From Hot House (1995).
Features: Bruce Hornsby (piano, vocals, synthesizer); J.V. Collier (bass); John Molo (drums); J.T. Thomas (organ); Randy Jacobs (rhythm guitar); Pat Metheny (sitar); Louis Price (background vocals);
This is a generally, mellow songs that seem to be set in fairly chilled gatherings, so I’ll not spoil it with my interpretive ramblings. “Longest Night” has an additional theme, about finding a companion after a barren spell on the love front. Not much in the way of interpretation here (but who exactly are the initialled people, for example Mr. B.M.O.C.)?
May I leave you with a “serving suggestion” for Longest Night? I’ll always remember this song for when I happened to have it playing on my walkman on a coach at about 6a.m., having travelled overnight through Scotland, England and France to see my girlfriend. Next time you’re on an uncomfortable overnight Greyhound / Amtrack journey, play this song just as the dawn starts breaking – it really chills you out and makes you feel better!!!
Follow-up, June 25 2001: Longest Night takes us back to a theme that was first introduced in the song Stander on the Mountain. Namely, a high-school or college reunion. (As many of you have since told me, B.M.O.C. is an acronym for “Big Man on Campus”). Funnily enough, the song ends with a fairly routine romantic side to it, i.e. the boy in the song meets a nice girl, for friendship possibly leading to something else.
This is nothing compared with Stander on the Mountain, where apparently boy MAKES OUT with girl in a car on a roadside (The instrumental break on the ‘Noisemakers’ version lasts just about long enough, I think, for this to happen), and the song also includes some fairly contemplative thoughts on the various emotional aspects of reunions in general.
Carwyn Tywyn
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The Longest Night
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Myrtle Beach, SC
May 25 1999