John Hiatt – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Little Village – Don’t Bug Me When I’m Working

All I had to do was read off the members, and I knew I would like this band. Who were the members? Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. Each one of them is a legend, but when they teamed up in 1992, they made music that felt effortless.. This song plays like an anthem for anyone who has ever tried to get something done while the world keeps knocking at the door.

When Little Village came together in the early 1990s, it wasn’t a typical supergroup situation. Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner had already worked together in the studio. They worked on Hiatt’s 1987 album Bring the Family, a record cut in just four days. This album would be called Little Village.

Around 1991, discussions began about whether those four players could try something more equal and together as a band. Nick Lowe summed up the vibe when he said, “We only needed a name and a reason.” The name came from a 1930s reference, but the reason was simply that they liked working with each other. This wasn’t a record-company idea, and it wasn’t nostalgia.

While the sessions were friendly, the band admitted that being equals instead of backups slowed things down. Decisions took longer, and sometimes a song would go in five directions before landing on one. Lowe joked that it was like “four people in the passenger seat reaching for the wheel.” Critics generally liked it, although some expected another John Hiatt album and were surprised by its humor and different musical turns. Fans of any one member found something to enjoy. The album even received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Nick Lowe did say it wasn’t as good as it could have been. He blamed it on having too much time to record it. The album peaked at #22 in the UK and #66 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1992. Over time, this album has developed a cult following, especially among fans of Hiatt and Cooder.

This next video has a bonus live song, She Runs Hot. Enjoy Ry Cooder’s slide before they break into Don’t Bug Me When I’m Working.

Don’t Bug Me When I’m Working

Don’t bug me when I’m working
I’m working, I’m working
Don’t bug me when I’m working
Got a job to do

Don’t bug me when I’m working
I’m working, I’m working
Don’t bug me when I’m working
I don’t work for you

If you bug me at work I can’t get it done
Too tired, baby to have any fun
You got complaints, better keep ’em hid
Don’t come ’round here mess with the kid

Don’t bug me when I’m sleepin’
I’m sleepin’, I’m sleepin’
Don’t bug me when I’m sleepin’
‘Cause I need my rest
Don’t bug me when I’m

Don’t bug me when I’m got to buzz awhile
I said don’t bug me when I’m working
I’m working, I’m working
Don’t bug me when I’m working
Got a job to do

Now you bug me at home when I’m tired and beat
Can’t even stand on my own two feet
You call on the phone, you make me uptight
And I can’t even work with my baby at night

Don’t bug me when I’m working
I’m working, I’m working
Don’t bug me when I’m working
Got a job to do

Don’t bug me when I’m working
I’m working, I’m working
Don’t bug me when I’m working
I don’t work for you

Don’t bug me
‘Cause I don’t work for you
Don’t bug me
Mister I don’t work for you

Don’t bug me, don’t bug me
‘Cause I don’t work for you
Don’t bug me, don’t bug me
‘Cause I don’t work for you
At the sound of the tone
Better hang up the phone
If you want to be my friend
Don’t bug me when I’m working

…

John Hiatt – Slow Turning

Now I’m in my car, I got the radio on, I’m yellin’ at the kids in the back seat
‘Cause they’re bangin’ like Charlie Watts

I love the way this song kicks off with that jangly, ragged guitar riff. John’s voice fits this song perfectly as well. It’s rootsy, raucous, and real, a reminder that the best rock & roll doesn’t have to be flashy or fast to hit you in the gut.

A brilliant performer…he is a songwriter’s songwriter. The first time I heard this song, I loved it. When you mention Charlie Watts, you have my attention. John Hiatt always releases songs of quality, and they are all solid. Saying that, he is most remembered for his songs that other people cover. I don’t understand that because he has a fine, distinctive voice with a great band behind him. The keyword here is distinctive, I guess, which I look for.

He has a tremendous catalog with 24 studio albums. He released his first album in 1974! By the time John Hiatt released the album Slow Turning in 1988, he wasn’t some wide-eyed newcomer chasing charts; he was a survivor. Some of the songs he wrote and were covered were Angel Eyes, Sure As I’m Sitting Here, and Thing Called Love, just to name a few. Slow Turning is one of his best-known songs, with him singing.

I’ve seen a lot of Hiatt recently on live clips. He and his band are always great. It’s loose in the best way, the kind of groove that feels like it could fall apart at any second but never does. The rhythm section (Kenneth Blevins on drums and Dave Ranson on bass) just locks in with the kind of warmth that doesn’t come from studio perfection but from chemistry built from sweat on the road.

Slow Turning peaked at #22 on the Billboard Alternative Charts. The album peaked at #98 on the Billboard Album Charts. I thought it would have been higher in the charts. In my region, it got a lot of airplay.

Slow Turning

When I was a boyI thought it just came to youBut I never could tell what’s mineSo it didn’t matter anyway

My only pride and joyWas this racket down hereBangin’ on an old guitarAnd singin’ what I had to say

I always thought our house was haunted‘Cause nobody said “boo” to meI never did get what I wantedBut now I get what I need

It’s been a slow turnin’From the inside outA slow turnin’, babyBut you come about

A slow learnin’But you learn to swayA slow turnin’, babyNot fade away, not fade away, not fade away

Now I’m in my carOoh, I got the radio downNow I’m yellin’ at the kids in the back‘Cause they’re bangin’ like Charlie Watts

You think you’ve come so farIn this one horse townThen she’s laughin’ that crazy laugh‘Cause you haven’t left the parking lot

Time is short and here’s the damn thing about itYou’re gonna die, gonna die for sureAnd you can learn to live with love or without itBut there ain’t no cure

It’s just a slow turnin’From the inside outA slow turnin’But you come about, ya

A slow learnin’, babyBut you learn to swayA slow turnin’Not fade away, not fade away, not fade awayNot fade away, not fade away

A slow turnin’A slow turnin’A slow turnin’A slow turnin’

Rodney Crowell – She Loves The Jerk

John Hiatt released this song in 1983 on the album Riding With The King which was his sixth album. Like all his other efforts at this time, the album was a critical success but little heard or bought by the public. They both are great versions of the song.

In 1986 Rodney Crowell released his album Street Language which was on Columbia Records for his first release on that label. He left Warner Brothers at the time and brought in Booker T. Jones to produce this album. He had some heavy hitters on this album. Vince Gill, David Lindley, Dave Loggins, and Anton Fig just to name a few.

The album peaked at #38 on the Billboard Country Charts and #177 on the Billboard Album Charts. The song peaked at #71 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1986. This was the album before Diamonds and Dust that soared to number 1 in the Country Charts with 5 number 1 Country hits.

John Hiatt said it was written in 1982 while he was living in Los Angeles at the time. The inspiration came from earlier in his life… the first girl he ever thought he was in love with. He was 15 and she was 18 and it was unrequited love. Another artist who covered this song was Elvis Costello. He released the demo version of it.

She Loves The Jerk

We’ve talked it to death, cryin’ on the telephone
Nights when he drinks at home
She has to whisper throught her tears
“Johnny,” she says, “You’d never do these things to me”
But I can never make her see he’s wasted such precious years
Well, “You married the wrong guy” is all I ever say

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

He was the guy always out on the make
I guess he had what it takes to turn the heads of pretty girls
She thought he would change; the worst of us will settle down
But he couldn’t stay out of town, not even with this precious pearl
Now she lives with the lies and the bumps and the bruises

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

Well, I hang up the phone and I pretend she’s in my arms
What I wouldn’t give for just one-tenth of what she gives Mister Charming

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

…

John Hiatt – Memphis In The Meantime

Underneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

I somehow missed this Hiatt song. I absolutely love the guitar on this track. Come to find out there is a reason I like it. Ry Cooder is on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Carrack on keyboards and backing vocals. Later on, B.B. King and Eric Clapton covered this song.

Hiatt had only four days to make an album and this song kicked off his 1987 album Bring The Family. The song has a cool groove and shuffle to it. Hiatt was in Nashville at the time when he took a trip with his family to Memphis which of course inspired this song.

He mentions Ronnie Milsap in this song. At the time Nashville was known to make slick country songs. They would produce the soul out of a song. Milsap was listening though. On his next album, he recorded a John Hiatt song called Old Habits Are Hard To Break and yes… he inserted some Memphis funk in the song. Probably more than Hiatt could have thought at the time. Another thing that was happening at this time was Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle were shaking Nashville out of its rut.

Hiatt found himself drawn to the city’s renowned musical history and culture. I’m not sure how it was in the 1980s as much but now on Beale Street, there is always something interesting going on.

John Hiatt: “It sounds like a car with four bald tires, it’s like a four-man groove sputtering down the road, and I really like the record for that.”

John Hiatt: “It’s a day trip, only three hours, and it’s a terrific city, I’d been there before and there is truly something in the air, although there’s nothing going on musically speaking, they say. It’s just a great town and one of the only truly integrated cities in America, it seemed to me, where black people and white people actually live together in the neighborhoods and not only that, seem to get along I was real impressed by that.”

John Hiatt and The Goners…featuring Sonny Landreth…I really like this live cut. They add another dimension to the song.

Memphis in the Meantime

I got some’n’ to say little girlYou might not like my styleBut we been hangin’ around this townJust a little too long a whileYou say you’re gonna get your act togetherGonna take it out on the roadBut if I don’t get out o’ here pretty soonMy head’s going to explodeSure I like country musicAnd I like mandolinsBut right now I need a TelecasterThrough a Vibrolux turned up to 10

Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyAhw, Memphis in the meantime girlLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyMemphis in the meantime girl

I need a little shot of that rhythm babyMixed up with these country bluesI wanna trade in these ol’ cowboy bootsFor some fine Italian shoesForget the mousse and the hairspray sugarWe don’t need none of thatJust a little dab’ll do ya girlUnderneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

Maybe there’s nothin’ happenin’ thereBut maybe there’s somethin’ in the airBefore our upper lips get stiffMaybe we need us a big ol’ whiff

If we could just get off-a that beat little girlMaybe we could find the grooveAt least we can get ourselves a decent mealDown at the Rendezvous‘Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chordGirl, it’s gonna do me inI need to hear some trumpet and saxophoneYou know sound as sweet as sinAnd after we get good and greasyBaby we can come on homePut the cow horns back on the CadillacAnd change the message on the CordaphoneBut

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

I’m a talking about MemphisI’m talkin’ ’bout MemphisMemphis

…

John Hiatt – Perfectly Good Guitar

The first time I heard this song, I loved it. John Hiatt always releases songs of quality, and they are all solid. Saying that, he is most remembered for his songs that other people cover. I don’t understand that because he has a fine, distinctive voice with a consistently excellent band behind him. The keyword here is distinctive, I guess, which I look for.

I first noticed Hiatt with the song Slow Turning. When Bonnie Raitt released Thing Called Love in 1989, I knew the song from Hiatt…I was just getting into him. I’m glad Raitt covered that song because it helped him. He has released 25 albums in total, ranging from 1974 through 2021, and it’s about time for another. My friend Christian does a good review of the album here...check it out if you can.

This song was the title track on his 1993 eleventh studio album. The album peaked at #47 on the Billboard 100, #34 in Canada, #67 in the UK, and #19 in New Zealand. It was his last album on A&M Records and his highest-charting album on Billboard. This album was probably the most rock & roll-oriented album of Hiatt’s career. I do like the guitar tone that Matt Wallace, the producer, got on this album. He had previously produced The Replacements.

The song peaked at #16 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts and #76 in Canada. The record company pulled 5 singles off of this album, and 2 were in the top 40 in the Mainstream Charts.

Perfectly Good Guitar

Well he threw one down form the top of the stairs
Beautiful women were standing everywhere
They all got wet when he smashed that thing
But off in the dark you could hear somebody sing

Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars
Smashing a perfectly good guitar
I don’t know who they think they are
Smashing a perfectly good guitar

It started back in 1963
His momma wouldn’t buy him
That new red harmony
He settled for a sunburst with a crack
But he’s still trying to break his momma’s back

He loved that guitar just like a girlfriend
But ever good thing comes to an end
Now he just sits in his room all day
Whistling every note he used to play

There out to be a law with no bail
Smash a guitar and you go to jail
With no chance for early parole
You don’t get out till you get some soul

Late at night the end of the road
He wished he still had the old guitar to hold
He’d rock it like a baby in his arms
Never let it come to any harm

Ben Vaughn – Too Sensitive For This World

I’m a bona fide sucker for a guitar tremolo effect…throw in a voice that melts into the song and yea…I’m hooked. During the last part of the first verse backup singers come in and give it a short gospel quality. That makes me warm inside.

John Hiatt did the solo whistling and backing vocals.

The song was written by singer-songwriter Ben Vaughn, off his 1990 album Dressed In Black. Vaughn grew up in the Philadelphia area. He has said that At age 6, his uncle gave him a Duane Eddy record and forever changed his life.

In 1983, he formed the Ben Vaughn Combo. The band was together five years, releasing two albums and touring the U.S. several times. They received rave reviews in Rolling Stone and People magazine and video airplay on MTV.

Vaughn started a solo career in 1988 and has released over 17 albums. He is very versatile… he plays Rock, blues, jazz, folk, soul, R & B, country, Bossa Nova, movie soundtracks, easy listening and more, all with Vaughn’s musical slant.

Too Sensitive For This World

Ev’ry day starts with a broken heart
I must be too sensitive for this world
Well I know it ain’t right to cry ev’ry night
I must be too sensitive for this world

And the world is such a careless place
It’s a wonder, hummm it’s a wonder
It’s a wonder
Anyone survives

The clouds in the sky just make me cry
I must be too sensitive for this world
I don’t think I can last until these bad times pass
I must be too sensitive for this world

Solo

And the world is such a careless place
The world is such a selfish place
And life is such an awful fate
It’s a wonder, hummm it’s a wonder
It’s a wonder
Anyone survives
I must be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Vaughn

John Hiatt – Window On The World

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday so far…I heard this song and liked it right away. Jimmy Buffett did a cover but I prefer John’s rawer version.

It came out in 2003 on the album “Beneath This Gruff Exterior” which peaked at #73 on the Billboard Album Charts. I don’t see any chart history on this song. John’s reputation has always been better than his chart success but other artists have covered his songs with great chart success…Bonnie Raitt being one.

John mentions “Wes and Jimmy” and that would be Jazz musicians Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith.

This song really spoke to me the first time I heard it. It wasn’t a massive hit but occasionally I’ll hear it on radio.

Window On The World

A broken promise i kept too long
A greasy shade and a curtain drawn
A broken glass and a heart gone wrong
That’s my window on the world

A cup of coffee in a shaky hand
Wakin’ up in a foreign land
Tryin’ to act like i got somethin’ planned
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 1:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
Don’t let mama cut those curfs
That’s my window on the world

In broad daylight that circus tent pulled up stakes
I don’t know where it went
A close dark room with a busted vent
That’s my window on the world

I think about you when i’m countin’ sheep
I think about you, then i can’t sleep
I think that ocean is just so deep
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 2:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
The queen of Sheba meets the duke of earle
That’s my window on the world

Down on indiana avenue
Wes and jimmy, man they played the blues
I guess they were only passin’ through
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 1:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
Don’t let mama cut those curfs
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 2:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
The queen of Sheba meets the duke of earle
That’s my window on the world

John Hiatt – Window on the World

I heard this song and liked it right away. Jimmy Buffett did a cover but I prefer John’s rawer version. It came out in 2003 on the album “Beneath This Gruff Exterior” which peaked at #73 on the Billboard Album Charts. John’s reputation has always been better than his chart success but other artists have covered his songs with great chart success…Bonnie Raitt being one.

John mentions “Wes and Jimmy” and that would be Jazz musicians Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith.

Personally, I like John’s voice and I usually like his version of his songs.

“Window On The World”

A broken promise i kept too long
A greasy shade and a curtain drawn
A broken glass and a heart gone wrong
That’s my window on the worldA cup of coffee in a shaky hand
Wakin’ up in a foreign land
Tryin’ to act like i got somethin’ planned
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 1:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
Don’t let mama cut those curfs
That’s my window on the world

In broad daylight that circus tent pulled up stakes
I don’t know where it went
A close dark room with a busted vent
That’s my window on the world

I think about you when i’m countin’ sheep
I think about you, then i can’t sleep
I think that ocean is just so deep
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 2:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
The queen of Sheba meets the duke of earle
That’s my window on the world

Down on indiana avenue
Wes and jimmy, man they played the blues
I guess they were only passin’ through
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 1:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
Don’t let mama cut those curfs
That’s my window on the world

[Chorus 2:]
That’s my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
The queen of Sheba meets the duke of earle
That’s my window on the world