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.
Homeland
John Hiatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Knocked the table over
Thought I saw a ghost
Come out of the clover
She lived in this house
Forty odd years or so
She was buried in the back
Slaughtered like sheep
Women and babies
A lot of blood and tears
Three hundred years ago
It's like they're caught up in the trees
In the webs of spiders
Spun out of leaves
Ghostly riders
Lookin' for a trail
To find their way back home
But there's nothing back there or tomorrow
No place they can put their sorrow
Heavy as death
Cold as a broken stone
And I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
But it belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones
Well, I can hear them in the night
Like a hundred televisions
Hummin' down low beneath the subdivisions
All they really want is if we can hear â??em now
They been troublin' this plain
Looking for attention
Making crazy tracks
They need an intervention
All they really want
Is to get back home somehow
So build up a fire
Say a little prayer
Cook a little meat
Pull â??em up a chair
And offer them a plate
Maybe we can all find peace
You can't bury anything, men or nations
Old memories, old vibrations
The pain doesn't stop just because the killing ceased
And I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
It belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones
Well, I jumped so high
Straight up off the bedsheet
Nightmare sky
Bloody with the red heat
Started to shake
Cause I couldn't find my way back home
Well, I landed in the ditch
Landed in the gutter
Landed in arms of my long lost mother
Cryin' like a child
While the Bayou Pierre groaned
And I call this place my homeland
And I love this land I own
It belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones
Yeah, I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
But it belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones
The song "Homeland" by John Hiatt is an introspective track about the concept of land and home, and the deep connection that different people have with territories that are often disputed. It is said that Hiatt was inspired to write this song after he visited a plantation where many African Americans were once enslaved. The first part of the song talks about a ghost, a woman who lived in the house for forty years before she was buried in the back with other individuals. The lyric portrays the massacre of Englishmen and Native Americans in that area, which occurred three centuries ago. Hiatt sings about how the spirits of the slain natives and Englishmen are still present in the land and can't find their way home.
In the second part of the song, Hiatt reflects on how he claims the land as his homeland and feels a deep connection to it. However, he acknowledges the fact that the land was once inhabited by another people who possess it in their bones. The song concludes with Hiatt feeling lost in the nightmare of the land's violent past and present, landing in a ditch and being embraced by his figurative mother as the Bayou Pierre groans in the background.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I jumped so high
The singer is experiencing a jolt of shock or fear.
Knocked the table over
The singer caused a disturbance in their surroundings as a result of their jolt.
Thought I saw a ghost
The singer feels that something supernatural or otherworldly is present.
Come out of the clover
The supernatural presence seems to have come from a natural setting.
She lived in this house
Referring to a woman who had lived in the house before the artist.
Forty odd years or so
The woman had lived in the house for around 40 years.
She was buried in the back
The woman died and was buried on/near the property.
With the English and the natives
Other people of different backgrounds were also buried there.
Slaughtered like sheep
The people buried there were victims of violence and murder.
Women and babies
Among the victims were innocent women and children.
A lot of blood and tears
The violence and tragedy that occurred there had lasting effects.
Three hundred years ago
The tragedy occurred centuries ago, but its effects are still felt.
It's like they're caught up in the trees
The spirits of the deceased seem to be lingering among nature.
In the webs of spiders
Their spirits seem to be trapped, unable to move on.
Spun out of leaves
Their spirits are intertwined with nature and the natural world.
Ghostly riders
The spirits seem lost and searching.
Lookin' for a trail
The spirits seem to be searching for a path or a way forward.
To find their way back home
The spirits seem to be trying to return to where they came from.
But there's nothing back there or tomorrow
There is no clear path for the spirits to find their way back home.
No place they can put their sorrow
The spirits are burdened with a heavy sadness but no clear outlet for it.
Heavy as death
The sadness and tragedy that occurred are difficult to move past, and weigh heavily on those affected by it.
Cold as a broken stone
The tragedy and sadness are inescapable and unfeeling, like a stone beyond repair.
And I call this place my homeland
The singer feels a sense of belonging to this place.
And I claim this land I own
The artist feels a sense of ownership or responsibility for the land.
But it belongs to another people
The land is connected to the history and lives of others, not just the singer.
They possess it in their bones
Others have a deep, fundamental connection to this land that cannot be ignored.
Well, I can hear them in the night
The singer is aware of the lingering spirits and their presence.
Like a hundred televisions
The artist's experience is overwhelming, like many different broadcasts playing at once.
Hummin' down low beneath the subdivisions
The experience is happening below the surface level, in a hidden or subconscious way.
All they really want is if we can hear â??em now
The singer believes the spirits are trying to communicate with the living.
They been troublin' this plain
The spirits are causing trouble or unrest in the area.
Looking for attention
The spirits may be seeking recognition or the acknowledgment of their tragic history.
Making crazy tracks
The spirits are leaving behind evidence of their presence or movement.
They need an intervention
The spirits are in need of help or guidance from the living to find their way home.
All they really want
The spirits' needs are simple, but unfulfilled.
Is to get back home somehow
The spirits seek to return to where they came from, but are lost and unable to do so on their own.
So build up a fire
The singer is taking action to make a connection with the spirits.
Say a little prayer
The singer is invoking a spiritual connection or divine help.
Cook a little meat
The singer is preparing a meal as an offering to the spirits.
Pull â??em up a chair
The artist is inviting the spirits to join them and share in their hospitality.
And offer them a plate
The artist is sharing their resources and providing sustenance for the spirits.
Maybe we can all find peace
The singer hopes that by making this connection and offering hospitality, they can help bring peace to the spirits and healing to all involved.
You can't bury anything, men or nations
The past cannot simply be forgotten, buried, or erased.
Old memories, old vibrations
The past lingers and has an impact on the present, like a vibration or resonance.
The pain doesn't stop just because the killing ceased
Even if the act of violence is over, the pain and trauma remain.
Well, I love this land I own
The artist has a deep affection and connection to the land.
Yeah, I call this place my homeland
The singer identifies with this place as their ancestral or cultural home.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOHN R HIATT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind