Amy Grant’s Heart In Motion: The Exotic Listening Guide

Good For Me

The opening track for this landmark, industrial rock album also served as the concert-opener for the 1991 tour that corresponded with the release of Heart In Motion, entitled "Heart In Motion From To Ocean To Ocean." Or, what Grant’s tour manager, Grit Atkins, later recounted in his rock and roll memoir, Heart Attack In Motion, as "...nothing but three months of drinking, fucking, shooting up and rocking out. And, getting hospitalized for drug-related incidents."

Baby, Baby

Stop for a minute, is that Trent Reznor on the synths? Most would think so, but it’s actually legendary studio musician and record producer Keith Thomas, who, aside from producing the bulk of Amy Grant’s catalog, has a résumé that boasts BOTH Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson (as well as the 1989 Pepsi jingle, "The Choice Of A New Generation"). Reznor later credited Keith Thomas and—specifically—his work in the soft drink industry, for the sole inspiration behind Nine Inch Nails’ smash hit "Closer." "The concept of the song hit me when I realized that if I drink a Pepsi and get a nice caffeine buzz going, all it takes is hearing the synth intro to ’Heart In Motion’ and, next thing you know, I want to fuck like an animal. I’m a drug guy and Pepsi’s my go-to. I guess that’s why I always tend to refer to The Downward Spiral as ;’The Pepsi album.’"

Every Heartbeat

The name is a sly reference to what Grantheads refer to as the "Daytona Incident," in which five out of the seven band members, as well as Amy Grant herself, each overdosed—completely separate of each other, in their own respective hotel rooms—and were hospitalized, causing the group to cancel their appearance at the Daytona 500 the next day. They were slated to perform the national anthem. "It’s all for the best," Grant’s pyrotechnics supervisor told Rolling Stone in a 1992 interview "she couldn’t remember the lyrics at all."

Ask Me

Amy Grant was catapulted to rock-and-roll-legend status when, on July 25, 1965, she and her band went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and performed this song, along with "Maggie’s Farm" and "Like A Rolling Stone." Grant played a Fender Stratocaster, instead of her usual acoustic guitar. While the Newport Folk audience reacted harshly, by booing the band (which, in turn, elicited even more rock-and-roll rage), the performance was not only a turning point in which Amy Grant and her band transcended folk and brandished the hell-forged battle axe of rock-and-roll, but, also solidified her status as a rock icon.

Galileo

"Who here is gonna get Gali-laid tonight? Who here is gonna get Gali-laid right now?!" Amy Grant famously shouts at the beginning of the music video, which features a live version of the song, instead of the studio version. Fact: all four of my children were conceived to this song—three of those were at Amy Grant concerts.

You’re Not Alone

The first time I heard this song, I came in my pants.

Hats

Originally titled "Jimmy Hats," the title of this song was shortened by the record label, in an effort to appeal to Grant’s largely Christian fan base. The song was a nod to Amy Grant’s first band, Bay Area punk outfit No Protection.

I Will Remember You

"The song originally came out of a jam in the studio," Grant’s lead guitarist Sid Fuchs recounted in a Spin interview. "We were waiting for them to find Amy, ’cause she had this tendency to disappear with a bottle of bourbon and then you’d find her later that night in a broom closet, passed out. So, we just knew that any time Amy disappears, check the closets. Anyways, they were looking for Amy and so we started jamming on some Sabbath. Next thing you know, Amy’s back in the room on the mic, and she’s ad-libbing this totally new melody and lyrics over the top of ’War Pigs.’ I looked over at the engineer and he gave me the thumbs up, meaning we were tracking, so five minutes later we had a recording of these amazing, improvised lyrics—some of the most haunting stuff she’s ever written. We changed up a couple of the chords, you know, so we wouldn’t get sued. And, that’s how the song was born. Funny thing is, and she won’t admit this, but Amy doesn’t remember any of it at all. Talk about irony."

Hope Set High

The largest mass drug bust in the history of the state of Kansas took place in Topeka on December 22, 1990, shortly after Amy Grant broke into this stoner anthem. Local Sheriff, Sheldon Weierhauser, was up for reelection. So, in an attempt to cast himself as hard on crime, he had deputies at the concert, poised in the wings, ready to swarm the crowd of Grantheads as soon as enough of them had lit up (as was tradition at Grant shows whenever they played this number). As a result, the show was canceled mid-raid when the band, all of whom were holding felonies, scattered like roaches. Grant herself was arrested hours later for charges unrelated to drugs, after she defecated on a cop car outside the venue.