I don’t think that anyone knows how pimp Bruce Hornsby really is. I mean,,, besides the dad-rock vibes with The Range, he was a touring member of The Grateful Dead in the early 90’s, has collaborated with Spike Lee on multiple projects, and had the one and only Tupac Shakur sample his most recognizable hit,”The Way It Is”, to speak about African American injustice, just like the original spoke about the Civil Rights Movement.
Fucking Bruce Hornsby….
That song “The Way it is” is an American timeless classic. I could be anywhere and drop everything to sit and stare while the blanket of Hornsby’s piano envelopes me in a cocoon of comfort. When it came out in 1986, I was all of 7 years old. It was my first foray into anything Civil Rights related, and I’ll bet that’s the same for a slough of white suburban kids who grew up on MTV. That video where Bruce and his white, whitey, white sneakers….. Sang his white, whitey, white ass off turning a socially conscious history lesson into a pop gem… and taught a bunch of punk assholes about 1964 in the process bringing The Range with him be-bopping along.
Fucking Bruce Hornsby….
“The Way It Is” is a song that I seek out on the YouTube when I want to get all the feels, and don’t kid yourself, you feel it too, even for a slight minute when that piano kicks in at the beginning and your eating your rainbow-colored, snow cone on a park bench in the summer sun, just for a hot minute we are bathed in the righteousness of two piano solos, a fret-less bass, a free history lesson, and all those god-damn feels, by a guy who just happens to be a badass, pimp named…
Fucking Bruce Hornsby.
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Brian Furman
