As I get older I find I get essential solace and renewal from music, especially music of the remarkable years from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, when we all thought we could save the world. One of my favourite musician-songwriters from that period is Ottawa’s Bruce Cockburn. A pilgrimmage to Le Hibou coffeehouse to see Bruce or one of the many other great folk artists and poets of the day was the Canadian equivalent of a trip to the Village to see Bob Dylan. In the early 1970s, Bruce was at the top of his form, turning out lyrics at once angry and poetic, underlined by rich, unique and challenging guitar riffs. He turned out two really exceptional albums, Joy Will Find a Way and In the Falling Dark that I think are among the best albums of their genre. If you’ve never heard his music, you can buy it here, and listen to some samples here. His poetry is exemplary in its own right, and I found his words and music immensely cathartic last week, a week of disheartening news, watching our society’s seemingly hopeless decline into endless violence, terror, retribution and rage. Here are the lyrics from three of his songs from the above two albums.
Gavin’s Woodpile Working out on Gavin’s woodpile And log slams on rough-hewn log I remember a bleak-eyed prisoner and I toss another log on Gavin’s woodpile I remember crackling embers And the stack of wood grows higher and higher And everywhere the free space fills Distant mountains, blue and liquid,
In the Falling Dark And the lights lie tumbled out like gems A million footsteps whispering Earthbound while everything expands Light pours from a million radiant lives
A Long-Time Love Song Can’t trace this conversation — And you know I long to feel that sail Time measured in summersaults
Oh, damn it, I’m crying again. Gotta get some sleep. Postscript: The image above is of a painting by Canadian artist Alex Colville entitled “Horse & Train”. Bruce used it as cover art for one of his albums and wrote “The horse seems to contain such energy, as if it were a charged particle of pure spirit. This sense of spirit, in confrontation with material power, is something any artist can relate to. A sense of impending doom, too, I think”. The painting hangs in the National Gallery of Canada. |
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You might really enjoy the streaming broadcast on hober.com – its mix of “unvarnished music” has been broadcasting for five years. The station is all music, tunes collected from the entire period of recorded music that sing from the heart of humanity. Although not aimed that way, a collection of great songs sung over a hundred years from the heart has a strong underlying message of peace and justice. A lot of people get comfort and inspiration from the music.
Thanks, Gregor. It’s on my bookmarks and I listed it once a few months ago on my Vectors & Tangents sidebar. It’s a great find.
Without addressing the specifics, the title “AND I’M LEFT TO CONCLUDE THERE’S NO HUMAN ANSWER NEAR” made me feel like submitting my imaginary “Paradigm Kicker” into the foray:Here’s my plan:All American Women (and men, if they want to) start wearing the Burka/Hijab:This idea is of course phantasy dashed with irony. I think to myself, for instance, all those celebrities of the Rodeo Drive/Hollywood elite claiming they don’t want to be recognized–how about the women in the entertainment industry starting a coalition where they wear Hijab or Burka as a statement of declaration of women’s (and religion at large) world inter-identity?…just an idea.And the Burka/Burque are so pretty — the little embroidered flowers around the forehead–the fitted crown, the exotic swirl of fabric–who’s to say which spark of action will prove to be the deciding specific to effect the paradigm shift of world ignorance to human intervention of man’s inhumanity. Women might have the answer; women have a power subjugated and untapped since the beginning of time. Something’s got to snap–and look out when a woman seriously snaps!Aloha,Donna from Hawaii
Wondering where the lions are… Bruce has been a big part of my life he sort of took over after Cat Stevens took up Islam as a full time gig. He got major airplay here in Portland during the mid seventies early eighties… Thanks for the memories
Humanity’s role in the Epic of Life is to be in the middle of the trilogy. We’re here to advance the story along and set the stage for the heroic conclusion, but that will have an all-new cast.Evolution took billions of years to set the stage for Intelligence and Technology, and we’ll use that to set conditions for Transcendence.What follows us may appreciate us, but we will never be one amongst them. Since we set the stage, how they care for us may depend greatly on how we care for Life.All life, down to every last microbe.Peace…
Bruce is pretty new to me but I’ve been soaking him up. I found him via Michael Hedges, who played a lot of him. Incidentally, I believe Hedges was one of the best guitarists of our age.