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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
(CHORUS:)
When you've got a dream like mine Nobody can take you down When you've got a dream like mine Nobody can push you around Today I dream of how it used to be Things were different before The picture shifts to how it's going to be Balance restored When you know even for a moment That it's your time Then you can walk with the power Of a thousand generations (Chorus) Beautiful rocks beautiful grass Beautiful soil where they both combine Beautiful river covering sky Never thought of possession, but all this was mine When you know even for a moment That it's your time Then you can walk with the power Of a thousand generations (Chorus) |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
(CHORUS:)
When you've got a dream like mine Nobody can take you down When you've got a dream like mine Nobody can push you around Today I dream of how it used to be Things were different before The picture shifts to how it's going to be Balance restored When you know even for a moment That it's your time Then you can walk with the power Of a thousand generations (Chorus) Beautiful rocks beautiful grass Beautiful soil where they both combine Beautiful river covering sky Never thought of possession, but all this was mine When you know even for a moment That it's your time Then you can walk with the power Of a thousand generations (Chorus) |
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2:59 | 
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| from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
After the rain in the streets light flows like blood
I can just taste salt on the humid wind Here comes that gasoline Spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar I'm blown like smoke and blind as wind Except for when your love breaks in Maybe to those who love is given sight To pierce the wall of seeming night And know it pure beyond all imagining Engine throb street cruise light bullet car flash Hollow beauty night gleam oily river tension glass Ultraflame! Glittering dust falling in slow motion Clouds tumbling one over another into apparent emptiness It's like a big fist breaking down my door I never felt such a love before Maybe to those who love it's given to hear Music too high for the human ear And clear as hydrogen to go singing |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad
Other things can make you swear and curse When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble -- give a whistle And this'll help things turn out for the best, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life Life is quite absurd, and death's the final word We must always face the curtain with a bow Forget about your sin, give the audience a grin Enjoy it -- it's your last chance anyhow, so... Always look on the bright side of death Just before you draw your terminal breath Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true You can see it's all a show, keep 'em laughing as you go Just remember that the last laugh is on you, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life... |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Tomorrow may come, it usually does
Don't know what it will bring to the two of us I just want you to know What I'm ready to do Anything, anytime, anywhere For you When I'm holding you tight, you give me the power To burn like a torch in the darkest hour Tell me what you need I will surely come through Anything, anytime, anywhere For you Passion runs deep, it's scary sometimes When it's larger than life or your peace of mind It's got me all the same And I'm not sorry that's true Anything, anytime, anywhere For you Anything, anytime, anywhere For you Anything, anytime, anywhere For you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
There's a knot in my gut
As I gaze out today On the planes of the city All polychrome grey When the skin is peeled of it What is there to say? The beautiful creatures are going away Like a dam on a river My conscience is pressed By the weight of hard feelings Piled up in my breast The callous and vicious things Humans display The beautiful creatures are going away Why? Why? From the stones of the fortress To the shapes in the air To the ache in the spirit We label despair We create what destroys, Bind ourselves to betray The beautiful creatures are going away |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain Sparse streelamps glow in hot half-moon haze Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind We walk, talk some, laugh some Worked hard, now wired, and hanging out I'm curious what you might be all about Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do And you have no idea what you're getting out of of your own curiosity and tense energy Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve Wearing the role of young upstart Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well Before the empty two office blocks Which we're admonished not to enter Policeman studies us, finds us confusing More amusing than threat Moves on, bemused Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell Along the kingdom's midnight marches I wear my shadows where they're harder to see But they follow me everywhere I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light I guess something you sang made me remember that I guess I'm saying thanks for that Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn I only remember scenes, never the stories I live The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive Can't make assumptions about any of this We're nomads following our own songlines Who knows what could strike before we meet again? But if I fall down and die Without saying goodbye I give you this: you'll have lost a friend Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 g |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Way out on the rim of the galaxy
The gifts of the Lord lie torn Into whose charge the gifts were given Have made it a curse for so many to be born This is my trouble -- These were my fathers So how am I supposed to feel? Way out on the rim of the broken wheel Water of life is going to flow again Changed from the blood of heroes and knaves The word mercy's going to have a new meaning When we are judged by the children of our slaves No adult of sound mind Can be an innocent bystander Trial comes before truth's revealed Out here on the rim of the broken wheel You and me -- we are the break in the broken wheel Bleeding wound that will not heal Lord, spit on our eyes so we can see How to wake up from this tragedy Way out on the rim of the broken wheel Bleeding wound that will not heal Trial comes before truth's revealed So how am I supposed to feel? This is my trouble -- Can't be an innocent bystander In a world of pain and fire and steel Way out on the rim of the broken wheel |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
padded with power here they come
international loan sharks backed by the guns of market hungry military profiteers whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared with the blood of the poor who rob life of its quality who render rage a necessity by turning countries into labour camps modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom sinister cynical instrument who makes the gun into a sacrament -- the only response to the deification of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' idolatry of ideology north south east west kill the best and buy the rest it's just spend a buck to make a buck you don't really give a flying fuck about the people in misery IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt see the paid-off local bottom feeders passing themselves off as leaders kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows open for business like a cheap bordello and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy see the loaded eyes of the children too trying to make the best of it the way kids do one day you're going to rise from your habitual feast to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast they call the revolution IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
padded with power here they come
international loan sharks backed by the guns of market hungry military profiteers whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared with the blood of the poor who rob life of its quality who render rage a necessity by turning countries into labour camps modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom sinister cynical instrument who makes the gun into a sacrament -- the only response to the deification of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' idolatry of ideology north south east west kill the best and buy the rest it's just spend a buck to make a buck you don't really give a flying fuck about the people in misery IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt see the paid-off local bottom feeders passing themselves off as leaders kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows open for business like a cheap bordello and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy see the loaded eyes of the children too trying to make the best of it the way kids do one day you're going to rise from your habitual feast to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast they call the revolution IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
Here comes those silver celestial horses
Rays of the moon in the mountain air I'm steeped in the steam of the last wild hot spring Maybe I'm melting but I don't care There's darkness in the canyon But the Light comes pounding through For me and for you Tomorrow may be a hissing blowtorch Maybe a silken sky shaken by the wind The world's in the wake of those whispering horses But there's always a pillar of cloud on the valley's rim There's darkness in the canyon But the Light comes pounding through For me and for you Still river full of the depths of the candles Burning for the free ones riding on the other shore Even at the heart of these breathing shadows You can feel us gathering at the door There's darkness in the canyon But the Light comes pounding through For me and for you For me and for you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
I love the pounding of hooves
I love engines that roar I love the wild music of waves on the shore And the spiral perfection of a hawk when it soars Love my sweet woman down to the core There's roads and there's roads And they call, can't you hear it? Roads of the earth And roads of the spirit The best roads of all Are the ones that aren't certain One of those is where you'll find me Till they drop the big curtain Hear the wind moan In the bright diamond sky These mountains are waiting Brown-green and dry I'm too old for the term But I'll use it anyway I'll be a child of the wind Till the end of my days Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see Hear the wind moan In the bright diamond sky These mountains are waiting Brown-green and dry I'm too old for the term But I'll use it anyway I'll be a child of the wind Till the end of my days |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (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 nigh |
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7:30 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Mary grows a child without the help of a man
Joseph get upset because he doesn't understand Angel comes to Joseph in a powerful dream Says "God did this and you're part of his scheme" Joseph comes to Mary with his hat in his hand Says "forgive me I thought you'd been with some other man" She says "what if I had been - but I wasn't anyway and guess what I felt the baby kick today" Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption rips through the surface of time In the cry of a tiny babe The child is born in the fullness of time Three wise astrologers take note of the signs Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king Get pretty close to wrecking everything 'Cause the governing body of the whole land Is that of Herod, a paranoid man Who when he hears there's a baby born King of the Jews Sends death squads to kill all male children under two But that same bright angel warns the parents in a dream And they head out for the border and get away clean Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption rips through the surface of time In the cry of a tiny babe There are others who know about this miracle birth The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums And the message is clear if you've got ears to hear That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear It's a Christmas gift you don't have to buy There's a future shining in a baby's eyes Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
She said she wanted me
I had to let her know It was never meant to be And she had to let it go She was pissed and hurting but What was I supposed to do? I did not love her But it's different when it comes to you Lamentations everywhere All the covers turned to blue Desperation laid her bare She told me everything I could do She told herself a story that flat out wasn't true She made me feel sorry But it's different when it comes to you I don't want to go home tonight I wanna turn loose my lust I want you to squeeze me tight Do the things that we discussed I'll be my broken self The zero hidden from your view I don't usually do that But it's different when it comes to you I didn't know I could do that But it's different when it comes to you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
Amid the rumours and the expectations
and all the stories dreamt and lived Amid the clangour and the dislocation and things to fear and to forgive Don't forget about delight Y know what I'm saying to you Don't forget about delight Y know Amid the post-ironic postulating and the poets' pilfered rhymes Meaning feels like it's evaporating Out of sight and out of mind Don't forget about delight Y know what I'm saying to you Don't forget about delight Y know Though you find yourself alone and stranded with no friend to take your side On the endless road afoot and empty-handed where the wild-eyed Cossacks ride Don't forget about delight Y know what I'm saying to you Don't forget about delight Y know Spring birds peck among the pressed-down grasses Clouds like zeppelins cross the sky Anger drips and pools and then it passes And I say a prayer that I Don't forget about delight Y know what I'm saying to you Don't forget about delight Y know |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
Moon of plenty, moon of mischance
It'll be what you want but you can't stop the dance Try to count the steps and they change while you stare And the translucent moon floats in waves of blue air And we cry out for grace to lay truth bare The dance is the truth and it's everywhere Pas de deux in stark silhouette pulsing against a clear orange sunset As the distance shifts from skin unto skin Look at how bodies shape the spaces they're in See the limbs slide smooth through unresisting air The dance is the truth and it's everywhere In grains of sand and Galaxies In plasma flow and rain in trees In the sepia swell of silted-up surf In the ebb and the flow of dying and birth In wounded streets and whispered prayer The dance is the truth and it's everywhere |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers
It didn't take long - I don't know much about Turkish drummers - But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes Who'd been in the Afghan secret police Who made the observation That it's hard To live Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else... Isn't that just what secret police are all about???) Somebody stands in a window Watches the river roll Trains rumble in the foreground With the weight of approaching dawn Flames from the refinery Rise broken, red and riveting And the high vault of heaven Looks far away and cold There's howling in the factory yard There's pounding in my head I'm swollen up with unshed tears Bloated like the dead... (Instrumental break) Blood and ashes - time burning On the skyline dark against the stars A solitary horseman - waiting Lashed to the wheel Whipping into the storm Get up, Jonah It's your time to be born |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
She moves like a golden serpent all day long
Moves like a golden serpent all day long She lights the candle when the day is gone She likes to give me honey when I'm down She likes to give me honey when I'm down If I ever was a king y'know she was the crown She carries all the lines down in her palms She carries all the lines down in her palms She can drive away the devil with a song |
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5:11 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Evening sun slants across the road
Painting everything with gold I'm headed for home, got a woman there I can barely wait to hold Got wind in my hair, got the heat inside Heart jumping up and down An empty head and a messed-up bed I'll be floating just above the ground Great big love Sweeping across the sky Seen a lot of things in the world outside Some bad but some good stuff too Felt the touch of love in the works of God And now and then in what people do Never had a lot of faith in human beings But sometimes we manage to shine Like a light on a hill beaming out to space From somewhere hard to find Great big love Sweeping across the sky I ride and I shoot and I play guitar And I like my life just fine If you try to take one of these things from me Then you're no friend of mine Got a woman I love and she loves me And we live on a piece of land I never know quite how to measure these things But I guess I'm a happy man Great big love Sweeping across the sky |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
Good day to you
Fat balloon man May you always have air You sing a song everybody can believe Good day to you Uncle tom cat Out to trick the whole world You carry a tune for nobody but yourself Bonjour a toi Herr policeman May your boots always fit Someday you'll find a song you can believe Good morning good people The sun is long sailing The only clouds you see Are carried within Soon they'll be blown all away Wind's gonna rise and blow those clouds away Wind's gonna rise and blow your blues away Your sun's gonna shine in my back door some day ... |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
High winds
White sky Wild birds do glide Tattered smoke fades Embers in the pipe Move like Life beginning High winds Pyramids Glittering ring Blood of the king Daughter of the stars You are Life beginning The wind's travellers' tales tease the tops of the trees the ships have all sailed to the mouth of the sea... High winds Wheel turns The spider spins Hands draw us in River-scented skin Moves in Life beginning Falsehood lies panting like a fish in the palm... |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Rain forest
Mist and mystery Teeming green Green brain facing labotomy Climate control centre for the world Ancient cord of coexistence Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam - From Sarawak to Amazonas Costa Rica to mangy B.C. hills - Cortege rhythm of falling timber. What kind of currency grows in these new deserts, These brand new flood plains? If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear? If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear? Anybody hear the forest fall? Cut and move on Cut and move on Take out trees Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day Take out people who've lived with this for 100,000 years - Inject a billion burgers worth of beef - Grain eaters - methane dispensers. Through thinning ozone, Waves fall on wrinkled earth - Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars, Speak of a drowning - But this, this is something other. Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world Where wild things have to go To disappear Forever If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear? If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear? Anybody hear the forest fall? |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Here comes the helicopter second time today Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away How many kids they've murdered only God can say If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay
I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait To fall down from starvation or some less humane fate Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate I want to raise every voice at least I've got to try Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes. Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die |
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6:58 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Out in the desert where the wind never stops
A few simple people try to grow a few crops Trying to maintain a life and a home On land that was theirs before the Romans thought of Rome A few dozen survivors, ragged but proud With a few woolly sheep, under gathering cloud It's never been easy, or free from strife But the pulse of the land is the pulse of their life You thought it was over but it's just like before Will there never be an end to the Indian wars? It's not breech-loading rifles and wholesale slaughter It's kickbacks and thugs and diverted water Treaties get signed and the papers change hands But they might as well draft these agreements in sand Noble Savage on the cinema screen An Indian's good when he cannot be seen And the so-called white so-called race Digs for itself a pit of disgrace You thought it was over but it's just like before Will there never be an end to the Indian wars? |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007) | |||||
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4:12 |
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from Stanley, Son of Theodore: Yet Another Alternative Music Sampler (1996)
And the President said to Kit Carson: "Take my best four horsemen please And ride out to the four directions, Make my great lands barren for me" Kit Carson said to the President "You've made your offer sweet I'll accept this task you've set for me My fall's not yet complete" Kit Carson knew he had a job to do Like other jobs he had before He'd made the grade He learned to trade in famine, pestilence, and war Kit Carson was a hero to some With his poison and his flame But somewhere there's a restless ghost That used to bear his name |
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4:12 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
And the President said to Kit Carson: "Take my best four horsemen please And ride out to the four directions, Make my great lands barren for me" Kit Carson said to the President "You've made your offer sweet I'll accept this task you've set for me My fall's not yet complete" Kit Carson knew he had a job to do Like other jobs he had before He'd made the grade He learned to trade in famine, pestilence, and war Kit Carson was a hero to some With his poison and his flame But somewhere there's a restless ghost That used to bear his name |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
I'm sipping Flor De Cana* and lime juice, it's three a.m.
Blow a fruit fly off the rim of my glass The radio's playing Superchunk and the friends of Dean Martinez Midnight it was bike tires whacking the pot holes Milling humans' shivering energy glow Fusing the space between them with bar-throb bass and laughter If this were the last night of the world What would I do? What would I do that was different Unless it was champagne with you? I learned as a child not to trust in my body I've carried that burden through my life But there's a day when we all have to be pried loose If this were the last night of the world What would I do? What would I do that was different Unless it was champagne with you? I've seen the flame of hope among the hopeless And that was truly the biggest heartbreak of all That was the straw that broke me open If this were the last night of the world What would I do? What would I do that was different Unless it was champagne with you? |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
My canoe lies on the water
Evening holds the bones of day The sun like gold dust slips away One by one antique stars Herald the arrival of Their pale protectress moon Ragged branches vibrate Strummed by winds from o'er the hill Singing tales of ancient days Far and silent lightning Stirs the cauldron of the sky I turn my bow towards the shore As we grow out of stones On and on and on So we'll all go to bones On and on for many a year But let us go laughing -- O Let us go And may the holy hermit's staff On and on and on Guide you to the shortest path On and on for many a year And let us go laughing -- O Let us go Let us go laughing -- O Let us go |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
Bruce Cockburn
Life Short Call Now Billboards promise paradise And tattoos "done while you wait" Possible futures all laid out On the sweeping curve of the interstate Got no city, got no land Got no lover, got no wife How many ways to say goodbye Can one man fit in a nomad life? Life short-call now Lone car waves, then it wanes Leaves only voices in the hall And in the room next door to mine The bed is banging on the wall You've no idea how I long For even one loving caress For you to step into my heart Without deception or duress Life short-call now |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
She is passing in a warm breeze
Bars of light that cross the floor One smoke-gray, curled, tiny feather Skips aside By her middle hang the keys Made to open any door Even the one that lets in the cold wind From outside She lives in a house of colour Guarded by cats three in number And one great dog of gentle manner In among the trees Silence Carries No apprehension here In the warm sun By the window sill I can just sit still And watch her go by... Queen of field and forest pathway Understands the speech of stones She weaves peace upon her loom Life's mistress |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
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 |
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4:07 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
See you standing in the door against the dark
Fireflies around you like a crown of sparks You blow me a kiss that blurs my vision Blurs the human condition You're the ocean ringing in my brain You are my island ripe with cane Catch the scent of strange flowers when you pass Fluid motion like the wind in grass It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time Light me like incense in the night Light me like a candle burning bright Light me like a searchlight in the sky Time means nothing when I look in your eyes It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
In the place my wonder comes from
There I find you Your face shines in my sky In your heart where the world comes from There you will find me Your eyes dance in my mind Come with me We will sail on the wind We will sway among the yellow grass When you be beside me I am real Though my eyes be closed forever Still I would find you You shine across my time Come with me We will sail on the wind We will sway among the yellow grass When you be beside me I am real In the place my wonder comes from There I find you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by You never get to stop and open your eyes One day you're waiting for the sky to fall The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all When you're lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time
These fragile bodies of touch and taste This vibrant skin -- this hair like lace Spirits open to the thrust of grace Never a breath you can afford to waste When you're lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time When you're lovers in a dangerous time Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime -- But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight -- Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight When you're lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time And we're lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Maybe the poet is gay
But he'll be heard anyway Maybe the poet is drugged But he won't stay under the rug Maybe the voice of the spirit In which case you'd better hear it Maybe he's a woman Who can touch you where you're human Male female slave or free Peaceful or disorderly Maybe you and he will not agree But you need him to show you new ways to see Don't let the system fool you All it wants to do is rule you Pay attention to the poet You need him and you know it Put him up against the wall Shoot him up with pentothal Shoot him up with lead You won't call back what's been said Put him in the ground But one day you'll look around There'll be a face you don't know Voicing thoughts you've heard before Male female slave or free Peaceful or disorderly Maybe you and he will not agree But you need him to show you new ways to see Don't let the system fool you All it wants to do is rule you Pay attention to the poet You need him and you know it |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
In a horse-powered sleigh at the top of the town
Sun coming up paints the snow all around with rose light In front of the house where I'm supposed to be born I don't think I'm ready to walk through that door just yet To be one more voice in the human choir Rising like smoke from the mystical fire of the heart The wind that blows through everything Sweeps out the halls of my heart when I sing to you It carries the moon and the stars and the rain Carries the seagulls and carries my shame away Spins me around, stops me running away From all the things I've been waiting to say But don't Here Is bigger than you can imagine Now Is forever Sun coming up paints the snow all around Rose on the roofs and the trees and the ground And the stream In my dream Messenger wind swooping out of the sky Lights each tiny speck in my human kaleidoscope With hope |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Used to have a town but the factory moved away
Down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay Used to have a country but they sold it down the river Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder Mighty trucks of midnight Moving on Moving on Wave a flag, wave the bible, wave your sex or your business degree Whatever you want but don't wave that thing at me The tide of love can leave your prizes scattered But when you get to the bottom it's the only thing that matters Mighty trucks of midnight Moving on Moving on I believe it's a sin to try and make things last forever Everything that exists in time runs out of time some day Got to let go of the things that keep you tethered Take your place with grace and then be on your way |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
You can't tell me there is no mystery
Mystery Mystery You can't tell me there is no mystery It's everywhere I turn Moon over junk yard where the snow lies bright Snow lies bright Snow lies bright Moon over junk yard where the snow lies bright Can set my heart to burn Stood before the shaman, I saw star-strewn space Star-strewn space Star-strewn space Stood before the shaman, I saw star strewn space Behind the eye holes in his face Infinity always gives me vertigo Vertigo Vertigo Infinity always gives me vertigo And fills me up with grace I was built on a Friday and you can't fix me You can't fix me You can't fix me I was built on a Friday and you can't fix me Even so I've done okay So grab that last bottle full of gasoline Gasoline Gasoline Grab that last bottle full of gasoline Light a toast to yesterday And don't tell me there is no mystery Mystery Mystery And don't tell me there is no mystery It overflows my cup This feast of beauty can intoxicate Intoxicate Intoxicate This feast of beauty can intoxicate Just like the finest wine So all you stumblers who believe love rules Believe love rules Believe love rules Come all you stumblers who believe love rules Stand up and let it shine Stand up and let it shine |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze --
On the cliff the U.S. Embassy Frowns out over Managua like Dracula's tower. The kid who guards Fonseca's tomb Cradles a beat-up submachine gun -- At age fifteen he's a veteran of four years of war Proud to pay his dues He knows who turns the screws Baby face and old man's eyes Blue lagoon and flowering trees -- Bullet-packed masaya streets Full of the ghosts of the heroes of Monimbo Women of the town laundry Work and gossip and laugh at me -- They don't believe I'll ever send them the pictures I took. For every scar on a wall There's a hole in someone's heart Where a loved one's memory lives In the flash of this moment You're the best of what we are -- Don't let them stop you now Nicaragua Sandino in his tom mix hat Gazes from billboards and coins "Sandino vive en la lucha por la paz" Sandino of the shining dream Who stood up to the U.S. marines -- Now Washington panics at U2 shots of "Cuban-style" latrines In the flash of this moment You're the best of what we are -- Don't let them stop you now Nicaragua |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
Not a knife throw from here you can hear the night train passing
That's the sound somebody makes when they're getting away Leaving next week's hanging jury far behind them Prisoner only of the choices they have made Night Train... Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight The moon is floating somewhere out at sea On an island in the blur of noise and color Alcatraz, St. Alina, Patmos and the Chateau D'if Night Train... Night Train... And everyone's an island edged with sand A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand Till the sea that binds us like the forced tie of a blood oath Will wear it down, dissolve it, recombine it Anyone can die here they do it every day It doesn't take much effort though it goes against the grain And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair And the mind's eye tumbles out along the steel track Fixing every shadow with its stare Night Train... Night Train... And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares And in the absence of compassion there is cancer Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Not a knife throw from here you can hear the night train passing
That's the sound somebody makes when they're getting away Leaving next week's hanging jury far behind them Prisoner only of the choices they have made Night Train... Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight The moon is floating somewhere out at sea On an island in the blur of noise and color Alcatraz, St. Alina, Patmos and the Chateau D'if Night Train... Night Train... And everyone's an island edged with sand A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand Till the sea that binds us like the forced tie of a blood oath Will wear it down, dissolve it, recombine it Anyone can die here they do it every day It doesn't take much effort though it goes against the grain And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair And the mind's eye tumbles out along the steel track Fixing every shadow with its stare Night Train... Night Train... And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares And in the absence of compassion there is cancer Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
Oh I have been a beggar
And shall be one again And few the ones with help to lend Within the world of men One day I walk in flowers one day I walk on stones Today I walk in hours One day I shall be home I have sat on the street corner And watched the bootheels shine And cried out glad and cried out sad With every voice but mine One day I walk in flowers one day I walk on stones Today I walk in hours One day I shall be home One day I shall be home |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Guess I'd get along without you
If I had no choice It's taken me this long to find you Done a lot of getting ready for this Some things we learn so slow But look at you, you've got plenty behind you There's lots of ways to hit the ground Not many answers to be found We're faced with mysteries profound And this is one of the best ones There are eight million mysteries In the naked body Can't even sight on some distant horizon Like the nine billion names of God Don't bring you any closer To anyone you can simply set eyes on But in the same way it's as real Don't always recognize what I feel But of the dancing scenes that life reveals This is one of the best ones Say what you will There's no snake oil or pill Can make love less painful or fine There's no theatre Even of the absurd Can express what goes on in this meeting of hearts and minds Guess I'd get along without you If I had no choice But please never make it so I have to Paid a lot of dues to get here And after all this life I'm a loser if I don't live with you There's lots of ways to hit the ground Not many answers to be found We're faced with mysteries profound And this is one of the best ones |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
I never live with balance
I always wake up nervous Light comes at me sideways I hold my breath forever I never live with balance Though I've always liked the notion I feel that endless hunger For energy and motion Open Open Open I never live with balance I wanna feel you near me There's an aching in my hipbone Wanna let my heart drop open It's daylight in the city There's thumping in the stairwell Kundalini sunrise A clamoring of church bells Open Open Open You like to let me worry But I don't take you for granted Come over here and kiss me I'm savoring your picture The street is filled with noises Life going up and down Light comes at you sideways Enfolds you like a gown Open Open Open Open Open Open |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword No matter how I squint I cannot Make out what it's pointing toward Sometimes you feel like you live too long Days drip slowly on the page You catch yourself Pacing the cage I've proven who I am so many times The magnetic strip's worn thin And each time I was someone else And every one was taken in Hours chatter in high places Stir up eddies in the dust of rage Set me to pacing the cage I never knew what you all wanted So I gave you everything All that I could pillage All the spells that I could sing It's as if the thing were written In the constitution of the age Sooner or later you'll wind up Pacing the cage Sometimes the best map will not guide you You can't see what's round the bend Sometimes the road leads through dark places Sometimes the darkness is your friend Today these eyes scan bleached-out land For the coming of the outbound stage. Pacing the cage. Pacing the cage. |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword No matter how I squint I cannot Make out what it's pointing toward Sometimes you feel like you live too long Days drip slowly on the page You catch yourself Pacing the cage I've proven who I am so many times The magnetic strip's worn thin And each time I was someone else And every one was taken in Hours chatter in high places Stir up eddies in the dust of rage Set me to pacing the cage I never knew what you all wanted So I gave you everything All that I could pillage All the spells that I could sing It's as if the thing were written In the constitution of the age Sooner or later you'll wind up Pacing the cage Sometimes the best map will not guide you You can't see what's round the bend Sometimes the road leads through dark places Sometimes the darkness is your friend Today these eyes scan bleached-out land For the coming of the outbound stage. Pacing the cage. Pacing the cage. |
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from Bruce Cockburn - You`Ve Never (2005)
As I stare into the flames
filled up with feelings I can't name Images of life appear -- regret and anger, love and fear Dark things drift across the screen of mine behind whose veil are seen love's ferocious eyes, and clear the words come flying to my ear Go on -- put it in your heart -- Put it in your heart Terrible deeds done in the name of tunnel vision and fear of change surely are expressions of a soul that's turned its back on love All the sirens all the tongues The song of air in every lung Heaven's perfect alchemy put me with you and you with me Come on -- put that in your heart Come on, put it in your heart All the sirens all the tongues The song of air in every lung Heaven's perfect alchemy Put me with you and you with me Come on, put it in your heart Come on, put it in your heart |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Above the dark town
After the sun's gone down Two vapour trails cross the sky Catching the day's last slow goodbye Black skyline looks rich as velvet Something is shining Like gold but better Rumours of glory Smiles mixed with curses The crowd disperses About whom no details are known Each one alone yet not alone Behind the pain/fear Etched on the faces Something is shining Like gold but better Rumours of glory You see the extremes Of what humans can be? In that distance some tension's born Energy surging like a storm You plunge your hand in And draw it back scorched Beneath it's shining like Gold but better Rumours of glory |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 faceThough 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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Rays of the moon make magic in the streets of the city
All the people get strange but their faces look so pretty The walking graffiti, survivalist bums Even the secret police shout that you're the one See how I miss you Every psychopath gets his own magazine these days I just read about how I can kill in a hundred ways But I don't want to cause anybody pain I only want to hold you in my arms again See how I miss you I watch this woman in a tight sequined lizard dress -- Tosses her scarlet hair like a sly caress She got midnight voice like some beckoning saint She got something special but you she ain't See how I miss you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
Met a mercenary once
Pushing lethal steel Wanted me to watch his back While he did his deal He must have been a loser Or he wouldn't have looked to me But I have to say, I liked the thought Of living that guilt-free Watching the way the women walk Makes me think of you And all my sins and all my stalkers Affect me that way too The pain on the horizon Can't sink me in sorrow 'Cause I know I'm going to be Seeing you tomorrow O--see you tomorrow See you tomorrow See you tomorrow Look at that big fat full moon Hanging in the night When I feel it calling me The shackles seem to bite These chains of flesh are sour and sweet But these we must explore, oh I know I'm going to feel complete When I see you tomorrow O--see you tomorrow See you tomorrow See you tomorrow |
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from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997)
I went up on the mountain side
To see what I could see To see what I could be On the shining mountain I watched the day go down in fire And sink in the valley And sink into the sea Drown in golden fire Fireflies danced in the forest night The trees began to sing The crags began to sing Above the black forest I went up on the mountain side To know what I did know To know whence I did know On the crowning mountain |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
High speed drift on a prairie road
Hot tires sing like a string being bowed Sudden town rears up then explodes Fragments resolve into white line code Whirl on silver wheels Black earth energy receptor fields Undulate under a grey cloud shield We outrun a river colour brick red mud That cleaves apart hills soil rich as blood Highway squeeze in construction steam Stop caution hard hat yellow insect machines Silver steel towers stalk rolling land Toward distant stacks that shout "Feed on demand" 100 miles later the sky has changed Urban anticipation -- we get 4 lanes Red orange furnace sphere notches down Throws up silhouette skyline in brown Sundogs flare on windshield glass Sudden swoop skyward iron horse overpass Pass a man walking like the man in the moon Walking like his head's full of irish fiddle tunes The skin around every city looks the same Miles of flat neon spelling well-known names USED TRUCKS DIRTY DONUTS YOU YOU'RE THE ONE Fat wheeled cars squeal into the sun Radio speakers gargle top 40 trash Muzak soundtrack to slow collapse Planet engines pulsate in sidereal time If you listen close you can hear the whine |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
L ron N ron every kind of ron con
Neocon old con got to put the brakes on Slow down fast Lights out veins plugged zap it with another drug Genejacker pharma thug say hello to superbug Slow down fast Shills and hawkers and rockers with walkers Bombs in the lockers and brain dead mockers Slow down fast One-eyed sun leering through the haze Hordes of loveless marching while the little drummer plays Nail in the coffin rats in the maze Dancing arm in arm towards the looming end of days Got to slow down Oil wars water wars tv propaganda whores Fire alarm met with snores no one gets what' gone before Slow down fast Flagwave hammer slave gonna be a close shave Stay brave jump the grave got to save what we can save Slow down fast Got to slow down fast Slow down fast CSIS won't you tell me what you've got on me? |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
Somebody touched me
Making everything new Somebody touched me I didn't know what to do Burned through my life Like a bolt from the blue Somebody touched me I know it was you Somebody touched me Deep in my bones Turned a key in the hole There was somebody home Some would say that I'm dreaming But I swear that it's true Somebody touched me I know it was you Somebody touched me Like the rain on the wind Left me alone Feeling like I'd been skinned But I know you're with me Whatever I go through Somebody touched me I know it was you |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Nothing But A Burning Ligpt (2003)
I'm going to ask the question
Please answer if you can Is there anybody's children can tell me What is the soul of a man? (CHORUS:) Won't somebody tell me Answer if you can Won't somebody tell me Tell me what is the soul of a man? I've travelled different countries Travelled to the furthest lands Couldn't find nobody could tell me What is the soul of a man (Chorus) I saw a crowd stand talking I just came up in time Was teaching the lawyers and the doctors That a man ain't nothing but his mind (Chorus) I read the Bible often I try to read it right As far as I can understand It's nothing but a burning light (Chorus) When Christ taught in the temple The people all stood amazed Was teaching the lawyers and the doctors How to raise a man from the grave (Chorus) |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
From Tierra del Fuego to Ungava Bay
The history of betrayal continues to today The spirit of Almighty Voice, the ghost of Anna Mae Call like thunder from the mountains -- you can hear them say It's a stolen land Apartheid in Arizona, slaughter in Brazil If bullets don't get good PR there's other ways to kill Kidnap all the children, put 'em in a foreign system Bring them up in no-man's land where no one really wants them It's a stolen land Stolen land -- but it's all we've got Stolen land -- and there's no going back Stolen land -- and we'll never forget Stolen land -- and we're not through yet In my mind I catch a picture -- big black raven in the sky Looking at the ocean -- sail reflected in black eye -- Sail as white as heroin, white like weathered bones -- Rum and guns and smallpox gonna change the face of home In this stolen land... If you're like me you'd like to think we've learned from our mistakes Enough to know we can't play god with others' lives at stake So now we've all discovered the world wasn't only made for whites What step are you gonna take to try and set things right In this stolen land Stolen land -- but it's all we've got Stolen land -- and there's no going back Stolen land -- and we'll never forget Stolen land -- and we're not through yet |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
Tell the universe what you've done
Out in the desert with your smoking gun Looks like you've been having too much fun Tell the universe what you've done Tell the universe what you took While the heavens trembled and the mountains shook All those lives not worth a second look Tell the universe what you took You've been projecting your shit at the world Self-hatred tarted up as payback time You can self destruct-that's your right But keep it to yourself if you don't mind Tell the universe where you've been With your bloodstained shoes and your dunce's grin Got to identify next of kin Tell the universe where you've been |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
Big city Europa - July of 64 - It's 5AM
Weather blowing bitter off the Baltic. Car slows beside him as he walks Hubcaps slow revolution Jaundiced-looking pockmarked face, round in window Short greasy black beard Couple of language stabs, settle on English "It's cold - I give you ride. Don't you want to kiss me?" This goes on halfway across the cobbled bridge Driver pulls ahead - gets out by the construction fence Ambles towards him rubbing the bulge in his pants In his jacket is the revolver The hand is already in the pocket for warmth and fingers slide easily around wood grips Slow as that predator's footsteps the gun comes out Arm straightens, sight blade bisecting yellow forehead Wind - blue metal streetlight - Faint twilight shining on the corners of stones. Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night Slow revolution - 1985 - crosswise in a hammock in the hot volcanic hills Its 3AM the night after the air raid From the ridge she watched A37s, like ugly gulls, Make a dozen swooping passes over some luckless town Maybe ten kliks beyond the border In the distance the Pacific glimmered silver Now lascivious laughter floats on the darkness from the police post next door- Male voices - and a woman's - Little clouds of desire painted around the edges with rum In the muddy street a pig suddenly screams Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night Pacific glimmers silver Moon full over shadow mansion West coast - Can't say when There is incense and the heat-driven scent of flowers Tongue slides over soft skin Love pounds in veins brains buzzing balls of lust Fingers twine in wet hair Limbs twist and roll On the dresser wax drips in slow motion down the long side of A black candle Ecstatic halo of flame and pheromone- Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
I was up all night, socializing
Trying to keep the latent depression from crystalizing Now the sun is lurking just behind the Scarborough horizon And you're not even here On the coldest night of the year. I took in Yonge Street at a glance Heard the punkers playing Watched the bikers dance Everybody wishing they could go to the south of France And you're not even here On the coldest night of the year. Hey look at me now See the shape I'm in It's taken me so long to catch on to what's going on Inside this skin When two lovers really love there's nothing there But this suddenly compact universe Skin and breath and hair I watched the all night TV show In the all night bar I drove all the people home I was the one with the car Now I'm sitting here alone and sleepless and wondering where you are And wishing you were here On the coldest night of the year |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields
And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains Hot breeze ran its fingers through the long grass of a thatched roof eave They stuck me in the only chair they had while they cooked cassava And a luckless hen They asked for one well three lanterns and 200 litres of fuel and I said, "Who, me?" And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains In the town neon flickers in the ruins Seven crows swoop past the luscious moon If I had wings like those there'd be no waiting I'd come panting to your door and slide like smoke into your room All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - Speechless (2005) | |||||
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| from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002)
Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights What did they think the politics of panic would invite? Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first" But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse Callous men in business costume speak computerese Play pinball with the Third World trying to keep it on its knees Their single crop starvation plans put sugar in your tea And the local Third World's kept on reservations you don't see "It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first" But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse Fashionable fascism dominates the scene When ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means Tenants get the dregs and landlords get the cream As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream Brings us men in gas masks dancing while the shells burst The trouble with normal is it always gets worse |
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from Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night (1998)
They turned their backs
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 |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Live [live] (2002)
Through rutted winding streets of Kathmandu
Dodging crowded humans cows dogs rickshaws - Storefronts constellated pools of bluewhite Bright against darkening walls The butterfly sparkle in my lasered eye still seems To hold that last shot of red sun through haze over jumbled roofs Everything moves like slow fluid in this atmosphere Thick as dreams With sewage, incense, dust and fever and the smoke of brick kilns and cremations - Tom Kelly's bike rumbles down - we're going drinking on the Tibetan side of town. Beggar with withered legs sits sideways on skateboard, grinning There's a joke going on somewhere but we'll never know Those laughing kids with hungry eyes must be in on it too With their clinging memories of a culture crushed By Chinese greed Pretty young mother by the temple gate Covers her baby's face against diesel fumes That look of concern - you can see it still - Not yet masked by the hard lines of a woman's Struggle to survive Hard bargains going down When you're living on the Tibetan side of town. Big red Enfield Bullet lurches to a halt in the dust Last blast of engine leaves a ringing in the ears That fades into the rustle of bare feet and slapping sandals And the baritone moan of long bronze trumpets Muffled by monastery walls. Prayer flags crack like whips in the breeze Sending to the world - tonight the message blows east Dark door opens to warm yellow room and there Are these steaming jugs of hot millet beer and I'm sucked into the scene like this liquor up This bamboo straw Sweet tungba sliding down - drinking on the Tibetan side of town |
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from Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart (2005)
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 so |
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| from Bruce Cockburn - High Winds White Sky (1997) | |||||
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from Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now (2007)
Endless silver
Wave forms crash in Sea's too big to fit in my heart Nothings too big to fit in my heart Seas come, seas go Where they stood deserts flow Time's too big to fit in the brain Nothing's too big to fit in my heart Spacetime strings bend World without end God's too big to fit in a book Nothings too big to fit in my heart |
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