Bruce Cockburn -

Bruce Cockburn (born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Ottawa, best known for a long string of albums on the True North label, starting in 1970. His biggest hits include “Wondering Where the Lions Are” and the politically-charged “If I Had a Rocket Launcher.”

Background

He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of radiologist Doug Cockburn. The family resided in nearby Westboro, where Bruce took up guitar at age thirteen. After mastering a gold-star adorned acoustic that he salvaged from his grandmother’s attic, his parents bought him a Kat Archtop.

Cockburn learned piano and music theory from Westboro United Church organist Peter Hall, who encouraged the young musician’s interest in jazz. He attended Nepean High School, where he often played guitar in the hallway. After graduating in 1964, he busked for a time in Paris. That fall, he attended Boston’s Berklee School of Music, where he studied jazz composition. He dropped out after three semesters and joined his first band, The Children.

In early 1967, Cockburn joined the final lineup of Ottawa popsters The Esquires, which charted earlier with “So Many Other Boys.” That summer, he moved to Toronto and formed The Flying Circus with singer and bassist Neil Lillie. They cut a handful of demos (never released) before Lillie split for Los Angeles under a new name, Neil Merryweather. Flying Circus changed its name to Olivus and opened an April 2, 1968, date at the Paul Sauve Arena with Soft Machine and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

In the summer of 1968, Cockburn joined 3’s a Crowd, a veteran folk act with David Wiffen and Colleen Peterson. Cockburn contributed three songs to their lone album, Christopher’s Movie Matinee, released that year. He left the following spring to launch his solo career. In 1969, he headlined the Mariposa Folk Festival. Late that year, he signed with the newly established True North label.

Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn released his self-titled debut album in April 1970 on True North.

The album presents acoustic songs with light studio electronics, bass support, and selected piano. Cockburn performs on six-string guitar, twelve-string guitar, piano, and bass drum; bassist Dennis Pendrith supplies the main lower line. Michael Ferry adds tongue, and Eugene Martynec adds production electronics.

“Going To The Country” ambles on acoustic guitar and close vocal ease, with cows under trees, the long white road sign, grass, wind, and birds feeding a rural travel scene. “Thoughts On a Rainy Afternoon” settles into an inward hush, turning alley noise into trash-can bells and a prayer that Toronto not claim the song. “The Bicycle Trip” drifts through a surreal spoken-song ride, where gravel, katydid hum, and a parrot in boxing gloves tilt the countryside into private comic vision.

“Musical Friends” bounces on playful piano and light percussion, placing floor, wine, laughter and motion inside a small circle. “Man Of a Thousand Faces” slows into a prayer-like search, with dexterous acoustic lines beneath sea-window desire, garden trial, city towers, and the serpent’s crown.

A1. “Going to the Country” (3:10)
A2. “Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon” (3:42)
A3. “Together Alone” (2:42)
A4. “Bicycle Trip” (4:05)
A5. “13th Mountain” (4:45)

B1. “Musical Friends” (2:54)
B2. “Change Your Mind” (2:19)
B3. “Man of a Thousand Faces” (5:40)
B4. “Spring Song” (4:19)
B5. “Keep It Open” (1:40)

Cockburn recorded Bruce Cockburn at Eastern Sound in Toronto during December 1969 with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Bill Seddon. Meek-Cairo-Brown designed and illustrated the cover, and Tim Saunders supplied the photography.

The album yielded the Canadian AC entries “Going to the Country,” which reached No. 4, and “Musical Friends,” which reached No. 26.

High Winds White Sky

Bruce Cockburn released his second studio album, High Winds White Sky, in 1971 on True North.

High Winds White Sky expands the acoustic setting with dulcimer, mandolin, marimba, cymbals, gongs, and assorted tuned percussion. Martynec returns on second guitar, joined by mandolinist and banjoist Eric Nagler, percussionist Michael Craydon, and percussionist John Wyre.

“Happy Good Morning Blues” skips through ragtime accents and a mock horn break, with a balloon man, a trickster cat, and a policeman folded into its address. “Love Song” glides through a gentle minor-key setting, placing closed eyes, wind-sailing, and yellow grass inside an intimate romantic metaphor. “One Day I Walk” bends through slide-led country accents, while the lyric leaves the singer at a street corner, watching bootheels shine and speaking through borrowed voices.

“Golden Serpent Blues” coils around percussive piano figures as palm lines, honey, candlelight, and devil-banishing song define the woman at its center. “High Winds White Sky” threads plucked, Renaissance-tinged figures through wild birds, boats at the sea-mouth, the spider, and river-scented skin. “You Point To The Sky” chimes with bell-like picking and warm vocal placement, letting sky and sea images answer each other.

“Ting/The Cauldron” suspends hypnotic picked figures over marimba, gongs, and cymbals. “Shining Mountain” drones on dulcimer with ringing mandolin, ending in a mountain vision of fireflies, forest, and crags.

A1. “Happy Good Morning Blues” (2:39)
A2. “Let Us Go Laughing” (5:20) – begins on a canoe at evening, then moves from stars and moonlight into mortality, blessing, and release. “Bones of day” sets the scale early: the song treats nightfall as a rehearsal for human passing.
A3. “Love Song” (2:26)
A4. “One Day I Walk” (3:06)
A5. “Golden Serpent Blues” (3:33) – casts a woman as lover, comforter, and charm-bearer, with candlelight, honey, palm lines, and devil-banishing power around her. The phrase “drive away the devil” makes the attraction sound protective and occult, not just sexual.

B1. “High Winds White Sky” (3:01) – works through broken images of wind, birds, smoke, pyramids, river scent, ships, spiders, and falsehood, less as narrative than as elemental perception. “Falsehood lies panting” gives the lyric its hard moral edge amid the sky and weather images.
B2. “You Point to the Sky” (2:56)
B3. “Life’s Mistress” (3:24)
B4. “Ting/The Cauldron” (6:30)
B5. “Shining Mountain” (5:14) – follows a mountain ascent into a visionary dusk where sunset, valley, sea, fireflies, trees, and crags become signs of self-knowledge. “Drown in golden fire” turns the disappearing day into immersion, not scenery.

Cockburn recorded High Winds White Sky between November 1970 and April 1971 with producer Eugene Martynec. Henry Saskowski recorded the Thunder Sound material in Toronto, while Chris Skene recorded and mixed “Happy Good Morning Blues” and “Shining Mountain” at Eastern Sound.

“One Day I Walk” reached No. 64 on the Canadian singles chart.

Sunwheel Dance

Bruce Cockburn released his third studio album, Sunwheel Dance, in 1972 on True North.

Sunwheel Dance places Cockburn’s acoustic guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, harmonica, bottleneck guitar, piano, and electric guitar inside a chamber-sized acoustic group. Accordionist Trisha Cullen, violinist Ian Guenther, cellist Carol Marshall, jaw harp player Eric Nagler, bassist Dennis Pendrith, and drummer John Savage join the sessions. Martynec adds electric guitar to “Feet Fall on the Road” and piano with electronics to “Fall.”

“My Lady and My Lord” sways through a Renaissance-tinted acoustic pattern, routing ragged rooftops, dead lake shore, wind, rain, soot, and storm into devotional address. “Fall” lingers in a tranquil meadow scene, cloud pillars and sunrise inside the speaker’s walk. “Sunwheel Dance” turns fingerpicking into a breezy instrumental miniature. “Up On the Hillside” steps through a spirited blues turn, placing the shining cross, hungry dog, bigger Buicks, and costly nickel inside street-level witness.

“It’s Going Down Slow” plants anti-war text over piano and electric guitar, with Asia, pawn-loss, bloody firebrand, and warlike pride at the center. “When the Sun Falls” glides on mandolin-led romance, with bird-of-paradise wings and rain beside the beloved. “He Came From the Mountain” climbs through a hymn-like ascent, where wounded lowlands, melting snow, running water, and a distant gate shape the pilgrim image.

“Dialogue With the Devil” darkens around an ominous drone, passing from jewels and ashes to a final river image that resists the tempter. “For the Birds” closes as a communal singalong, with choral voices around blue jays and a golden crown against the sun.

A1. “My Lady and My Lord” (2:15)
A2. “Feet Fall on the Road” (2:41)
A3. “Fall” (2:58)
A4. “Sunwheel Dance” (1:42)
A5. “Up on the Hillside” (3:00)
A6. “Life Will Open” (4:06)

B1. “It’s Going Down Slow” (3:35)
B2. “When the Sun Falls” (2:28)
B3. “He Came from the Mountain” (3:12)
B4. “Dialogue With the Devil (or “Why Don’t We Celebrate”)” (6:20)
B5. “For the Birds” (2:14)

Cockburn recorded and mixed Sunwheel Dance between mid-September and mid-December 1971 at Thunder Sound in Toronto with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Bill Seddon. Bart Schoales handled the cover design and photography.

The album yielded the Canadian AC entries “It’s Going Down Slow,” which reached No. 12, and “Up on the Hillside,” which reached No. 21.

Night Vision

Bruce Cockburn released his fourth studio album, Night Vision, in 1973 on True North.

Night Vision narrows the ensemble around Cockburn’s guitars, banjo, and voice, with keyboards by Pat Godfrey, bass by Dennis Pendrith, and percussion by John Savage. The album places barrelhouse piano, instrumental passages, and extended acoustic forms beside shorter vocal pieces.

“You Don’t Have to Play the Horses” leans into the band’s gutsier side, with desert wait, Hanged Man secrecy, and soldier disease steering the prayer toward a road image. “The Blues Got the World…” sketches a quick wry travelogue through parliament, jail, tundra, Paris, Boston, preacher, pool shark, and washroom wall. “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long” slinks through theatrical saloon phrasing as city fire, TV preaching, Fay Wray, King Kong, and hologram images crowd the scene.

“Islands in a Black Sky” stretches a solitary acoustic guitar instrumental across the album’s darker field. “Clocks Don’t Bring Tomorrow, Knives Don’t Bring Good News” darkens through gospel-tinged piano, electric guitar, and a resigned vocal as rebel, policeman, and burnt-out street figure trade claims on tomorrow.

A1. “Foxglove” (1:29)
A2. “You Don’t Have to Play the Horses” (3:50)
A3. “The Blues Got the World” (1:51)
A4. “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long” (4:14)
A5. “Islands in a Black Sky” (7:37)

B1. “Clocks Don’t Bring Tomorrow – Knives Don’t Bring Good News” (6:49)
B2. “When the Sun Goes Nova” (2:42)
B3. “Déjà Vu” (5:36)
B4. “Lightstorm” (2:33)
B5. “God, Bless the Children” (4:18)

Cockburn recorded Night Vision at Thunder Sound in Toronto between February and May 1973 with co-producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Bill Seddon. The sessions followed rehearsals and pre-production at Tatsi in Toronto.

Night Vision features cover art adapted from Alex Colville’s 1954 painting Horse and Train. Bart Schoales supplied the inner photography and art direction.

Salt, Sun and Time

Bruce Cockburn released his fifth studio album, Salt, Sun and Time, in 1974 on True North.

Salt, Sun and Time uses a small ensemble built around Cockburn’s guitar and voice. Martynec adds guitar and synthesizer, while Jack Zaza contributes clarinet. The album includes one co-written title, “Seeds on the Wind.”

“All the Diamonds” settles into church-like chord movement and analogue shimmer as harbour grounding, gull-chased ship, silver scales, and shining vessel images turn conversion toward sea travel. “Salt, Sun and Time” threads a reflective solo acoustic guitar instrumental through northern-coast stillness. “Rouler sa Bosse” knocks about through a more worldly instrumental strain, with barrelhouse tinge set against the album’s spare acoustic scale.

A1. “All the Diamonds in the World” (2:41)
A2. “Salt, Sun and Time” (3:09)
A3. “Don’t Have to Tell You Why” (4:32)
A4. “Stained Glass” (3:12)
A5. “Rouler sa Bosse” [To Knock About the World] (3:47)

B1. “Never So Free” (3:57)
B2. “Seeds on the Wind” (7:00) – Cockburn, Martynec
B3. “It Won’t Be Long” (3:49)
B4. “Christmas Song” (3:52)

Cockburn recorded Salt, Sun and Time at Thunder Sound in Toronto between May and August 1974 with co-producers Bruce Anthony and Eugene Martynec. Bill Seddon engineered the album, while Leo De Carlo mixed “Salt, Sun and Time” and “Rouler sa Bosse” at Manta Sound.

Salt, Sun and Time appeared in a sleeve with art direction by San Murata, design by Wayne Lum, illustration by John Bicknell, photography by Lyle Wachovsky, and concept by Bob Fresco.

Joy Will Find a Way

Bruce Cockburn released his sixth studio album, Joy Will Find a Way, in 1975 on True North.

Joy Will Find a Way broadens the studio group with bass by Dennis Pendrith, drums by Terry Clarke, percussion by Dido Morris, keyboards by Pat Godfrey, and guitar by Martynec. Beverley Glenn-Copeland adds background vocals, with six additional voices on “Burn.”

“January in the Halifax Airport Lounge” waits over electric piano touches while jet thunder, smoke trails, and Cyprus-bound soldiers turn the love address toward outer-world crisis. “Joy Will Find a Way (A Song About Dying)” circles a hypnotic Indonesian-inspired arrangement around a death meditation, with memory, rising, falling, and change held in plain terms.

“Burn” sways with island-accented movement and stacked backing voices while a gunboat across the bay, bowed diplomats, and government denial sharpen the political charge. “Skylarking” darts through a concise instrumental guitar feature. “A Long-time Love Song” lingers on sentimental address, with broken conversation, blue shadow, thrush call, and sail image surrounding the promise.

A1. “Hand-Dancing” (4:30)
A2. “January in the Halifax Airport Lounge” (3:19)
A3. “Starwheel” (3:16) – Bruce Cockburn, Kitty Cockburn
A4. “Lament for the Last Days” (5:24)
A5. “Joy Will Find a Way (A Song About Dying)” (3:50)

B1. “Burn” (4:08)
B2. “Skylarking” (3:20)
B3. “A Long-Time Love Song” (4:41)
B4. “A Life Story” (6:16)
B5. “Arrows of Light” (4:55)

Cockburn recorded Joy Will Find a Way at Eastern Sound in Toronto during July and August 1975 with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Ken Friesen. Blair Drawson supplied the cover paintings, and Bart Schoales handled art direction.

In the Falling Dark

Bruce Cockburn released his seventh studio album, In the Falling Dark, in 1976 on True North.

In the Falling Dark adds flute, piccolo, flugelhorn, trumpet, and layered background voices to Cockburn’s guitar, dulcimer, and vocal parts. The group includes bassist Michael Donato, drummer Bob DiSalle, percussionist Bill Usher, flutist Kathryn Moses, percussionist Jørn Anderson, bassist Dennis Pendrith, and brass player Fred Stone.

“Lord of the Starfields” rises as a hymn-like praise piece, with nova, dew, storm cloud, and sun-fire images pressing devotion into cosmic scale. “Little Seahorse” lightens the album’s darker material with island-side motion, flute figures, and sunny percussion while the lyric addresses an unborn child through forge-fire, locomotive, and Lake Superior images. “Water Into Wine” pares the record to a solo acoustic figure.

“Silver Wheels” rolls as a road song with Fred Stone’s flugelhorn, and the lyric turns prairie highway drift into used trucks, dirty donuts, and radio-speaker gargle. “Giftbearer” threads a jazz-inflected instrumental through flute-and-trumpet interplay. “Gavin’s Woodpile” lingers in solitary voice-and-string austerity as the lyric moves from a bleak-eyed prisoner to English River poison and a government gambler’s table. “I’m Gonna Fly Some Day” lifts through an African-inflected gospel line with voices and horn placed inside its flight prayer.

A1. “Lord of the Starfields” (3:22) – is a compact hymn that addresses God through cosmic, weather, and creation images. The nova-and-dew line compresses vast scale and minute detail, so praise covers both stellar force and morning surface.
A2. “Vagabondage” (4:17) – treats drifting as landscape, cloud-shape, music, birth, circus motion, train travel, and expansion. The image of a train growing like the universe turns movement into a permanent condition, not a temporary journey.
A3. “In the Falling Dark” (4:50) – moves through urban dusk, sweat, oil, footsteps, smoke, and human crowd-light before it reaches a theological claim about shared grace. The line where hill-beasts cry over human waste turns the city’s evening life into a moral spectacle.
A4. “Little Sea Horse” (4:30)
A5. “Water Into Wine” (5:30)

B1. “Silver Wheels” (4:41) – turns highway travel into a moving industrial panorama: prairie road, construction steam, city edges, neon signs, radio noise, and planetary machinery pass in one continuous field. The final image of engines heard in “sidereal time” lifts the road scene into cosmic scale.
B2. “Giftbearer” (4:39)
B3. “Gavin’s Woodpile” (8:00) – begins in domestic labor, then opens into prison, mercury poisoning, Indigenous dispossession, government indifference, and a late spiritual hope. The steak-mouthed official who tells poisoned people to fish elsewhere gives the song its clearest political indictment.
B4. “I’m Gonna Fly Some Day” (4:02) – reduces spiritual readiness to one repeated vow and one condition: vigilance, prayer, and patience precede release. The non-title line says the flight depends on staying prepared, not on sudden escape.
B5. “Festival of Friends” (4:38) – frames death and separation as temporary, using social gathering language for Christian reunion. The palace-and-parlour line strips away culture and comfort first, then leaves fellowship as the durable promise.

Cockburn recorded In the Falling Dark at Eastern Sound in Toronto between September and November 1976 with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Ken Friesen. Arnaud Maggs supplied the front cover photo, Ted Grant supplied the back cover photo, and Bart Schoales handled art direction.

Circles in the Stream

Bruce Cockburn released his first live album, Circles in the Stream, in 1977 on True North.

Circles in the Stream captures the Massey Hall concert ensemble with bass by Robert Boucher, electric piano and marimba by Pat Godfrey, bagpipes by P.M. Doug Mackay, and percussion with voice by Bill Usher. Cockburn performs on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, dulcimer, and voice.

“The Pipes, The Pipes” opens the Massey Hall set with solo bagpipes and leads directly into “Starwheel,” where the full band enters with tight shared accents and bright percussion detail. “Never So Free” threads marimba through the song’s spare outdoor motion. “Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror” gives Cockburn a solo acoustic instrumental built from intricate fingerpicking and clear fretwork. “Homme Brûlant” stretches the concert’s jazz-touched side through bass-and-percussion interplay and an extended guitar solo while the French lyric turns city, river, and ocean images into a romantic burn.

“Free to Be” underpins its compact political statement with subtle marimba as Western Guard reference and self-love argument meet the group’s light rhythmic lift. “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long” strips the studio song to solo acoustic blues, tightening its barroom theatre around Cockburn’s vocal phrasing. “Cader Idris” settles into another solo acoustic feature, with fingerpicked lines carrying the Welsh-mountain instrumental. “Arrows of Light” brings out Cockburn’s dulcimer over conga, bass, and later keyboard entry.

“Love Song” receives a 15th-century instrumental prelude before the vocal address. “Lord of the Starfields” expands the hymn into a freeform jazz introduction, band interplay, and a guitar solo before the praise text takes shape. “All the Diamonds” returns to solo performance, with the church-like chord movement left bare around the harbour-and-sea prayer.

“Dialogue With the Devil” deepens through a subtle guitar effect and a longer solo, giving the older moral argument more stage tension. “Joy Will Find a Way” rides bass, marimba, percussion, and guitar in hypnotic motion, with Godfrey’s marimba solo at the center of the live arrangement. “God Bless the Children” closes the set with understated keyboard and percussion, holding the surreal Lewis-like text inside a restrained band finish.

A1. “The Pipes, the Pipes” (1:32)
A2. “Starwheel” (3:40) – from Joy Will Find a Way (1975)
A3. “Never So Free” (3:46) – from Salt, Sun and Time (1974)
A4. “Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror” (4:10) – new song
A5. “Homme Brûlant” [Burning Man] (6:05) – new song

B1. “Free to Be” (2:29) – new song
B2. “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long” (4:07) – from Night Vision (1973)
B3. “Cader Idris” (5:37) – new song
B4. “Arrows of Light” (4:03) – from Joy Will Find a Way (1975)

C1. “One Day I Walk” (3:16) – from High Winds White Sky (1971)
C2. “Love Song” (4:48) – from High Winds White Sky (1971)
C3. “Red Brother Red Sister” (3:54) – new song
C4. “Lord of the Starfields” (5:27) – from In the Falling Dark (1976)

D1. “All the Diamonds in the World” (2:32) – from Salt, Sun and Time (1974)
D2. “Dialogue With the Devil” (8:36) – from Sunwheel Dance (1972)
D3. “Joy Will Find a Way” (4:23) – from Joy Will Find a Way (1975)
D4. “God, Bless the Children” (4:03) – from Night Vision (1973)

Cockburn recorded Circles in the Stream at Massey Hall in Toronto on April 8 and April 9, 1977. Eugene Martynec produced the album, and Ken Friesen mixed the tapes at Eastern Sound in Toronto after Fedco handled the remote recording.

Circles in the Stream appeared in a sleeve with cover design and photography by Bart Schoales. Skip Dean supplied the inside photography, and Schoales handled art direction.

Further Adventures Of

Bruce Cockburn released his eighth studio album, Further Adventures Of, in 1978 on True North.

Further Adventures Of uses a compact group with drums and percussion by Bob DiSalle, electric guitar by Martynec, flute by Kathryn Moses, and bodhran by Martha Nagler. Background vocals appear across selected titles, including parts by Beverley Glenn-Copeland, Shingoose, Ronney Abramson, Marty Nagler, Brent Titcomb, and Tommy Graham.

“Rainfall” brightens through clear acoustic picking, flute, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s backing voice while rolling green, highway land, rainbow sign, and molten glass supply the lyric’s outdoor field. “A Montreal Song” drifts through warping low-end movement and city-café narration after TV war news sends the singer toward jukebox, coffee, and a ragged stranger’s story. “Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand” crackles with effected electric guitar as planets in the palm, sky smear, concrete, tribes, and black-hole calls turn the city into a cosmic pressure point.

“Prenons la Mer” sails on buoyant rhythmic motion, bilingual vocal phrasing, and a solo set against solar waves and spirits of light. “Red Ships Take Off in the Distance” pares the album to an instrumental acoustic-and-bass duet. “Laughter” canters with choir replies and skipping flute while New Jerusalem, nuclear “good-time boys,” dirty windows, and delivery-room waiting crowd the comic surface. “Bright Sky” answers through bodhrán and group voices as geese, falling bullets, and Noah’s Ark images pull the lyric upward.

“Feast of Fools” coils around snaking electric figures and Shingoose’s backing vocal while silent criers, faceless corporate kings, Harlequin, and river-end silence mark its conscience. “Can I Go With You” interweaves plucked and amplified figures with flute and backing voice as shining sky, angel shout, living water, and melting stars frame its final request. “Nanzen Ji” hushes into sparse harmonics and plaintive voice, with cooling wind, white stone lake, nightingale voices, pine-framed space, and a dog bark at the fade.

A1. “Rainfall” (3:49)
A2. “A Montreal Song” (4:07)
A3. “Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand” (4:57)
A4. “Prenons la Mer” [Let Us Take to the Sea] (2:38)
A5. “Red Ships Take Off in the Distance” (5:17)

B1. “Laughter” (3:39)
B2. “Bright Sky” (4:03)
B3. “Feast of Fools” (6:40)
B4. “Can I Go With You” (2:29)
B5. “Nanzen Ji” [Nanzen Temple] (6:43)

Cockburn recorded Further Adventures Of at Eastern Sound in Toronto during April and May 1978 with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Ken Friesen. Peter Holcomb assisted the sessions.

Further Adventures Of features album art by Bart Schoales for Harrison Vardley in Los Angeles. Fred Bird photographed the cover model in Toronto.

Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws

Bruce Cockburn released his ninth studio album, Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws, in 1979 on True North.

Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws places Cockburn’s guitar, chimes, synthesizer, and dulcimer beside a small rhythm group. Pat Godfrey adds piano, marimba, and background vocals; Robert Boucher plays bass; Bob DiSalle plays drums. Larry Silvera, Ben Bow, and Godfrey add the backing vocal layer on “Wondering Where the Lions Are.”

“Creation Dream” sways on shuffling marimba patterns as sea, sparks, wings, seabird cries, shooting stars, and shell-pink dawn carry the genesis vision. “Hills of Morning” lopes over a guitar figure while sulfur sky, waiting crowd, fraying rope, and dust around the approaching figure’s feet place the scene in first-century street life.

“Badlands Flashback” ripples through French vocal lines and a long fingerpicked solo, with seashell, ancient sea, bird cry, antelope, and flame images giving the text its desert memory. “After the Rain” darts through jazz-tinged double-time vocal phrasing as oily streets, gasoline sheen, humid wind, and unheard high music turn weather into revelation. “Wondering Where the Lions Are” relaxes against a Jamaican rhythm section while dream lions, petroglyphs, marching young men, and bay freighters set unease beside ecstasy.

“Incandescent Blue” tightens into urban vision, with a tunnel, roaring train, kung fu practice, grin masks, wall-hammering heads, and violin notes changing into white birds. “No Footprints” slows into meditative lover-prayer address as mist, mountain face, ash, dog’s feet, channels of words, and faint glow carry the departure.

A1. “Creation Dream” (4:00) – stages a visionary creation scene around a figure on the sea, with darkness, sparks, wings, seabird voices, flares, stars, and silver waves. The line where questions contain their own replies makes revelation self-answering before doctrine enters.
A2. “Hills of Morning” (4:25) – casts a spiritual encounter as street-level apocalypse: sulfur sky, uneasy people, a rope near breaking, and a glittering figure at the edge of normal sight. The line where dust moves around the figure’s feet turns recognition into a physical sign, with gold motes replacing doctrine.
A3. “Badlands Flashback” (6:12) – turns a white shell in the gravel into a sudden prehistoric vision: ancient sea, moving grasses, antelope, bird cry, and a dancer in the empty sky. The final flame-dance image makes memory less archaeological than ecstatic.
A4. “Northern Lights” (4:05) – follows a night drive out of town until the aurora interrupts the road, the mirrors, and the “jigsaw” traffic flow. The line about scars from mountains and divine love makes beauty an injury the singer chooses to carry.

B1. “After the Rain” (3:59) – places love inside a wet urban night of salt wind, gasoline sheen, engine throb, oil, glass, and cloud glare. The door-breaking image gives the revelation force: love enters as impact, not consolation.
B2. “Wondering Where the Lions Are” (3:42) – begins after a night of apocalyptic anxiety and turns the morning into survival, dream residue, eternity, and comic relief. The image of ancient petroglyphs reacting to a flying boat makes history, technology, and private vision meet in one absurd flash.
B3. “Incandescent Blue” (4:35) – moves through border-crossing, tunnel wait, kung-fu kids, apartment windows, social masks, and head-against-wall pressure. The violin line changes sound into birds, so art becomes the only clean ascent from the concrete scene.
B4. “No Footprints” (5:38) – moves from mountain mist and torn sky to ash, smoke, dog tracks, touch, love, and spiritual departure. The fading glow after passage gives the song its theology of presence: love leaves evidence, but not possession.

Cockburn recorded Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws at Manta Sound in Toronto during May and June 1979 with producer Eugene Martynec and engineer Gary Gray. Frank Kitson assisted the sessions.

Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws features cover painting by Norval Morrisseau and art direction by Bart Schoales. Christopher Dew supplied the inside photography.

True North issued “Wondering Where the Lions Are” as a 1980 single backed with “After the Rain.” The single reached No. 39 in Canada, No. 7 on the Canadian AC chart, No. 92 in Australia, and No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Humans

Bruce Cockburn released his tenth studio album, Humans, in 1980 on True North.

Humans adds electric keyboards, violin, reeds, synthesizer, and backing vocals to Cockburn’s guitar-led song settings. The core sessions feature bassist Dennis Pendrith, keyboardist Jon Goldsmith, violinist Hugh Marsh, synthesizer player Patricia Cullen, reed player Pat LaBarbera, and drummer Bob DiSalle. “Rumours of Glory” uses a separate group with bassist Tony Hibbert, keyboardist Bernie Pitters, drummer Ben Bow, percussionist Brian Leonard, and background singers Leroy Sibbles, Mickey Edwards, and Murray McLauchlan.

“Grim Travellers” broods over a dubby low-end figure and Fender Rhodes as mercenary imagery turns reportage into hard spiritual inventory. “Rumours of Glory” bounces on a low-end figure and closing chorus while scorched hand and storm-energy images place mystical force inside ordinary faces. “You Get Bigger as You Go” starts in plaintive breakup address and rises through guitar-and-violin interplay as window light and telephone snarl register the separation.

“What About the Bond” answers Cockburn’s lead with urgent group voices over organ and sax while the lyric tests marriage vows against failed speech and institutional collapse. “How I Spent My Fall Vacation” wanders through tense travelogue, with paramilitary barracks and a machine-pistol finger turning travel into watchfulness. “Guerrilla Betrayed” asserts a pointed political tone around LaBarbera’s sax solo as flags over factories and a fighter used by politicians define the betrayal.

“Tokyo” moves with vibrant city motion as river recovery and pachinko noise turn a witnessed accident into restless memory. “The Rose Above the Sky” gathers soft fingerpicking and keyboard wash into a larger finish as inherited sorrow and sea currents give the prayer its final reach.

A1. “Grim Travellers” (4:51)
A2. “Rumours of Glory” (3:38)
A3. “More Not More” (3:50)
A4. “You Get Bigger as You Go” (4:35)
A5. “What About the Bond” (4:55)

B1. “How I Spent My Fall Vacation” (5:10)
B2. “Guerilla Betrayed” (3:56)
B3. “Tokyo” (3:25)
B4. “Fascist Architecture” (2:37)
B5. “The Rose Above the Sky” (6:23)

Cockburn recorded Humans at Manta Sound in Toronto during July and August 1980 with engineer Gary Gray. Dave Taylor assisted the sessions, and George Marino mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York.

Humans appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Bart Schoales and photography by Roberto Masotti. “Tokyo” reached No. 44 in Canada and No. 36 on the Canadian AC chart, followed by “Rumours of Glory” on the Canadian AC chart and Billboard Bubbling Under.

Inner City Front

Bruce Cockburn released his eleventh studio album, Inner City Front, in 1981 on True North.

Inner City Front retains DiSalle, Pendrith, Goldsmith, and Hugh Marsh, with added percussion by Memo Acevedo and Dick Smith. Kathryn Moses adds reeds and background vocals, while Murray McLauchlan appears on “Wanna Go Walking.”

“You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance” prowls through jazz-tinged street cinema, with Chuckie in the alley and car-window rain marking romance as urban risk. “The Strong One” hums through slow brooding synth treatment as skyline blur and poisoned memory surround the helper figure. “All’s Quiet on the Inner City Front” watches kitchen-floor light, cigarette smoke, television panic, and billboard sailor calm from a rooftop edge. “Radio Shoes” skitters through a jazzy instrumental break from the album’s vocal street scenes.

“Wanna Go Walking” flashes as a crisp electric rocker while helicopter moon and fortune-teller doubt press romance into city glare. “And We Dance” glides with flute and bright motion as playing-card power gives the love scene its worldly pressure. “Justice” replies in languid offbeat motion while questions about faith, liberation, race, and peace sharpen the song’s conscience. “Broken Wheel” asserts its moral claim through children of slaves and bystander guilt. “Loner” recedes into moody separation, with empty hall and event-horizon eyes setting intimacy inside distance.

A1. “You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance” (4:19)
A2. “The Strong One” (6:03)
A3. “All’s Quiet on the Inner City Front” (5:27)
A4. “Radio Shoes” (4:16)
A5. “Wanna Go Walking” (2:53)

B1. “And We Dance” (4:45)
B2. “Justice” (4:49)
B3. “Broken Wheel” (4:39)
B4. “Loner” (7:38)

Cockburn recorded Inner City Front at Manta Sound in Toronto between April and June 1981. Gary Gray engineered the album, and Cockburn produced the sessions with associate producer Bernie Finkelstein.

Inner City Front appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Bart Schoales and back cover photography by George Whiteside. “You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance” reached No. 21 on the Canadian AC chart.

The Trouble With Normal

Bruce Cockburn released his twelfth studio album, The Trouble With Normal, in 1983 on True North.

The Trouble With Normal brings the early-eighties band setting into a sharper electric form. Cockburn records with drummer Bob DiSalle, keyboardist Jon Goldsmith, violinist and mandolinist Hugh Marsh, bassist and stick player Dennis Pendrith, and percussionist Dick Smith. Sharon Lee Williams, Shawne Jackson, and Colina Phillips add background vocals to “Put Our Hearts Together.”

“The Trouble With Normal” asserts call-and-response protest, with labour strikes and reservation poverty giving the group answers a strident edge. “Candy Man’s Gone” rolls on a huge melody as safe-home fantasy gives way to alley and senate. “Hoop Dancer” chants in spoken verse over violin, guitar, percussion, and extended solos, with prairie dancer and magnetic needle joining street clatter to deep time. “Waiting for the Moon” sways in laid-back Spanish-tinged tension as café elders and gunboats bring invasion fear into resort calm.

“Tropic Moon” broods through a taut political setting as wire mesh and gun barrels mark the war scene. “Going Up Against Chaos” coils through offbeat motion, searing violin, and discordant piano while lovers meet sirens and street fight. “Put Our Hearts Together” drives backing voices through a racial-unity appeal that names trade expansion and Grand Dragon power.

“Civilizations and Its Discontents” darts through syncopated urban unease, with bus-stop faces and newspaper blanket shaping the narrator’s lost state. “Planet of the Clowns” closes on moody moonlit imagery, with F16 surf and hunger camps holding beauty beside wreckage.

A1. “The Trouble With Normal” (3:35)
A2. “Candy Man’s Gone” (4:00)
A3. “Hoop Dancer” (7:48)
A4. “Waiting for the Moon” (4:22)
A5. “Tropic Moon” (4:38)

B1. “Going Up Against Chaos” (5:31)
B2. “Put Our Hearts Together” (3:25)
B3. “Civilization and Its Discontents” (4:16)
B4. “Planet of the Clowns” (3:47)

Cockburn recorded The Trouble With Normal at Manta Sound in Toronto between September 1982 and January 1983 with engineer Gary Gray. True North Productions produced the album, and Sterling Sound in New York mastered the record.

The Trouble With Normal appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Michael Wurstlin and photography by George Whiteside.

Stealing Fire

Bruce Cockburn released his thirteenth studio album, Stealing Fire, in 1984 on True North.

Stealing Fire centers on a five-piece studio band with keyboards by Jon Goldsmith, bass and stick by Fergus Marsh, drums by Miche Pouliot, and percussion by Chi Sharpe. Cockburn sings and plays guitar, with Goldsmith and Kerry Crawford as co-producers.

“Lovers in a Dangerous Time” surges over heavier low-end motion and nervous electric trim as fragile bodies and daylight struggle turn romance into survival pressure. “Maybe the Poet” bounds through upbeat choral backing and an R&B-leaning low-end figure while pentothal and lead sharpen the poet’s public function. “Sahara Gold” smolders from a flamenco-tinged opening into unsettled guitar detail as corner-bar music and high-rise laughter frame the romantic image.

“Making Contact” skips through syncopated island motion and choral backing as surf-dance impulse broadens the love lyric. “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall” bounces through jaunty reggae-leaning rhythm while broken glass and muddy police shoes leave the bullet hole unanswered. “To Raise the Morning Star” broods on chiming figures and soft percussion as sleepers and electric hair lift the dawn chant. “Nicaragua” settles into reflective observation, with the cliffside embassy and Monimbó ghosts setting political hope against war memory.

“If I Had a Rocket Launcher” drives an ominous electric pattern and hard synthesizer accents while helicopters and refugee testimony give the anger its factual core. “Dust and Diesel” recedes into road-notebook detail, where a traffic-directing girl with a .45 and moonlit rifles humanize the revolutionary morning.

A1. “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (4:06) – sets erotic immediacy against public dread, with bodies, grace, crime, fight, and apocalypse occupying the same emotional field. The remembered darkness-and-daylight line turns resistance into a physical act, not a slogan.
A2. “Maybe the Poet” (4:53) – Cockburn, Crawford, Goldsmith, Marsh; defends the poet as necessary whether despised, drugged, queer, female, disorderly, imprisoned, or killed. The pentothal-and-lead sequence makes repression futile: violence can silence the body, but not recall what has already entered public speech.
A3. “Sahara Gold” (4:31) – frames erotic night through bar music, barking dogs, Rembrandt light, half-moon stripes, musk, height, and laughter. The hair-as-desert-metal image gives the lover’s body the song’s central color and heat.
A4. “Making Contact” (3:46) – turns erotic touch into cosmic and marine communion, moving from stars and skin to surf, dance, and a single human field. The “sweet fresh oil” image grounds the metaphysics in body-surface before the lyric expands into sea and species.
A5. “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall” (3:42) – turns a domestic disturbance into a compressed crime scene, with broken glass, police, plaster, a .38 slug, neighbor suspicion, and porch laughter. “Everybody wears a halo” gives the neighborhood its moral dodge: everyone claims innocence while the bullet hole remains.

B1. “To Raise the Morning Star” (5:52) – Cockburn, Marsh; treats collective song as pre-dawn ignition, rising from sleeping town, electric air, and joined human difference. The line about lightning in “pregnant air” makes social awakening bodily and atmospheric before the chorus lifts it into ritual.
B2. “Nicaragua” (4:47) – moves through Managua as a political travelogue: embassy cliff, armed child veteran, bullet-scarred streets, laundry women, Sandino images, surveillance planes, and U.S. suspicion. The scar-and-heart line makes every damaged wall an index of private bereavement.
B3. “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (4:59) – he reports refugee-camp terror through helicopters, starvation, corpses, and survivor testimony, then admits his pacifist code has reached a breaking point. Regarding his own hypothetical use of a rocket launcher, he grows more salient with each refrain — “I’d make somebody pay… I would retaliate… I would not hesitate” — ending with the song’s most strident line: “Some son of a bitch would die.”
B4. “Dust and Diesel” (5:24) – follows a Nicaraguan road scene through packed buses, armed women, spilled corn, tarantula comedy, stranded soldiers, rifles, guitars, and revolutionary hope. The line where dust and fuel rise like incense makes the road itself an altar for ordinary survival.

Cockburn recorded Stealing Fire at Manta Sound in Toronto during March and April 1984 with engineer John Naslen. Ron Searles assisted the sessions.

Stealing Fire appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Bart Schoales, cover painting by Blair Drawson, and photography by George Whiteside.

True North lifted “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” as a 1984 single (b/w “Sahara Gold”), and Gold Mountain/A&M used the same pairing on the July 1984 US 7-inch. Cockburn wrote the lyric after he watched teenagers in a schoolyard and set the romantic image against Cold War dread; the single reached No. 24 in Canada, No. 8 on the Canadian AC chart, and No. 56 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

True North followed with “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” as a 1984 Canadian single (b/w “Maybe the Poet”). Gold Mountain/A&M issued the US 7-inch in November 1984 with “Nicaragua” on the reverse, while a US promo paired an edited version with a bleeped version. Gold Mountain reduced the 4:59 album track to a 3:59 single edit.

The “Rocket Launcher” video intercuts Cockburn performance footage with documentary images tied to the Guatemalan refugee crisis that produced the lyric. MTV rotation and Canadian radio play put the song before a wider audience, while some stations faded the track before the final profane line. The single became a public argument over witness, anger, and political violence; Cockburn later defined the lyric as a cry of outrage, not a call to arms.

“If I Had a Rocket Launcher” reached No. 49 in Canada, No. 88 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 16 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

World of Wonders

Bruce Cockburn released his fourteenth studio album, World of Wonders, in 1986 on True North.

World of Wonders extends the Goldsmith/Crawford production lineup with a larger instrumental palette. Marsh returns on bass and stick, joined by violinist Hugh Marsh, percussionist Chi Sharpe, drummer Michael Sloski, and brass player Michael Alan White. Judy Cade sings background vocals, with Sharon Lee Williams, Shawne Jackson, Colina Phillips, and Kerry Crawford on selected titles.

“Call It Democracy” surges through a strident single-ready drive as loan sharks, IMF debt, and loaded children fix the target. “Lily of the Midnight Sky” recites a portentous midnight vision through pipelines, crescent moon, and dog-mask devotion. “World of Wonders” swings through a jazzy bridge-crossing meditation as danger-sax image and arctic bloom hold awe beside unease. “Berlin Tonight” stretches a hard-edged European travelogue through checkpoint laughter and tank-convoy shadow.

“People See Through You” charges with hard quick momentum as covert action and cemetery tickets turn power into spectacle. “See How I Miss You” wraps backing voices around a city love address where secret police and a sequined-lizard dress fail to replace the absent lover. “Dancing in Paradise” layers group voices behind Jamaican reportage, with roadblock and price-rise detail cutting through the tourist surface.

A1. “Call It Democracy” (3:50)
A2. “Lily of the Midnight Sky” (4:44)
A3. “World of Wonders” (4:45)
A4. “Berlin Tonight” (7:05)

B1. “People See Through You” (3:44)
B2. “See How I Miss You” (4:01)
B3. “Santiago Dawn” (4:47)
B4. “Dancing in Paradise” (5:40)
B5. “Down Here Tonight” (3:54)

Cockburn recorded World of Wonders at Manta Sound in Toronto during October and November 1985 with producer Jon Goldsmith and engineer John Naslen. Mark Baldi assisted the sessions, and Bob Ludwig mastered the album at Masterdisk in New York.

World of Wonders appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Bart Schoales and photography by George Whiteside. “People See Through You” reached No. 37 in Canada and No. 4 on the Canadian AC chart, followed by “See How I Miss You” at No. 81 in Canada.

Big Circumstance

Bruce Cockburn released his fifteenth studio album, Big Circumstance, in 1988 on True North.

Big Circumstance retains the Goldsmith-centered studio group with stick and bass by Fergus Marsh and drums with percussion by Michael Sloski. Goldsmith adds keyboards and electric autoharp; Hugh Marsh adds violin; Myron Schultz adds clarinets. Judy Cade, Margaret O’Hara, and Mose Scarlett supply background vocals.

“If a Tree Falls” springs on a brisk tune beneath spoken-verse rainforest protest, with Sarawak, B.C. hills, and thinning ozone defining the damage. “Gospel of Bondage” sweetens its extremist critique with smooth backing voices as secret courts and selective Bible use expose the doctrine. “Don’t Feel Your Touch” sways gently through romantic ache, with newborn moon and acid-rain lake marking the separation.

“Tibetan Side of Town” wanders through a jazzy Kathmandu portrait, where rickshaws, bronze trumpets, and millet beer crowd the observer’s senses. “Understanding Nothing” murmurs in moody spoken verse as coppersmith hammer and temple memory overwhelm the observer. “Where the Death Squad Lives” lashes through strident quick motion while farm-family terror and system-fighting friends set the conscience argument.

“Radium Rain” grinds through bluesy post-Chernobyl dread as border trucks and rising newspaper numbers turn fallout into daily weather. “Pangs of Love” aches in acoustic-led romance, with mountain-town rain and sleepless rooms holding the address in place. “The Gift” lifts through swirling electric lines and rippling percussion as hallowed ground and commodity culture pull grace into the street. “Anything Can Happen” staggers through cabaret-like humor with woozy clarinet while viaduct fall and vigilante error turn mortality into deadpan inventory.

A1. “If a Tree Falls” (5:43)
A2. “Shipwrecked at the Stable Door” (3:38)
A3. “Gospel of Bondage” (5:45)
A4. “Don’t Feel Your Touch” (4:49)
A5. “Tibetan Side of Town” (6:59)

B1. “Understanding Nothing” (4:26)
B2. “Where the Death Squad Lives” (4:28)
B3. “Radium Rain” (9:22)
B4. “Pangs of Love” (5:18)
B5. “The Gift” (6:04)

Cockburn recorded Big Circumstance at Manta Sound in Toronto during July and August 1988 with producer Jon Goldsmith and engineer John Naslen. Mike Colomby assisted the sessions.

Big Circumstance appeared in a sleeve with art direction by Bart Schoales and photography by George Whiteside.

In 1989, “If a Tree Falls” reached No. 8 in Canada, No. 41 in Australia, and No. 20 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

“Don’t Feel Your Touch” reached No. 43 in Canada, and “Shipwrecked at the Stable Door” reached No. 92 in Canada and No. 22 on the Canadian AC chart.

Discography: