I also consider the records you noted as prime Cockburn. I went to see him in concert at John Carroll University in the early 80's shortly after these records had been released. He played with a full electric band and the music was great. However he didn't project much stage dynamism, only to jump (no hops) at the conclusion of the final song. I immediately lost interest in him and never purchased another record. But thanks to your article I will go back and listen again. I imagine they're still great.
Hi Carl, despite your well documented disdain for my life's work, I actually do enjoy most of your commentary on all things arts and music. I just want to correct you on why BNL chose to cover Lovers In A Dangerous Time back in '91. It wasn't the AIDS crisis that motivated us, rather it was the Cockburn song that resonated the most with the band at the time. It was all over the radio when we were music-devouring teens, and it's a great song in all respects. I was the only Cockburn-head in the band at the time, and yes, you and I share the same opinion that DITDJ and Humans are Bruce at his best, but my suggestions of covering either Tokyo or Coldest Night of the Year ("guys he name-drops Scarborough!") were set aside in favor of the Cockburn song that everybody in the band knew. I'm still delighted that it was our first hit, and that we filmed a widely seen clip, in the age of million dollar video budgets, for $11,000 CDN. Bruce Cockburn continues to be an inspiration to Barenaked Ladies, 35 years, 18 studio albums and millions of concert tickets, records and streams later. You don't give BNL any love or credit Carl, but lots and lots and lots of other people do. Ha Ha Ha. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Happy 80th, Bruce!
Thanks for the correction, Tyler - I didn't mean to attribute undue sensitivity to the band! <g> Apologies if I seem snarky about BNL sometimes. It's nothing personal (and certainly not towards *you*), just a difference of tastes, which maybe gets sharpened by sharing the same town. I'm well aware thousands and thousands of other people disagree with me, and I appreciate that achievement. It wouldn't be any fun to poke fun, if it were otherwise! I'm grateful for your good humour and grace about it in this comment, and thank you for reading.
That's too bad. I was kinda hoping that the song, which is excellent, and I do love the BNL cover, had also called to mind for you how dangerous it was to be gay lovers in that time. But I'm glad it was a hit for y'all :)
I've liked a lot of Cockburn, but the album that cut me to the core and never left and still amazes is my first, which came out of nowhere for me: the Charity of Night, which sonically, lyrically, and musically is simply ASTOUNDING. from the weird prose poetry to the gloriously treated resonator to the Bill Sienkiewicz cover art, it was an album that hit all the notes for me, and did it at the same time as a similarly murky and glorious and sad and beautiful album, Time Out of Mind, was rearranging the molecules of my musical tastes. (Bob's birthday is the day before Bruce's). The Charity of Night still makes me wake up thinking about Turkish drummers, and sometimes out of nowhere I hear "they say me down in the only chair while they cooked cassava and a luckless hen" ring out in my head and want to cry and dance.
Yes, indeed, those early electric records were such a mystic/ecstatic peak for Bruce. (fall vacation and rumors of glory as you note, along with so many others: incandescent blue, hoop dancer, broken wheel, etc etc). But what’s also remarkable is that in all the decades since then, every single album has two or three keepers at that level.
And for anyone who resonates with the “spiritual Bruce“ his most recent album O Sun O Moon is probably his most complete statement on that level. It really feels like a grand final summation—though his relentless touring schedule in the year and a half since it came out certainly belies that notion! Any Bruce lovers out there should definitely take the time to sit with that one a couple times with a good sound system or headphones (some rich and subtle sonic textures very much in keeping with the soulful inquiry— I noticed he’s not playing many of these tunes on his solo tour, perhaps because the setting he crafted in the studio really is fundamental to experiencing them in full).
Bruce is a national treasure. Thanks for shining on a light on some of his incredible catalogue of songs. I saw him at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival in January & he still sounded great.
I don't mean this as criticism of you or the Wallen piece, which was quite smart and witty, but as the number of hit songs and major stars dwindles, so much recent writing about pop(-adjacent) music reeks of desperation, cranking out thinkpieces about musicians as dull as Benson Boone. The problem is that there's also a dwindling amount of space for serious writing about music, especially for a non-specialized audience, and the 1% are occupying so much of it. It's hard to picture an outlet like the Atlantic consistently running 2,000-word articles about Tropical Fuck Storm or Aya. At a certain point, it was necessary to say that music reaching 3 million people is not necessarily inferior to the indie blog hype of the moment, but that point was long since made, audiences' tastes have changed and now it seems more worthwhile to say that music which reaches 3000 people deserves their attention as much as Wallen.
I also consider the records you noted as prime Cockburn. I went to see him in concert at John Carroll University in the early 80's shortly after these records had been released. He played with a full electric band and the music was great. However he didn't project much stage dynamism, only to jump (no hops) at the conclusion of the final song. I immediately lost interest in him and never purchased another record. But thanks to your article I will go back and listen again. I imagine they're still great.
Hi Carl, despite your well documented disdain for my life's work, I actually do enjoy most of your commentary on all things arts and music. I just want to correct you on why BNL chose to cover Lovers In A Dangerous Time back in '91. It wasn't the AIDS crisis that motivated us, rather it was the Cockburn song that resonated the most with the band at the time. It was all over the radio when we were music-devouring teens, and it's a great song in all respects. I was the only Cockburn-head in the band at the time, and yes, you and I share the same opinion that DITDJ and Humans are Bruce at his best, but my suggestions of covering either Tokyo or Coldest Night of the Year ("guys he name-drops Scarborough!") were set aside in favor of the Cockburn song that everybody in the band knew. I'm still delighted that it was our first hit, and that we filmed a widely seen clip, in the age of million dollar video budgets, for $11,000 CDN. Bruce Cockburn continues to be an inspiration to Barenaked Ladies, 35 years, 18 studio albums and millions of concert tickets, records and streams later. You don't give BNL any love or credit Carl, but lots and lots and lots of other people do. Ha Ha Ha. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Happy 80th, Bruce!
Thanks for the correction, Tyler - I didn't mean to attribute undue sensitivity to the band! <g> Apologies if I seem snarky about BNL sometimes. It's nothing personal (and certainly not towards *you*), just a difference of tastes, which maybe gets sharpened by sharing the same town. I'm well aware thousands and thousands of other people disagree with me, and I appreciate that achievement. It wouldn't be any fun to poke fun, if it were otherwise! I'm grateful for your good humour and grace about it in this comment, and thank you for reading.
That's too bad. I was kinda hoping that the song, which is excellent, and I do love the BNL cover, had also called to mind for you how dangerous it was to be gay lovers in that time. But I'm glad it was a hit for y'all :)
I've liked a lot of Cockburn, but the album that cut me to the core and never left and still amazes is my first, which came out of nowhere for me: the Charity of Night, which sonically, lyrically, and musically is simply ASTOUNDING. from the weird prose poetry to the gloriously treated resonator to the Bill Sienkiewicz cover art, it was an album that hit all the notes for me, and did it at the same time as a similarly murky and glorious and sad and beautiful album, Time Out of Mind, was rearranging the molecules of my musical tastes. (Bob's birthday is the day before Bruce's). The Charity of Night still makes me wake up thinking about Turkish drummers, and sometimes out of nowhere I hear "they say me down in the only chair while they cooked cassava and a luckless hen" ring out in my head and want to cry and dance.
Yes, indeed, those early electric records were such a mystic/ecstatic peak for Bruce. (fall vacation and rumors of glory as you note, along with so many others: incandescent blue, hoop dancer, broken wheel, etc etc). But what’s also remarkable is that in all the decades since then, every single album has two or three keepers at that level.
And for anyone who resonates with the “spiritual Bruce“ his most recent album O Sun O Moon is probably his most complete statement on that level. It really feels like a grand final summation—though his relentless touring schedule in the year and a half since it came out certainly belies that notion! Any Bruce lovers out there should definitely take the time to sit with that one a couple times with a good sound system or headphones (some rich and subtle sonic textures very much in keeping with the soulful inquiry— I noticed he’s not playing many of these tunes on his solo tour, perhaps because the setting he crafted in the studio really is fundamental to experiencing them in full).
Bruce is a national treasure. Thanks for shining on a light on some of his incredible catalogue of songs. I saw him at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival in January & he still sounded great.
I don't mean this as criticism of you or the Wallen piece, which was quite smart and witty, but as the number of hit songs and major stars dwindles, so much recent writing about pop(-adjacent) music reeks of desperation, cranking out thinkpieces about musicians as dull as Benson Boone. The problem is that there's also a dwindling amount of space for serious writing about music, especially for a non-specialized audience, and the 1% are occupying so much of it. It's hard to picture an outlet like the Atlantic consistently running 2,000-word articles about Tropical Fuck Storm or Aya. At a certain point, it was necessary to say that music reaching 3 million people is not necessarily inferior to the indie blog hype of the moment, but that point was long since made, audiences' tastes have changed and now it seems more worthwhile to say that music which reaches 3000 people deserves their attention as much as Wallen.
I don't really disagree with (most of) that. But I have more to say about it, sometime in the coming weeks.
i played paintball with bc. cool cat.
An evocative tribute to our Bruce and now I have to go relisten to the chuga-chuga rhythms of Night Train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgAlL6gSvxo