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/
Swan Song
Juliana Hatfield Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
No guts to tell me yourself
Go ahead and rub my nose in it
You can't fire me because I quit
You make me feel invisible
Well, surely you see me now
Stretched out on the floor of your house
With a needle in my arm
Next to a smoking gun
And an empty razor case
And a note that says :
Dear jack I hate you. love, Diane
Dear jack I hate you. love, Diane
Dear jack I hate you
I said yeah yeah yeah whoa.
The neighborhood is gonna watch me
As I create the great finale
A perfect swan dive out the window
Crash the car off the road
You're not gonna miss me
But you're gonna remember my body
Crumpled in a heap in the middle of your street.
Clean up your mess
Clean up your mess
Clean up your mess
Clean up your mess
Finally you're carrying me
Over the threshold try to revive me
With a cold compress but it's too late
I guess your best just isn't good enough
When every warm embrace
It was a selfish act
And every smiling face
It was a trap
You shit
You stabbed me in the back
Dear jack I hate you. love, Diane
Dear jack I hate you. love, Diane
Dear jack I hate you
I said yeah yeah yeah whoa.
Clean up my mess
Clean up my mess
Clean up my mess
Clean up my mess
Juliana Hatfield's song Swan Song is a poignant and intense portrayal of a woman pushed to the brink of despair by a failed relationship. The lyrics speak to the feelings of betrayal and abandonment that Diane, the singer of the song, experiences upon realizing that her partner Jack intends to end their relationship. The opening lines, "You were gonna let me go / No guts to tell me yourself," suggest that Diane has been blindsided by Jack's decision and that he lacks the courage to face her and explain his reasons for leaving.
The song's chorus, "Clean up your mess / Clean up my mess," highlights the emotional wreckage left in the wake of this relationship. Diane's feelings of worthlessness and invisibility are compounded by her perceived inability to move on and ultimately lead to her tragic end. The image of her "stretched out on the floor of your house / foaming at the mouth / with a needle in my arm / next to a smoking gun / and an empty razor case" is a powerful and haunting one, suggesting that Diane has turned to self-harm and possibly suicide as a means of coping with her pain.
Line by Line Meaning
You were gonna let me go
You had planned on ending our relationship without telling me directly.
No guts to tell me yourself
You didn't have the courage to tell me in person and share the responsibility.
Go ahead and rub my nose in it
You enjoy showing me how little I meant to you and how easy it was for you to hurt me.
You can't fire me because I quit
I'm leaving on my own terms, and I won't give you the satisfaction of firing me or making me feel rejected.
You make me feel invisible
You ignore me and treat me as if I were insignificant, and it hurts me deeply.
Well, surely you see me now
Now that I'm dead, you have no choice but to acknowledge my existence and the harm you caused me.
Stretched out on the floor of your house
My body is lying motionless and alone in your home, where you once welcomed and entertained me.
Foaming at the mouth
I died in agony and got so agitated that I lost control of my body functions.
With a needle in my arm
I committed suicide by injecting a drug into my bloodstream.
Next to a smoking gun
I left a weapon next to me that can be mistaken for the cause of my death, but it's just a decoy.
And an empty razor case
I had another option to kill myself, but I chose the needle because it was less painful or messy.
And a note that says :
I left behind an explanation that you'll have to read and digest, even if you don't want to.
Dear jack I hate you. love, Diane
I want to express my intense feelings of hatred and disappointment towards you, despite using a conventional love sign-off.
I said yeah yeah yeah whoa.
I screamed in frustration and madness before I died, expressing a mixture of anger, pain, and despair.
The neighborhood is gonna watch me
I'm not just dying alone, but also causing a public spectacle that will involve and shock people around me.
As I create the great finale
My death is not just a tragic ending, but also a theatrical performance that requires preparation and intentionality.
A perfect swan dive out the window
I choose to leap out of a window and plunge into the void like a swan, giving my death a poetic and graceful dimension.
Crash the car off the road
I also have a backup plan to use my car as a weapon and inflict damage on myself and others, intensifying my resentment and rage.
You're not gonna miss me
You'll not grieve me, miss me, or regret me, as you didn't appreciate me when I was alive.
But you're gonna remember my body
You'll not forget the sight of my dead body lying in the street or in your house, haunting your memory and your conscience.
Crumpled in a heap in the middle of your street.
My body is not only dead but also humiliated and reduced to a pile of clothes and flesh, defiling your reputation and your sense of decency.
Clean up your mess
I'm ordering you from the grave to take responsibility for the chaos and destruction you caused, and start fixing it.
Finally you're carrying me
After ignoring and rejecting me, you're forced to touch me and lift me, but it's too late to make amends or heal anything.
Over the threshold try to revive me
You're hoping to bring me back to life, but it's an impossible task, and it only shows your incompetence and ignorance.
With a cold compress but it's too late
Even if you knew what to do, your attempts to revive me are futile, as I have reached a point of no return and irreversible damage.
I guess your best just isn't good enough
You failed to meet my expectations and needs, and your best efforts are still insufficient to prevent my death or show me love.
When every warm embrace
I longed for your affection, physical or emotional, and you didn't provide it, even though it was simple and easy.
It was a selfish act
Your behavior towards me was egoistic and indifferent, and it solely served your own interests and convenience.
And every smiling face
You pretended to like me and enjoy my company, but it was all a facade and a deception, and my trust in you was misplaced.
It was a trap
You seduced me into your life, made me feel special, and then dropped me whenever you felt bored or threatened, revealing your malicious intent.
You shit
You're a worthless and nasty person, and I had the misfortune to know you intimately.
You stabbed me in the back
You betrayed my loyalty and affection by attacking me when I was vulnerable and unsuspecting.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JULIANA HATFIELD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind