RELEASE DATE: 1977 / 2005
PURCHASE: iTunes | True North
* Bonus tracks on the remastered CD version released by Rounder Records in 2005.
1. The Pipes, The Pipes (1:32)
released 1977
Note: The album notes say this song – a solo bagpipe piece – is performed by Pipe Major Ray MacKay. The first part of the tune I don’t recognise but is probably a traditional Scottish pipe tune, the second part is “Scotland The Brave”. On the album, the song serves as an introduction to Starwheel.
2. Starwheel (3:40)
3. Never So Free (3:46)
released 1977
Quelque chose
Peut etre le vent
Ou l’ouverture d’une rose
Moi je suis en courant
En courant
La cite
Bouche-bee
Semble de boire
La voie lactee
Moi je suis un homme brûlant
Homme brulant
Et dans la lueur
Tu m’appele
Habillee
Des arcs en ciel
Et je brule
Chatoyaut
Vert de mer
Je deviens
Une riviere
Et toi
Tu es l’ocean que je cherche
Que je cherche.
TRANSLATION: “Burning Man”
They’re waiting
For something
Maybe the wind
Or the opening of a rose
Me, I’m flowing,
Flowing
The city
Open-mouthed
Seems to be drinking
The milky way
Me, I’m a burning man
Burning man
And in the glow
You call me
Dressed in
Rainbows
And I’m burning
Sparkling
Sea green
I become
A river
And you,
You are the ocean I’m seeking
I’m seeking.
March 8,1977 – Quebec
6. Free To Be (2:29)
Never know my place
Ine thing I am sure of
You can’t judge a man by his race
Birth don’t come easy
Freedom doesn’t come cheap
Rules and worlds get swept away
While you waste your time in sleep
Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to be
There’s music in the forest
Children laugh in the school yard
On the skid row of the spirit
Hear the ranting of the Western Guard
Why don’t you cool out
Can it be so hard
to love yourself without thinking
someone else holds a lower card
Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to be
Wired to the switchboard
Always on the move
Things we love to cling to
But there’s nothing we can prove
You can only deal with
What’s before your face
And the life you’re given’s no use at all
If you burn it up in hate
Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to beJanuary 30, 1977 – Burritt’s Rapids
Also On:
Waiting For A Miracle – 1987
7. Mama Just Want to Barrelhouse All Night Long (4:07)
8. Cader Idris (5:37)
released 1977
9. Arrows of Light (4:03)
10. One Day I Walk (3:16)
11. Love Song (4:48)
12. Red Brother Red Sister (3:54)
Saw your ancient bloom cut, pressed and dried
A sign said wasn’t it clever what they used to do
But it never did say how they died
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Went to Regina, red sister
Heard a cab driver say what he’d seen
“There’s a grand place to eat out on Number One
All white ladies if you know what I mean”
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Went to a pow wow, red brother
Felt the people’s love/joy flow around
It left me crying just thinking about it
How they used my saviour’s name to keep you down
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
July 26, 1976 – Burritt’s Rapids
Also On:
Mummy Dust – 1981
In The Falling Dark – 2002
Rumours Of Glory box set – disc 2 – 2014
13. Lord of the Starfields (5:27)
14. All the Diamonds (2:32)
15. Dialogue With the Devil (8:37)
16. Joy Will Find a Way (4:05)
17. God Bless the Children (4:50)
released 1977
Album Info:
Words and music by Bruce Cockburn except Starwheel words and music Bruce and Kitty Cockburn
Published by Golden Mountain Music Corp (SOCAN)
The musicians are:
Robert Boucher: bass
Pat Godfrey: electric piano, marimbas and vocals
P.M. Doug Mackay: bagpipes
Bill Usher: percussion and voice
Bruce Cockburn: acoustic and electric guitars, dulcimer, vocals
Recorded in concert at Massey Hall, Toronto April 8 + 9, 1977
House sound and stage monitoring by Westbury.
Remote recording: Fedco
Tour manager: Rob Bennett
Produced by Eugene Martynec for True North Productions
Mixed at Eastern Sound, Toronto
Engineer: Ken Friesen
Album cover/photo: Bart Schoales
Inside photograph: Skip Dean
Art direction: Bart Schoales
Restoration + Re-mastering: Peter J. Moore at the E Room
