Dernier des vidéos

Tokyo

Oh Tokyo -- I never can sleep in your arms
Mind keeps on ringing like a fire alarm
Me and all these other dice bouncing around in the cup
Did you have to show me that accident scene
Didn't I get enough shaking up?
Still I'm gonna miss you...

Strange waters......

Hills of Morning

Let me be a little of your breath
Moving over the face of the deep --
I want to be a particle of your light
Flowing over the hills of morning

Stolen Lands

If you're like me you'd like to think we've learned from our mistakes
Enough to know we can't play god with others' lives at stake
So now we've all discovered the world wasn't only made for whites
What step are you gonna take to try and set things right
In this stolen land

End of all Rivers.......

Back to Normal

Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Callous men in business costume speak computerese
Play pinball with the Third World trying to keep it on its knees
Their single crop starvation plans put sugar in your tea
And the local Third World's kept on reservations you don't see
"It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Fashionable fascism dominates the scene
When ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means
Tenants get the dregs and landlords get the cream
As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream
Brings us men in gas masks dancing while the shells burst
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Messed Up Monday

and, we're back again

and we're back

End of All Rivers

....you have to wonder: is a river still a river if there is nothing to swim in it?"

- from concert: Life Short - Call Now Tour, Centre for Performing Arts, Vancouver, BC, 3 November 2006. Reported by Mark Classen

the 1970's

"We owe the Winnipeg Folk Festival in a lot of ways to Bruce (Cockburn), because people did not have any idea at all what a folk festival was — none. We knew we had Bruce and we used Bruce in a way we didn’t use anybody else. "We said, ‘There’s a free Bruce Cockburn concert in the park,’ and 14,000 people showed up the first night to see that, and what they got was the folk festival. Thank you, Bruce."
    --From the article From the article Good Times, Great Music by Melissa Tait & Joe Bryska. 

Lovers in a Dangerous Time

"When I wrote that, I was thinking of kids my daughter’s age. She was quite young at the time. But, for any given individual, the world has always been a place where you could die. That’s the baseline. At times we can ignore that, more than other times. There are times when fear is in the air, and, of course, there’s always people around willing to exploit that, and enhance it, if need be."

- from Bruce Cockburn Set for Luminato Honours - 40 Years of songs to Live By by Brad Wheeler.

Monday - Roll It!

Somebody Touched Me

Somebody touched me
Making everything new
Somebody touched me
I didn't know what to do
Burned through my life
Like a bolt from the blue
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

Fallout

"Radium Rain, for instance, came out of, uh, my own experience of the aftermath of Chernobyl, in Germany. I'd gotten, I arrived in Germany three days after Chernobyl happened. I had wrestled with myself to some degree before I left, thinking "Oh, I don't know. I wonder about going to Europe at this moment." But it seemed like it wouldn't matter where you were anyway, that stuff's gonna come down on you sooner or later so I might as well go and see what it looked like. And I did and it was very interesting experience, and, uh, quite frightening in some respects and funny in others. The extremes that people went to. The extremes that governments went to to try to sort of suppress peoples anxiety about the whole thing and it became ridiculous at a certain point, you know. At first they're saying, and I'm sure it was true of all the governments involved, they were saying Oh, there's no problem, you know, those stupid Russians just made a mistake, but we've got it together, don't worry about it". And, you know, the next day they'd be saying "Well there's a little bit of a problem, don't let you kids play in the dirt", you know. And the next, the next day, or week later they'd be saying "Well, you know, if you're a mechanic, you should avoid changing the air filters of cars, unless you're wearing protective clothing, and, you know, if you're a pedestrian, hold your breath when cars go by, cuz of the dust", you know. And I mean it's absurd. How can you possibly not breath when the cars are going by on the street? And it just went from the horrific to the ridiculous." 
     -- from "Interview and Segments" a CD released in 1990 by True North/Epic. Anonymous submission.

Tibetan side of town

"An attempt to capture the flavour of Kathmandu. China has been bulldozing Tibet and its culture since the 50's. This has produced a lot of refugees, many of whom live in Nepal. One of the aspects of Tibetan tradition which was immediately accessible to me was the consumption of Tungba (spelled various ways by various Westerners). This is a kind of flat ale made from fermented millet, drunk hot. An acquired taste, but not that hard to acquire. The search for Tungba came to occupy a fair amount of what leisure time I had on that trip. Tom Kelly is an American photographer who at the time had lived in Kathmandu for 9 years, and who had the largest motorcycle I saw in Nepal.....
   -- from "Rumours of Glory 1980-1990" (songbook), edited by Arthur McGregor, OFC Publications, Ottawa, 1990. Submitted by Rob Caldwell.

remember NAFTA anyone?

Used to have a town but the factory moved away
Down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay
Used to have a country but they sold it down the river
Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder

Goin' Greek

One more time- Call it Democracy

"That song came from the time of neo-conservatism, when governments supported business at the cost of lives and nobody gave a shit. We have since moved on to neo-liberalism, when governments support business at the cost of lives and nobody gives a shit; and I see we're moving on to neo-feudalism, that's the service economy coming at you. We will all serve. I'm not quite sure who we're serving. There's a sort of mystery there; are we serving Bill Gates? I think not, he's too visible. Somebody else? Maybe you're sitting right here (in the audience). Are you out there? Fuck off, if you are....And if you're not, well we missed a grand opportunity to level with each other."
    -- from a live performance at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada, 25 March 2000.

Greeks failed. No one can say their courage flagged, but their chosen leader proved unable to resist, to reject, to tell European Union leaders and that truly dangerous figure in the German cabinet, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, “Enough. Keep your euro. If we are to suffer we will do so for what we believe in.”
    --Patrick L. Smith, July 14, 2015

Waiting for a Miracle

[“Waiting for a Miracle” became a Jerry Garcia Band staple in 1989]

Sometime that same year, the Dead were doing one of their week-long extravaganzas at Madison Square Garden. I happened to be in New York, and somebody said, “Let’s go put you together with Jerry.” So I was ushered up onto the stage behind the amps where his tent was, and Jerry came out. He was very gracious and a lovely guy. We shook hands, and he said, “Man, it’s great to meet you! That’s a beautiful song, I hope I didn’t screw up the lyrics too much!” And then I said, “Well, I was going to wait till the second time I met you to bring that up, but it’s OK you did it your own way, and I’m glad you did…
    --Bruce Cockburn, interview with Dean Budnick on May 01, 2015

 

Dead, dead

The Dead's "last" show was in Chicago last Sunday. Long live the Dead.
Below, the Grateful Dead's 'short' 20 minute rendition of "Morning Dew" in 1976. See the Hippies dance! 
The actual recognizable song starts around the 7:00 minute mark.

the Candy Man's gone

Sun climbs toward high noon,
Glints metallic off the bowl of the spoon
Sliding through the air toward parted lips
Watch the expression when the straight taste hits
Face crumples, tongue's quickly withdrawn
I hate to tell you but the candy man's gone

Oh sweet fantasia of the safe home
Where nobody has to scrape for honey at the bottom of the comb
Where every actor understands the scene
And nobody ever means to be mean
Catch it in a dream, catch it in a song
Seek it on the street, you find the candy man's gone
I hate to tell you but the candy man's gone

In the bar, in the senate, in the alley, in the study
Pimping dreams of riches for everybody
"Something for nothing, new lamps for old
And the streets will be platinum, never mind gold"
Well, hey, pass it on
Misplaced your faith and the candy man's gone
I hate to tell you but the candy man's gone

"To me, politics is an external expression of something that people carry round in their hearts. The songs I wrote in the Eighties touched on issues because they had touched me personally, not because I had an axe to grind or an ideology. The songs in support of the aspirations of the Nicaraguan people, for example, were written because I was there and the situation touched me emotionally in a very personal way. There's no great difference between the mechanics for songs like that and for love songs."

- from "Faith in Practice: Holding on to the Mystery of Love" by Bruce Cockburn (as told to Cole Morton), Third Way, September 1994. Submitted by Nigel Parry.

You get bigger as you go
No one told me -- I just know
Bales of memory like boats in tow
You get bigger as you go

That about Covers it

BURN

Look away across the bay
Yankee gunboat come this way
Uncle Sam gonna save the day
Come tomorrow we all gonna pay...

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Something dead under the bed
Local diplomats hang their heads
Never mind what the government said
They're either lying or they've been misled...

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Phillipines was yesterday  [updated lyrics June 2003] - Vietnam was yesterday
Santiago and Greece today  [updated lyrics June 2003] - Kabul and Baghdad today
How would they ever make the late news pay
If they didn't have the CIA?

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Here it comes, the loaded gun
"Must keep the Commies on the run " [updated lyrics June 2003] - gotta keep the bad guys on the run
You'd buy or bury everyone
For liberty and life
And just plain fun

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

With pain the world paves us over
Lord let us not betray
God bless the children with visions of the Day

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings- whose that playing guitar?

Ships moving into this cave of cloud
Out of the white light up river
At a certain point you can only die

High contrast resolution
Of wet rock and new snow
These bodies remind me
Of tire marks frozen in the mud

We thought we could change something
We helped them win
We changed the slogans
We get hunted again
When you're the fighter
You're the politicians tool
When you're the fighter
You're everybody's fool

They move like bears through city streets
They've got a flag flying over every factory
I'd like to put a bullet through the world

Wagon full of logs with one flat tire
Armed men moving down through the bush
Up river at a certain point you can...
Ships... white light... only

Dancing in Paradise

Praying mantis on screen
Canoes prowl reef in early morning sun
As it flashes on the rhythmic fall of weed cutter's cutlass blade
Everybody's got something to sell besides the obvious dollars and dope
Aloe rub, starfish, vegetable patties, braid your hair miss and bush doctor cures
Sudden angry eruption between aloe peddler and man with property to protect
Muscular security guard with truncheon of twisted wire
"Kiss my blood clot" she hisses and they're enemies for life
In the beach front bar they're playing reggae versions of Jim Reeves' Greatest Hits
The waitress sings along, eyes focused dreamily on that sentimental world and there's Dancing in Paradise...

Blue green ship in turquoise bay
Swollen bauxite-red river rushing
Stream rising from feathered bamboo hills
Tracks once paved now falling away into deep lush valleys
And the farmed-out road contracts pass through so many hands
The print erodes with the weather-worn blacktop
And the jungle's always trying to reclaim the right of way
And the mangoes cacao turmeric goats soursop
Mushrooms cane plantains limes
Horses crayfish long-legged birds donkeys
Curved horns of cattle above dense grass
Ganja sensitive plant ackee
And some thorn whose prick brings lockjaw
And tires torn by sharp yellow rocks --
Young girl stares pensively from dark door in pale blue wall
Big About and friends at their crossroads bar
With its dirt corral for dancing
Drink soursop juice all day long
In quest of the perpetual stiff bamboo
And there's Dancing in Paradise...

Biggy Dread gunned down by police at Big Bridge March 16
Riding a mule cart to Sav-la-Mar pulled out a cutlass and they had to shoot
That's what they say
Something tells me they like to shoot
Something in the eyes of the ones at the road block
Where they searched the car and tried to get us to confess to whatever...
There's truncheons and gas down in Harbour St.
Typical response where life isn't so sweet
And somebody gets desperate enough to say so
Price of fish price of flour
Going up up up almost by the hour
And they throw away money on spectacular shows
To show the world the right likes the right music
And the Prime Minister sucks ice cream in the company of a happy band of children
While a naked man, sores on his neck,
Lies for days in Washington Blvd. gnawing chicken bones
And the Chamber of Commerce thinks there's too much crime
And there's a kung fu movie in every town
And there's Dancing in Paradise...  

Yep, its the last Bruce-a-day. It will now be more like Bruce-a-week or Bruce-whenever-I-feel-like-It.  Feel free to request a song in the Comments

You can even see it from space

Embers of Eden is a lot more grounded in history than High Winds White Sky was. The chorus part of Embers came from what can be seen from orbit, on the surface of the earth. One of the early astronauts said that the only things of human origin that you could make out from orbit were the Great Wall of China and the smoke from burning rainforests. That was such a powerful image it stayed with me and eventually came out in a personal use that had nothing to do with rainforests or the Great Wall of China. It was a figurative use of that image.
 -- from "Conversations with Bruce Cockburn", Common Ground, January, 2000, interviewed by Joseph Roberts. Submitted by Audrey Parsons.

Saturday

oops; just about missed Saturday.

Though storms may still kiss the grasslands with primal fire
In the land of passive revolution, everything's for hire
Are they demons, are they lemmings, or just the humans in this place?
Lord, I'm scanning these crowds for some sign of your face

MOD!

Let's hear a laugh for the man of the world
Who thinks he can make things work
Tried to build the New Jerusalem
And ended up with New York
Ha Ha Ha...

why don't we celebrate?

"This is a song [Dialogue With the Devil] I got totally fed up with for a long time! I wrote it in the early 70's and from that time played it at almost every concert, till I wasn't able to perform it anymore. I think I haven't played that one for almost twenty years now. But this year I somehow got it back and thought it was good and so decided to perform it again...."

-- from an intro to the song at a gig in Worpswede, Germany, 31 October 1999. Submitted by Simon Gorler.

more video!

 

Tuesday; let the bad air out

Bruce said that he had encountered an old turn-of-the-century jazz tune called "Blues for Bobby Beldon" which included the line "I thought I heard Bobby shout: 'Open up the window, let the bad air out!'". Bruce explained that the air in this quote would be whorehouse air, since it was in these places where jazz was born; and, commenting on the political content of his song, he said he had thought the time was ripe for another song of this kind, because American politics have more and more come to resemble the actions going on in a whorehouse.
   -- from comments made during the intro to the song at a gig at the Alter Wartesaal, Köln (Cologne), Germany, on 2 November 1999. Submitted by Frank Lay.

Gaaa! its Monday!

Happy Father's Day

One-eyed sun leering through the haze
Hordes of loveless marching while the little drummer plays
Nail in the coffin rats in the maze
Dancing arm in arm towards the looming end of days
Got to slow down 

Trees

Mulligan: "David Suzuki says that your video and song for "If a Tree Falls" had a profound impact upon everyone who saw it and heard it. Did you get that kind of feedback from people?"

 "If he said it, that's fine. I'm glad he did. No, I got a lot of positive feedback about that, and some negative too; actually interestingly, a lot of critics didn't like that song. They felt it was too pedantic and I was being too literal and I was "stretching my metaphors too far". I have a two-word response for those people."

-- from "Stein '89 - Voices in the Wilderness" (hosted by Terry David Mulligan). Interviewer: Terry David Mulligan. Location: MuchMusic (Canadian music video channel). Airdate: 25 October 1989. Submitted by Dave Macklin.

NEIL-to-Day: Ambulance Blues

'Heart of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.'

The First Album- 1970

"The second half of the '60s really was a kind of learning period, in terms of writing, for me. I did a lot of writing for a lot of different kinds of bands that I was in and out of during those five years and... that left me with a little body of songs that I liked better when I played alone, so I ended up going out solo and very soon... made my first album." 
    -- from "Singer Follows 'Morality' to Success" by Salvatore Caputo, The Arizona Republic, 6 October 1995. Submitted by Nigel Parry.

"A time of reaction- trying to leave behind the years of bad rock bands, trying to clear out psychedelic decadence that was itself a reaction to institutional decadence. Looking for purity in nature. Looking for connections behind things..." 
    -- from the World Of Wonders Tour Program, circa 1986. Submitted by Rob Caldwell.

Some people never see the light
Till it shines through bullet holes

All The Diamonds In The World, the image-laden song from 1973 was written in Stockholm on the day after Cockburn realized he was a Christian. He comments on Christianity, and how he views the song so many years later.

"It’s emotional, in a way. It marks a signal moment in my life. It’s there. But I have to think when I perform it now, because I don’t want to be associated with certain aspects of the Christian culture and tradition. I’m not so inclined to think of the imagery of what we associate with Christianity – the guy on the cross with the beard. It’s not so much that, as it is about what we call the Holy Spirit."

15 June 2010- from Bruce Cockburn Set for Luminato Honours - 40 Years of songs to Live By by Brad Wheeler.

from the Humans album

"A lot of the songs on Humans came out of my realization that I needed other people.....I've always been a loner and kept a distance between myself and even those I've regarded as friends. But all of a sudden when I was getting kicked around and battered, all these people were right there - they came through in a way I never would have expected."

-- from "Bruce Cockburn's Quiet Optimism", High Fidelity, 1981, by Stephen Holden.

Happy Birthday Brendan