The Changes
Bruce Hornsby Lyrics

The scene is set, everybody's in place
The people and instruments are all set for their performance.

Two chairs filled for every five gone to waste
The place is not entirely occupied, hence most of the chairs remain empty.

Pantsuit girl gives me a nasty gaze
A girl wearing a pantsuit looks at me with disapproval.

She says play that on your own time
She wants me to stop playing the music.

Walk to the bandstand blow my horn
I walk towards the stage to play the saxophone.

Nobody knows what we're really here for
No one really knows or understands the purpose of our performance.

Let's take it out hard till they show us the door
Let's play our music really well until we're forced to leave.

It's us against them tonight
We are playing against the crowd or audience tonight.

A girl with a nose ring said to me
A girl wearing a nose ring came up to me and said,

She said where's the joy in your delivery
She asked why I'm not playing the music with much enthusiasm or much joy.

I said maybe there's not supposed to be
I replied that perhaps the music doesn't require me to feel joy or enthusiasm while playing it.

Any real joy at all here
There is no real joy that can be found here in playing the music.

She sat there with that plaster smile
She sat there without showing any signs of her true emotions, like a plastered smile on her face.

As we sit jiving but in a little while
As we play the music and dance, but soon it will all be over.

Holding her hair she joined the single file
She held her hair and got into a line along with many others.

And walked on down the hall
They walked away from the performance to end the night.

The owner says he thinks we need some work
The owner of the venue thinks that we need to improve our skills.

Got a place for you, got some roadwork
He has arranged for us to practice on the road.

Laying asphalt on the interstate
We will be playing music while the roads are being built.

Nobody cares and why should they
No one seems to be concerned about this practice, and it's not important.

A white girl in a dashiki says you're all the rage
A white girl wearing a dashiki compliments me by saying that my music is popular.

My friends and I think you're quite the sage
Her friends and she see me as a wise person.

Wear a kofu and a finger gauge
She suggests I wear a kind of Japanese robe and a ring to get an idea of how the music will fare.

To see which way the wind blows today
To test which type of music is more popular today.

Old friend Dave with the silver spoon
My wealthy old friend Dave comes up and speaks to me.

Says why don't you play those good old tunes
Dave tells me to play the traditional music that is popular in our culture.

Give it up now you could fill the room
He advises me to stop playing my kind of music, and play something that will appeal to the general crowd.

I say there's nothing like a good Trane tune
I disagree with him, saying that nothing compares to a good composition by John Coltrane.

Changes
The nature of music is always changing and evolving.

These things called changes
These 'changes' referred to in the song are the constant evolution of music.

Where do we go from here?
The future of music is uncertain and it's difficult to predict where it is headed from here.