# Bruce Hornesby and the Range **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628 "2015-12-06T17:47:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bonnie14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Bonnie14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonnie14)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/1 "2015-12-06T17:47:15Z")
I was looking for something else and came across this guy. Is he talented on the piano or no? I like e this type of music. so there is that. I enquire of my friends of the board? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cOeKidp-iWo/maxresdefault.jpg "Bruce Hornsby, The Range - The Way It Is (Video Version)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo) ---
**Author:** ![Bonnie14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Bonnie14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonnie14)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/2 "2015-12-06T17:53:37Z")
He seems, to me, to be quite capable. but I only know playing whatever was wanted in the high school band, badly. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/3 "2015-12-06T18:06:10Z")
Hornsby (no ‘e’) has been around since at least the 80s and is a terrific composer/songwriter. His piano style has elements of a lot of different genres, including jazz and country. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/4 "2015-12-06T18:09:40Z")
> [@Bonnie14](#): > > I was looking for something else and came across this guy. Is he talented on the piano or no? > > I like e this type of music. so there is that. I enquire of my friends of the board? > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo) Yes, multi Grammy award winner Bruce Hornsby is talented. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/5 "2015-12-06T18:23:30Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > Yes, multi Grammy award winner Bruce Hornsby is talented. Heh. Yes he is. Also one of my favorite artists. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/6 "2015-12-06T18:53:01Z")
I have seen Bruce a few times starting in 1990 when i saw him with the Grateful Dead in Cleveland (Richfield). He is an extremely versatile musician who blends style. He is also quite adept at “jamming”. I particularly like his accordion playing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/7 "2015-12-06T19:09:03Z")
“The Way It Is” (the song linked to in the OP) was (justifiably) a big hit and was all over the place in the year it was released (1986). He never achieved the same level of commercial success and fame afterward, maybe because he has been so versatile and has played a variety of styles rather than just release more music that sounds like “The Way It Is.” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/8 "2015-12-06T19:44:29Z")
Yeah, he was one of my favorite Dead keyboardists. ---
**Author:** ![Bonnie14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Bonnie14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonnie14)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/9 "2015-12-06T21:37:00Z")
Thank-you for yor responses. I will now look further into this artist. ( I have, a bit, but will now go more into based on these helpful responses) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/10 "2015-12-06T21:45:45Z")
It only indirectly features Hornsby, but I’ve always been fond of [the Tupac Shakur song that samples “The Way It Is”.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9BWM8lwOA) It’s interesting the way it takes the same theme of social consciousness and cynicism as the original song and adapts it into a different genre and looks at it from a different perspective (and the final verse is surprisingly prophetic). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/11 "2015-12-07T05:29:57Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah, he was one of my favorite Dead keyboardists. Best thing he ever did was play for The Dead. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/12 "2015-12-07T18:32:33Z")
That’s also him playing on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”. “Spider Fingers” is one of my favorite songs he wrote and recorded, and it’s a great description of his skills, too. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/13 "2015-12-07T21:37:39Z")
I’m a huge fan, having seen him perform live at least a dozen times. Great songwriter, talented musician, and, by all accounts, a great guy. He did not have a HUGE career arc because he was so eclectic. He could write a top-40 song, but he seemed just as content to jam away on some obscure jazz or bluegrass album. And his piano style is so distinctive. I’ve heard songs on the radio from other artists on the radio, and thought I could hear his piano style. A few minutes of googling, and, yep, he sat in on that recording. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/14 "2015-12-07T21:43:23Z")
His greatest commercial success was in the late 1980s; I saw him during this time. Good show! He’s also written quite a few songs; the best known was performed by Huey Lewis & The News and was controversial because it said, in so many words, “Don’t preach your religion to me because I’m doing OK as I am now.” ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/15 "2015-12-08T06:07:14Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “The Way It Is” (the song linked to in the OP) was (justifiably) a big hit and was all over the place in the year it was released (1986). He never achieved the same level of commercial success and fame afterward, maybe because he has been so versatile and has played a variety of styles rather than just release more music that sounds like “The Way It Is.” I don’t want more songs that sound just like that. It’s a really good song, but I eventually got sick of it from overplay. I guess that this many decades later, I can go back and appreciate just how much jazz he stuck in that (huge at the time) pop song. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bruce-hornesby-and-the-range/739628/16 "2015-12-08T18:35:06Z")
He wrote _The End of the Innocence_ which was a big hit for both him and Don Henley (who wrote the lyrics). Henley was quoted saying he gets more mail about this song than any of his others. I heard Bonnie Raitt say his piano playing is (somehow) essentially _American_, moreso than any other. I’m not even sure what this means, but for some reason I can hear it and agree with it. He also has a band of great musicians, and in concerts they do something really interesting. They ask for suggestions of song titles and musical genres and mix them together on the fly. Like a reggae version of a punk rock song, or vice versa. I think it takes enormous talent to do it. The other performer who comes to mind with similar eclectic tastes and enough skills to pull it off is Bela Fleck.