Live Bootleg (1985)
Hiatt’s On-The-Brink Years, Pt. 5
Another prized vinyl possession that has, on more than one occasion, brought folks over to the house solely to listen to it. This promo-only live album was issued by Geffen to promote (what would be) Hiatt’s last album for the label, Warming Up To The Ice Age. For those unfamiliar with his story, this was an unbelievable time for Hiatt, who was battling alcohol addiction, dealing with the suicide of his wife and, within months, was about to lose his job (read: get dropped by Geffen). Back in 1985, however, this live blast perfectly captured Hiatt’s out-of-control spontaneity… the tail end of his ‘on-the-brink’ years. Originally a King Biscuit Flower Hour recording, this performance is rough & ready, loose & untamed. Hiatt is invigorated and his band, thanks to the punchy bass work, has a funky authenticity here, weaving it within the rock, R&B, roots and soul brew Hiatt had already formulated. Interestingly, the new wave keyboard riffs abandoned on the new album are present, but almost completely buried in this live mix. I’d be curious to know if that was Hiatt’s, King Biscuit’s or just some lazy soundman’s decision. During “She Said The Same Things To Me,” the band breaks down completely, though the veteran Hiatt recovers with aplomb. Ripped from the original vinyl, the cover art doesn’t give any details (the back is blank), like if that’s actually Elvis Costello reprising his “Living A Little, Laughing A Little” duet with JH. Check out Hiatt’s powerful look at his own addiction, “The Usual.” As of today, I couldn’t find it at Amazon or Ebay. Hiatt’s On The Brink Years: Get all 5 HERE.
Say It With Flowers (3:37)
I Don’t Even Try (3:49)
Pink Bedroom (3:09)
She Said The Same Things To Me (4:35)
Warming Up To The Ice Age (6:15)
Living A Little, Laughing A Little (4:22)
I’m A Real Man (4:08)
The Usual (3:50)
Riding With The King (9:21)
Zero House (4:38)
18 Comments
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Thanks Willard! I saw Hiatt & band around this time, I remember it was a short tour, maybe 12 cities. Very tight band, great show, they played at least an hour and a half, I don’t think Hiatt played any guitar, too bad more of it hasn’t been released.
No guitar? He sang like a frontman?
I remember being surprised that he was just the frontman when the show started, but it’s been a while, he may have played guitar later. It was at the 23 East Cabaret in Ardmore PA, the Philly suburbs, if anyone else was there. Kristi Rose & The Midnight Walkers opened.
Must have been doing an Elvis/Vegas entrance.
That would explain his karate moves! Kristi Rose came close to it- her rockabilly band opened with an instrumental that sounded very familiar, but I could’t quite place it. Then Kristi walked out, bare feet and all, and started singing “Battle Hymn Of The Republic”! “His truth is marching onnnn!” Great moment!
Thanks, this brings back good memories, I saw Hiatt live twice
I caught this tour at Irving Plaza in NYC. The band was smoking hot and Hiatt was playing guitar as usual. Interesting to hear that he only fronted the band on at least one date.
JB
Used to own this years ago. It was always one of my favorite Hiatt LPs (Ice Age), especially ‘When We Ran’. I was always disappointed that they didn’t include THAT one on this…OR ‘Ever Since His Penis Came Between Us’..used to have THAT bootleg. Did I get it here? Storm took out an old Hard Drive and it’s gone again!
Follow the link and get it again.
Thanks
Thanks for the John Hiatt share he is a talented artist who crosses over several genre’s
Regards
Rhod
Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
I’m in the UK.
I get the message: “Subscribe now and get 5 days of GOLD access for FREE!”. I cannot Continue unless I give them my mobile phone number (“you will receive an SMS which you need to respond to”). But as I don’t want to be bombarded by spam texts day and night, I will not be giving them n=my number!
DANNY
I wouldn’t either. Are you getting that same message on any and all our Deposit links? Because it’s working fine here. I’m guessing it’s just not an ad page and you can’t get around it. I’ll get a zippy up later today for this one, but I’m not going to be able to keep doing it on other posts, since we have a lot of Deposit links. If it’s something new in the UK you might be screwed.
Ah, it must be something to do with Google Chrome and/or the Adblock Plus extension – as I use both. I’ve just downloded it using the dread Internet Explorer, god it looks ugly – and so slow!
Cool, thanks for working on it. In retrospect, if a country is cut off from a service, the hosting sites usually say so. But, an ad/prompt doesn’t make much sense. STILL doesn’t make much sense that it would only happen in a certain browser, but… whattaya gonna do? We use Safari around here (and have used Firefox in the past). Since Safari is Mac, you might have some luck with Firefox in avoiding the dreaded Explorer. Thanks for the follow up.
Sure, anything to avoid using the ghastly Internet Explorer – the web browser that time forgot.