and went in the marketplace, Hiatt parted ways with Capitol, and his next album, 2000's Crossing Muddy Waters was released on the established independent imprint Vanguard Records. After a second album with Vanguard, The Tiki Bar Is Open, Hiatt alligned himself with another independent label, New West, for the release of his 2003 set Beneath This Gruff Exterior. Master of Disaster, along with CD and DVD versions of Live from Austin, TX followed in 2005.
Same Old Man followed in 2008; then The Open Road in 2010.
Find You At Last
John Hiatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Horse hooves pounding, sledgehammer night
You can tell 'em anything you like
I was there with you baby
Silver and diamonds and a skin full of tears
The road narrowed then it disappeared
Maybe you figured you might wind up some place like here
Now you shake me off like the dust you're boots are wearing
The leather's soft but I'm cold and fast
Makes me cough 'til I feel my lungs are tearing
I'll never rest 'til I find you at last, find you at last
The ground we covered's cracked and spit with rain
Not enough here to fill the smallest vein
Be all right if this God-forsaken terrain
Just dried up and blew away baby
Maybe my memory's just not right
But we've been baptized by fire and light
Eaten by the earth, swallowed up by the night
I don't care where you think, you're gonna stay baby
Now you shake me off, like the dust your boots are wearing
The leather's soft but I'm hard and fast
Makes me cough 'til I feel my lungs are tearing
I'll never rest 'til I find you at last, oh find you at last
Find you at last, baby find you at last
I've been searching for an answer what a waste of time
Should've picked your trail up sooner
But I couldn't stop the pain
That was breaking up my mind
So I found some open country, I forgot the past
I don't care if you don't want me
'Cause nothing matters any more baby
'Til I find you at last
Tonight you're sleeping on a cold dirt floor
And in my dreams I'm crashing through your door
But you don't recognize me anymore
Do you baby?
'Til I find you at last, find you at last
Find you at last, baby, find you at last
I find you, I find you at last
'Til I find you at last, gonna I find you at last, baby
John Hiatt's "Find You At Last" is a hauntingly beautiful song about perseverance, loss, and the search for something or someone that may be just out of reach. The song lyrics open with a vivid image of a journey down the old turnpike. The singer describes the sounds of "horse hooves pounding" and the "sledgehammer night." The beginning of the song sets the tone for what follows; a bittersweet tale of a man's journey to find someone he loves.
Throughout the song, the singer references the hardships that he and his beloved have faced together. The imagery is often intense, the ground is "cracked and spit with rain," and the terrain is "God-forsaken." Despite the hardships, the singer is determined to find the love he lost. His feelings range from desperation to hope, as he searches endlessly, trying to find the person he loves.
The song's chorus highlights the power of the singer's determination. He sings, "I'll never rest 'til I find you at last, find you at last." These words show the depth of his emotions and his unwavering commitment to his love.
Overall, "Find You At Last" is a poignant song that explores the depths and complexities of human emotions. The story that unfolds through the song is one of heartbreak, love, perseverance, and hope.
Line by Line Meaning
We were coming down the old turnpike
We were driving on an old road
Horse hooves pounding, sledgehammer night
It was a dark and noisy night
You can tell 'em anything you like
You can say whatever you want
I was there with you baby
I was by your side
Silver and diamonds and a skin full of tears
You had valuable possessions but were also full of sadness
The road narrowed then it disappeared
The road became smaller and eventually vanished
Maybe you figured you might wind up some place like here
Perhaps you thought you would end up in this place
Acting like you never cared for me baby
You pretended not to care about me
Now you shake me off like the dust you're boots are wearing
You push me away like dirt from your boots
The leather's soft but I'm cold and fast
Even though I seem gentle, I am firm and quick
Makes me cough 'til I feel my lungs are tearing
It pains me deeply
I'll never rest 'til I find you at last, find you at last
I will never stop searching for you
The ground we covered's cracked and spit with rain
The road we took is broken and damaged
Not enough here to fill the smallest vein
This place is desolate
Be all right if this God-forsaken terrain
It would be okay if this place wasn't so terrible
Just dried up and blew away baby
Disappeared and never returned
Maybe my memory's just not right
Perhaps I am wrong about what I remember
But we've been baptized by fire and light
We have gone through difficult challenges
Eaten by the earth, swallowed up by the night
We have been overcome by darkness
I don't care where you think, you're gonna stay baby
I don't care where you plan on staying
I've been searching for an answer what a waste of time
I have been searching for a solution with no luck
Should've picked your trail up sooner
I should have found your location earlier
But I couldn't stop the pain
I was too hurt to think clearly
That was breaking up my mind
It was causing me to go insane
So I found some open country, I forgot the past
I went to a new place and left my old memories behind
I don't care if you don't want me
I am not bothered by your rejection
'Cause nothing matters any more baby
Nothing else is important
'Til I find you at last
Until I find you
Tonight you're sleeping on a cold dirt floor
You are sleeping on the ground in unpleasant conditions
And in my dreams I'm crashing through your door
I dream of finding you and breaking down your door
But you don't recognize me anymore
You no longer know or remember me
Do you baby?
Do you understand?
'Til I find you at last, find you at last
Until I find you
Find you at last, baby, find you at last
Finally find you
I find you, I find you at last
Finally find you
'Til I find you at last, gonna I find you at last, baby
Until I find you
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN HIATT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind