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.
Usual
John Hiatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Girlfriend just ran off with the DJ
I give her everything, but she refused it
It doesn't matter, she don't know how to use it
My confidence is dwindling
Look at the shape I'm in
Where's my pearls, where's my swine?
I'm not thirsty, but I'm standing in line.
I'll have the usual
I'll have the usual
Fifty silhouettes bumpin' on the dance floor
Pink elephants fallin' through a trap door
Sixty cigarettes a day 'cause I'm nervous
When will that bitch serve us?
I used to be a good boy, livin' the good life
Fifty thousand kisses later she was a housewife
She was good, I was unkind
I'm not thirsty, but I'm standin' in line
I'll have the usual
I'll have the usual
(on the rocks)
(two ice cubes)
(and a little umbrella)
Big Jim says the second comin's comin'
I think he's just seein' double or something
Or something
You can hang around waiting for the also rans
I can't win, but I've seen enough, man
A fifth of whiskey he could knock it away
I drink some more and it's judgment day
I had a future, but she just passed out
I'm gonna drink until I see what it is I want to think about
I'll have the usual
I'll have the usual
I'll have the usual
On the rocks
With a twist
The lyrics to John Hiatt's song "Usual" paint a bleak picture of a man who has hit rock bottom. He is at a party, surrounded by drunks and cigarette smoke, and his girlfriend has just left him for the DJ. Despite having given her everything he had, she was unable to appreciate it. The man is now left with dwindling confidence, wondering where everything went wrong. The chaos around him only adds to his despair, with pink elephants falling through a trapdoor and Big Jim announcing the second coming.
The repetition of the phrase "I'll have the usual" serves as a reminder that the man is a regular at this bar, and it is a subtle nod towards his reliance on alcohol to numb his pain. The line "I'm not thirsty, but I'm standing in line" suggests that he is here for something else - perhaps a sense of familiarity, a need for human connection, or the hope of drowning out his thoughts.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm trippin over dumb drunks at a party
I am stumbling over the intoxicated people present at a party
Girlfriend just ran off with the DJ
My girlfriend just left me for the DJ
I give her everything, but she refused it
I offered her everything I had, but she rejected it
It doesn't matter, she don't know how to use it
It is insignificant as she does not know how to use what I offered
My confidence is dwindling
My self-esteem is decreasing
Look at the shape I'm in
Observe the state I am currently in
Where's my pearls, where's my swine?
I am unable to find my valuable belongings
I'm not thirsty, but I'm standing in line.
Despite not being thirsty, I am still queuing up
I'll have the usual
I will order my usual drink
Fifty silhouettes bumpin' on the dance floor
There are fifty indistinct figures dancing at the party
Pink elephants fallin' through a trap door
I see imaginary animals falling through a trap door
Sixty cigarettes a day 'cause I'm nervous
I smoke sixty cigarettes a day due to anxiety
When will that bitch serve us?
When will that woman tend to us?
I used to be a good boy, livin' the good life
I used to be a virtuous man leading a pleasant life
Fifty thousand kisses later she was a housewife
After receiving a significant number of kisses from me, she became a housewife
She was good, I was unkind
She was benevolent, but I was not
I'll have the usual
I will order my usual drink
Big Jim says the second comin's comin'
Big Jim claims that the second coming of Christ is approaching
I think he's just seein' double or something
I believe he is experiencing double vision or a similar symptom
Or something
Or some other unknown condition
You can hang around waiting for the also rans
You can remain present and wait for the less important people
I can't win, but I've seen enough, man
I cannot succeed, but I have witnessed adequate experiences
A fifth of whiskey he could knock it away
He is able to finish a bottle of whiskey effortlessly
I drink some more and it's judgment day
I consume more alcohol, and it feels like it is the end of times
I had a future, but she just passed out
I could have had a successful future, but it seems unviable now
I'm gonna drink until I see what it is I want to think about
I plan to consume alcohol until I figure out what I truly want to focus on
I'll have the usual
I will order my usual drink
I'll have the usual
I will order my usual drink
I'll have the usual
I will order my usual drink
On the rocks
I want the drinks to be served with ice cubes
With a twist
I want the drinks to have an additional twist of flavor
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN HIATT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind