My Ten Favorite Girl Songs: Girl on a String (#8)
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (86950)
United States
October 7, 2016 8:33pm CST
Scott the great music geek started a top ten list of favorite "girl" songs: not songs by girls but with "girl" in the title. I jumped on that like ugly on ape!! So here's my next song in my list.
#8: Girl on a String - John Hiatt
I was supposed to go see John Hiatt last night in Bloomington, Indiana. That abusive Cy Attica wouldn't let me go. That's okay -- he's playing here next month and I don't have to drive an hour and a half to get to the show, so that date will be kept! I could probably do a top ten Hiatt "girl" songs, too: "Radio Girl," "I Love That Girl," etc. 
As for this song, wow, what a great song. I love the way Hiatt takes the empathetic approach toward the women in bad relationships (consider "She Loves the Jerk," a song I discussed in my countdown of favorite Hiatt songs). He sings about a woman who's trapped in codependency ("the deeper in the darkness they get the more she sees that silhouette of a girl who wanted pretty things, not that girl on a string") and, like the female in "She Loves the Jerk," won't leave despite the fact that "he's got her going up and down like a yo-yo."
This didn't make the final cut on my Hiatt countdown, but it's in my top 40 Hiatt playlist on the iPod.
Girl on a String
Written by John Hiatt
Recorded by John Hiatt
From Riding With the King, 1983
Hiatt with a great beat:
As for this song, wow, what a great song. I love the way Hiatt takes the empathetic approach toward the women in bad relationships (consider "She Loves the Jerk," a song I discussed in my countdown of favorite Hiatt songs). He sings about a woman who's trapped in codependency ("the deeper in the darkness they get the more she sees that silhouette of a girl who wanted pretty things, not that girl on a string") and, like the female in "She Loves the Jerk," won't leave despite the fact that "he's got her going up and down like a yo-yo."
This didn't make the final cut on my Hiatt countdown, but it's in my top 40 Hiatt playlist on the iPod.
Girl on a String
Written by John Hiatt
Recorded by John Hiatt
From Riding With the King, 1983
Hiatt with a great beat:
3 people like this
2 responses
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
8 Oct 16
I wonder if he based his song on someone he knew. He gets the psychology of such situations.
1 person likes this
