Here’s the latest project from the Bruuuce.com community – we’re putting together a deep study of Bruce Hornsby’s lyrical work across all of his studio albums, from The Way It Is until Deep Sea Vents!
Just the words – the narratives, themes, imagery, motifs and patterns across almost 40 years.
We’ll do that in four stages:
- Agree a list of themes
- Fit each song to a theme (or 2, or 3)
- Identify imagery used across Bruce’s songs
- Look for patterns across almost 40 years of Bruce’s songwriting!
We’re starting by gathering a collection of themes (no more than 12) that cover over 150 songs(!)
Here’s a preliminary list – a quick definition of each theme. After that, it might help to classify each song into at least one theme, to help further define them. It’s all open to discussion, and this is one person’s take for now – go easy! Let us know what you think. We’re still writing (and re-writing) it.
Important to note that almost every song will fit 2 or more categories, rather than fit neatly into one theme.
This is just the beginning… after we’re agreed on where each song fits, we start to look for patterns! And then we walk about imagery!
To review each song, we’ve consulted the Bruuuce.com wiki, which contains a detailed interpretation of the lyrics of each song in Bruce’s catalog.
It’s also being discussed on our Bruuuce.com Facebook group.
Here goes…!
Suggestions for themes
Social justice, inequality and societal critique
Moral concerns. The inequalities of life – racial, economic and institutional – and the broader observation of how society conducts itself. That might include injustice, class dynamics, social taboos, exploitation or a portrait of society – observing how it’s organised and how it behaves.
Time, history and nostalgia
The passage of time – ageing, longing for the past, the wistfulness of lost youth. We’ve recently seen the physics of time discussed in Bruce’s songs.
Place and southern identity
Bruce’s “sense of place” – specific names or regions, conveying social history, class, identity and belonging.
Nature and the environment
The natural world, ecology, pollution (and latterly, marine ecosystems) – and humanity’s record of interaction with it.
Science and technology
Science used both as genuine subject matter and as a framework for understanding mortality, identity and meaning.
Compassion and empathy
Moral empathy, human dignity and the humanity of the vulnerable, the bullied, the grieving and the forgotten. It commonly underpins the first theme of society and social justice.
Relationships
Romantic and family – love, marriage, parenting, grief and domestic life.
Identity, self-reflection and the outsider
Questions of who the main character is, where they belong and how they relate to the social world.
Spirituality and mortality
Death, religious belief, the divine, mortality and existential meaning. Deep!
Satire, irony and “the funny”
Not necessarily the subject matter, but how it’s delivered – where humour, wit, irony or absurdism is used to convey the message. Often combined with social observation (theme 1) or as a self-deprecatory commentary on identity (theme 8).
Artistic creativity and musical identity
Performance, songwriting and artistry, Music-making, the artist’s life and creative identity.
Resilience and hope
The capacity of individuals and communities to endure, persist and transcend hardship.
With all of that in mind – here’s an attempt to categorise every one of Bruce’s songs!