{"id":13675,"date":"2012-05-29T13:35:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T17:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=13675"},"modified":"2012-05-29T13:35:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T17:35:34","slug":"which-critically-acclaimed-singer-songwriter-has-reduced-rock-n-roll-to-its-cliched-essence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/which-critically-acclaimed-singer-songwriter-has-reduced-rock-n-roll-to-its-cliched-essence\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Critically Acclaimed Singer-Songwriter Has Reduced Rock &#8216;n Roll to Its Cliched Essence?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13677\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13677\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13677\" title=\"hornsby\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/hornsby-300x262.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/hornsby-300x262.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/hornsby.jpg 319w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13677\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Way He Is<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Somehow I was recently reminded of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/which-band-reduced-rock-n-roll\/\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a>, in which we speculated which band most reduced rock &#8216;n roll to its cliched essence. Then, somehow, <strong>Bruce Hornsby<\/strong> and his <a href=\"http:\/\/redriverpak.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/bh1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">eternal tuft of hair<\/a> entered my thoughts. I&#8217;ve been chuckling over the thought of Bruce Hornsby ever since. How does a man maintain <a href=\"http:\/\/i3.photobucket.com\/albums\/y95\/pauldoyle\/BruceHornsby-ArtworkGouache.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">so little hair<\/a> for so long\u2014without variation? How does he get his hairline to <a href=\"http:\/\/images.wolfgangsvault.com\/bruce-hornsby-and-the-range\/vintage-print\/memorabilia\/ZZZ005033-VX.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">recede so far<\/a> without actually being bald? He practically has a natural <a href=\"http:\/\/api.ning.com\/files\/vrCdZRbYXDTNd6PSKRhdCJinW7RkxBGbE*o4uzipsJDtd5Gkect3dx*YyiE-h*KMcPGitt65oXWshOcz-edRP9GRqQ7Nkyf1\/1.jpg?width=479&amp;height=600\" target=\"_blank\">mohawk<\/a>. He never experiments with the length of his hair. He never grows sideburns. Even when he played with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.deadheadland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/jerrygarcia13626__81777_zoom.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Grateful Dead<\/strong><\/a> he kept on being Everyman Bruce Hornsby. And what happened to the promise of Hornsby the Gothic Americana Songwriter? Remember the buzz over his debut album and comparisons to <strong>The Band<\/strong>? I never got it. I never got Hornsby, although I must say, he seems like a good egg and a real musician&#8217;s musician in all the best ways of that term.<\/p>\n<p>Now that I&#8217;ve slammed the poor guy (and feel free to slam me back appropriately), let me tie it back to the old thread about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/which-band-reduced-rock-n-roll\/\" target=\"_blank\">bands that reduced rock &#8216;n roll to its cliched essence<\/a>. Way back then we focused on bands. How about we determine about the most cliched singer-songwriter in rock &#8216;n roll, that is, the singer-songwriter who hits all the marks critics expect to see hit while failing to actually make any lasting personal statement, the way an archetype of the genre, like <strong>Bob Dylan<\/strong> did with regularity? It can&#8217;t just be a &#8220;bad&#8221; singer-songwriter, like <strong>Jewel<\/strong>. It has to be someone who has experienced critical acclaim while maintaining a long career, someone like Bruce Hornsby.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somehow I was recently reminded of this post, in which we speculated which band most reduced rock &#8216;n roll to its cliched essence. Then, somehow, Bruce Hornsby and his eternal tuft of hair entered my thoughts. I&#8217;ve been chuckling over the thought of Bruce Hornsby ever since. How does a man maintain so little hair <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/which-critically-acclaimed-singer-songwriter-has-reduced-rock-n-roll-to-its-cliched-essence\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[642],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}