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.
When My Love Crosses Over
John Hiatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Lying there on our backs
Swearing to every star that the sky did hold
Promising our love was true
Promising to see it through
Then we headed due southwest across the Muscle Shoals
We slid down a riverbank in the pouring rain
There at the water's edge
She tugged my arm, and I nodded my head
Just one more step, and that river took ahold
When my love crosses over, I'm coming over, too
To cross that mighty river that's before us to the new western world
Mountains high and plain unfurled
Desert stretching out to touch the Californias
We said we'd never look back
We never have, and that's a fact
That Mississippi washed us clean down to the bone
The journey's been long, my friend
Hell, you never know what state you're in
Yeah, but the unknown is always the unknown
I lost track of you awhile
But you were waiting for me with a smile
Made me feel like a little child with a brand-new view
Let's do it all over, babe
It'd just be another trip we made
When my love crosses over, I'm coming too
The song "When My Love Crosses Over" tells the story of a couple making a pact to stick together and cross the "mighty river...to the new western world" no matter what obstacles they may face. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of their journey, complete with sliding down riverbanks in rainstorms, traveling through deserts to reach the Californias, and ultimately, the unknown. Through it all, the couple never looks back and remains committed to each other.
The opening lines of the song suggest a sense of certainty and conviction as the couple makes their pact beneath the stars. The imagery of promising their love was true and swearing to every star that the sky did hold conveys a sense of intense commitment and passion for each other. This is reinforced by the lines promising to see it through.
As the couple makes their journey, the lyrics convey a sense of adventure and excitement, but also the challenges and uncertainties of travel. The pouring rain, fog, and cold are just some of the obstacles they face. Nevertheless, the couple bravely pushes on, never looking back, and seeing the journey through to the end.
The final lines of the song suggest a sense of reunion and renewal, as the singer is reunited with his beloved and feels like a "little child with a brand-new view." The song's message is one of love and commitment, encouraging listeners to stick together and see each other through life's challenges.
Line by Line Meaning
Made a pact
We made a promise to each other.
Lying there on our backs
We were lying down next to each other.
Swearing to every star that the sky did hold
We promised to each other and affirmed our love by looking up at the stars.
Promising our love was true
We vowed that our love was genuine.
Promising to see it through
We committed to staying together through thick and thin.
Then we headed due southwest across the Muscle Shoals
We began our journey and headed southwest across the Muscle Shoals.
We slid down a riverbank in the pouring rain
We went down the riverbank on a rainy day.
Giving thanks for the strength just to carry on through the fog and the cold
We were grateful for the strength to get through the challenges of the journey.
There at the water's edge
We were at the edge of the water.
She tugged my arm, and I nodded my head
My love pulled my arm, and I agreed with her.
Just one more step, and that river took ahold
We took one more step, and the river was too strong for us to handle.
When my love crosses over, I'm coming over, too
If my love moves on, I will go with her.
To cross that mighty river that's before us to the new western world
We had to cross a powerful river to reach the new western world.
Mountains high and plain unfurled
We saw mountains and wide plains.
Desert stretching out to touch the Californias
We traveled through the desert and reached California.
We said we'd never look back
We promised to move forward and not look back.
We never have, and that's a fact
We kept our promise and never looked back.
That Mississippi washed us clean down to the bone
The journey changed us completely.
The journey's been long, my friend
We have been on a very long journey.
Hell, you never know what state you're in
It was challenging to know where we were on the journey.
Yeah, but the unknown is always the unknown
We knew we could never predict what would happen next.
I lost track of you awhile
I was separated from you for some time.
But you were waiting for me with a smile
You welcomed me back with a smile.
Made me feel like a little child with a brand-new view
You made me feel young and gave me a new perspective on life.
Let's do it all over, babe
Let's start over again.
It'd just be another trip we made
It would be just another adventure that we went on together.
When my love crosses over, I'm coming too
No matter what, I will always be there for my love.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN HIATT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind