The daughter of Philip M. Hatfield (a radiologist) and The Boston Globe fashion critic Julie Hatfield, Hatfield was born in Maine and grew up in the Boston suburb of Duxbury. She acquired a love of rock music during the 1970s, having been introduced by a babysitter to the music of the seminal Los Angeles punk rock band X, which proved a life-changing experience. She was also attracted to the music of more mainstream artists like Olivia Newton-John and The Police, perhaps explaining the dialectic in her later music between sweet, melodic "pop" songs and more hard rock oriented material. Visualizing herself as a singer since her high school years, Hatfield sang in school choirs and briefly played in a cover band called The Squids, which played Queen and Rush songs.
Hatfield began her solo career following the Blake Babies' breakup in 1991, releasing her first solo album Hey Babe in 1992. The album was one of the highest selling independent albums of 1992. Hatfield recruited a rhythm section comprised of former Moving Targets and Bullet LaVolta drummer Todd Phillips, and Thudpucker bassist Dean Fisher, and thus becoming The Juliana Hatfield Three.
Hatfield achieved alterna-rock stardom with the release of 1993's Become What You Are (recorded under the group name The Juliana Hatfield Three). Several songs from the album received regular airplay on major North American rock stations, with Hatfield's song "My Sister" becoming the biggest hit of her career with the video becoming an MTV staple. Another one of her songs ("Spin the Bottle") was used in the soundtrack of the Hollywood film Reality Bites (1994). Hatfield also made the cover of Spin magazine. Hatfield's popularity coincided with the success, in the mid-1990s, of many other female musicians (such as Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Belly, Letters to Cleo, Velocity Girl, The Breeders, Hole, Veruca Salt, Poe, Throwing Muses, Magnapop, Bettie Serveert). Although she has always maintained that her gender is of only incidental importance to her music, Hatfield was pleased to have been invited, in 1997, to tour with the first Lilith Fair, a prominent all-female rock festival founded by singer Sarah McLachlan. Hatfield was profiled in a number of girls' magazines at this time and was embraced by many pre-teen and teenage girls as a role model due to the positive way she addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews. About this period she says: "I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn’t earned it yet." She gained notoriety in 1992 for saying that she was still a virgin in her mid-twenties in Interview magazine. In a 1994 interview for the magazine Vox she said she was surprised by the effect 'outing' herself had: "I think there are a lot of people out there who don't care about sex, but who you never hear from, so I thought I should say it. The magazine I did the interview for is full of beef-cake hunky guys and scantily-clad models, so I thought it would be really funny to say that I didn't care about sex in a magazine that's full of sex and beauty - but no one really got the joke."
In 1995, following the success of Become What You Are she released her followup album, Only Everything, in which she "turned up the volume and the distortion and had a lot of fun". One reviewer describes it as "a fun, engaging pop album". The album spawned another alternative radio hit for Hatfield in Universal Heart-Beat. The video featured Hatfield as an overly demanding aerobics instructor. Prior to the tour for 'Only Everything', Hatfield released Phillips and brought on Jason Sutter (American Hi-Fi, Chris Cornell, Jack Drag), as well as Ed Slanker (Thudpucker, Tinsel) on 2nd guitar, and Lisa Mednick on keyboards. Two weeks into the tour, Hatfield canceled the tour citing exhaustion, and took a month long break. Sutter was replaced by once again drummer Phillips, and touring resumed with Jeff Buckley as the opening act.
In 1996 she traveled to Woodstock, New York where she recorded tracks for God's Foot, which was to be her fourth solo album (third if not counting Become What You Are, which was recorded with the Juliana Hatfield Three), intended for 1997 release. Containing some of Hatfield's finest work to date, the album was unfortunately put on indefinite hold by her record company due to a disagreement with Hatfield. Only substandard bootleg versions of these songs (which do not meet Hatfield's approval) have surfaced and she has rarely featured them in her subsequent live performances.
During this time Hatfield left Atlantic Records and ventured back into indie-world. She recorded a six song EP titled Please Do Not Disturb, along with Todd Phillips and Ed Slanker, and with new bass player Mikey Welsh (Weezer). The EP produced by Hatfield features a tender song "Trying Not To Think About It" which is a tribute to the deceased musician Jeff Buckley who was a friend of Hatfield's. The EP was released on Bar/None Records in 1997.
Following the traumatic experiences surrounding God's Foot and her departure from Atlantic Records, Hatfield recorded the album Bed in 1998 in six days, about which she says on her website: "It sounds as raw as I felt. It has no pretty sheen. The mistakes and unattractive parts were left in, not erased. Just like my career. Just like life."
In 2000, she released Beautiful Creature, an album which was among the most critically well-received of her career. This album left the rockier side of Hatfield's musical personality unexpressed, however, so at the same time she also recorded Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure with Zephan Courtney and Mikey Welsh, which she describes as "a loud release of tension", with "lots of long sloppy guitar solos. And no love songs...a not-at-all attractive reaction to the ugly side of humanity, specifically American culture" The two albums were initially released in a set as a pair. Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure was however received very badly by the critics, who much preferred the acoustic songwriting on Beautiful Creature. On Beautiful Creature Hatfield worked with Austin-based musician Davíd Garza who co-produced much of the album. Wally Gagel a producer for Sebadoh and Tanya Donelly helped Hatfield record her most electronica influenced songs "Cool Rock Boy" and "Don't Rush Me" which added texture to the otherwise acoustic album.
2002 saw the release of Hatfield's first "best-of" album. The album, titled Gold Stars 1992-2002: The Juliana Hatfield Collection, featured the singles from her solo albums. It also contained two of the songs from the previously unreleased God's Foot, a cover of Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart, as well as four new recordings.
In 2004 Hatfield released In Exile Deo, which was arguably an attempt at a more commercial sound, with input from producers and engineers who'd worked with Pink and Avril Lavigne. Hatfield did however produce the album herself with David Leanord receiving co-production credits on "Jamie's In Town" and the bright rocker "Sunshine'. The critics loved it, with a couple calling it her best work since the start of her solo career.
By contrast, the 2005 album Made in China was released on her own new record label, Ye Olde Records, and has a much rawer feel. John Doe of the band X described the disc as "A frighteningly dark & beautiful record filled w/ stark, angular, truly brutal songs & guitars. This is surely a 'Woman Under the Influence', though I'm not sure of what". Reviews were very mixed, with some liking the lo-fi sound, but others seeing it as slackness.
In December 2005 Hatfield toured the United States with the band X, whom she idolized during her teenage years.
In 2006, Hatfield released her first live album. Titled The White Broken Line: Live Recordings, the album featured performances from her tour with X. This was Hatfield's third release for her record label.
Hatfield's 9th studio album, How To Walk Away was released on August 19, 2008 on Ye Olde Records. The album's heartfelt subject on the break-up of a relationship resonated with critics, who gave the album largely positive reviews, with some hailing it as her best album since In Exile Deo.
On September 29, 2008 it was followed by her memoir, When I Grow Up.
Hatfield returned 2 years later as her 10th studio album Peace & Love was released on Ye Olde Records, February 16, 2010. The album's composition, arrangement, performance, production, engineering and mixing was solely credited to Hatfield.
There's Always Another Girl was released on August 30, 2011 again independently on her Ye Olde Records label.
In 2013, she joined with Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf) to form the duo Minor Alps.
In 2014, The Juliana Hatfield Three reunited two decades after it disbanded. Hatfield, drummer Todd Philips, and bassist Dean Fisher began practicing new material for an album, which would be their first together since Become What You Are in 1993.
In 2015, Hatfield and American musician Paul Westerberg formed the duo The I Don't Cares.
http://www.julianahatfield.com/
Let's Blow It All
Juliana Hatfield Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've never seen so much
This must be a joke.
I don't know how to feel
I haven't earned it yet
Everything fades so fast.
Buy her the rock she always wanted
Throw money out the window
And watch the happy people catch it.
You can't afford to save your life
Well, I can.
I'll send you to a posh rehab
So you can get clean and it won't be so bad.
Let's buy guitars for all the kids.
I don't want to wake up wondering where it all went.
Nobody can stop us from blowing it all.
It's mine and besides, they never cared what I did.
And it doesn't matter where you go
And it doesn't matter where you are.
Nobody can stop us from blowing it all.
It's mine and besides, they never cared what I did.
Let's do it now while we still can
Before they take it away
Take it back
Check us out checking in
Ordering room service
We'll have one of everything
And we'll leave a one hundred percent tip.
Nobody can stop us from blowing it all
It's mine and, besides, they've never cared what I'm saying.
Nobody can stop us from blowing it all.
It's mine and, besides, they've never cared.
They've never cared.
They never cared
They never cared
They never cared
They never cared
They never cared
They never cared
They never cared
The song "Let's Blow It All" by Juliana Hatfield seems to be a reflection on the temporary nature of life and the desire to experience everything before it all fades away. The singer expresses a lack of understanding, perhaps disbelief, at having so much wealth and opportunity, and suggests using it to indulge in reckless behavior. They propose buying extravagant objects, such as a car and a diamond, only to destroy them, throwing money out a window, and giving away guitars to kids. It seems to be a desire to live on the edge, to take risks and enjoy the moment without worrying about the consequences.
The repeated line "nobody can stop us from blowing it all" suggests a defiance against any possible judgment or repercussions, as the wealth and opportunities are theirs to do with as they please. The last stanza, however, adds a note of melancholy, as they acknowledge the fleeting nature of their situation and express a desire to enjoy it while they still can, before it is all taken away.
Line by Line Meaning
This can't be real
I can't believe my life has come to this
I've never seen so much
I've never had so much money and I don't know what to do with it
This must be a joke.
Maybe this is just a dream or a prank
I don't know how to feel
I haven't experienced this before and I'm not sure how to react
I haven't earned it yet
I don't feel like I deserve all of this wealth and extravagance
Everything fades so fast.
I'm afraid that all of this will disappear as quickly as it came
Let's buy a car with cash and crash it
We have so much money that we can now afford to do reckless things
Buy her the rock she always wanted
Let's buy expensive things for ourselves and others just for the sake of it
Throw money out the window
We are so rich that we can just waste money and not care about the consequences
And watch the happy people catch it.
We enjoy seeing how people react when we give them money
You can't afford to save your life
Other people cannot afford basic necessities while we have more money than we know what to do with
Well, I can.
I have so much money that I can afford to help other people
I'll send you to a posh rehab
Let's spend money on fixing other people's problems just because we can
So you can get clean and it won't be so bad.
We can use our money to help other people improve their lives
Let's buy guitars for all the kids.
We can afford to give away expensive gifts and not even care if they appreciate it
I don't want to wake up wondering where it all went.
We have so much wealth that we can spend it without even thinking about it, but I'm worried it will all be gone one day
Nobody can stop us from blowing it all.
We have so much money that we can do whatever we want without consequence
It's mine and besides, they never cared what I did.
Our wealth is our own and we don't care if others agree with what we spend it on
And it doesn't matter where you go
Money can buy anything, including freedom and happiness, no matter where you are
And it doesn't matter where you are.
Money can make every place feel like paradise, no matter where you are
Let's do it now while we still can.
Let's spend money recklessly before it's too late or before we lose it all
Before they take it away
We know that our wealth is fleeting and we want to enjoy it while we can
Take it back
We acknowledge that our wealth could be taken away at any moment
Check us out checking in
We enjoy showing off our wealth and flaunting it to others
Ordering room service
We can afford to never leave the lap of luxury and have everything brought to us
We'll have one of everything
We will waste money on extravagances and never consider the actual value of what we are buying
And we'll leave a one hundred percent tip.
We are so rich that we can afford to give away money just for the sake of being generous
They've never cared.
Other people don't care about how we spend our wealth, so we have no reason to care about their opinions
They never cared
We know that other people have their own problems and that we cannot depend on them for support
They never cared
We know that we cannot depend on other people to fulfill our needs and wants, so we have to do it ourselves
They never cared
We don't care about other people's opinions or needs because we have our own wealth and luxuries
They never cared
We can do whatever we want with our wealth because nobody has any power over us
They never cared
We can spend our wealth recklessly without fear of judgment or condemnation from others
They never cared
We know that our wealth is our own and that we don't have to justify how we spend it to anyone
They never cared
We know that our wealth is fleeting and that we have to enjoy it while we still can, no matter what others think
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JULIANA HATFIELD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind