What makes a successful rock song? There's the beat, of course, and the melody. A reasonably competent musical performance doesn't hurt. A good hook is fairly important, too. But songs don't usually connect with me unless the singer delivers the lyrics with an understanding and a feel for the rhythms of language. Singers who accomplish this can help combine a song's elements into a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.
The type of song doesn't seem to matter. Clumsy lyrics can stick out in everything from ballads to up-tempo rockers, although skilled phrasing and delivery by a good singer can sometimes make up for them. But for both fast and slow songs, the rhythm of language is important.
One contemporary songwriter who has a good grasp of the rhythm of language is John Hiatt, especially in some of his earlier work. I've enjoyed Hiatt's songs since the late 1970s, and although I admire his work ethic and resulting success I think the songs from about 1978 to 1990 are more distinctively drawn and sharply rendered than most of his more recent work.
One song in particular, "Memphis In the Meantime" (it's the opening track on 1987's Bring the Family), is for me a masterpiece of rapid-fire lyric delivery. The song is a good-natured poke at the Nashville-ness of the songwriting business, and I think its pointed lyrics show that Hiatt has been influenced by some of rock's sharper wordsmiths, like Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan.
The song begins with a funky, slightly off-kilter guitar riff by Ry Cooder, one that shows its 12-bar rock 'n roll roots but is somehow unique. Cooder includes a nod to Johnny Rivers' version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," but for the most part his guitar strains at its leash like an ornery watchdog. When combined with drummer Jim Keltner's huge but just off-center backbeat, it lays a promising foundation--and Hiatt's singing doesn't disappoint.
In the first verse we get a sense of Hiatt's restlessness as he tells a nameless girlfriend:
You say you're gonna get your act together
Gonna take it out on the road
But if I don't get outta here pretty soon
My head's goin' to explode
He winds up the first verse with a sentiment that's sure to strike a chord with musicians who grew up on rock and rhythm 'n blues:
Sure I like country music
And I like mandolins
But right now I need a Telecaster
Through a Vibrolux turned up to ten
(For all you non-musicians, the Telecaster is a popular model of Fender electric guitar, and the Vibrolux a Fender amplifier.)
The chorus is a throwaway:
Let's go to Memphis in the meantime, baby
Memphis in the meantime, girl
but by this time we're hooked on the song's beat and Hiatt's delivery, like a rainbow trout in some backwoods pond on a dry fly at dusk.
In the second verse, Hiatt provides a little more detail about what he's looking for:
I need a little shot of that rhythm, baby
Mixed up with these country blues
I wanna turn in these old cowboy boots
For some fine Italian shoes
Forget the mousse and the hairspray, sugar
We don't need none of that
Just a little dab'll do ya, girl
Underneath a pork pie hat
and winds up issuing the classic lament of a down-on-their-luck songwriter on Music Row:
Until hell freezes over
Maybe you can wait that long
But I don't think Ronnie Milsap's gonna ever
Record this song
The song's bridge section is inconsequential, like the chorus, and there's no instrumental section at all. There's a brief pause after the bridge, and then an immediate plunge into the final verse:
If we could just get off-a that beat, little girl
Maybe we could find the groove
At least we can get ourselves a decent meal
Down at the Rendezvous
'Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chord
Girl, it's gonna do me in
I need to hear some trumpet and saxophone
You know, sound as sweet as sin
"Memphis In the Meantime" is a great showcase for Hiatt's bluesy, big-as-a-cornfield voice (he was born and raised in Indiana), and he sounds almost sinister as he chortles and hisses a few repetitions of the chorus while the song's funky rhythms fade away.
Bring the Family, recorded in four days on a shoestring budget and without support from a record label, was something of a last-ditch effort by Hiatt to revive his struggling career. Its resulting success is as good a back-from-the-brink story as you can find in pop music; Hiatt retook control of his career as he achieved widespread critical acclaim, and the song "Thing Called Love" was recorded by Bonnie Raitt a couple of years later on Nick of Time, her own smash "revival" album. Nick of Time sold gazillions of copies and won a bunch of Grammys as well, providing both Raitt and Hiatt with much-needed boosts to their careers.
In 1991, Hiatt recorded another album with the same musicians he worked with on Bring the Family, only this time it was more of an all-for-one-and-one-for-all group effort instead of a John Hiatt album with a backup band. I don't think Little Village's eponymously-titled album sold very well, as I've been seeing it in cutout bins for a few years now. The album explores some interesting songwriting territory, and the craftsmanship and quality of the musicianship is just as good, if not better, than on Bring the Family. But the spark and magic created by a struggling artist trying to make his voice heard is nowhere to be found.
Although Hiatt's a lot more comfortable now than he was fifteen years ago, he still pours a lot of energy into his music. If you have the opportunity to see him perform live, I don't think you'll be disappointed. And you'll have to go a pretty fair distance before you find a better combination of soulful singer and lyricist who understands the rhythms of language.