Dart To The Heart

It’s not the laughter of rain in the drain
It’s not the laughter of a man in pain
It’s not the laughter you can hide behind
It’s not the laughter of a frightened mind
Balanced on the brink only waiting for a shove
You better listen for the laugh of love

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)

The hills are full of secrets
Owls watch by night
Down in town the bars are full
And the drunks are picking fights
These are things I know
But the facts are filtered through
All the ways I want you

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

There’s a bone in my ear
Keeps singing your name
Sometimes it’s like pleasure
Sometimes it’s like pain
It’s a small voice and quiet
But I hear it plain
There’s a bone in my ear
Keeps singing your name

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

From the lying mirror to the movement of stars
Everybody’s looking for who they are
Those who know don’t have the words to tell
And the ones with the words don’t know too well

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

I was half asleep in the washroom when they came in
Eyes like moonlight on barbed wire and veins showing under the skin
The uniforms made me nervous, I got ready for the chase
But they left me scanning these crowds for some sign of your face

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

When the wild-eyed dogs of day to day
Come snapping at your heels
And there’s so much coming at you
That you don’t know how to feel
When they’ve taken all your money
And then come back for your clothes
When your hands are full of thorns
But you can’t quit groping for the rose

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

Instrumental

circa July 1992 & 2005

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn, guitar

Also On:
Speechless – 2005

All the days we’ve been together
All the days we’ve been apart
Add up to a bunch of nothing
If I’m not still in your heart
I never want you to be
Just a page in my history
Someone I used to love

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 make the news
Some people get to say what’s true
Everybody’s got to find their own way through
But if you love love, then love loves you too

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

Instrumental

April 24, 1989 – St. Louis

Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn, guitar

Also On:
Speechless – 2005

There you go
Swimming deeper into mystery
Here I remain
Only seeing where you used to be
Stared at the ceiling
‘Til my ears filled up with tears
Never got to know you
Suddenly you’re out of here

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