RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2014
PURCHASE: Amazon | True North
There are 9 cds in this box set which is a companion to Bruce’s memoir Rumours of Glory. There is also a DVD – Bruce Cockburn Live – The Slice O Life Tour filmed during 3 shows.
Songs are linked to original album for song lyrics.
DISC 1:
1. The Charity Of Night
2. If A Tree Falls
3. Man Of A Thousand Faces
4. One Day I Walk
5. Let Us Go Laughing
I could have set the sun in silver
And made for you a ring so fine
If we had grown together, babe
We might have made it to the sea-shore
And left this muddy river far behind
Ah, but I couldn’t find the key
That would unlock these chains of mine
And my songs were not complete enough to sing
I could only feel your music one line at a time
And there’s no chance for a bird without wings
If only I had read
The meaning that your eyes held
As they shone like diamonds burning in the dawn
But the raindrops in my own
Changed the colour of the sky
And I just sat and helplessly looked on
So I’ll go on worshipping my world of faded dreams
Though the church bells are of lead and will not ring
And to those who try to tell themselves I’m more than what I seem
I say, What good is a bird without wings?
7. Thoughts On A Rainy Afternoon
8. Sunwheel Dance
9. Foxglove
10. Going To The Country
11. It’s An Elephant World
12. You Don’t Have To Play The Horses
13. Creation Dream
14. Shining Mountain
15. Hills Of Morning
16. Change Your Mind
17. He Came From The Mountain
18. Musical Friends
DISC 2:
1. Fall
2. Blues Got The World
3. Mama Just Wants To Barrelhouse All Night Long
4. All The Diamonds In the World
5. Rouler Sa Bosse
6. Don’t Have To Tell You Why
7. Red Brother Red Sister
8. Gavin’s Woodpile
9. Stolen Land
10. Lord Of The Starfields
11. Silver Wheels
12. Little Sea Horse
13. Celestial Horses
14. Feast Of Fools
15. Can I Go With You
16. Wondering Where The Lions Are
DISC 3:
1. Incandescent Blue
2. How I Spent My Fall Vacation
3. What About The Bond
4. Fascist Architecture
5. Rumours Of Glory
6. You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance
7. All’s Quiet On The Inner City Front
8. Justice
9. Broken Wheel
10. The Trouble With Normal
11. Tropic Moon
12. If I Had A Rocket Launcher
13. Waiting For A Miracle
14. Dust & Diesel
15. Yangui Go Home
16. Nicaragua
DISC 4:
1. Peggy’s Kitchen Wall
2. Santiago Dawn
3. Maybe The Poet
4. Lover’s In A Dangerous Time
5. To Raise The Morning Star
6. People See Through You
7. Planet Of The Clowns
8. Berlin Tonight
9. Where The Death Squad Lives
10. Anything Can Happen
11. Call It Democracy
12. Gospel Of Bondage
13. Shipwrecked At The Stable Door
14. Radium Rain
15. Understanding Nothing
DISC 5:
1. Tibetan Side Of Town
2. Child Of The Wind
3. Great Big Love
4. One Of The Best Ones
5. Soul of A Man
6. Cry Of A Tiny Babe
7. Kit Carson
8. Indian Wars
9. A Dream Like Mine
10. Someone I Used To Love
11. All The Ways I Want You
12. Live On My Mind
13. Bone In My Ear
14. Listen For The Laugh
DISC 6:
1. The Mines Of Mozambique
2. The Coming Rains
3. Pacing The Cage
4. Night Train
5. The Whole Night Sky
6. Strange Waters
7. The Embers Of Eden
8. Get Up Jonah
9. When You Give It Away
10. Mango
11. Last Night Of The World
12. Use Me While You Can
13. Put It In Your Heart
DISC 7:
1. All Our Dark Tomorrows
2. Trickle Down
3. Postcards From Cambodia
4. You’ve Never Seen Everything
5. My Beat
6. Tried And Tested
7. Tell The Universe
8. This Is Baghdad
9. Mystery
10. Beautiful Creatures
11. The Light Goes On Forever
DISC 8:
RARE AND PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
1. Juan Carlos Theme (1:18)
Written in 2000
Musicians:
Keyboards: Janice Powers
Guitar: Bruce Cockburn
Production:
Produced Bruce Cockburn
Engineered Colin Linden
Recorded at Studio Pinhead Recorders, Toronto in 2000
Soundtrack from the film The Man We Called Juan Carlos.
2. Waterwalker (5:41)
No more careful stepping plans
Everything holds out its hand
Gonna hold you up and love you
Gonna hold you up and love you
Waterwalker
Water under, sky above
Creation as metaphor for love
Shed resistance like a worn out glove
Gonna hold you up and love you
Gonna hold you up and love you
Waterwalker
Got no power, got no fear
Anyone can do it can’t you hear
River crying loud and clear
Gonna hold you up and love you
Gonna hold you up and love you
Waterwalker
circa 1985
Musicians:
Hugh Marsh: Violin, Drum Programming
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Drum Programming, Vocal
Production
Produced by Bruce Cockburn and Hugh Marsh
“Waterwalker” is from the soundtrack album of film of the same name. Waterwalker is a film by and about Canadian canoist/artist Bill Mason featuring beautiful cinematography of the Great Lakes region. Bruce composed the title song and about 32 minutes of instrumental music with Hugh Marsh.
3. My Hometown Avalon (4:20)
Got to New York this mornin’, just about half-past nine
Hollerin’ one mornin’ in Avalon, couldn’t hardly keep from cryin’
Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
Pretty mama’s in Avalon, want me there all the time
When the train left Avalon, throwin’ kisses and wavin’ at me
When the train left Avalon, throwin’ kisses and wavin’ at me
Says, “Come back, daddy, stay right here with me”
Avalon’s a small town, have no great big range
Avalon’s a small town, have no great big range
Pretty mama’s in Avalon, they sure will spend your change
New York’s a good town but it’s not for mine
New York’s a good town but it’s not for mine
Goin’ back to Avalon, near where I have a pretty mama all the time
Written by Mississippi John Hurt
Note: These lyrics are from an online source not the Rumours of Glory Box Set liner notes
Musicians:
Janice Powers: Keyboard
Bruce Cockburn: 12-String Guitar, Harmonica, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn and Colin Linden
Engineered by Colin Linden
Recorded at Studio Pinhead Recorders, Toronto in 2001
Previously unreleased. Alternate version appears on the album Avalon Blues: A Tribute To The Music Of Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard 79582-2, 2001)
4. Wise Users (7:23)
When I see what you’ve done to the wild
I feel like a man standing over
The corpse of his murdered child
Use it wisely
Use it wisely … go on
Reap your harvest, Wise Users
‘Til everything is gone
Haul the last fish from the ocean
Poison the beds where they spawn
Drag the last tiger to market
So some prick can stand tall in Taiwan
Use it wisely
Use it wisely … go on
Reap your harvest, Wise Users
‘Til everything is gone
And if you lay drunk in your wasteland
I’d take your wallet and spit right in your eye
No point in explaining this action
You’ll never get it ’til the day that you die
Use it wisely
Use it wisely … go on
Reap your harvest, Wise Users
‘Til everything is gone
If I gave you a gun with one bullet
For the honor left so far behind
Would you think what you’ve willed to your offspring
For nothing unto nothing consigned
Use it wisely
Use it wisely … go on
Reap your harvest, Wise Users
‘Til everything is gone
And yes, I believe there is beauty
And yes, I believe in truth
And in the seemingly infinite hunger
Of humans for destroying them both
Use it wisely
Use it wisely … go on
Reap your harvest, Wise Users
‘Til everything is gone
Written 1996 — released 1996 & October 2014
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Guitar, Vocal
Hugh Marsh – Violin
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Engineered by Colin Linden
Recorded at Studio Pinhead Recorders, Toronto 1996
From the album Honor: A Benefit For The Honor The Earth Campaign (Daemon 19012-2, 1996)
5. Going Down The Road (3:31)
And his father’s father before
Fishing the banks and digging for coal
From the mines that don’t give no more ore
And I’m goin’ down the road, boys
Seeking what I’m owed, boys
And I know it must get better
If far enough I go
I remember the fishing boats returning so gay
Their nets with the silver cod blessed
But they couldn’t compete with the company fleets
Now it’s welfare, relief, or go west
So I’m goin’ down the road, boys
Seeking what I’m owed, boys
And I know it must get better
If far enough I go
I came to the city with the sun in my eyes
My mouth full of laughter and dreams
But all that I found was concrete and dust
And hard times sold in vending machines
So I’m goin’ down the road, boys
Seeking what I’m owed, boys
And I know it must get better
If far enough I go
‘Cause I’m goin’ down the road, boys
Seeking what I’m owed, boys
And I know it must get better
If far enough I go
recorded 1995
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn – Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Recorded at Studio Comfort Sound, Toronto in 1995
Demo recording by Bruce Cockburn, previously unreleased.
Originally appeared on the soundtrack of the 1970 film Goin’ Down The Road, directed by Donald Shebib.
6. The Whole Night Sky (3:51)
I made it too hard
Every place they touched me
Is a laceration now
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: Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Recorded at Studio Comfort Sound, Toronto in1995
Demo recording by Bruce Cockburn, previously unreleased Bruce Cockburn.
Final recorded version appears on the album The Charity Of Night (True North TNSD150, 1996). (Lyrics from this album)
7. Grinning Moon (5:46)
August 1995 – Halton Hills, ON
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Recorded at Studio Comfort Sound, Toronto in 1995
Demo recording by Bruce Cockburn, previously unreleased.
It glitters red
And the eagle’s spreading wings
They soar above
And the eyes of little dog
Are twinkling blue
And the shining snake is coiled up
Deep as love
And Orion’s song sung from so far away
Encoded in the dew and gleaming frost
Past where the clouds that clothe Andromeda
Float before the mouths of fishes paired
And turning five stars north of Great Bear’s paw
Set in the forehead of the Little Bear
The target of our flight is shining down
signaling the heart of everyone
1993 – 1995
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Engineered by John Naslen
Recorded at Studio Manta Sound, Toronto in 1993
Also On:
Previously released exclusively in Japan. From the album Mental Sound Sketches (Sony SRCL 2800, 1993), a tribute to Kenji Miyazawa.
9. Come Down Healing (6:07)
July 1995 – Halton Hills, ON
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Recorded at Studio Comfort Sound, Toronto in 1995
Demo recording by Bruce Cockburn, previously unreleased.
10. Mystery Walk (1:23)
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn
Engineered by Colin Linden
Previously unreleased. From the soundtrack of the 2001 film The Man We Called Juan Carlos, directed and produced by Heather MacAndrew and David Springbett for Asterisk Productions.
I’m happy where I am.
I don’t know where I am,
But the trains don’t go there anymore.
If you want to see me drop a line
I’ll catch it if I can
And give it back to you
And we won’t be lonely anymore,
Now can you see I’m sort of lost here?
With no idea where to go.
You know I’d send for you
But the trains don’t run here anymore.
No the trains don’t run here anymore.
This song was co-written by Bill Hawkins.
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: 12-string Guitar, Vocal
Anne Davison: Cello
Production:
Produced by Ian Tamblyn
Recorded at Studio Happy Rock Studio, Chelsea
From the album Dancing Alone: Songs Of William Hawkins (True North TND519, 2008)
12. Ribbon Of Darkness (3:27)
written by Gordon Lightfoot
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Colin Linden: Mandolin
Production:
Produced by Bruce Cockburn and Colin Linden
Engineered by Bob Lanois
Recorded at Studio The Shack, Ancaster
From the album Beautiful: A Tribute To Gordon Lightfoot (Borealis/Northern Blues BCDNBM500, 2003)
Written by Gordon Lightfoot
13. Turn Turn Turn (4:44)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time of love, a time of hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late
written by Pete Seeger
Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Steve Lucas: Bass
Ben Riley: Drums
Production:
Produced by Colin Linden
Engineered by Bob Lanois
Recorded at Grant Avenue Studio – Hamilton – 1998
From the album Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seeger
Appleseed 1024, 1998
Lyrics from an online source.
written by Mississippi Sheiks
Musicians:
Keith Lowe: Bass
Matt Chamberlain: Drums
Wayne Horvitz: Hammond Organ
William Carn: Trombone
Steve Dawson: Weissenborn, Electric Guitar
Bruce Cockburn: Guitar, Vocal
Backing Vocals: Alice Dawson, Steve Dawson, Wayne Horvitz, Daniel Keebler, Keith Lowe and Carrie Robinson
Production:
Produced by Steve Dawson
Engineered by Cameron Nicklaus, Steve Dawson and David Travers-Smith
Recorded at Studio Avast! Recording Co., Seattle; The Henhouse, Vancouver; Found Sound, Toronto
From the album Things About Comin’ My Way: A Tribute To The Music Of The Mississippi Sheiks (Black Hen BHCD0055, 2009)
DISC 9:
DVD Bruce Cockburn Live – The Slice O Life Tour
Directed by Joel Goldberg – Recorded May 15 – 17, 2008
Songs:
- Lovers In A Dangerous Time -x
- How I Spent My Fall Vacation -x
- Last Night of The World -x
- If I Had A Rocket Launcher -x
- Tokyo -+
- Tibetan Side Of Town -+
- The End Of All Rivers -+
- Going To The Country -*
- Pacing The Cage -*
- This Is Baghdad -*
- Stolen Land -*
- King Kong Goes To Tallahassee -x
- Child Of The Wind -x
- If A Tree Falls -x
- Wondering Where The Lions Are -x
- Mystery -x
- Put It In Your Heart -+
- World Of Wonders -+
- Wait No More -+
The shows recorded were:
x – The Iron Horse – Northhampton, MA
+ – Somerville Theatre – Boston,MA
* – Kulp Auditorium – Ithaca, NY
Some of this concert footage was also used in the documentary, Pacing the Cage.
Liner Notes by Nicholas Jennings
In his illuminating memoir, Rumours Of Glory, Bruce Cockburn writes: “My songs are influenced by what I read, where I travel and what I witness.” He adds: They’re not just about spirituality or “war, injustice and exploitation,” but “derive from life itself.”
If life is his inspiration, then Cockburn’s has certainly been rich, judging by the 117 songs in this box set. Written over nearly 50 years, with the earliest recording being 1966’s “Bird Without Wings,” they range from spiritual quests and romantic ballads to prickly protests and engaging travelogues drawn from first-hand experiences on five continents. Together, they form an enlightening audio companion to the memoir.
It’s fitting that the collection should open with “The Charity Of Night,” the title track from Cockburn’s 19th studio album. Although written in 1994, the song is one of his most reflective compositions, looking back over three different incidents in his life beginning with a disturbing encounter in Stockholm some 30 years earlier.
“Haunting hands of memory,” Cockburn sings in the chorus, “pluck silver strands of soul.” Few songwriters have plucked from their pasts so fearlessly, and with such “clarity of light.”
Having set the stage for a look back on Cockburn’s life in music, the collection – which was curated by the memoir and includes a bonus disc of rarities and a concert DVD of his 2008 Slice O Life tour – then presents the songs in the same order as they are mentioned or quoted in the book. Many of the tracks on the first disc reflect that period when Cockburn saw himself as “a spiritual loner who sought truth in nature.” There is plenty of searching in “Shining Mountain” and “Man Of A Thousand Faces,” while both “Creation Dream” and “Hills Of Morning” are expressions of the spirituality he had embraced by the late 1970s.
The turning point for Cockburn, as far as becoming a practicing Christian, is reflected in two key songs on the second disc. The first of them is the hymn-like “All The Diamonds In The World,” which Cockburn composed one night in 1973 after making his commitment to Christ. The other is the stirring “Lord Of The Starfields,” on which he sings “Universe Maker, here’s a song in your praise.” Both compositions rank among Cockburn’s best and the singer-songwriter himself admits that “Diamonds” has “stood the test of time” and may be “as good as I get.”
Cockburn’s songs of praise have always been accessible to non-Christian listeners because they expressed his personal faith, which favored an open spirituality over blind adherence to religion. Never one to pull his punches, Cockburn delivered a stinging indictment to fundamentalist Christians on “Gospel Of Bondage,” targeting their heavy-handed tactics at home and abroad. “God must be on the side of the side that’s right,” he sings, “and not the right that justifies itself in terms of might.”
Many of Cockburn’s strongest compositions have been those written after witnessing the conditions in the world’s most troubled countries. Those angry songs dealing with war, repression and environmental degradation, such as “If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” “Call It Democracy” and “If A Tree Falls,” are all included here. So, too, are hard-hitting but lesser-known numbers like “Radium Rain,” his bluesy response to the Chernobyl disaster, and “Where The Death Squad Lives,” an edgy rocker with the Honduran military in its sights.
“Music is my diary,” Cockburn explains in the memoir. His transcontinental travels led to a documentary style of writing, first employed in his swirling 1976 composition “Silver Wheels.” Like a foreign correspondent reporting from the front lines, Cockburn sent out journal-style entries in song about what he witnessed, either sung or spoken. These are heard in stark numbers such as “The Mines Of Mozambique,” “Postcards From Cambodia” and “This is Baghdad.”
But anger doesn’t fuel all of his travel songs. “Dust And Diesel” and “Waiting For A Miracle,” based on visits Cockburn made to Nicaragua, are gentle expressions of hope for a people struggling to chart a new course. And “Tibetan Side Of Town” offers striking observations about the cultural sights of Kathmandu during a night of drinking Nepalese tungba ale.
Love, along with spirituality and travel, also transformed Cockburn and has often figured in his songwriting. His relationships with women, he has admitted, helped to pry him loose from the “fascist architecture” he’d erected around himself that had made him a loner. Among the collection’s most romantic songs are the joyous “Great Big Love” and the sultry “Don’t Have To Tell You Why,” while “Mango” and “All The Ways I Want You” are both ripe with desire.
When Cockburn was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, he summed up his role as a songwriter with one succinct, eloquent sentence. “My job,” he said, “is to try and trap the spirit of things in the scratches of pen on paper, in the pulling of notes out of metal.” Just how well he has trapped the spirit can be heard in songs like the emotional “Cry Of A Tiny Babe,” his modern re-telling of the Christmas story, and “The Whole Night Sky,” a sweeping ballad in which Cockburn’s voice and Bonnie Raitt’s slide guitar exquisitely plumb the depths of heartbreak. Each has the power to trigger tears.
A starker version of “The Whole Night Sky,” featuring Cockburn alone on guitar and vocals, is one of the highlights of the collection’s rare and previously unreleased recordings. Among the other gems is Cockburn’s own version of “Bird Without Wings,” the song he wrote long before embarking on a solo career that the Canadian folk-rock group 3’s A Crowd recorded. The plaintive lyrics offer a telling confession: “I couldn’t find the key that would unlock these chains of mine/And my songs were not complete enough to sing.” It wouldn’t be long before all that changed.
Some of the songs on the bonus disc sound as relevant today as the day they were written. “Wise Users,” originally recorded for The Charity Of Night and previously only available on a 1996 Earth benefit album, takes to task those who would plunder the planet’s resources without regard for consequences. Cockburn’s rage is palpable as he sings, “Go on, reap your harvest…’til everything is gone.” And “Come Down Healing,” recorded in 1995 but never released, is a call for salvation in the face of such destruction. “Sometimes the road leads to dark places,” Cockburn warns, before adding, “sometimes the darkness is your friend” (that insightful lyric found its eventual home in his highly popular song “Pacing The Cage”).
Throughout his career, Cockburn’s songs have often featured the elements of light and dark to represent the forces of good and evil. “Tried And Tested,” like other material from 2003’s You’ve Never Seen Everything, made good use of that imagery. So, too, does “The Light Goes On Forever,” the 1980 song that closes the seventh disc. “Let me rest in the place of light,” Cockburn sings of his unwavering belief in the spirit. As he concludes in his memoir: “Whether that spirit gets discussed in Islamic, Jewish, Christian, or any other religious terms is not really material. It’s being awake to its presence that counts.” As this collection shows, few artists have been as open to the spirit – or able to convey it so well in song – as Cockburn. – Nicholas Jennings
