[.ca] Anthology

From Amazon.com:
To paraphrase a musical icon, John Hiatt has been a poet, a pauper, and a pawn. He also wrote "Riding with the King." What he hasn't been is a household name. That's a shame, because Hiatt has forged one of the most consistently satisfying canons of any contemporary American singer-songwriter. This double-disc, 40-song anthology charts Hiatt's sometimes stormy, always compelling course across more than a half-dozen record labels and nearly as many styles. Beginning with his early days as a Nashville hired gun (including "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here," a song Three Dog Night took to the top 20), this collection's first disc documents Hiatt's restless early career, which bounded off early Dylan (who covered the songwriter's "The Usual") and Stones influences, through nascent L.A. punk, and on to healthy Elvis obsessions (both Presley and Costello); indeed, songs like "My Edge of the Razor" and "She Loves the Jerk" sound like Costello outtakes. The second chapter chronicles Hiatt boiling off his rich, disparate influences in the mid-'80s to find his own true voice--and again forging successes for others with songs, like his sly original version of Bonnie Raitt's comeback hit, "Thing Called Love." By the collection's final tracks ("Take It Down" and "Crossing Muddy Waters," from the 2000 album named after the latter), Hiatt had come full circle, again embracing his country-blues roots, but in a stripped-down acoustic setting that only underscored his gifts of observation and musical storytelling. --Jerry McCulley

Some are missing the point: this compilation is SUBLIME:
I'm getting a bit annoyed after reading some rather negative or complaining reviews about this wonderful 2cd set. This is as good a John Hiatt compilation ANYONE is ever going to put together, period. Really good value for your money with 40 crisp remastered tracks and interesting booklet, I can't see how this could be bettered, in terms of song selecion also. I also bought the compilation cd "The best of John Hiatt" and that was a rather dissapointing affair, because John re-recorded some versions of superior original songs like the classic "Have a little faith in me", also other compilations are too limited in scope (A & M years only etc.). So I'm glad I came across this great compilation. CD2 plays just perfectly, great great music. CD1 is a little more uneven but there are still plenty of highlights like Riding with the King and Lipstick Sunset. People complaining that there not getting a box set with rarities, outtakes, live versions, demos, etc. ARE TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT OF THIS COMPILATION I'M AFRAID. That is not the meaning of this collection. The goal here is to present a complete overview of Hiatt's carreer, the best songs in their original versions. Comparable to Chuck Berry's "The Anthology", Paul McCartney's "Wingspan", Pink Floyd's "Echoes" and BB Kings "Anthology". And as such it is perfect. Box sets: great but not for the casual listener. If you are already a big fan and have all of the original Hiatt albums you can pass this one up but for the curious music fan this is the one and only compilation of Hiatt's best work up from 1974 until 2000. I wonder sometimes: artists like Hiatt, Willy Deville, Nick cave, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa etc. who are uniformly respected by the music press and a selected audience (and whom I love) are often criticized when a compilation of their best work is released to the general public. It seems than as if something exclusive has been taken away from the fans of artists like these, because you see them bashing good compilations like this one into the ground, claiming you HAVE to get the original albums. I totally disagree with that, just accept that there are a lot of music lovers who are interested in these artists (like me) but don't want to shelve out for 10+ albums or a 4cd box set to get a decent overview of an artists carreer. No compilation ever will be perfect, but this along with "Strictly Commercial" (Frank Zappa), "Used Songs" (early Tom waits) and more prove that it is possible to present decent overviews of so-called album artists. Ride on John.

should've been three discs:
Hiatt is a consistently good, sometimes great, songwriter and a limited singer who has only made one truly undeniable album, 1985's Riding With the King. So this anthology is a good idea at the right time, and Hip-O has done its usual stellar job within the time constraints of two hour-long discs. The only song that doesn't belong is the unfortunately titled "Don't Think About Her When You Are Trying to Drive" from the failed Little Village collaboration, and all of his original versions of songs made popular by other artists are here. The problem is that Hiatt's talents don't begin and end with love songs, which seems to be Hip-O's focus--though you'd be hard-pressed to think of a more devastating failed relationship song than "When We Ran," esp. if you know the sad true story behind it. Hiatt's real talent is found in songs where he gets outside of his own experience, as in the tragicomic vignettes "Tennessee Plates" and "Trudy & Dave," only one of which is included here. So, when the inevitable three-disc boxed set comes out, I'd suggest adding the following: "Take Off Your Uniform" & "You're My Love Interest" from Slug Line "Lovers Will," "Death by Misadventure," & "You May Already Be a Winner" from Riding With the King "Back to the War" from Two Bit Monsters "Trudy & Dave," "Icy Blue Heart,""Is Anybody There?" & "Georgia Rae" from Slow Turning "Seven Little Indians" & "The Rest of the Dream" from Stolen Moments "Lincoln Town" & "Lift Up Every Stone" from Crossing Muddy Waters "My Old Friend" from The Tiki Bar is Open the original studio version of "Angel Eyes" (Hiatt tends to oversing when he performs live) Anything I've missed, guys? (Maybe something from The Border O.S.T.?)

Johnny-come-lately's:
Frankly, I'm surprised at how all "new" John Hiatt fans regard his older material. If you had been listening from the get-go, you'd know WHY his stuff from "Bring the Family" on is so well regarded. The reviewers at the time knew, and so do his longtime fans, the man went through a serious amount of "life" to get to where "Bring the Family" came out. Having literally grown up with John Hiatt's music, I can tell you, the chages we all go through are similar and you simply have to put yourself into his shoes during the end of the seventies, through the eighties and into the nineties and not disregard what you didn't listen to then. This man is a writer of his life and you need to know how the foundation was built before you can move into the house. About the selection of songs, I thing anyone who "feels" this music is bound to have connections to certain songs merely through empathy if anything, there are so many compilations (my personal favorite "Ya'll Caught?") that everyone can either find one or buy all the CD's and make this man the financial success he should be.

Give us the box set......:
This is a very good and quite thorough overview of John Hiatt's career, and it certainly gets the nod over "Greatest Hits: The A & M Years '87-'94" and Capitol's "The Best Of John Hiatt", as it is much more comprehensive, featuring some forty songs as opposed to less than twenty on the other two major compilations. And the third John Hiatt best-of, "Living A Little, Laughing A Little", which focuses on his lesser-known tracks, only includes tracks recorded before 1986. It is not perfect...very few anthologies are, actually. And "Anthology" misses out on a handful of Hiatt's best songs: The groovy, soulful R & B of "Don't Know Much About Love" isn't here, and neither is the excellent roots-rocker "You May Already Be A Winner", or the sorrowful ballads "Love In Flames" or "Tip Of My Tongue". But what IS here then? Well, precious few clunkers, that's for sure. John Hiatt is one of the most underrated American composers and lyricists. He draws from both blues, folk, soul, country and R & B, creating a unique, rootsy rock n' roll sound, and these two 78-minute discs are filled with songs ranging from good to great: Here you'll find the beautiful duet with Roseanne Cash, "The Way We Make A Broken Heart", the poetic and exquisitely melodious "Buffalo River Home" (one of Hiatt's best ever), the wry "Perfectly Good Guitar", the bluesy "Thank You Girl" and "Riding With The King", the superb roots-rocker "She Loves The Jerk", the acoustic ballad "Lipstick Sunset", the tough, straight-ahead rock songs "Child Of The Wild Blue Yonder", "Memphis In The Meantime", "Cry Love" and "Slow Turning", and too many more to mention. If you're looking for just one comprehensive overview of John Hiatt's 25-year career, I'm afraid you won't find it anywhere (until they give us the box set). But for now, this is the next best thing. And it's pretty darn good, too.

A Great Place to Start:
I rarely, if ever, recommend a "greatest hits" compliation as a good first purchase of any artist because I think they, as a rule, leave too much out. However, for people only somewhat familiar with John Hiatt, Anthology is the best single purchase I can recommend. It's almost an impossible task to provide an accurate snapshot of a career that has spanned thirty years without a single "hit", but this CD does it. Hiatt is the epitome of a musician's musician. A songwriter first and a performer second, he has mastered the art of writing a good, simple folk rock song. The closest thing my generation has to a Bob Dylan without a doubt. Buy this CD and you'll understand exactly why his songs have been recorded by everybody under the sun.

• Sure as I'm Sittin' Here
• Hangin' Around the Observatory
• Down Home
• Washable Ink
• Slug Line
• Radio Girl
• Pink Bedroom
• It Hasn't Happened Yet
• Spy Boy
• Doll Hospital
• My Edge of the Razor
• Riding With the King
• She Loves the Jerk
• I Don't Even Try
• Love That Harms
• Way We Make a Broken Heart - Rosanne Cash, John Hiatt
• When We Ran
• Usual
• She Said the Same Things to Me
• Lipstick Sunset
• Thank You Girl
• Have a Little Faith in Me
• Memphis in the Meantime
• Thing Called Love
• Tennessee Plates
• Slow Turning
• Drive South
• Feels Like Rain
• Paper Thin
• Child of the Wild Blue Yonder
• Real Fine Love
• Perfectly Good Guitar
• Buffalo River Home
• Angel Eyes
• Cry Love
• Shredding the Document
• Don't Think About Her When You Are Trying to Drive
• Pirate Radio
• Crossing Muddy Waters
• Take It Down