"Slow Turning" by John Hiatt
Learn to live with love or without it: the Dad Rock you need right now
“When I was a boy I thought it just came to you / But I never could tell what's mine so it didn't matter anyway / My only pride and joy was this racket down here / Bangin' on an old guitar and singin' what I had to say”
John Hiatt was Dad Rock before Dad Rock was even a thing. John Hiatt was your dad’s Dad Rock, before the Gen X stuff became “Dad Rock”. In fact, John Hiatt is the Dad Rock I need right now, and I will need him for the rest of your life. Or maybe I won’t. No skin off his back, I think. He doesn’t need anyone’s approval.
But do yourself a favor.
“I always thought our house was haunted 'cause nobody said "boo" to me / I never did get what I wanted but now I get what I need / It's been a slow turnin’”
For years it was just “Feels Like Rain” in my head. That’s the only song I recognized. I didn’t get curious about the rest of Hiatt. And then one day, “Feels Like Rain” was playing and I was just like, I Gotta Know More. The rabbit hole opened right up. It’s a deep one. There’s no end in sight.
As it turns out, John Hiatt has forgotten more of his own songs than you will ever write of yours.
“From the inside out / A slow turnin', baby / But you come about / A slow learnin' but you learn to sway (he hey hey hey) / A slow turnin', baby / Not fade away, not fade away, not fade away”
I was an MTV kid. My life revolved around the LPs littering the living room, and the TV would have an endless stream of music videos, essentially commercials for the singles on other records. The singles in turn were commercials for the album, a taste of what you could hear more of by plopping down your $8.99, or whatever it was that week.
The prices were different for everything. The new stuff cost more, and if you had those records early it said something about you. There were plenty of unknowns and has-beens sitting in a bin at the “Nice Price” ($4.99). Last year’s hits. It was a totally different music business, but I was 12 and had no clue about anything. Sometimes we’d buy stuff, mostly we’d pass tapes around.
Anyway, I think “Feels Like Rain” was in a movie or something. It has something of an anointed status among the rest of the Hiatt canon. A little slice of true perfection among so many other songs. It reaches you in places regular ballads do not.
So one day I just hit a point like, What’s The Deal with this guy? And bang.
Hiatt’s is not a super dramatic story or anything. Maybe it’s only later in life, after having to come to terms with a few of one’s own failures and shortcomings, that somebody might appreciate a biography like Hiatt’s. He went through a bunch of shit growing up, became a shitty adult, suffered some Consequences, got sober, embraced fatherhood and then started having more hits. His recovery is central to his success and it was hard-earned, but the PR drag about recovery is that successful recoveries end up being boring. “Boring” is actually the prize: you get to keep living your life.
But have a look at the way he walks onstage to perform this song on Letterman in 1988. This is a man who’s had to fight some major battles to emerge from the darkness, and he’s bringing you a song to tell about it. He knows it’s great. You can see it on his face. No trace of fear, no time for regret. The man had been making records for 20 years by the time he finally broke out with “Bring The Family”, and he knows exactly how to follow it up. Every day is a gift.
“Now I'm in my car / Ooh, I got the radio down / Now I'm yellin' at the kids in the back' cause they're bangin' like Charlie Watts / You think you've come so far in this one horse town / Then she's laughin' that crazy laugh / 'Cause you haven't left the parking lot”
And thereafter? The man just kept working. Album after album after album after album. They keep coming.
Are they all great albums? Of course not. But they’re consistently pretty darn good. And the idiosyncratic Hiatt-ness of it all can’t help but mean something to somebody. Usually something secret to each person. The man is Touched.
“Time is short and here's the damn thing about it / You're gonna die, gonna die for sure / And you can learn to live with love or without it / But there ain't no cure / It's just a slow turnin’”
Anyway, I have no business singing a song like “Slow Turning”. I haven’t got kids in the back to yell at cause they’re banging like Charlie Watts. I am a phony, but a fan nonetheless. We can aspire. Learn to live with love or without it.
“Not fade away, not fade away, not fade away, not fade away, not fade away”
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