Where does the time go? What songs remind you of being 20 years old?

Bruce Hornsby and the Range The Way It Is is THE perfect song.

I’ve talked before about how certain songs evoke fall memories and feelings. When I hear them I think of autumns from long ago- The Police King of Pain, The Cure Boys Don’t Cry and The Way It Is is another of those.

I’ve discussed many times how 1986 was kind of an interesting year in my life and I can’t believe it was forty years ago. In the fall of ‘86 I was in like/lust with a boy I shouldn’t have been.  I was part of a group of friends I thought I’d have forever.  Have not seen or talked to any of them in about thirty years. I attended my first and only Army-Navy game.  Spent Thanksgiving in New York City, going to the parade and Christmas shopping, hailing my first NYC yellow cab- got one on my first try!  Driving with my college roommate who lived on the Upper West Side through Times Square at night. I thought I was experiencing life to the fullest.  It was exciting.  But being twenty years old in 1986 was inherently exciting.  The old world, although not perfect by any means, in hindsight now seems so, I don’t know if easy is the word, but there was a different flow to life.  A different way of living that was less frenetic, more authentic I guess.

I don’t want to criticize current popular music either, because there is some good stuff out there, but the ease with which you could hear a new song was different back in the 80s. You didn’t have to actively search for new stuff, you just heard it on the radio or MTV or friends in the know would make you mixed tapes.  That’s how you discovered music.

And The Way It Is takes me back to that precious time. Just think about that brilliant piano intro is here. About ten measures of just Bruce Hornsby playing.  Then the drums kick in.  That syncopated rhythm, the catchy beat, such beautiful musicianship from his band The Range.

How many songs today have such a memorable instrumental introduction?  It’s just sublime. And then Bruce begins;  standing in line, marking time, waiting for the welfare dime.  Not the  typical recipe for a typical hit song.

The Way It Is was the perfect fusing of a socially conscious message; issues of homelessness and racism and civil rights, but doing so with an ultimately catchy sound. That bright keyboard belied the messages.  What a gift to be able to write a song about such serious issues but make it accessible and listenable.  Even forty years later.

Bruce Hornsby will always have a place in my heart not only because this song takes me back to a precious time, but also because he toured with the Grateful Dead after the death of Brent Mydland, both with and after Vince Welnick was in the group.

Bruce Hornsby and The Range were formed in 1984 His career started with its biggest hit to date. The Way It Is was released in July of ‘86 and reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December. The album The Way It Is was certified platinum on the success of the single.  Bruce and The Range won the Grammy for Best New Artist at the 1987 Grammy Awards ceremony.

In addition to touring with The Dead, Bruce Hornsby has played key roles on several other perfect songs. He played keyboards for Don Henley on The End of the Innocence and on Bonnie Raitt’s, I Can’t Make You Love Me.  He’s appeared on albums by Sheena Easton, Stevie Nicks, Clannad, Squeeze, and Bob Dylan. He wrote the perfect song Jacob’s Ladder which was a hit for Huey Lewis and The News.  These were just a few of his collaborations. There were so many more it’s impossible to list them all.

It’s fall.  It’s a full moon. It’s almost Halloween.  It’s that time of year that makes you wonder where the time goes.  I’m going back in time to 1986 and listening to Bruce Hornsby- The Way It Is is the perfect song.