Bruce Hornsby Album

(B. R. Hornsby)

So nice to be here
With all you good people
Is anybody listening
To what we're doing tonight
Could you give us a chance
While you hit the sauce
Might try a little flash up here
Just to get ourselves across

Hit it
Let the spirit linger
Get up
And do the spider fingers

I could show you on a table
I could show you on a chair
It's best shown on the black and whites
I know I could take you there
It's just a little hand trick
A little prestidigitation
Better get out your Hanon
Practice and repetition
We better do something
Before they tell us to get lost
Sometimes you've just got to repeat yourself
Just to get your point across

Hit it, let the spirit linger
Get up, do the spider fingers
A little spider tongue

How long will we be here
Well babe I just don't know
Depends on fate, the luck of the draw
Or maybe a little flashy show

Hit it
Let the spirit linger
Get up
And do the spider fingers

(B. R. Hornsby)

She walked into town in a long white gown
And the band played on with no one around
And the rice was gone hours ago
And the white wheeled limousine's standing alone

Well they met at the club where the brasses blow
Where the wine did flow oh he moved so slow
But finally one night as the wind stood still
He got up the nerve and she said "I will"

The day did come and the groomsmen arrived
Came a little early to go over their lines
As they walked to the church on the cobblestones
Was heard in the bushes a moan and a groan

Well she walked into town in a long white gown
And the band played on with no one around
And the rice was gone oh hours ago
And the white wheeled limousine's standing alone

She didn't want to think that she lived a lie
There was always talk of a wandering eye
He'd come to the club and he'd look all around
It took a fair minded man not to wonder aloud

Well she walked into town in a long white gown
And the band played on with no one around
And the rice was gone oh hours ago
And the white wheeled limousine's standing alone

And the father of the bride is drinking so slow...

(B. R. Hornsby)

My name is Vernon James and I live to the south of town
I work my window watching the women go round and round
Some people come here for love
Some people come for fantasy
When two in the morning comes round
My baby comes around for me

Someone come, come my someone
Take the clouds from my eyes, my one
I know that sometime soon
One day we'll walk in the sun

I'm taking tickets and watching
the men always looking down
Sometimes I feel like an animal in
the zoo staring out
No one looks me in the eye
They save it for the girls inside
I don't care much what they see
I know she saves it all for me

Someone come, come my someone
Take the clouds from my eyes, my one
I know that sometime soon
One day we'll walk in the sun

Some people come here for love
Some come for curiosity
I know there will be a day
I know we'll figure out a way

Someone come, come my someone
Take the clouds from my eyes, my one
I know that sometime soon
One day we'll walk in the sun

(B. R. Hornsby)

The scene is set, everybody's in place
Two chairs filled for every five gone to waste
Pantsuit girl gives me a nasty gaze
She says play that on your own time
Walk to the bandstand blow my horn
Nobody knows what we're really here for
Let's take it out hard till they show us the door
It's us against them tonight

Play the changes
Make the changes
Hear the changes
Take it out hard till they show us the door

A girl with a nose ring said to me
She said where's the joy in your delivery
I said maybe there's not supposed to be
Any real joy at all here
She sat there with that plaster smile
As we sit jiving but in a little while
Holding her hair she joined the single file
And walked on down the hall

Play the changes
Make the changes
Hear the changes
Us against them tonight

The owner says he thinks we need some work
Got a place for you, got some roadwork
Laying asphalt on the interstate
Nobody cares and why should they
A white girl in a dashiki says you're all the rage
My friends and I think you're quite the sage
Wear a kofu and a finger guage
To see which way the wind blows today

Play the changes
Make the changes
Hear the changes
To see which way the wind blows today

Old friend Dave with the silver spoon
Says why don't you play those good old tunes
Give it up now you could fill the room
I say there's nothing like a good 'trane tune
Changes
These things called changes
Where do we go from here?

(B. R. Hornsby)

Parking lot's full, the crowd's here
All to see and hear the food and beverage seer
Bumpin' time, everyone side to side
Left allemand and do-pah-so time
Here she comes, coming round the bend
Been to the bathroom and she's going back again
Just to give a good cold shoulder next time

Been around town and we're going again
Hallelujah when you get to the end
Summer's come now don't you feel the sting
All going down looking for the tango king

Look at Pete, he's a lounge hand
All want to stand where he stands
Spin that girl neath the colored ball
Fancy plaid man's the envy of all

Been around town and we're going again
Hallelujah when you get to the end
Summer's come now don't you feel the sting
All going down looking for the tango king

All the sounds, and the truth is found with a
drink in hand
Kings of lounge, and button-downs are coming
back again
Coming back again

Been around town and we're going again
Hallelujah when you get to the end
Walk on cut glass wouldn't feel a thing
All going down looking for the tango king

(B. R. Hornsby)

Cocked and ready oh here I stand
Anticipating the laying on of hands
Might be frivolous, may be profound
But it feels like deliverance going down

Hey now, come on around
The big rumble is coming down
Go tell it on the mountainside
Over the hills and across the sky
Hey now, watch out, run
Big rumble is about to come
Go tell it to the people there
Over the hills and everywhere

The young girls screaming as the gym rat speaks
Might see some walk-on on a shooting streak
Big snake charmers and medicine men
Some like Daniel in the lion's den

Hey now, come on around
The big rumble is coming down
Go tell it on the mountainside
Over the hills and across the sky
Hey now, watch out, run
Big rumble is about to come
Go tell it to the people there
Over the hills and everywhere

A man with a ball as a saviour too
A strange conception of the holy truth
The biggest and the baddest of Moses too
Works for some, maybe me and you

Hey now, come on around
The big rumble is coming down
Go tell it on the mountainside
Over the hills and across the sky
Hey now, watch out, run
Big rumble is about to come
Go tell it to the people there
Over the hills and everywhere

(B. R. Hornsby)

Deep down in the south county
Over where the paper mill runs
Lived a man, a young country doctor
With the perfect wife and sons
Well he worked his days
And Sundays he'd pray
And nobody knew
Why the wife slowly withered away

I saw the country doctor, to ask him what
was wrong with me
He was caught unaware, accidental and devil may care
Behind the curtain I see, two shadows in front of me
Oh nobody know the trouble I've seen

My guess, there was another woman
And with the kids and the money there was a lot to lose
He said she had an rare affliction
And he was doing all he could do
And we all believed him
Felt so sorry and then
I thought once he was a fine man
Now I don't remember when

I saw the country doctor, to ask him what
was wrong with me
He was caught unaware, accidental and devil may care
Behind the curtain I see, bottles unmarked in front of me
Whoa nobody knows the trouble I've seen

I saw the country doctor, in a place he didn't see me
Way out in the middle of the night where he thought
no one could see
Over there in the parlor room, making eyes,
hands roaming free
Someone soon must know, the trouble I've seen

Did you think about the young ones
One day they'll know it was you
And if they let you off one day
Who then will you turn to
And my wife remembers one thing
She said I remember kind of strangely
At a friends wedding one time
It was a look that he gave me

(B. R. Hornsby)

Someone's dancing on the table
Someone's got an old book in the back
Some old jocks are sitting round their neighbors
Exaggerating their stats
Again
There's Mr. D.E. in the corner
Dancing with Miss Virginia former
I didn't think I'd really have a good time
But i don't remember you looking so fine

It's been a long dark night alright
I've been running on a low love light
Maybe the longest night
Maybe it's over, over tonight

Most everyone all around
Most have an intersting story
Even those who don't have much to say
Even interest me when they're just boring to him
And then there's Mr. B.M.O.C.
Talking so loud to Mr. P.E.
Someone said that his best days are past
But I know this first chance won't be the last

It's been a long dark night alright
I've been running on a low love light
Maybe the longest night
Maybe it's over, over tonight

Hey now Mr. D.J.
Keep those good songs coming
Cause I'm having such a good time tonight
Moving making up for so much long lost time
Not much going since the old days
One long solo ride
I came here just to live in the past
But maybe I'm seeing the future at last

It's been a long dark night alright
I've been running on a low love light
Maybe the longest night
Maybe it's over, over tonight

(B.R. Hornsby)

We've lived around here most all of our lives
Did most anything we wanted to do
We will celebrate every 4th of July
Just a little tamer than most of the rest of us do

Don't light a match, don't play with fire
Pull down easy on the gas lighter
There's a shelter down at the veteran's hall
Living in the shadow of the hot house ball

We can dance in the streets any night or day
The big ball men built such a nice old park
One day we'll celebrate every halloween
Our faces as masks everyone glow in the dark

Don't light a match, don't play with fire
Step real lightly round the barb wire
Keep the noise down to hear the meltdown call
Living in the shadow of the hot house ball

Temper's hot, better pray for rain
Better watch out now for the gamma rays
Party time at the government gate

Don't light a match, don't play with fire
Pull down easy on the gas lighter
There's a shelter down at the veteran's hall
Living in the shadow of the hot house ball

(B. R. Hornsby)

I heard you say that tonight's the night
You say there's a party going on
I'm in the door like an old 78 side
And I hear 'em out hitting on a Coleman song

My friend John with a mirror and spoon
Got a belt and a mainline scene
A couple getting off in the back room
Someone's collecting money for the friend in need

Sounds like a good time, a ball to me
Sounds like a place I'd like to be
There's a little crowd you're gonna want to meet
Oh they got a thing going on swing street

Nice old man in the corner booth
Making time with Jive-time Stu
She makes her sting 'neath the table blue
Says she's an actor but she's hooking
as a sideline too

Oh sounds like a good time, a ball to me
Sounds like a place I'd like to be
Everybody rolls when it's time to meet
Oh they got a thing going on swing street
Got a good thing going down swing street

You say there's nothing but bums around here
Listen to the sound of the cymbal so clear

Cutting contest on the stand
Somebody's trying to blow you away
What makes him swing harder than you do
Oh better hit the woodshed for ninety days

Oh sounds like a good time, a ball to me
Sounds like a place I'd like to be
There's a little crowd you're gonna want to meet
Oh they got a thing going on swing street
Got a good thing going on swing street
Got a good thing going on swing street

Got a thing going on, on swing street
Got a thing going on

Got a thing going on, on swing street
Got a thing going on

(B. R. Hornsby)

It's been a long time coming, this feeling I've got
That things'll always go your way, such a long shot
Been so deep in the hole, never thought i'd come out
Anything can happen, I know that now

One slip, one fall
A turn of the head can change it all
A step ahead, a step behind
A blink of an eye at the wrong time

North, South, East and West
Spin the wheel and hope for the best
No regrets and it's on we roll
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

Walk tall and away you go
Wheels roll and the whistle will blow
Many miles oh I may roam
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

He was holding on, he trusted me, then he slipped away
He fell hard and now I've just got myself to blame
When he smiled at me finally I came around
you can't worry, you never know so don't beat yourself down

One slip, one fall
A turn of the head can change it all
A step ahead, a step behind
A blink of an eye at the wrong time

North, south, east and west
Spin the wheel and hope for the best
No regrets and it's on we roll
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

Walk tall and away you go
Wheels roll and the whistle will blow
Many miles oh I may roam
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

In my darkest hour, my longest day
Oh my mind was a prison
I could feel it taking me down to stay
Then I said "Forget this", it's out of your hands anyway

North, south, east and west
Spin the wheel and hope for the best
Many miles oh I may roam
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

Wheels roll and the whistle will blow
Walk tall and away you go
No regrets and it's on we roll
Put it in drive and set the cruise control

Put it in drive and set the cruise control

Oh where I go I'll go I just don't know
Pick myself up and roll, roll
Up ahead can't see it all
Take it slow, let the cards fall