On the one hand, smashing a guitar has always been considered cool in some circles. The other side of the coin is some might consider it destructive, and it can be detrimental to the music if you do it to an axe you happen to love.
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We know where singer/songwriter extraordinaire John Hiatt stands in this debate, thanks to his 1993 track “Perfectly Good Guitar.” Hiatt also manages with the song to use guitar-smashing as a metaphor for people needing to take care of other important aspects of their lives.
“Guitar” Town
It took a while for the public to catch up to the songwriting excellence of John Hiatt. He quickly earned the title of “songwriter’s songwriter,” i.e. someone who draws immense admiration from his peers. In the late ’80s, record sales started to follow, thanks to wonderful albums like Bring the Family and Slow Turning.
Hiatt also joined a supergroup of sorts (along with Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner) called Little Village at the turn of the ‘90s, although that lasted for just a single album. When he went back into the studios to record his next solo album, he decided he’d change things up a little bit.
For one, he recorded the album quickly, getting things done in a matter of two weeks while also gravitating to a more rocking approach. In addition, Hiatt steered away somewhat from the self-reflection of the previous few albums, settling instead for songs that sprung up on any number of subjects.
“Perfectly Good Guitar,” which would serve as the title track to that album when released in 1993, was inspired after Hiatt witnessed Nirvana during their infamous performance at an MTV awards show the previous year. That was the show where bassist Krist Novoselic threw his instrument in the air, only to have it come down and hit him right in the face.
About the Lyrics of “Perfectly Good Guitar”
Hiatt tells a cautionary tale about the aftermath of smashing guitars. It’s important to realize he has tongue partially in cheek here, using the topic to get in some sharp one-liners. There’s also something unspoken here about those who treat objects or people callously, and the regret they face down the line for these actions.
The chorus of “Perfectly Good Guitar” keeps coming around like an ominous reminder of the consequences: Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars / Smashing a perfectly good guitar. Those consequences are often hidden at the moment of the act: Beautiful women were standing everywhere / They all got wet when he smashed that thing.
To drive his point home, Hiatt takes us back to when this character got his first guitar, which wasn’t the new red Harmony he wanted. That made him think of the instrument as disposable. But after growing to love the thing, he views it in a much different light once it’s gone: Now he just sits in his room every day / Whistling every note he used to play.
Hiatt suggests the punishment for smashing guitars should fit the crime: You smash a guitar and you go to jail / With no chance for early parole / You don’t get out until you get some soul. He ends by giving us the moral to the story in the form of what might have been: He wishes he still had that old guitar to hold / He’d rock it like a baby in his arms / Never let it come to any harm.
The ironic thing about “Perfectly Good Guitar” is it rocks so righteously it could conceivably create a buzz among anyone playing it, the kind that might entice them to put a punctuation mark on the song with a good old-fashioned guitar smash. In the lyrics, however, John Hiatt makes a pretty good case for keeping temptations like those in check.
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Photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Mediapunch/Shutterstock
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