(The video, unfortunately, is one of those absolutely vapid ones on the tube. It has, in my humble opinion, absolutely nothing to do with the song or its concerns. However, it is the ONLY ONE on the tube of this song; it was not a hit. If you see any other videos of this song, tell me about it.)
The cover photo on Bruce Hornsby and The Range's LP The Way It Is (1986), is captioned 'a diesel rolls in silhouette.....eastbound', on Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Virginia, looking towards the sunset. It's a powerful photo, with the horizontal motif and the single diesel inching its way on the bridge, against the backdrop of the golden colours of sunset. The photo is repeated three times in the CD sleeve - once on the cover, then again on the inside middle page (in black and white) and finally on the back cover.
The photo is absolutely pivotal because it simply personifies and amplifies the colour of the songs on the LP. There isn't a song on the LP which draws us away from the lovely colour of golden, warm evening turning to deep golden sunset, with all the hues between.There's a longing in many of the songs, especially in the tone of Bruce Hornsby's piano, a kind of deep ache of adolescence lost in the warm glow of a summer evening. I sound absolutely and over-the-top romantic about it, both deservedly and proudly too.
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For a long time, "Mandolin Rain" was the only Bruce Hornsby track I had ever heard, and that was way back in 1988. Then during the early days of MTV in India, I heard a few tracks from his second LP with The Range, Scenes From The Southside (1988), on MTV's 'Classic MTV' show, a retro show. I absolutely loved his unique country-inflected piano. Finally, sometime in 2005, a friend of mine visited Singapore and absolutely insisted she bring back something for me. I mentioned Bruce Hornsby, and she brought back The Way It Is. That's when I heard LP-length Bruce Hornsby for the first time.
No song on the LP actually puts the powerful cover photo into words and music more powerfully than "The River Runs Low". It is probably the best-written track on the LP, bringing Hornsby's lyricism to the fore.
The time-signature is a bit hard to catch, because there is no drum backbeat and the only rhythm seems to be from an accordion and from some rhythmic chord-work. The piano just drenches the entire song in a sunset glow. You could figure out chords, but they're not going to help if you try to play it, because there is lyricism even in the way Hornsby plays the piano, a lyricism absolutely essential to the song.
It's a beautiful, tough love song illuminated with sunset's golden hues, a songwriter's dream. For some reason, its sound brings back an adolescent me, back in school in 1986. Though 1986 was the exact year of its release, I never heard the song till twenty years later; and even then, I could date it back to 1986 with accuracy. It was in school I picked up this absolute goner-dewy-eyed romanticism about evening, the hour between a quarter past four till the time sunset splashes its blood-red hues across the sky, possibly half past five, lingering to when darkness covers all. And there were girls with the sunset in their hair, about whom I could say "you're always drifting through my mind..." (and never did. Was way too geeky to say things...) That's how adolescent loves are - strong, resilient, astonishingly mature, firmly prepared to go to any length it would take:
Up in the air they're heading south
The sky is light to the west of town
With a little cash I could get around
You know I'd come out there and find you
The chords on the last four bars, with the iconic seventh note runs, are the song's pinnacle for me.
**********************************************************************************
The cover photo on Bruce Hornsby and The Range's LP The Way It Is (1986), is captioned 'a diesel rolls in silhouette.....eastbound', on Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Virginia, looking towards the sunset. It's a powerful photo, with the horizontal motif and the single diesel inching its way on the bridge, against the backdrop of the golden colours of sunset. The photo is repeated three times in the CD sleeve - once on the cover, then again on the inside middle page (in black and white) and finally on the back cover.
The photo is absolutely pivotal because it simply personifies and amplifies the colour of the songs on the LP. There isn't a song on the LP which draws us away from the lovely colour of golden, warm evening turning to deep golden sunset, with all the hues between.There's a longing in many of the songs, especially in the tone of Bruce Hornsby's piano, a kind of deep ache of adolescence lost in the warm glow of a summer evening. I sound absolutely and over-the-top romantic about it, both deservedly and proudly too.
*********************************************************************************
For a long time, "Mandolin Rain" was the only Bruce Hornsby track I had ever heard, and that was way back in 1988. Then during the early days of MTV in India, I heard a few tracks from his second LP with The Range, Scenes From The Southside (1988), on MTV's 'Classic MTV' show, a retro show. I absolutely loved his unique country-inflected piano. Finally, sometime in 2005, a friend of mine visited Singapore and absolutely insisted she bring back something for me. I mentioned Bruce Hornsby, and she brought back The Way It Is. That's when I heard LP-length Bruce Hornsby for the first time.
No song on the LP actually puts the powerful cover photo into words and music more powerfully than "The River Runs Low". It is probably the best-written track on the LP, bringing Hornsby's lyricism to the fore.
The time-signature is a bit hard to catch, because there is no drum backbeat and the only rhythm seems to be from an accordion and from some rhythmic chord-work. The piano just drenches the entire song in a sunset glow. You could figure out chords, but they're not going to help if you try to play it, because there is lyricism even in the way Hornsby plays the piano, a lyricism absolutely essential to the song.
It's a beautiful, tough love song illuminated with sunset's golden hues, a songwriter's dream. For some reason, its sound brings back an adolescent me, back in school in 1986. Though 1986 was the exact year of its release, I never heard the song till twenty years later; and even then, I could date it back to 1986 with accuracy. It was in school I picked up this absolute goner-dewy-eyed romanticism about evening, the hour between a quarter past four till the time sunset splashes its blood-red hues across the sky, possibly half past five, lingering to when darkness covers all. And there were girls with the sunset in their hair, about whom I could say "you're always drifting through my mind..." (and never did. Was way too geeky to say things...) That's how adolescent loves are - strong, resilient, astonishingly mature, firmly prepared to go to any length it would take:
Up in the air they're heading south
The sky is light to the west of town
With a little cash I could get around
You know I'd come out there and find you
The chords on the last four bars, with the iconic seventh note runs, are the song's pinnacle for me.
**********************************************************************************
The rain held back again
Haven't felt a drop since you went away
Outside of town, the hills are brown
I guess way out there you'd call 'em golden
Lines outside the welfare store
The clock is stopped at the bank next door
They yelled like hell when the boys left home
Now just like you they're all gone
The river runs low tonight
Eyes are closed on the waterline
The river runs low tonight
And you're always drifting through my mind
The river runs low tonight
And nobody waits for the tides to rise
But I'm gonna wait till you make the river run high
The old man's gettin' on
Keeps the morning paper in his overcoat
It keeps him warm in the cold storm
And he told me today I look a little lonely
Up in the air they're heading south
The sky is light to the west of town
With a little cash I could get around
You know I'd come out there and find you
The river runs low tonight
Eyes are closed on the waterline
The river runs low tonight
And you're always drifting through my mind
The river runs low tonight
And nobody waits for the tides to rise
But I'm gonna wait till you make the river run high
Up in the air they're heading south
The sky is light to the west of town
With a little cash I could get around
You know I'd come out there and find you
The river runs low tonight
Eyes are closed on the waterline
The river runs low tonight
And you're always drifting through my mind
The river runs low tonight
And nobody waits for the tides to rise
But I'm gonna wait till you make the river run high
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