John Hiatt

The songwriter’s songwriter flips out over Little Stevie Wonder’s Fingertips Parts 1 & 2 (Tamla,1963)

I think it was about ’63. I was 11. I was already playing guitar at home [in Indianapolis], already finger-poppin’ and grooving. My elder brother had a set of bongos, I’d beat on those, and pots and pans, driving my mother crazy. Then I heard Fingertips on the radio. It started with the MC bringing him out, calling him a 12-year-old genius, and the rhythm started. I think Stevie starts playing bongos, then harmonica. It’s a minute before he starts singing. Man, it seemed like it went on forever. The recording was live, and I’d never heard anything that exciting, or someone so talented do so many things in the course of how many minutes it was! It had everything that I think music brings to the table, the excitement – how it takes you to another place and elevates you beyond belief. His talent was everywhere. I thought, I don’t know how you do that, but I’d love to know! I wanted to be a 12-year-old genius. He certainly was. So, I went downtown to buy the record. I fancied myself having decent rhythm, when I heard it, it was like it was all right to be finger-poppin’, let’s rock, non-stop. In 6th grade we were putting bands together, playing songs of the day, but I never remember being able to pull off Fingertips.

Another record changed my life, and it’s hard to pick between them: Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone. It was 1965, I was just post-puberty, and I remember being in the car. My mother parked outside the drug store and went in, and Like A Rolling Stone came on the radio, and I remember I felt so changed I thought my mother wouldn’t recognise me. I was convinced I was now a different person. He was singing, “How does it feel?” And I was going, “I know! I know how it feels!” Whatever it was, I don’t know. He rewrote songwriting. Those two records, man.

As told to Ian Harrison

John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band’s Leftover Feelings is out now on New West.