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.
Two Hearts
John Hiatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Like I got two ears
It goes in one and out the other
Whenever you are near
A train of smoke and dreams keeps a coming
Like a burning spear
And I know you, you watch me go
Even as I'm standing here
Doppelganger
Caterwauling
Words trail off low
Love comes and love keeps going
That's really all I know
You hear the sound of a lonesome town
You want to let that whistle blow
But it gets there before you do
And it leaves before you want to go
[Chorus:]
Two hearts, one for me and one for you
Two hearts, do you feel the way I do
Two hearts, one to have and one to yield
Two hearts, and a hundred (million) miles of steel
I keep running back and forth
Running back and forth
For what's real
Could it be this bond between us
That don't scare me none
I've seen ya when you've felt like running
I've seen ya with your gun
A single bullet for the barrel
Midnight chamber spun
Morning kiss
And unclean fist
And you're laughing at the sun
[Chorus: Repeat 2X]
Two hearts, two hearts
The lyrics of the song "Two Hearts" by John Hiatt portray a complicated and intense relationship between two people. The singer uses a metaphorical language to describe the strong connection he feels with his partner in love. The lines "It's like I got hearts with you, baby / Like I got two ears" suggest that the singer has invested his emotions and attention in the relationship as if he has two hearts beating inside him. He hears everything his partner says and feels the impact of her presence whenever she is near.
But the love between the two seems to be tumultuous and uncertain, as the lyrics describe the images of trains and smoke and dreams that keep coming like a burning spear. The sound of a lonesome town and the idea of wanting to let the whistle blow highlight the restlessness and tension in the relationship that neither is able to shake off. The chorus "Two hearts, one for me and one for you / Two hearts, do you feel the way I do", expresses the singer's longing for a mutual understanding and shared emotions between the two of them.
The final lines of the song "Could it be this bond between us / That don't scare me none" reveal the complicated nature of the relationship. Despite the struggles and challenges, the singer is committed to the bond they share and feels unafraid of the uncertain future. The vivid descriptions and metaphorical language used in the lyrics make "Two Hearts" a poignant and emotional song that speaks to the complexities of human relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
It's like I got hearts with you, baby
Our connection is so strong that it feels like we have two hearts together.
Like I got two ears
I'm completely tuned in to you, just like I have two ears for hearing.
It goes in one and out the other
When you're near me, everything else fades away and I'm lost in you.
Whenever you are near
Your presence has a powerful effect on me that I can't ignore.
A train of smoke and dreams keeps a coming
Our love is like a wild, unstoppable force that brings with it all kinds of hopes and dreams.
Like a burning spear
Our passion is intense and strong, like a weapon that could cut through anything.
And I know you, you watch me go
Even as I'm standing here, I feel you watching me and supporting me no matter what.
Doppelganger
There's a part of me that's almost a copy of you, we're so perfectly matched.
Caterwauling
Sometimes our love is like a wild, untamed sound that's just bursting out of us both.
Words trail off low
Even when we're speaking softly, the intensity of our feelings still comes through.
Love comes and love keeps going
Our love has a momentum of its own, and it just keeps building and growing stronger.
That's really all I know
I don't need to understand it fully - I know that we're meant for each other.
You hear the sound of a lonesome town
Sometimes we both feel alone and disconnected, even when we're together.
You want to let that whistle blow
It's tempting to give in to that feeling and let our emotions guide us wherever they may.
But it gets there before you do
Our emotions can be unpredictable, sometimes they come out before we're ready for them to.
And it leaves before you want to go
Likewise, our feelings don't always stick around as long as we want them to.
Two hearts, one for me and one for you
Together we make up two halves of a whole, and each of us has one of those hearts.
Two hearts, do you feel the way I do
Do you feel the same depth and intensity of feeling as I do?
Two hearts, one to have and one to yield
We each give and take in this relationship, achieving a balance that works for both of us.
Two hearts, and a hundred (million) miles of steel
Despite any distance between us, we're always connected by our love and our two hearts.
I keep running back and forth
Sometimes I struggle with my feelings for you, but I always come back to you in the end.
Running back and forth
My emotions are like a pendulum, but they always find their way back to you.
For what's real
Even when my feelings for you are up and down, I know that our love is the most real thing in my life.
Could it be this bond between us
Is it our deep, unbreakable connection that's behind everything we feel for each other?
That don't scare me none
Whatever it is between us, I'm not afraid of it - I embrace it fully.
I've seen ya when you've felt like running
I've seen you at your most vulnerable, and I've stood by you through it all.
I've seen ya with your gun
I've seen you at your most powerful and fierce, and I've loved you all the same.
A single bullet for the barrel
Sometimes we only have one chance to make a lasting impact on each other.
Midnight chamber spun
Even in the darkest of moments between us, we find a way to make things work.
Morning kiss
No matter what, we always come back to each other each morning.
And unclean fist
Even when we argue or fight, we know that our love is worth fighting for.
And you're laughing at the sun
Our love is so powerful that even the sun and the brightest days can't touch us.
Two hearts, two hearts
Our two hearts beat as one, even when we're apart.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN HIATT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind