Another Day features: Bruce Hornsby (piano, vocals, synthesizer); George Marinelli (guitar, backing vocals); John Molo (drums, percussion); Joe Puerta (bass, backing vocals), Arnold McCuller (backing vocals); David Lasley (backing vocals).
“This is about the inanity of TV and fighting in the aisles that has occurred on some of the talk shows.
“There’s no important comment here, just the obvious comments like “You got your life and you watch it away.”
From “Bruce Hornsby & The Range – A Night On The Town” Sheet music published in 1990 by Cherry Lane Music Company, Inc. (ISBN 0-89524-580-9)
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Another Day
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Williamsport, PA,
Band show; soundboard
June 5 1996
Another Day meaning of the song
“Another Day” by Bruce Hornsby takes a critical look at the superficial nature of television, particularly the inanity of talk shows and consumer culture. The song points out how people spend their lives passively watching TV, which often glorifies triviality and spectacle. It emphasises how much time is wasted on meaningless distractions, like shopping channels or sensationalist programmes, while real life slips away unnoticed. Bruce’s portrayal of modern media and consumer culture serves as a commentary on society’s growing attachment to mindless entertainment and its negative impact on meaningful living.
The triviality of talk shows and media
The opening lines of Another Day, “Woke up this morning looking at the screen / There’s a couple of men talking / I’m not so sure what they mean,” set the tone for a song that critiques how meaningless and confusing television content can be. Bruce describes a world where talk shows are filled with arguments and chaos, shown in “many men running wild” and “fighting in the aisles.” This seems to reference the sensational nature of certain talk shows, which often promote conflict for the sake of ratings rather than meaningful dialogue. These shows teach viewers very little about the world while masquerading as educational or informative.
Bruce also comments on how easily people become absorbed in these shows. The phrase, “You’ve got your life and you watch it away,” highlights the idea that people spend hours of their lives consuming this low-quality content without realising how much time they are wasting.
Consumerism and home shopping channels
The second verse shifts focus to the pervasive influence of consumerism, specifically through home shopping channels. “Home Shopping Channel’s got us by the eyes” suggests how these channels capture people’s attention with constant advertisements for unnecessary items, like “porcelain flies.” This highlights the absurdity of what people are encouraged to buy—items that seem insignificant but are marketed as “important things for their lives.” Bruce illustrates how consumer culture manipulates people into believing they need to purchase frivolous products to find happiness or fulfilment, further contributing to the theme of wasting life on meaningless distractions.
Religious exploitation and prosperity gospel
Bruce touches on the concept of religious exploitation in the line, “He’s a high performance engine with Jesus as the fuel.” This likely refers to the prosperity gospel—a type of Christian preaching that equates faith with material success. The preacher is depicted as a “high performance engine” running on religion, exploiting people’s belief in Jesus to fuel their own prosperity. The phrase “Old father’s handing out forty acres and a mule” refers to the unfulfilled promise made to freed slaves after the American Civil War, possibly implying that religious leaders continue to sell false promises to their followers.
Bruce further critiques this type of preaching with the lines, “Make a little more money they might just put you on TV,” showing how the prosperity gospel mixes faith with fame and wealth, all the while feeding into the same superficial, materialistic culture that the song critiques.
The absurdity of modern life
The line “Turn off the lights honey, then turn off the set / Life around here don’t make a lot of damn sense” summarises the disillusionment the narrator feels towards the mind-numbing effects of television and the absurdities of daily life. The reference to someone “selling me a nickel for a dime” reflects the deceitfulness and exploitation embedded in modern culture, where people are constantly being sold things at a loss, whether metaphorically or literally.
As the song progresses, Bruce keeps repeating “It’s just another day,” a phrase that echoes the monotonous cycle of modern life. This repetition reinforces the idea that people are stuck in an endless loop of passive consumption, whether it’s through television or shopping, without any meaningful change.
Summary
“Another Day” is Bruce Hornsby’s critique of the mindless nature of television and the shallow consumer culture that dominates modern life. The song portrays a world where people waste their time watching talk shows filled with conflict and consumer channels selling unnecessary items, all while their lives pass by unnoticed. Bruce also touches on the exploitation of religion for profit, emphasising the broader theme of how various aspects of modern society—media, consumerism, and even faith—have become tools for distraction and manipulation. Through these themes, the song invites listeners to reflect on the way they spend their time and the impact of a culture that prioritises entertainment and materialism over meaningful living.