Shedding His Skin

12/12/2000 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Robert L Doerschuk

Live albums usually celebrate material that listeners have learned to love--that's why the crowds show up for concerts. But Bruce Hornsby's first live release, a meaty double-CD package titled Here Come The Noisemakers, is about something else entirely: Burying the past and moving on.

It's not just a question of stretching the three-minute format; Hornsby's been doing that at his gigs since before "The Way It Is" booted him into the spotlight in 1986. Even that first hit hinted at his aesthetic, with a freewheeling piano jam that defied pop conventions of the era. When somebody starts quoting from Samuel Barber's Nocturne and George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" in an extended extemporization, as Hornsby does while leading into "The Way It Is" on Noisemakers, fans often start thinking about what they need to pick up at Safeway after the show. To them, this artist says, in the most genial way it can be said, screw you, sit down, and listen.

No, there's something bigger than improvisation going on throughout Noisemakers--a rejection, in fact, of the style that Hornsby defined and refined on classic discs and in countless concerts. Hornsby would like nothing better than to make people forget everything he's done up to a few years ago. If you want to make him happy, turn your copies of The Way It Is and Scenes From The Southside into targets for skeet shooters. As he sees it, the Bruce Hornsby on those albums is dead and gone.

To be fair, the differences to our ears between vintage and postmodern Hornsby, though obvious, are relatively negligible. But in a recent interview with LAUNCH, he made it clear that he hears profound changes in his work. Not only that, but he makes no bones about trashing his older recordings. What's his motivation? Read on.

LAUNCH:
Why did you decide to do a live album in the first place?

HORNSBY:
For two reasons: The hardcore fans of ours have been badgering me for years to do this. Then there are the people who know who I am, but don't really know what I do. I felt the time had come for a document that shows what we really do. My records do that to an extent, but there's nothing quite like this live scenario to show the whole range of what we do. In fact, I probably should have called this band the Range, because it has a very broad stylistic range. In fact, it's possibly the best band that I've ever had. I was happy with virtually every aspect of it, and I've never been able to totally say that about my old groups...You know, we take requests at our shows. Someone requested the Paul Simon song "Kodachrome" the other night. Well, I don't know "Kodachrome" from Kodacolor, so I said, "Well, I do know this other Paul Simon song," and I started playing "The Boxer." Then the guys fell in. That's what I want: I want guys with big ears, who can turn on a dime. They've played 1,001 sh-tty gigs, so they have a broad repertoire and knowledge.

LAUNCH:
Since there's a lot of improvisation in your shows, do you specifically approach your solos differently when you know the gig is being recorded, so that maybe you don't play to the balcony seats as much as if you weren't recording?

HORNSBY:
That's a good way to put it. I don't give a sh-t about the balconies. I generally feel that's a better way to play, anyway. In the end, if the soundman is doing his part, you'll still reach them because you're playing better. I feel that in my first several years, I was aiming so much to please that, when you listen to the tapes, regardless of how often you're smiling at the audience, it sounds like sh-t. So why don't we do a little less smiling, a little more focusing on taking care of business?

LAUNCH:
Some of these songs are arranged differently as well, like "Valley Road"...

HORNSBY:
I knew you were gonna say that [laughs]!

LAUNCH:
That is your most 4/4 song.

HORNSBY:
Not anymore!

LAUNCH:
Why did you switch it to 6/8?

HORNSBY:
It was spontaneous that night. That's a perfect example of reinventing a song in the moment, which is what we like to do.

LAUNCH:
Did you know you were going into "Valley Road" beforehand?

HORNSBY:
No. We were coming out of a Grateful Dead song, "Wharf Rat." And I'd go, "Watch me, boys!" I have a lot of hand signals, and one of them means "Stay right here." I point down to the floor, very forcefully. They stayed there, and I started singing, "Sometimes I lead, sometimes I follow," and they'd go, "Son of a bitch! We're gonna play 'Valley Road' with this feel?"

LAUNCH:
Did you change keys on any of these live tracks from their original recordings?

HORNSBY:
Oh, yeah! "Rainbow's Cadillac" went a tritone up. But other songs have come down, basically because I'm sick of trying to sing so high. I don't want to strain. And, frankly, I don't think it sounds good. I spent the first two or three records of my career trying to sing so high, because I had a misguided notion that high equals intensity. I regret it now. I feel much more confident in my singing than I ever did.

LAUNCH:
Why do you feel you're singing better these days?

HORNSBY:
Well, I hope people don't take this the wrong way, because it's a touchy area. But I played with [drummer] John Molo for 21 years. He's a fabulous drummer. He sounds so amazing now with [ex-Grateful Dead and Other Ones bassist] Phil Lesh. To me, he was the MVP of the Other Ones band, and he's like a brother to me. But I was very interested in hearing a different groove sensibility on my music. Basically, I've gone black, and I'm not sure I can go back. This different feeling in the rhythm section has taken me to a vocal place that is way deeper and more soulful. Now, that's not the whole story. If you listen to my records, you'll hear a gradual progression of loosening up. If you put on The Way It Is and then Here Come The Noisemakers, to me it sounds like two different people. I'm sorry, but for my money, you just wouldn't want to listen to the original version of "Mandolin Rain" anymore.

LAUNCH:
How easily does your method of recording in a studio translate into your approach to recording a live performance?

HORNSBY:
I always wish they could come together better. I always wish the live feeling was more in the studio process. There are some exceptions: Our record Hot House is about as exuberant a studio record as we could make. That's why it's one of my favorite records among those I've made; it jumps a little bit. But the approaches are very different. It's probably just because I'm sh-tty at making records.

LAUNCH:
The results don't indicate that.

HORNSBY:
Well, that's nice of you, but I have great regrets. Mind you, it's not totally cut-and-dried. There are things that we did that I think are pretty good. But there are many more times that I go, "Son of a bitch!" I guess you could say there's almost a subtitle to this record: Here Come The Noisemakers: Bruce Hornsby Live--The Way We Wish The Records Had Been.

LAUNCH:
Really?

HORNSBY:
Sure. Here's a perfect example: The first song on the record, "Great Divide." I'm sorry, that kicks the original version by a mile. It's a joke.

LAUNCH:
If that's true, then why did you release albums that you weren't happy with?

HORNSBY:
You know, there are probably two reasons. One is that I lost sight of the music and thought it was better than it was. Also, the situation has happened where I've beat my head against the wall. I couldn't do it anymore. And I let it go, because somebody else was telling me it's good.

LAUNCH:
So this isn't something where you've changed your mind about it. Even then, you knew your records weren't totally satisfactory.

HORNSBY:
Oh, yes, yes, yes. My first record was really that way. I have so many regrets about my first record. Good Lord! My wife was working in those days at a graphic design firm in Pasadena; we were living in Van Nuys. I had just gotten the master back for my first record--the vinyl "ref" [reference copy]. So I'm sitting there in the dark in my house. I've just listened to the whole record. She happens to come in, and she sees me with my head down. She says, "What's wrong?" "I hate my record."

LAUNCH:
Wow.

HORNSBY:
You have no friggin' idea! There are so many times when I've felt that, but that was one of the worst.

LAUNCH:
I suppose that testifies to the high standards you set for yourself...

HORNSBY:
Oh, I don't know. I don't think I have high standards at all. I just think I f--ked up a lot [laughs].

LAUNCH:
What lessons should readers draw from this?

HORNSBY:
Well, on my first record, I was not in control of the process. I didn't have a lot of say. I considered that someone else knew more than I did because I was a mere fledgling. For instance, I came into the studio with a couple of Keith Jarrett solo records, and I said to my producer, Elliot Scheiner, "This is the way I want the piano to sound." He listened to them and said, "No, that's not a good sound. Let me show you what a good sound is." So we ended up recording the piano with this very bright sound...

LAUNCH:
I remember that sound well.

HORNSBY:
Everyone does! Everyone thought it was my sound, but it was not what I wanted at all! What I wanted has been reflected more on the last few records--just a more natural sound. It's very possible that Elliot's version of it is what the made the record popular. I could have been totally wrong. But I didn't like it that much; it sounds thin and brittle to me. And I acquiesced because, I thought, what the hell, this guy's produced all these amazing records. I didn't have the nuts to stand up for myself. I should have said, "No, son of a bitch, this is not what I want!"

LAUNCH:
Even the beginning artist needs to live with the work he or she puts out.

HORNSBY:
It's a very difficult thing. Every day there's a new possibility for compromise that you may regret later. It could be compression on a vocal, or a part that someone thinks is great; you think it's ruining your song, but everyone else in the studio loves it, and you're starting to get swayed by that support. Later on you might look back and say, "They were all wrong!" If you don't like what you're hearing, it's wrong. If it's a band thing, then it's different, because that's all about compromise. But if you're a solo artist, and you have a strong vision for yourself, then it's wrong.

LAUNCH:
How do you think your songwriting process has changed over the years?

HORNSBY:
I think it's not so different, in that the process was never really defined. It's not like I had one formula for doing it. I'd often write the lyrics first, but at other times I'd write the music first. I think that helps keep the material from all sounding the same. One thing has changed: The first few years, I had this notion that if I didn't remember an idea that I came up with, then it wasn't worth remembering. Then maybe eight years ago I said, "This is crazy--I don't even remember what I did last week anymore. I need to keep track of this." So now I have a cassette player on the piano, and when I come up with an idea I put it down.

LAUNCH:
Do you hear different, more jazzy kinds of melodies these days as you write?

HORNSBY:
Well, we just recorded a song the other day that's just three chords. There are lots of songs on all my recent records that are very simple harmonically. The songs I'm most proud of are the simplest ones. I'm not on some path toward great complexity; I'm not on my way toward Bartok. I'll have my moments of that, but then I'll have a moment when it can just as easily go on a George Jones record. I like so many different types of music, so it's about what hits me at the time. The writing process and--maybe to a lesser extent, but still to a very real degree--the playing process is all about trying to move myself. I'm always trying to do something that I think is great. I fall short most of the time, but every now and then I'll give myself chills. That's hard to do, but that's what I aim for.