These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin — this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time

When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you’re made to feel as if your love’s a crime —
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight —
Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
And we’re lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time

September 1983 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Maybe the poet is drugged
But he won’t stay under the rug

Maybe the voice of the spirit
In which case you’d better hear it

Maybe he’s a woman
Who can touch you where you’re human

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don’t let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it

Put him up against the wall
Shoot him up with pentothal

Shoot him up with lead
You won’t call back what’s been said
Put him in the ground
But one day you’ll look around

There’ll be a face you don’t know
Voicing thoughts you’ve heard before

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don’t let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it

January 1982 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Bruce Cockburn Live – 1990 / 2002
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

Hot night — streets are full of life
Carnival faces in rembrandt light
And your hair tumbles down like sahara gold

Half moon shining through the blind
Paints a vision of a different kind
And your hair tumbles down like sahara gold

Wet limbs striped with silver light
Locked together at the centre of the night
And your hair tumbles down like sahara gold

Night bloom filling up the room
With the salt and musk of lovers’ rich perfume
And your hair tumbles down like sahara gold

Animal grins and wild shining eyes
Laughing and shouting we’re a hundred storeys high
And your hair tumbles down like sahara gold

July 1983 – Toronto, Canada

Smell of sweet fresh oil on skin
When you move on me like the tide coming in —
Making contact…

So many ways to understand
One for every woman and man
Been that way since the world began

I hear the drumming of the surf and I have to dance
Stepping to the rhythm of circumstance —
Making contact…

I feel so huge — I feel so small
I feel so good I want to swallow it all —
Making contact…

Making contact
Swimming in an ocean of love

Making contact
Swimming in an ocean of love

We move together like the waves
Swimming in an ocean of love

Every night and every day
Swimming in an ocean of love

One world — one human race
Swimming in an ocean of love

One kiss from a smiling face
Swimming in an ocean of love

See that sign coming into view
Swimming in an ocean of love

Mother sea welcomes you
Swimming in an ocean of love

Making contact…

January 1984 – Tobago

Also On:
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987

Police arrive — muddy up the floor
Dig out half the plaster — it’s a .38 for sure
Kick the neighbour’s door in
Saying better tell it all
Who put that bullet hole in Peggy’s kitchen wall?

Blaster on the back porch shaking up the lane
They’re drinking gin and joking — laughter falling down like rain
Everybody wears a halo
Never saw nothing at all
So who put that bullet hole in Peggy’s kitchen wall

July 1983 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

Burning — all night long
Burning — at the gates of dawn
Singing — near and far
Singing — to raise the morning star

Rising like lightning in the pregnant air
It’s electric — I can feel its might
I can feel it crackling in my nails and hair —
Makes me feel like i’m dancing on feet of light

Burning — all night long
Burning — at the gates of dawn
Singing — near and far
Singing — to raise the morning star

Singing for the yellow and the brown and the black
For the red and the white people, too
Dovetailing strong points with the things we lack
Singing for the people like me and you

Burning — all night long
Burning — at the gates of dawn
Singing — near and far
Singing — to raise the morning star

July 1983 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Bruce Cockburn Live – 1990 / 2002
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

Blue lagoon and flowering trees —
Bullet-packed masaya streets
Full of the ghosts of the heroes of Monimbo
Women of the town laundry
Work and gossip and laugh at me —
They don’t believe I’ll ever send them the pictures I took.
For every scar on a wall
There’s a hole in someone’s heart
Where a loved one’s memory lives

In the flash of this moment
You’re the best of what we are —
Don’t let them stop you now
Nicaragua

Sandino in his tom mix hat
Gazes from billboards and coins
“Sandino vive en la lucha por la paz”
Sandino of the shining dream
Who stood up to the U.S. marines —
Now Washington panics at U2 shots of “Cuban-style” latrines
They peek from planes, eavesdrop from ships
Voyeurs licking moistened lips, ‘cause…

In the flash of this moment
You’re the best of what we are —
Don’t let them stop you now
Nicaragua

February 1983 – Managua

Also On:
Bruce Cockburn Live – 1990 / 2002
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 3 – 2014

I don’t believe in guarded borders and I don’t believe in hate
I don’t believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher…I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation — or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher…I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice — at least I’ve got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher…Some son of a bitch would die

February and April 1983 – Chiapas, Mexico, and Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Bruce Cockburn Live – 2002
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 3 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Dust and diesel
Rise like incense from the road
Smoke of offering
For the revolution morning

Headlights pick out fallen sack of corn
One lone tarantula standing guard
We pull up and stop and she ambles off
Discretion much the better part of cars
Rodrigo the government driver jumps out
He’s got chickens who can use the feed
We sweep the asphalt on our hands and knees
Fill up his trunk with dusty yellow seeds

Dust and diesel
Rise like incense from the road
Smoke of offering
For the revolution morning

Guitars and rifles in blue moonlight
Soldiers stretched out on sparkling grass
Engine broke down — they took us in
now we make music for the time to pass
Tired men and women raise their voice to the night
Hope the fragile bloom they’ve grown will last
Pride and passion and love and fear
Burning hearts burning boats of the past

Dust and diesel
Rise like incense from the road
Smoke of offering
For the revolution morning

March 1983 – Interamerican Highway, Nicaragua

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 3 – 2014

Yanqui head spin
Better get some rest
Tomorrow we can talk about the way you insulted the guests

Ivan’s outside
Sulking in the yard
Everyone got bad communication when the time gets hard

Not a nice guy
But he’s got troubles of his own
Anyway it’s best if you both just leave the rest of us alone

Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party’s over —
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost

Yanqui wake up
Don’t you see what you’re doing
Trying to be the Pharoah of the West bringing nothing but ruin

Better start swimming
Before you begin to drown
All those petty tyrants in your pocket gonna weigh you down

You’re my friend but I say
Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party’s over
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost

1983

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory – German release 1985
Stealing Fire – 2003
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 3 – 2014

Falls through Love objects
this gathering of accidents
into dynastic triumph of things
I long for dawn at end of mind

Traveling light deluge of birth and death
quiver of events trembling to be
Shot into the face of time
Call it the Sundance

Everything you do, everything you say
Whether false or true
in some kind of way, touches something
Everything you take, everything you leave
Every move you make
Pulls the fabric of the weave of everything
Call it the Sundance

Everything you do, everything you say
Whether false or true
in some kind of way, touches something
Everything you take, everything you leave
Every move you make
Pulls the fabric of the weave of everything
Call it the Sundance

1983

Also On:
Stealing Fire – 2003

Yanqui head spin
Better get some rest
Tomorrow we can talk about the way you insulted the guests

Ivan’s outside
Sulking in the yard
Everyone got bad communication when the time gets hard

Not a nice guy
But he’s got troubles of his own
Anyway it’s best if you both just leave the rest of us alone

Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party’s over —
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost

Yanqui wake up
Don’t you see what you’re doing
Trying to be the Pharoah of the West bringing nothing but ruin

Better start swimming
Before you begin to drown
All those petty tyrants in your pocket gonna weigh you down

You’re my friend but I say
Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party’s over
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost

1983

Also On:
Stealing Fire – 2003 (remastered)
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 3 – 2014

Apartheid in Arizona, slaughter in Brazil
If bullets don’t get good PR there’s other ways to kill
Kidnap all the children, put ’em in a foreign system
Bring them up in no-man’s land where no one really wants them
It’s a stolen land

Stolen land — but it’s all we’ve got
Stolen land — and there’s no going back
Stolen land — and we’ll never forget
Stolen land — and we’re not through yet

In my mind I catch a picture — big black raven in the sky
Looking at the ocean — sail reflected in black eye —
Sail as white as heroin, white like weathered bones —
Rum and guns and smallpox gonna change the face of home
In this stolen land…

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

Stolen land — but it’s all we’ve got
Stolen land — and there’s no going back
Stolen land — and we’ll never forget
Stolen land — and we’re not through yet

January 1986 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Bruce Cockburn – Live
You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance
Rumours Of Glory – box set – disc 2
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Somewhere out there is a place that’s cool
Where peace and balance are the rule
Working toward a future like some kind of mystic jewel
And waiting for a miracle

You rub your palm
On the grimy pane
In the hope that you can see
You stand up proud
You pretend you’re strong
In the hope that you can be
Like the ones who’ve cried
Like the ones who’ve died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they’re waiting for a miracle

Struggle for a dollar, scuffle for a dime
Step out from the past and try to hold the line
So how come history takes such a long, long time
When you’re waiting for a miracle

You rub your palm
On the grimy pane
In the hope that you can see
You stand up proud
You pretend you’re strong
In the hope that you can be
Like the ones who’ve cried
Like the ones who’ve died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they’re waiting for a miracle

January 1986 – Managua, Nicaragua

Written by: Bruce Cockburn and Hugh Marsh

Also On:
Anything Anytime Anywhere
Rumours Of Glory – box set – disc 3
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

What kind of currency grows in these new deserts,
These brand new flood plains?

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

Cut and move on
Cut and move on
Take out trees
Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day
Take out people who’ve lived with this for 100,000 years –
Inject a billion burgers worth of beef –
Grain eaters – methane dispensers.

Through thinning ozone,
Waves fall on wrinkled earth –
Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars,
Speak of a drowning –
But this, this is something other.
Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world
Where wild things have to go
To disappear
Forever

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

April 7, 1988 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 1 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Big Circumstance comes looming
Like a darkly roaring train –
Rushes like a sucking wound
Across a winter plain
Recognizing neither polished shine
Nor spot nor stain –
And wherever you are on the compass rose
You’ll never be again

Left like a shadow on the step
Where the body was before –
Shipwrecked at the stable door

Big Circumstance has brought me here –
Wish it would send me home
Never was clear where home is
But it’s nothing you can own
It can’t be bought with cigarettes
Or nylons or perfume
And all the highest bidder gets
Is a voucher for a tomb

Blessed are the poor in spirit –
Blessed are the meek
For theirs shall be the kingdom
That the power mongers seek
Blessed are the dead for love
And those who cry for peace
And those who love the gift of earth –
May their gene pool increase

Left like a shadow on the step
Where the body was before –
Shipwrecked at the stable door

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

See-through dollars and mystery plagues
Varied detritus of Aquarian Age
Shutters on storefronts and shutters in the mind –
We kill ourselves to keep ourselves safe from crime.
That’s the gospel of bondage…

We’re so afraid of disorder we make it into a god
We can only placate with state security laws
Whose church consists of secret courts and wiretaps and shocks
Whose priests hold smoking guns, and whose sign is the double cross
But God must be on the side of the side that’s right
And not the right that justifies itself in terms of might –
Least of all a bunch of neo-nazis running hooded through the night
Which may be why He’s so consipicuously out of sight
Of the gospel of bondage…

You read the Bible in your special ways
You’re fond of quoting certain things it says –
Mouth full of righteousness and wrath from above
But when do we hear about forgiveness and love?

Sometimes you can hear the Spirit whispering to you,
But if God stays silent, what else can you do
Except listen to the silence? if you ever did you’d surely see
That God won’t be reduced to an ideology
Such as the gospel of bondage…

February 22, 1987 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

To be held in the heart of a friend is to be a king
But the magic of a lover’s touch is what makes my spirit sing
When you’re caught up in this longing all the beauties of the earth don’t mean a thing
Oh – and the night grows clear and empty
As a lake of acid rain
And I don’t feel your touch, again.

The last light of day crept away like a drunkard after gin
A hint of chanted prayer now whispers from the fresh night wind
To this shattered heart and soul held together by habit and skin
And this half-gnawed bone of apprehension
Buried in my brain
As I don’t feel your touch, again.

June 1987 – Toronto, Canada

The butterfly sparkle in my lasered eye still seems
To hold that last shot of red sun through haze over jumbled roofs
Everything moves like slow fluid in this atmosphere
Thick as dreams
With sewage, incense, dust and fever and the smoke of brick kilns and cremations –

Tom Kelly’s bike rumbles down –
we’re going drinking on the Tibetan side of town.

Beggar with withered legs sits sideways on skateboard, grinning
There’s a joke going on somewhere but we’ll never know
Those laughing kids with hungry eyes must be in on it too
With their clinging memories of a culture crushed
By Chinese greed

Pretty young mother by the temple gate
Covers her baby’s face against diesel fumes
That look of concern – you can see it still –
Not yet masked by the hard lines of a woman’s
Struggle to survive

Hard bargains going down
When you’re living on the Tibetan side of town.

Big red Enfield Bullet lurches to a halt in the dust
Last blast of engine leaves a ringing in the ears
That fades into the rustle of bare feet and slapping sandals
And the baritone moan of long bronze trumpets
Muffled by monastery walls.

Prayer flags crack like whips in the breeze
Sending to the world – tonight the message blows east
Dark door opens to warm yellow room and there
Are these steaming jugs of hot millet beer
and I’m sucked into the scene like this liquor up
This bamboo straw

Sweet tungba sliding down –
drinking on the Tibetan side of town

March 1987 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Live -1990 / 2002
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 5 – 2014

Over the scratched-up soil, scorched-earth wasted,
Long shadows lead women bearing water
I watch the sway of skirts,
Think of moist spice forests –

Too many pictures
Swirling
Vertigo
Momentum of civilizations
Threw me too far over this time-simple landscape
And I hang here
In this mountain light
A balloon blown full of darkness –
Got to let this ballast go
Got to float upward
Till I burst

Weavers’ fingers flying on the loom
Patterns shift too fast to be discerned
All these years of thinking
Ended up like this
In front of all this beauty
Understanding nothing

Rhododendrons in bloom, sharp against
Spring snow
Remind me of another time
In japanese temple –
There was a single orange blossom
At the wrong time of year –
Seemed like a sign –
When I looked again
It was gone

Weavers’ fingers flying on the loom
Patterns shift too fast to be discerned
All these years of thinking
Ended up like this in front of all this beauty
Understanding nothing

October 26, 1987 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

They cut down people like they cut down trees —
Chop off its head so it will stay on its knees —
The forest shrinks but the earth remains
Slash and burn and it grows again
Down where the death squad lives.

I’ve got friends trying to batter the system down
Fighting the past till the future comes round.
It’ll never be a perfect world till God declares it that way
But that don’t mean there’s nothing we can do or say
Down where the death squad lives

Like some kind of never-ending Easter passion,
From every agony a hero’s fashioned.
Around every evil there gathers love —
Bombs aren’t the only things that fall from above
Down where the death squad lives
down where the death squad lives

Sometimes I feel like there’s a padlock on my soul.
If you opened up my heart you’d find a big black hole
But when the feeling comes through, it comes through strong —
If you think there’s no difference between right and wrong
Just go down where the death squad lives

This world can be better than it is today
You can say I’m a dreamer but that’s okay
Without the could-be and the might-have-been
All you’ve got left is your fragile skin
And that ain’t worth much down where the death squad lives

January 28, 1986 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

Everyday in the paper you can watch the numbers rise
No such event can over take us here, we’re much too wise
In the meantime don’t eat anything that grows and don’t breathe when the cars go by
Ain’t it a shame
Ain’t it a shame
About the radium rain

Big motorcycle rumbles out of the rain like some creation of mist
There’s a man on a roof with a blindfold on and a hand grenade in his fist
I walk stiff, with teeth clenched tight, filled with nostalgia for a clean wind’s kiss
Ain’t it a shame
Ain’t it a shame
About the radium rain

A flock of birds writes something on the sky in a language I can’t understand
God’s graffiti — but it don’t say why so much evil seems to land on man
When everyone I meet just wants to live and love, and get along as best they can
Ain’t it a shame
Ain’t it a shame
About the radium rain

May 8, 1986 – Cologne

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 4 – 2014

Hear the sleepers toss and turn
Dreaming whatever they’re dreaming of
The wind that’s clearing the heat from the air
Can’t clear my heart of these pangs of love

Pangs of love
That’s the price you pay
When you give your love
But don’t give all the way
Pangs of love
Won’t let me go —
I came so far around the world
To hear the night say
I told you so

April 9,1987 – Pakhara

In this cold commodity culture
Where you lay your money down
It’s hard to even notice
That all this earth is hallowed ground —
Harder still to feel it
Basic as a breath —
Love is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than death

The gift
Keeps moving —
Never know
Where it’s going to land.
You must stand
Back and let it
Keep on changing hands

Hackles rise in anger
Heat waves rise in sex
The gift moves on regardless
Tying this world to the next
May you never tire of waiting
Never feel that life is cheap
May your life be filled with light
Except for when you’re trying to sleep

The gift
Keeps moving —
Never know
Where it’s going to land
You must stand
Back and let it
Keep on changing hands

February 9, 1988 – Toronto, Canada

Anything can happen
To put out the light,
Is it any wonder
I don’t want to say goodnight?

I could have been hit by a falling pane of glass
You could have had shark teeth write “finit”
We could have been nailed by some vigilante type
In a case of mistaken identity — obviously

Anything can happen
To put out the light
Is it any wonder
I don’t want to say goodnight?

We could have been lynched and tarred and feathered
Been on a plane that crashed in flames
Could have done the neutron melt together
But here we are just the same!

You could have been daggered in the dead of night
You could have been gassed inside your car
I could have been walking in the open fields
And been drilled through the head by a shooting star

Anything can happen
To put out the light
Is it any wonder
I don’t want to say goodnight?

December 29, 1980 – Toronto, Canada

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 7 – 2014

What kind of currency grows in these new deserts,
These brand new flood plains?

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

Cut and move on
Cut and move on
Take out trees
Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day
Take out people who’ve lived with this for 100,000 years –
Inject a billion burgers worth of beef –
Grain eaters – methane dispensers.

Through thinning ozone,
Waves fall on wrinkled earth –
Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars,
Speak of a drowning –
But this, this is something other.
Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world
Where wild things have to go
To disappear
Forever

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

April 7, 1988 – Toronto, Canada

Acoustic Version on the 2005 remastered edition of Big Circumstance.

Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life

If life seems jolly rotten, there’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing
When you’re feeling in the dumps, don’t be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle, that’s the thing, and…

Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life

Life is quite absurd, and death’s the final word
We must always face the curtain with a bow
Forget about your sin, give the audience a grin
Enjoy it — it’s your last chance anyhow, so…

Always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke it’s true
You can see it’s all a show, keep ’em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you, and…

Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life…

Cover – Original song from the Monty Python film “Life of Brian”

When you’ve got a dream like mine
Nobody can take you down
When you’ve got a dream like mine
Nobody can push you around

Today I dream of how it used to be
Things were different before
The picture shifts to how it’s going to be
Balance restored

When you know even for a moment
That it’s your time
Then you can walk with the power
Of a thousand generations

[Chorus]

Beautiful rocks — beautiful grass
Beautiful soil where they both combine
Beautiful river — covering sky
Never thought of possession, but all this was mine

When you know even for a moment
That it’s your time
Then you can walk with the power
Of a thousand generations

[Chorus]

August 17, 1990 – Dawson, Yukon Territories

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric guitars and Vocals
Larry Klein – Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Denny Frongheiser – Drums
Michael Blair, Ralph Forbes – Percussion
Sam Phillips – Backing Vocals

Also On:
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Rumours Of Glory box set disc 5 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Kit Carson said to the President
“You’ve made your offer sweet
I’ll accept this task you’ve set for me
My fall’s not yet complete”

Kit Carson knew he had a job to do
Like other jobs he had before
He’d made the grade
He learned to trade in famine, pestilence, and war

Kit Carson was a hero to some
With his poison and his flame
But somewhere there’s a restless ghost
That used to bear his name

July 1, 1990 – Vaudreuil, Quebec

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric guitars and Vocals
Michael Been – Bass
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Jim Keltner – Drums & Percussion

Also On:
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Mighty trucks of midnight
Moving on
Moving on

Wave a flag, wave the bible, wave your sex or your business degree
Whatever you want — but don’t wave that thing at me
The tide of love can leave your prizes scattered
But when you get to the bottom it’s the only thing that matters

Mighty trucks of midnight
Moving on
Moving on

I believe it’s a sin to try and make things last forever
Everything that exists in time runs out of time some day
Got to let go of the things that keep you tethered
Take your place with grace and then be on your way

June 1991 – Los Angeles

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric guitars and Vocals
Larry Klein – Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Jim Keltner – Drums

Won’t somebody tell me
Answer if you can
Won’t somebody tell me
Tell me what is the soul of a man?

I’ve travelled different countries
Travelled to the furthest lands
Couldn’t find nobody could tell me
What is the soul of a man

Won’t somebody tell me
Answer if you can
Won’t somebody tell me
Tell me what is the soul of a man?

I saw a crowd stand talking
I just came up in time
Was teaching the lawyers and the doctors
That a man ain’t nothing but his mind

Won’t somebody tell me
Answer if you can
Won’t somebody tell me
Tell me what is the soul of a man?

I read the Bible often
I try to read it right
As far as I can understand
It’s nothing but a burning light

Won’t somebody tell me
Answer if you can
Won’t somebody tell me
Tell me what is the soul of a man?

When Christ taught in the temple
The people all stood amazed
Was teaching the lawyers and the doctors
How to raise a man from the grave

Won’t somebody tell me
Answer if you can
Won’t somebody tell me
Tell me what is the soul of a man?

cover

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Resonater Guitar & Vocals
Michael Been – Bass
Jim Keltner – Drums & Washboard

Also On:
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours Of Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Great big love
Sweeping across the sky

Seen a lot of things in the world outside
Some bad but some good stuff too
Felt the touch of love in the works of God
And now and then in what people do
Never had a lot of faith in human beings
But sometimes we manage to shine
Like a light on a hill beaming out to space
From somewhere hard to find

Great big love
Sweeping across the sky

I ride and I shoot and I play guitar
And I like my life just fine
If you try to take one of these things from me
Then you’re no friend of mine
Got a woman I love and she loves me
And we live on a piece of land
I never know quite how to measure these things
But I guess I’m a happy man

Great big love
Sweeping across the sky

August 6,1990 – Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric & Acoustic Guitars and Vocals
T-Bone Burnett – Electric Guitar
Larry Klein – Bass
Denny Frongheiser – Drums
Michael Blair, Ralph Forbes – Percussion
Sam Phillips, Jackson Browne – Backing Vocals

Also On:
Rumours Of Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Done a lot of getting ready for this
Some things we learn so slow
But look at you, you’ve got plenty behind you

There’s lots of ways to hit the ground
Not many answers to be found
We’re faced with mysteries profound
And this is one of the best ones

There are eight million mysteries
In the naked body
Can’t even sight on some distant horizon

Like the nine billion names of God
Don’t bring you any closer
To anyone you can simply set eyes on

But in the same way it’s as real
Don’t always recognize what I feel
But of the dancing scenes that life reveals
This is one of the best ones

Say what you will
There’s no snake oil or pill
Can make love less painful or fine
There’s no theatre
Even of the absurd
Can express what goes on in this meeting of hearts and minds

Guess I’d get along without you
If I had no choice
But please never make it so I have to

Paid a lot of dues to get here
And after all this life
I’m a loser if I don’t live with you

There’s lots of ways to hit the ground
Not many answers to be found
We’re faced with mysteries profound
And this is one of the best ones

May 22, 1990 – Toronto, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Acoustic Guitars and Vocals
Michael Been – Bass
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Jim Keltner – Drums
Mark O’Connor – Violin

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Somebody touched me
Deep in my bones
Turned a key in the hole
There was somebody home
Some would say that I’m dreaming
But I swear that it’s true
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

Somebody touched me
Like the rain on the wind
Left me alone
Feeling like I’d been skinned
But I know you’re with me
Whatever I go through
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

November 17, 1990 – Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric Guitar and Vocals
T-Bone Burnett – Acoustic Guitar
Larry Klein – Bass
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Denny Frongheiser – Drums
Jim Keltner – Drums
Michael Blair – Tamborine

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

The child is born in the fullness of time
Three wise astrologers take note of the signs
Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king
Get pretty close to wrecking everything
‘Cause the governing body of the whole [Holy] land
Is that of Herod, a paranoid man
Who when he hears there’s a baby born King of the Jews
Sends death squads to kill all male children under two
But that same bright angel warns the parents in a dream
And they head out for the border and get away clean

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

There are others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn’t to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums
And the message is clear if you’ve got [you have] ears to hear
That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear
It’s a Christmas gift [that] you don’t have to buy
There’s a future shining in a baby’s eyes

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

March 1, 1990 – Toronto, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric Guitar and Vocals
Michael Been – Bass
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Jim Keltner – Drums
Sam Phillips – Backing Vocals

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric Guitar and Vocals
Larry Klein – Bass
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Denny Frongheiser – Drums
Ralph Forbes – Percussion

A few dozen survivors, ragged but proud
With a few woolly sheep, under gathering cloud
It’s never been easy, or free from strife
But the pulse of the land is the pulse of their life

You thought it was over but it’s just like before
Will there never be an end to the Indian wars?

It’s not breech-loading rifles and wholesale slaughter
It’s kickbacks and thugs and diverted water
Treaties get signed and the papers change hands
But they might as well draft these agreements in sand

Noble Savage on the cinema screen
An Indian’s good when he cannot be seen
And the so-called white so-called race
Digs for itself a pit of disgrace

You thought it was over but it’s just like before
Will there never be an end to the Indian wars?

January 25, 1990 – Toronto, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
Jackson Browne – Resonator Guitar & Vocals
Mark O’Connor – Violin & Mandolin

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

April 1990 – Mississauga, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Electric Guitars
Edgar Meyer – Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Michael Blair, Ralph Forbes – Percussion
Mark O’Connor – Violin

Also On:
Speechless – 2005

There’s roads and there’s roads
And they call, can’t you hear it?
Roads of the earth
And roads of the spirit
The best roads of all
Are the ones that aren’t certain
One of those is where you’ll find me
Till they drop the big curtain

Hear the wind moan
In the bright diamond sky
These mountains are waiting
Brown-green and dry
I’m too old for the term
But I’ll use it anyway
I’ll be a child of the wind
Till the end of my days

Little round planet
In a big universe
Sometimes it looks blessed
Sometimes it looks cursed
Depends on what you look at obviously
But even more it depends on the way that you see

Hear the wind moan
In the bright diamond sky
These mountains are waiting
Brown-green and dry
I’m too old for the term
But I’ll use it anyway
I’ll be a child of the wind
Till the end of my days

December 24,1989 – Tucson, Arizona, USA

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Resonator Guitar & Vocals
Edgar Meyer – Acoustic Bass
Booker T. Jones – Organ
Mark O’Connor – Violin

Also On:
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Album notes: “Original Latin title meaning, more or less, ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful.’ A lovely tune which didn’t seem to require elaboration. It is thought to have been composed by John Francis Wade sometime in the mid-1700’s.”

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
Singing carols, Christmas songs
Jesus Christ the son was born

Three wise men saw the star at night
Star that lit the heavens so bright
Star that led them to where Christ was born
Early on one Christmas morn

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
Singing carols, Christmas songs
Early on one Christmas morn

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
Singing carols, Christmas songs
Jesus Christ the son was born

In that city of Bethlehem
Wise men brought Him jewels and gems
Born in a manger humble and low
That is why we love Him so

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
Singing carols, Christmas songs
Jesus Christ the son was born

Mary was his mother calm
cradling him gently in her arms
all hail and praise to Him
peace on earth, goodwill to men

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
singing carols, christmas songs
Early on one Christmas morn

Early on one Christmas morn
Jesus Christ the son was born
singing carols, Christmas songs
Jesus Christ the son was born

Jesus Christ the son was born.

Album notes: “I came across this song around 1972 on an anthology of early gospel recordings. It was performed by a group called the Cottentop Mountain Sanctified Singers and featured a lead vocal by one Frankie ‘Half-Pint’ Jaxon. It was most likely recorded in 1929. One has the feeling on hearing it that the ‘Sanctified’ in the group’s name would come and go depending on whether it was playing in church or in a brothel.”

For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the king
And peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven
No ear may hear his coming
But in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him still
The dear Christ enters in

Album notes: “One of the guiding principles which I tried to hold to in making this album was that pieces as familiar as this one are still songs, written by songwriters, with lyrics that often make sense and are beautiful. In some cases it seemed that a little nudge in one direction or another would help to revive their ‘songness’. This was written in the last century by Lewis Redner and Phillips Brooks.”

El lobo rabioso
La quiso morder
Mas Dios poderoso
La supo defender
Quizole hazer que
No pudiesse pecar
Ni aun original
Esta uirgen no tuuiera

Riu, riu, chiu
La guarda ribera
Dios guarde el lobo
De nuestra cordera

Este uiene a dar
A los muertos uida
Y uiene a reparar
De todas la cayla
Es la luz del dia
Aqueste mocuelo
Este es el cordero
Que San Juan dixera

Riu, riu, chiu
La guarda ribera
Dios guarde el lobo
De nuestra cordera

Yo ui mil garcones
Que andauan contando
Por aqui bolando
Haziendo mil sones
Diziendo a gascones,
Gloria sea en el cielo
Y paz en el suelo
Pues Jesus nasciera

Riu, riu, chiu
La guarda ribera
Dios guarde el lobo
De nuestra cordera

Este uiene a dar
A los muertos uida
Y uiene a reparar
De todas la cayla
Es la luz del dia
Aqueste mocuelo.
Este es el cordero
Que San Juan dixera.

Riu, riu, chiu
La guarda ribera
Dios guarde el lobo
De nuestra cordera

Yo ui mil garcones
Que andauan contando
Por aqui bolando
Haziendo mil sones
Diziendo a gascones
Gloria sea en el cielo
Y paz en el suelo
Pues Jesus nasciera

Riu, riu, chiu
La guarda ribera
Dios guarde el lobo
De nuestra cordera

TRANSLATION:

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

The rabid wolf tried to bite her
But God Almighty knew how to defend her
He wished to create her impervious to sin
Nor was this maid to embody original sin

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

He comes to give life to the dead
He comes to redeem the fall of man
This child is the light of day
He is the very lamb Saint John prophecied

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

A thousand singing herons
I saw passing,
Flying overhead, sounding
A thousand voices
Exulting, “Glory be in the
heavens, and peace on earth,
for Jesus has been born.”

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

He comes to give life to the dead
He comes to redeem the fall of man
This child is the light of day
He is the very lamb Saint John
prophesied

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

A thousand singing herons
I saw passing
Flying overhead, sounding
a thousand voices
Exulting, “Glory be in the
heavens, and peace on earth
for Jesus has been born.”

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale’s sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb.

Album notes: “This is a Spanish composition of the type known as a ‘villancico’, dating from the sixteenth century. The language is archaic, some words being unfamiliar to my Hispanic friends and not found in at least the basic dictionaries. It concerns the shepherds in the biblical Christmas story and observes, among other things, the ‘one born today is actually his mother’s father and the one who created her is said to be her son.’ I learned the song from an early ’70s recording by New York Pro Musica.”

And who do you think was in them then?
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
And who do you think was in them then
But Joseph and his lady

He did whistle and she did sing
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
He did whistle and she did sing
On Christmas day in the morning

And all the bells on earth did ring
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
And all the bells on earth did ring
On Christmas day in the morning

And all the angels in heaven did sing
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
And all the angels in heaven did sing
On Christmas day in the morning

I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day in the morning

Album notes: “This is old and English. To me it’s one of the more peculiar and delightful visions expressed in the body of Christmas music. Are the three ships Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Are they camels, ships of the desert? Are they the product of an artist’s imagination? Was the artist consuming too much ergot in his daily bread?”

Oh, in that hall is a pallet-bed
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
‘Tis stained with blood like cardinal-red
Sing all good men for the new born baby

And at that pallet is a stone
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
On which the virgin did atone
Sing all good men for the new born baby

Under that hall is a gushing flood
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
– From Christ’s own side, ’tis water and blood
Sing all good men for the new born baby

Beside that bed a shrub-tree grows
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
Since he was born it blooms and blows
Sing all good men for the new born baby

Oh, on that bed a young squire sleeps
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
His wounds are sick and sick, he weeps
Sing all good men for the new born baby

Oh, hail yon hall where none can sin
Sing May Queen May sing Mary
‘Cause it’s gold outside and silver within
Sing all good men for the new born baby

Album notes: “If there were a contest for the title of spookiest Christmas carol, this ought to win hands down. Collected earlier in this century by John Jacob Niles, it hails from North Carolina. I believe it to be of great age, though, both because of the melodic style and because of the lyrics, which resonate with the Grail myth, and with the ancient custom of every few years draining the blood out of one’s king onto the soil to ensure its continuing fertility.”

Bergers, pour qui cette fête
Quel-est l’objet de tous ces chants?
Quel vainqueur, quelle conquête
Mérite ces cris triomphants?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Ils annoncent la naissance
Du Libérateur d’Israël,
Et, pleins de reconnaissance,
Chantent en ce jour solennel:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Translation:
Angels in our midst
Have intoned the anthem of the heavens
And this melodious song
Echoes from our mountains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Shepherds, for whom are these songs,
What is this celebration for?
Which conqueror, what conquest
Deserves these triumphant cries?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

They announce the birth
Of Israel’s liberator
And, full of gratitude,
This solemn day they sing:
Glory To God in the Highest (Gloria in excelsis Deo!)

Album notes: “This is a traditional French carol from the eighteenth century. The rhythmic groove is written right into it. Our treatment started out with the intention of trying to get close to the song’s roots, so I played it on the dulcimer, but somehow it acquired a kind of pan-ethnic overlay. These things will happen.”

While shepherds kept their watching
O’er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens
There shone a holy light

Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born

Shepherds feared and trembled
When low above the earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our saviour’s birth

Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born

Down in a lowly manger
The humble Christ was born
And God sent our salvation
That blessed Christmas morn

Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born

Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born

Album notes: “I have vivid memories of this old spiritual being sung with secular words and with unbearable earnestness by middle class kids in the ’60s, at marches, love-ins and weenie roasts. Fortunately, I more recently came across the version recorded by the gospel group The Swan Silvertones. As the power and beauty of the song poured through the speakers of my truck radio, I knew I had to make it part of the album.”

And all the silences of the night
Leap in song
Like that of a river cascading
from the wild mountain to the slow human plain

Gloria! Gloria in the highest!

A child’s cry sounds from far away
It’s almost day
And in the brown-air town away below
Three travelers reap a star harvest
and then go on their way again

Gloria! Gloria in the highest!
Gloria! Gloria in the highest!

released 1993

Album notes: ‘I wrote this one.’

Silent night
Holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories spring from heaven above
Heavenly hosts sing Hallelua
Christ the saviour is born
Christ the saviour is born

Silent night
Holy night
Son of god
Love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
Bring the God of redeeming grace
Jesus lord at thy birth
Jesus lord at thy birth

Album notes: “Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr wrote this. I think it’s one of the prettiest tunes ever composed. I loved it as a child and still do.”

Ayoki onki hm-ashe eran yayeh raunnaun
yauntaun kanntatya hm-deh ‘ndyaun sehnsatoa ronnyaun
Waria hnawakweh tond Yosehf sataunn haronnyaun
Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia

Asheh kaunnta horraskwa deh ha tirri gwames
Tishyaun ayau ha’ndeh ta aun hwa ashya a ha trreh
aundata:kwa Tishyaun yayaun yaun n-dehta
Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia

(instrumental)

Dau yishyeh sta atyaun errdautau ‘ndi Yisus
avwa tateh dn-deh Tishyaun stanshi teya wennyau
aha yaunna torrehntehn yataun katsyaun skehnn
Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia

Eyeh kwata tehnaunnte aheh kwashyehn ayehn
kiyeh kwanaun aukwayaun dehtsaun we ‘ndeh adeh
tarrya diskwann aunkwe yishyehr eya ke naun sta
Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia

TRANSLATION — “Jesus, He is Born”

Have courage, you who are human beings: Jesus, he is born
The okie spirit who enslaved us has fled
Don’t listen to him for he corrupts the spirits of our thoughts
Jesus, he is born

The okie spirits who live in the sky are coming with a message
They’re coming to say, “Rejoice!
Mary has given birth. Rejoice!”
Jesus, he is born

Three men of great authority have left for the place of his birth
Tiscient, the star appearing over the horizon leads them there
That star will walk first on the bath to guide them
Jesus, he is born

The star stopped not far from where Jesus was born
Having found the place it said,
“Come this way”
Jesus, he is born

As they entered and saw Jesus they praised his name
They oiled his scalp many times, anointing his head
with the oil of the sunflower
Jesus, he is born

They say, “Let us place his name in a position of honour
Let us act reverently towards him for he comes to show us mercy
It is the will of the spirits that you love us, Jesus,
and we wish that we may be adopted into your family
Jesus, he is born

Album notes: “Otherwise known as ‘The Huron Carol’, this is the first Canadian Christmas hymn. It was written early in the 1600s by the Jesuit Fr. Jean de Brebeuf, who acquired fame and martyrdom soon after when he was ceremonially barbecued by members of the Iroquois confederacy, who went on to virtually obliterate the Hurons and their culture. They were encouraged in this by British colonial interests who were after control of French claimed territory, much of which was traditionally Huron. Those of this latter tribe who survived the wars were mostly absorbed into Iroquois communities. A few, however, stayed with the French colonies. Their descendants inhabit a couple of villages in modern Quebec, but their language has largely been lost. Special thanks are due to John Steckley for his help as translator and pronunciation coach.”

In Bethlehem, in Jewry
This blessed babe was born
And layed within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
For which his mother Mary did nothing take in scorn.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy!

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed angel came
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same
How that in Bethlehem was born
The son of God by name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy!

Now to the Lord sing praises
All you within this place
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy!

Album notes:“This is another fine old English carol, for which I borrowed from the style of U.K. singer/guitarist Martin Carthy, who, better than anyone I’m aware of, has managed to incorporate the guitar into this type of English folk tradition in a robust and imaginative way.”

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wings
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Take heart for comfort, love, and hope
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing

For lo the days are hastening
by prophet bards fortold
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall o’er all the earth
Its ancient splendours lay
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing

Album notes: “The first of what seems to be becoming a series of Christmas radio concerts had me playing Woodstock, NY, in December of ’91. It happened that I was on tour at the time, and it happened that Sam Phillips was the opening act on most of that tour, so it was natural she should be a guest on the radio show. One of her contributions, performed with T-Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, was this arrangement of “Midnight Clear” which she had recorded for a film of that name. Her clever and simple device of shifting the song to a minor key enhanced the poignantly thoughtful words in a way that made me wish I’d thought of it. The next best thing was to sing it that way — so here it is.”

Where did she lay him (My Lord)
Where did she lay him (Oh My Lord)
Where did she lay him (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Laid him in a manger (My Lord)
Laid him in a manger (Oh My Lord)
Laid him in a manger (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

What did she name him? (My Lord)
What did she name him? (Oh My Lord)
What did she name him? (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Named him King Jesus (My Lord)
Named him King Jesus (Oh My Lord)
Named him King Jesus (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Who heard the singing? (My Lord)
Who heard the singing? (Oh My Lord)
Who heard the singing? (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Shepherds heard the singing (My Lord)
Shepherds heard the singing (Oh My Lord)
Shepherds heard the singing (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Star keeps shining (My Lord)
Star keeps shining (Oh My Lord)
Star keeps shining (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Moving in the elements (My Lord)
Moving in the elements (Oh My Lord)
Moving in the elements (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Jesus went to Egypt (My Lord)
Jesus went to Egypt (Oh My Lord)
Jesus went to Egypt (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Traveled on a donkey (My Lord)
Traveled on a donkey (Oh My Lord)
Traveled on a donkey (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Angels went around him (My Lord)
Angels went around him (Oh My Lord)
Angels went around him (My Lord)
The people keep coming but the train has gone

Album notes: “This call-and-response song appears to have originated on the South Carolina coastal island of Saint Helena in the last century. The verses follow a fairly predictable pattern till you get to ‘moving in the elements…'”

Album notes: “Whatever else you can say about George Frederick Handel–he really knew how to pack a tune with hooks!”

It’s not the laughter of the gloating rich
It’s not the laughter of the sacred bitch
It’s not the laughter of the macho fool
It’s not the laughter that obeys the rules
More of a chain saw in a velvet glove
You better listen for the laugh of love

It’s not the laughter of a child with toys
It’s not the laughter of the president’s boys
It’s not the laughter of the media king
This laughter doesn’t sell you anything
It’s the wind in the wings of a diving dove
You better listen for the laugh of love
Whatever else you might be thinking of
You better listen for the laugh of love

October 27, 1992 – Charlottesville, VA.

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Mickey Curry: drums
Colin Linden: slide guitar
Jerry Scheff: bass
Darrell Leonard: horn arrangement, trumpet
Christiaan Mostert: tenor saxophone
Greg Smith: baritone saxophone

Also On:
Anything Anywhere Anytime – 2002
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

2:19 freight train
Moaning somewhere near
I see you in the distance
But I can’t get there from here
Hard to believe it’s happening
But my whole world’s shrunken to
All the ways I want you

Stars look down and laugh at me
I ought to take a bow
Don’t have to tell them life’s hard sometimes
There’s one falling now
Nobody’s here beside me
I can talk about it to
All the ways I want you

December 11, 1991 – Atlanta, GA.

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: acoustic guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Mickey Curry: drums
Colin Linden: electric guitar and vocal
Jerry Scheff: bass
Greg Leisz: pedal steel

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

In my heart there’s a an image
Like looking through glass
Could be looking at me
Could be looking right past
I don’t like it when
I can’t tell which is true
But I wouldn’t trade the world
For that picture of you

Moon in the water
Cold light in the streets
Warmth in your fingers
Sweat in your sheets
Laid out like an offering
Where two currents meet
The river is dark
But the water is sweet

Wailing on the mountain
Smoke on the wind
Can’t drown out the whisper
Or the scent of your skin
Don’t know where it came from
But I know where it came
There’s a bone in my ear
Keeps singing your name

March 7, 1993 – Woodstock, NY.

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: charango and vocal
Richard Bell: accordian
T-Bone Burnett: drums
Christopher Parker: drums
Colin Linden: mandolin
Jerry Scheff: bass
Greg Leisz: pedal steel

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Chorus:

Could be the famine
Could be the feast
Could be the pusher
Could be the priest
Always ourselves we love the least
That’s the burden of the angel/beast

Birds of paradise — birds of prey
Here tomorrow, gone today
Cross my forehead, cross my palm
Don’t cross me or I’ll do you harm

[Chorus]

We go crying, we come laughing
Never understand the time we’re passing
Kill for money, die for love
Whatever was God thinking of?

[Chorus]

November 20, 1992 – Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: electric guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: Wurlitzer piano
T-Bone Burnett: organ
Christopher Parker: drums
Colin Linden: acoustic guitar, vocals
Jerry Scheff: bass

Something fell on Saskatchewan in 1885
Where is it now that we need it, in this century of jive?
The axe falls as if through water — never leaves a trace
And I’m scanning these crowds for some sign of your face

The world shot down love as a spy, once upon a time ago
Now people stand around here, like crows in the snow
Like the shadow of the rope on Louis Riel, they look so clean out of place
And I’m scanning these crowds for some sign of your face

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

November 22, 1992 – Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Mickey Curry: drums
Colin Linden: slide guitar, vocals
Jerry Scheff: bass
Darrell Leonard: horn arrangement, trumpet
Christiaan Mostert: tenor saxophone
Greg Smith: baritone saxophone

In the southland of the heart
Where night blooms perfume the breeze
Lie down
Take your rest with me

When thoughts you’ve tried to leave behind
Keep sniping from the dark
When the fire burns inside you but
You jump from every spark
When your heart’s beset by memories
You wish you’d never made
When the sun comes up an enemy
And nothing gives you shade

In the southland of the heart
Where the saints go lazily
Lie down
Take your rest with me

When the preacher lays his insight down
And claims to lead the blind
When those you trust just get you hooked
And trifle with your mind
When the nightmare’s creeping closer
And your wheels are in the mud
When everything’s ambiguous
Except the taste of blood

In the southland of the heart
There’s no question of degree
Lie down
Take your rest with me

In the southland of the heart
Everyone was always free
Lie down
Take your rest with me

April 19,1992 – Stouffville, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Benmont Tench: drums
Colin Linden: slide guitar, vocals
Jerry Scheff: bass
Greg Leisz: pedal steel
Darrell Leonard: horn arrangement, trumpet
Christiaan Mostert: tenor saxophone
Greg Smith: baritone saxophone

circa July 1992 & 2005

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn, guitar

Also On:
Speechless – 2005

Your voice breathed in my ear
Or on the telephone
All the tender things we’ve whispered
To keep from feeling alone
May they never come to be
Just cold gems set in memory
Of someone I used to love

This current flows between us
That will not be denied
You draw me in towards you
Like the moon pulls at the tide
May no shadow ever fall
That will make me have to call
You someone I used to love

February 29, 1992 – San Francisco, CA.

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: acoustic guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: accordian
T-Bone Burnett: organ
Mickey Curry: drums
Colin Linden: mandolin
Jerry Scheff: bass
Greg Leisz: pedal steel

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Some people get to fly by night
Some people get to shine a light
Everybody’s got to find their own way through
But if you love love, then love loves you too
But if you love love, then love loves you too

Some of us hunger for the finer things
Some lust for power like the ancient kings
Some have to leave behind everything they thought they knew
Some people don’t know how much trouble they can brew

Some take the burden of another’s pain
Some spend forever for a moment’s gain
Everybody’s got to find their own way through
But if you love love, then love loves you too
But if you love love, then love loves you too

May 30, 1992 – Bielefeld, Germany

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: electric guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Mickey Curry: drums
Colin Linden: acoustic guitar
Jerry Scheff: bass
Sam Phillips: vocal

April 24, 1989 – St. Louis

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn, guitar

Also On:
Speechless – 2005

Gone from mystery into mystery
Gone from daylight into night
Another step deeper into darkness
Closer to the light

Walked outside
Summer moon was nearly down
Mist on the fields
Holy stillness all around
Death’s no stranger
No stranger than the life I’ve seen
Still I cry
Still I begged to get you back again

Gone from mystery into mystery
Gone from daylight into night
Another step deeper into darkness
Closer to the light

September 16, 1992 – Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: acoustic guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ
Christopher Parker: drums, (percussion – not credited)
Colin Linden: electric guitar, vocal
Jerry Scheff: bass

Tie me at the crossroads when I die
Hang me in the wind ’til I get good and dry
And the kids that pass can scratch their heads
And say “who was that guy?”
Tie me at the crossroads when I die

Looking outward see what you can see
By the time you look at something it’s already history
As the echoes of our passing fade, all there is to say
Is, “You know I loved you all in my particular way”

Tie me at the crossroads when I die
Hang me in the wind ’til I get good and dry
And the kids that pass can scratch their heads
And say “who was that guy?”
Tie me at the crossroads when I die

It’s more blessed to give than it is to receive
Except when it comes to free advice I believe
Here I go anyway, back seat driving tonight
Move fast, stay cool, keep your eye on the front sight

Tie me at the crossroads when I die
Hang me in the wind ’til I get good and dry
And the kids that pass can scratch their heads
And say “who was that guy?”
Tie me at the crossroads when I die

January 14, 1992 – Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: electric guitar and vocal
Richard Bell: organ, vocal
Mickey Curry: drums, vocal
Colin Linden: acoustic guitar, vocal
Jerry Scheff: bass, vocal
Sam Phillips: vocal
T-Bone Burnett: vocal
Stephen Bruton: vocal

Also On:
Slice O Life – 2009

Night train

Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight
The moon is floating somewhere out at sea
I’m an island in the blur of noise and color
Alcatraz, St. Helena, Patmos and the Chateau D’If

Night train

And everyone’s an island edged with sand
A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand
Till the sea that binds us like the forced tide of a blood oath
Will wear it down – dissolve it – recombine it

Anyone can die here they do it every day
It doesn’t take much effort tho it goes against the grain
And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence
Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train

Night train

Ice cube in a dark drink shines like star light
Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair
And the mind’s eye tumbles out along the steel track
Fixing every shadow with its stare

Night train
Night train

And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares
And in the absence of compassion there is cancer
Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets
And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra

February 6, 1996 – Halton Hills

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Acoustic and Electric Guitar and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Percussion
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Jonatha Brooke and Patty Larkin: Vocals

Also On:
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang – and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else… Isn’t that just what secret police are all about???)

Somebody stands in a window
Watches the river roll
Trains rumble in the foreground
With the weight of approaching dawn

Flames from the refinery
Rise broken, red and riveting
And the high vault of heaven
Looks far away and cold

There’s howling in the factory yard
There’s pounding in my head
I’m swollen up with unshed tears
Bloated like the dead…

(Instrumental break)

Blood and ashes – time burning
On the skyline dark against the stars
A solitary horseman – waiting

Lashed to the wheel
Whipping into the storm
Get up, Jonah
It’s your time to be born

October 10, 1995 – Halton Hills

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic and Electric Guitar and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums
Gary Burton: Vibes
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Jonatha Brooke and Ani DiFranco: Vocals

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 – 2014

I’ve proven who I am so many times
The magnetic strip’s worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And every one was taken in
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It’s as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you’ll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can’t see what’s round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage
Pacing the cage

June 24, 1995 – Philadelphia.

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Acoustic Guitar and Vocal
Janice Powers: Keyboards
Rob Wasserman: Bass

Also On:
Anything Anytime Anywhere – 2002
Slice O Life – 2009
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 – 2014
Greatest Hits (1970-2020)

released 1996 & 2005

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Acoustic Guitar
Gary Burton: Vibes

Also On
Speechless – 2005

Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere
And knocks you off your feet
And look, see my tears
They fill the whole night sky
The whole night sky

Derailed and desperate
How did I get here?
Hanging from this high wire
By the tatters of my faith

Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere
And knocks you off your feet
And look, see my tears
They fill the whole night sky
The whole night sky

Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere
And knocks you sideways
And look, see my tears
They fill the whole night sky
The whole night sky

June 27, 1994 – Cologne

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Acoustic Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Percussion
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Bob Weir: Vocals
Colin Linden: Mandolin
Janice Powers: Low, Wiggly Keyboards
Bonny Raitt: Slide Guitar
Joe Macerollo: Accordion

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 & 8 – 2014

Hot breeze ran its fingers through the long grass of a thatched roof eave
They stuck me in the only chair they had while they cooked cassava
And a luckless hen
They asked for one well three lanterns and 200 litres of fuel and
I said, “Who, me?”
And the time for planting’s coming soon
And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains

In the town neon flickers in the ruins
Seven crows swoop past the luscious moon
If I had wings like those there’d be no waiting
I’d come panting to your door and slide like smoke into your room

All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields
And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea
It’s quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away

In my heart I hold your photograph
And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains

And the time for planting’s coming soon
And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains

September 11, 1995 – Quelimane

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Dobro and Electric Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Tambourine
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Gary Burton: Vibes
Maria Muldaur, Jonatha Brooke and Patty Larkin: Vocals

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 – 2014

Chorus:
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It’s now or not at all
Out on the road, it’s always instant get-to-know-you

Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well
Before the empty two office blocks
Which we’re admonished not to enter
Policeman studies us, finds us confusing
More amusing than threat
Moves on, bemused
Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell
Along the kingdom’s midnight marches
I wear my shadows where they’re harder to see
But they follow me everywhere
I guess that should tell me that I’m travelling toward light
I guess something you sang made me remember that
I guess I’m saying thanks for that
[Chorus]
[Instrumental Break]
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night
At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn
I only remember scenes, never the stories I live
The good things about that is, it’s easy to forgive
Can’t make assumptions about any of this
We’re nomads following our own songlines
Who knows what could strike before we meet again?
But if I fall down and die
Without saying goodbye
I give you this: you’ll have lost a friend
[Chorus]

July 8,1995 – Halton Hills

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic Guitar and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Gary Burton: Vibes

Also On:
You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance – 1997

There’s a wealth of amputation
Waiting in the ground
But no one can remember
Where they put it down
If you’re the child that finds it there
You will rise upon the sound
Of the mines of Mozambique

Some men rob the passersby
For a bit of cash to spend
Some men rob whole countries dry
And still get called their friend
And under the feeding frenzy
There’s a wound that will not mend
In the mines of Mozambique

Night, like peace,
Is a state of suspension
Tomorrow the heat will rise
And mist will hide the marshy fields
The mango and the cashew trees
Which only now they’re clearing brush from under.

Rusted husks of blown up trucks
Line the roadway north of town
Like passing through a sculpture gallery
War is the artist
But he’s sleeping now

And somebody will be peddling vials of penicillin stolen out of all the medical kits sent to the countryside.

And in the bare workshop they’ll be molding plastic into little prosthetic limbs
For the children of this artist
And for those who farm the soil that received
His bitter seed…

The all-night stragglers stagger home
Cocks begin to crow
And singing birds are starting up
Telling what they know
And after awhile the sun will come
And we’ll see what it will show
Of the mines of Mozambique

September 11, 1995 – Quelimane

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic and Electric Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Percussion
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Janice Powers: Mongolian keyboard thing
Jonatha Brook: Backup Vocals and Arrangement

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 – 2014

You’re the ocean ringing in my brain
You are my island ripe with cane
Catch the scent of strange flowers when you pass
Fluid motion like the wind in grass

It’s your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time

Light me like incense in the night
Light me like a candle burning bright
Light me like a searchlight in the sky
Time means nothing when I look in your eyes

It’s your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time

It’s your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time

circa January 1993 – Maui

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic and Electric Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Janice Powers: Keyboards
Gary Burton: Vibes
Jonatha Brook: Harmonies

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 5 – 2014

Car slows beside him as he walks
Hubcaps slow revolution
Jaundiced-looking pockmarked face, round in window
Short greasy black beard

Couple of language stabs, settle on English
“It’s cold – I give you ride.
Don’t you want to kiss me?”

This goes on halfway across the cobbled bridge
Driver pulls ahead – gets out by the construction fence
Ambles towards him rubbing the bulge in his pants

In his jacket is the revolver
The hand is already in the pocket for warmth and fingers slide easily around wood grips

Slow as that predator’s footsteps the gun comes out
Arm straightens, sight blade bisecting yellow forehead
Wind – blue metal streetlight – Faint twilight shining on the corners of stones.

Wave on wave of life
Like the great wide ocean’s roll
Haunting hands of memory
Pluck silver strands of soul
The damage and the dying done
The clarity of light
Gentle bows and glasses raised
To the charity of night

Slow revolution – 1985 – crosswise in a hammock in the hot volcanic hills
Its 3AM the night after the air raid
From the ridge she watched A37s, like ugly gulls,
Make a dozen swooping passes over some luckless town
Maybe ten kliks beyond the border
In the distance the Pacific glimmered silver

Now lascivious laughter floats on the darkness from the police post next door-
Male voices – and a woman’s –
Little clouds of desire painted around the edges with rum
In the muddy street a pig suddenly screams

Wave on wave of life
Like the great wide ocean’s roll
Haunting hands of memory
Pluck silver strands of soul
The damage and the dying done
The clarity of light
Gentle bows and glasses raised
To the charity of night

Pacific glimmers silver
Moon full over shadow mansion
West coast – Can’t say when
There is incense and the heat-driven scent of flowers

Tongue slides over soft skin
Love pounds in veins brains buzzing balls of lust
Fingers twine in wet hair
Limbs twist and roll

On the dresser wax drips in slow motion down the long side of
A black candle
Ecstatic halo of flame and pheromone-

Wave on wave of life
Like the great wide ocean’s roll
Haunting hands of memory
Pluck silver strands of soul
The damage and the dying done
The clarity of light
Gentle bows and glasses raised
To the charity of night

October 29, 1994 – Schenectady, NY

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Gary Burton: Vibes
Colin Linden: Mandolin
Joe Macerollo: Accordion

Also On:
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 1 – 2014

I’ve stood in airports guarded glass and chrome
Walked rifled roads and landmined loam
Seen a forest in flames right down to the road
Burned in love till I’ve seen my heart explode

You’ve been leading me
Beside strange waters

Across the concrete fields of man
Sun ray like a camera pans
Some will run and some will stand
Everything is bullshit but the open hand

You’ve been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

You’ve been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

November 7, 1995 – Halton Hills

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic and Electric Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Percussion
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Jonatha Brooke and Patty Larkin: Vocals

Also On:
You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance – 1997
Rumours OF Glory box set disc 6 – 2014