11pm - Bayou Jubilee; bluegrass hour part 2
Telluride, CO (5.03mb)
Band show
Featuring Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Sam Bush and Mark O’Conner
at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival 1989
June 23 1989
(9 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)
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11pm - Wild Horses; bluegrass hour part 1
Telluride, CO (5.03mb)
Band show
at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2000
June 18 2000
(9 votes, average: 2.56 out of 5)
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DDD4 - final amount raised
The final total raised for Daily Dose Day 4 was… Read more
10pm - Phone chat with Bruce; part 2
Bruce discusses the songs on his new record, his priorities and his approach to songwriting, other projects he’s just worked on, the Creative Music program he’s helping out with at the University of Miami, and more.
Recorded two weeks ago (6.56mb)
9pm - Phone chat with Bruce; part 1
Bruce’s contribution to Daily Dose Day 4 - a phone chat in which he tells you about his current project with Spike Lee, the record he’s currently recording, and more.
Recorded two weeks ago (7.17mb)
8pm - Iko Iko
West Palm Beach, FL (7.32mb)
Furthur Festival show
Featuring Chris Robinson, the Black Crowes
June 20 1997
(8 votes, average: 1.88 out of 5)
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7pm - Mandolin Rain hour; part 2
San Francisco, CA (4.6mb)
Solo piano show
February 3 2007
(12 votes, average: 3.58 out of 5)
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7pm - Mandolin Rain hour; part 1
Denver, CO (5.63mb)
Bruce Hornsby and the Range show
September 11 1986
(9 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)
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From the halls of academia to the hills of Appalachia
A transcript of Bruce’s chat over the ‘phone last week. Read more
6pm - Every Little Kiss
Hebron, OH (5.69mb)
Bruce Hornsby and the Range show
June 25 1988
(9 votes, average: 3.56 out of 5)
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5pm - Don of Dons
From the upcoming musical
San Francisco, CA (2.21mb)
Solo piano show
February 3 2007
(13 votes, average: 3.69 out of 5)
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4pm - Lady With a Fan > What a Time > (Samson and Delilah) > (In Walked Bud)
…including one of the more interesting intros to the band hat I ever heard!
Veneta, OR (10.0mb)
Furthur Festival show
July 28 1996
(10 votes, average: 3.6 out of 5)
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3pm - See the Same Way
If you thought the 6am “Sunflower Cat” ended abruptly, trying playing this song immediately after it and you’ll get it!
Louisville, KY (3.42mb)
Band show
August 13 2001
(7 votes, average: 3.14 out of 5)
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2pm - Grateful Dead hour part 2; Franklin’s Tower
Toronto, CA (9.26mb)
Furthur Festival show
July 9 1997
(9 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)
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2pm - Grateful Dead Hour part 1; Scarlet Begonias
Devon, PA (5.85mb)
Band show
August 31 1995
(10 votes, average: 3.1 out of 5)
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1pm - The Way It Is
Wintherthur, Switzerland (11.45mb)
Solo piano show
Bruce liked the piano so much, he bought it!
December 16 1995
(16 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)
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Midday dose - Everyday People > Midnight Hour > Go Back To Your Woods
Wintherthur, Switzerland (6.65mb)
Solo piano show
December 16 1995
(9 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)
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11pm - Burn Down the Mission
New York, NY (2.68mb)
Show with The Range
September 1 1990
(10 votes, average: 2.8 out of 5)
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10am - Barren Ground
Just a gorgeous version.
York, PA (6.46mb)
Noisemakers show
October 22 2004
(17 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)
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9am Rainbow’s Cadillac
… another all-time favourite version of another classic
Saratoga Spings, NY (5.32mb)
Furthur Festival show
July 6 1996
(8 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
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8am - Tangled Up in Blue
Williamsport, PA (6.01mb)
Band show
June 5 1996
(7 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)
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7am - The Weight
San Francisco, CA (5.19mb)
Band show
April 12 1996
(9 votes, average: 3.56 out of 5)
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6am - Sunflower Cat
Louisville, KY (5.19mb)
Band show
August 13 2001
(9 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
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5am - Jack Straw hour part 2
San Francisco, CA (5.49mb)
Band show
Featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir
April 12 1996
(11 votes, average: 3.91 out of 5)
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5am - Jack Straw hour part 1
Richmond, VA (5.43mb)
Band show
May 27 1999
(9 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)
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4am - Across the River
… a sixteen and a half minute version!
Columbus, OH (15.1mb)
Furthur Festival show
July 12 1997
(13 votes, average: 3.69 out of 5)
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3am - Harbor Lights
…my favourite version of all time
Portsmouth, VA (14.59mb)
Noisemakers show
featuring Bonnie Raitt howling
August 1 2002
(17 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)
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2am - Big Rumble
Atlanta, GA (9.8mb)
Furthur Festival
June 22 1997
(10 votes, average: 3.7 out of 5)
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1am - Freebird > Line in the Dust
Northampton, MA (8.79mb)
Noisemakers show
October 23 2004
(11 votes, average: 3.27 out of 5)
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Midnight EST - Valley Road
from Williamsport, PA (7.16mb)
Band show
June 5 1996
(12 votes, average: 3.42 out of 5)
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Right-click “download”, or click the player to hear it immediately!
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April 30 2008 - Princeton, NJ
We can always count on the Sunflower Kat for some great photos … here are her latest, from April 2008 in Princeton, NJ. Thanks, Kat!
April 19 2008 - Wilkes Barre, PA
Thanks to Ryan Wrobleski for sending in the first photos of 2008, from Bruce’s show with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.
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Resting Place/Fortunate Son
Two extremely thoughtful songs, demonstrating Hornsby’s determination not to leave any stone untouched in his commentary of the human condition and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Furthermore, the songs here demonstrate the author’s willingness to address issues that most of the rest of us might find “difficult” or “awkward”, and would prefer to ignore. It may even be argued that Hornsby could have been more successful, in strictly commercial terms, if he had taken the easy option, “passed by on the other side” and left the humanitarian issues for somebody else to deal with.
“Resting Place” is the point of view of an overweight person and the everyday stigma that he must face just to make it through an ordinary day. On “Spirit Trail” we find some of the most graphic imagary of all of Hornsby’s work, this song is certainly no exception:
“Ever feel like a side-show attraction / ever feel like a walking infraction / Some people call me Tarzan in my big, big sweats…I get by being a funny talker / all those funny jokes sting / so keep walkin’”
I note Hornsby’s comments in one review that some of these songs are, in a way, little reminders to him about such matters. This is an honourable admission which we could all learn from, as most of us are probably guilty of little, flippant remarks which cause hurt, possibly without us knowing. Hornsby himself refers in a flippant manner, probably unconciously, to the “fat man selling salvation in his hand” in “Jacob’s ladder”. However, “Resting Place” at least represents a concious decision to see the situation from the opposite viewpoint.
“Fortunate Son” is the ironic title of a song dealing with a character who is bound to his “ever present” wheelchair. This piece is a little more reflective than “Resting Place” - the quiet piano sets the tone - but the sense of battling against negative elements is similar. The first verse, situated in a street parade, is a quite remarkable, poignant example of an environment which the character must deal with:
“People laughing and smiles all around me / Balloons and paper in my hair / There’s a man in the car with the top down, waving wildly at me…I know he’s thinking / Better him, him than me”
The song deals with a range of emotions which touch the character’s life. In the first verse, a sense of being patronised by well-meaning individuals. The chorus betrays perhaps an element of self-pity. In the second verse, we learn of the experience of having to put a lid on emotion and deal with the situation rationally. Then comes the feelings of absolute despair. In the end, the resigned feeling of having to go out for a smoke and some drinks just to escape the hurt.
Carwyn Fowler
Bruce’s lyrics in the chorus of this song “I layed down odd and even, but double zero played” , it makes an obvious reference to the game of roulette. My thought happens to be that he’s speaking of russian roulette. Being that the character feels so alone, he thinks that it may be his only way out. So he settles for the smoke and a drink to take away all the pain.(Which I agree with) It also sounds like that he may be an alcoholic like his father was. (Givin’ the old man’s best salute…)
Larry Chisholm
I have a live MP3 of the song at home on which Bruce introduces the song by saying it was inspired by Lewis Puller’s book “Fortunate Son”
Puller was the son of Gen. “Chesty” Puller, the most decorated US Marine in history, and followed his father into the service only to lose both his legs, part of his hand and stomach in Vietnam. Bitter about the war and why it was fought, bound in a wheelchair for life he fought depression, pain from his wounds and alcohol. Even the success of the book could not save Puller from the Hell his life had become. He killed himself 3 years after it came out. The song to me is sung from Puller’s standpoint as a disabled vet who watches a parade consisting of the leaders who orders gave them fame and glory while he is left broken and forgotten.
David Leslie
“Fortunate Son” is Bruce’s retelling of a quintessentially American tragedy that had almost mythic significance in the naval community around the Tidewater region of Virginia. Tidewater is the coastal area at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and is the home port of the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, the home base for the Marines, and includes Bruce’s home town of Williamsburg.
Bruce took the name of the song from the title of the autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr., a young man about Bruce’s age (and mine) from Hampton, VA, which is about 30 miles southeast of Williamsburg. The author’s father was Lt. Gen. L.B. “Chesty” Puller, USMC, the most highly decorated Marine from WWII and Korea, and a legendary figure to the large community military, dependent and retirees in this part of the country.
Here’s how Amazon.com summarizes young Puller’s life story:
“Son of the famous World War II Marine commander “Chesty” Puller, Lewis Puller proudly followed in his father’s footsteps. It was his misfortune, though, to serve in Vietnam in a war that brought not honor but contempt, and exacted a brutal personal price: Puller lost both legs, one hand, and most of his buttocks and stomach. Years later he was functional enough to run for Congress, bitterly denouncing the war. He lost, became an alcoholic, and almost died again. Then he climbed out of that circle of Hell to write this searingly graphic autobiography, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. One last poignant postscript: three years after the enormous success of this book, the author killed himself.”
The parallels between the song and Puller, by the way, isn’t just speculation; Bruce introduced the song as being *about* Puller at a show out here in California. I got the feeling Bruce may have actually known the guy, or had friends in common…
Now I’ll get speculative, but not by much. Bruce, Puller and I are all about the same age, and we all grew up on John Wayne movies and duty-honor-country values at home. Bruce turned 20 (draft age) in 1974, and if the US combat role not been winding down that year, he could have spent the year in the jungle instead of at the U. of Miami.
The draft was using a lottery system then — one day each year, the gov’t assigned all the days in the next year a randomly number from 1 to 365. The next year, they started drafting people with birthday #1, and so on. The lower the number assigned to your 20th birthday, the more likely you were to get drafted; they also provided an estimate of how high they’d have to go to fill their quota. Student deferments were abolished, and almost everyone was eligible.
Maybe Bruce felt the same way when the lottery was cancelled for 1974 as I had on 8/5/71 — the day it became clear that I wasn’t going to have to give up college and my comfortable middle-class life and go to Vietnam, or jail, or Canada — fortunate. Maybe Bruce feels the same way I do today, when I see a guy my age with no legs, sitting in a wheel chair, begging for change in downtown Santa Cruz — “…thinkin’, ‘Better him than me.’ ”
I’m pretty sure Bruce feels like I do, when we catch ourselves thinking that way.
Dan Murphy
Just an FYI, Fortunate Son is the name of the autobiography of Lewis Puller. He was the son of Lt. General “Chesty” Puller. (Hence, “old man’s best salute.”) Lewis went to Vietnam and was horribly wounded there. He struggled with alcoholism and addiction to pain killers, but his autobiography won the Pulitzer Prize. Despite the accolades his book received, he lost his fight and committed suicide in 1994. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Jackie Hilles
See the Same Way/Pete and Manny
Once again, I may have to be a little careful on the specific content of “See the Same Way”. I’m not to sure if Hornsby is referring to actual events that may have happened, and I apologise if I’ve missed a point. However, as I have stated in previous lyric interpretations, the location of actual events that may or may not have happened is not the most important issue.
Here are two songs which have two different styles, yet make a similar, pervasive point about the human condition, which is not restricted to any one time or place. “See the Same Way” is a song using serious examples: (V1:a girl contrasting two toy dolls, one black, one white; V2: a courtroom episode; V3: the life and works of Jesus Christ; V4: not sure - possibly a queue for welfare money? V5: A young soldier in (ultimately futile) training for the “promised war”.)
It’s a song all about perceptions, and how one small situation can provoke many different perceptions - many of which are conditioned by political or social prejudice. In the chorus, Hornsby offers an open hand to us all, to “Talk about the difference / Find out what’s in the way / Open our eyes / See the same way”. We sure need more of Bruce’s warm-hearted views in Europe at the moment, where the tide of prejudice and hatred against an easy target - war refugees from Kosovo - is stirred by politicians and the media.
“Pete and Manny” makes a similar point, but in a totally different way. Here we have the classic scene of schoolyard banter towards those with a different interest or hobby from the rest. I’m sure that most of us, without question, can remember a similar situation. I know that I was guilty of it, but as a busking harpist I can sure tell you that I have been on the receiving end of mockery from “the lads” as well! On a more philosophical note, I love the chorus of “Pete and Manny” for two reasons:
“Round and round and round it goes, where it stops no one knows”
First, it’s a sort of warning shot for listeners who think they have got everything sorted. Don’t count on it. Moreover, someone who you have been mocking all this time may be much smarter than you think. Second, but more positively, if your down on your luck then things will soon come round again.
Finally, is the following anomaly on my CD cover a deliberate reference to the nihilist character in “Pete and Manny”? Alternatively, should I invest in a new CD?
“Johnson loved to feign indifference A Nihilist to the brim We’d shout as he would sp” …
Carwyn Fowler
More on See the Same Way…
This song relates back to The Way It Is, in that it specifically refers to historic events, like the 1964 Civil Rights Act (”They passed a law in ‘64 to give those who ain’t got a little more”). See the Same Way is just as historically profound. From what I can gather…
The first verse, the girl and the dolls, refers to the doll studies that formed the basis of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation Supreme Court decision. In that case, which ended school segregation, the plaintiffs presented evidence of black children who would say that they felt the white dolls were good, pretty and the most like them, while the black dolls were bad and ugly. This was the evidence of the harmful effect of desegregation.
The courtroom verse is a clear reference to the O.J. Simpson case, where the black population tended towards seeing O.J. as another black victim of a corrupt justice system, while most whites saw him as a murderer.
The third verse is a religious reference which is lost on me, I am sad to say.
The fourth verse is actually a reiteration of the verse for The Way It Is, which talks about a cynical rich person telling a poor person to “get a job”. This verse against touches upon economic disparity and, what clearly is a view on the insensitivity of the rich towards the poor.
The final verse is about the recent surge in the U.S. “militia” movement (”Soldiers waiting on a coming war”). Bruce talks about the distrust many of their members have for the government and how many of the groups, who frequently isolate themselves from mainstream society, have a tendency to blame their own problems on others. The verse suggests that they would be well served, rather than viewing the world with distrust and anger, to “open up and love a little more.”
Just some thoughts.
Chad Marlow
Songs A/B/C/D/Swan Song Variations
Let me deal with the individual “songs” first. I’ve never heard “A” or “B”. As I said earlier, I’m the unfortunate owner of an incomplete, European single disc CD, despite having searched all over for the double disc. However, I’m a big fan of the type of music that Bruce presents in “C” and “D”. Indeed, I wish he’d recorded a little bit more of this sort of stuff over the years. He’s hinted at it several times - the intros to “Show Goes On”, “Harbor Lights” and the general ambience of “Lost Soul” springs to mind. Perhaps there will come a time when he might record a purely instrumental album, which will expand on the quiet piano mood.
However, I’m less convinced that “Variations” should be where it is. However, again, perhaps there is a concept h