© Umbrella Magazine
On Nothing But A Burning Light, Bruce decided to make another slight change in his approach. For the first time in a number of years, Cockburn chose to record outside of Canada-this time in Los Angeles. He also chose to line up an impressive number of top studio musicians, many of whom he had never before worked with and to enlist a new producer. "I've actually been a fan of T-Bone's (Burnett) since the early seventies when he had a group called the Alpha Band. The Los Lobos albums and a couple of albums he produced for Sam Phillips really caught my attention; we have mutual friends who over the years have said we should work together. "When we were going through producers with Sony, T-Bone was high on everyone's list," states Cockburn. With the help of Burnett Cockburn selected a top notch backing crew including drummer Jim Keltner (Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Little Village), keyboardist Booker T. (Booker T., and the M.G.'s), violinist Mark O’Connor, bassist Larry Klein, support vocalists Jackson Browne and Sam Phillips. According to Cockburn the project became less of a 'job' and more of a united experience. "at one point, during the song "Cry of A Tiny Babe" (about the birth of Christ) Jim Keltner broke down in tears. Well, he didn't breakdown-he kept playing but he was fighting it off throughout the song because he was so moved by what was going on," tells Cockburn. "Most songs were recorded in one take which is indicative of a certain focus."
Over the years Cockburn's quality of musicianship has remained constant. His style, while incorporating many influences, has remained true to a folk rock sound-a style Bruce grew up with. "What made me want to play music was the original rock-n-roll and it was Dwayne Eddy, Buddy Holly, The Ventures and Elvis at that time. Once I started playing and taking a lot of lessons I discovered a lot of other things I hadn't thought of like Jazz and Blues and Country."
Throughout his career Cockburn has garnished a large number of awards and citations. He's been the recipient of ten JUNO awards (the Canadian Grammy) as well as the Order of Canada., the highest award the country can bestow upon a civilian. He's been honored by the Society of Composers and has received the Harold Moon award, given to Canadians who have distinguished themselves internationally. In Holland, he has received their equivalent of a Grammy, known as the Edison Award. Bruce also has registered fifteen albums either platinum (for sales in excess of 1,000,000 units) or gold (500,000 units) including Nothing but a Burning Light and Dart To The Heart.
One thing no one will ever accuse Bruce Cockburn of being is trite. His lyrics touch on every issue ranging from the spirituality of man to the political derailment of great countries. Cockburn addresses prejudice, pride, greed, heartlessness and suffering-he also addresses love and understanding.
While many Americans will take exception to some of Bruce's political views he cannot be accused of forming them without study. Cockburn has traveled the world learning his opinions from experience, not just as a tourist but as someone involved. Bruce traveled in 1983 to Central America with the international charity OXFAM and in 1986 to Nepal representing the Unitarian Service Committee and in 1989 he was appointed chairman of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. He has taken part with many political and environmental groups in experiencing things firsthand, things such as the destruction of the rain forests and the aftermath of Chernobyl. "I arrived in Germany three days after Chernobyl happened, I had wrestled with myself about going to Europe at this moment but it seemed like it wouldn’t matter, that stuff will get to you sooner or later. It was a very interesting experience and quite frightening in some respects -funny in others. The extremes governments went to in order to kind of suppress peoples anxiety about the whole thing became ridiculous. At first they're saying it's no problem those stupid Russians made a mistake but we've got it together. The next day they would say, well there’s a little bit of a problem-don't let your kids play in the dirt. Then the next day-or a week later they would say, if you're a mechanic changing air filters in a car you should wear protective clothing and if you're a pedestrian, hold your breath when cars go by-because of the dust. It just went from the horrific to the ridiculous." At present, Cockburn is very involved with the issues of Native Indian Rights and has appeared at benefits for these causes in the U.S. and Canada. He has also participated in the past two Earth Day Celebration Concerts.
During the years 1981-1986, Cockburn's music became steadily more and more political in nature until on World of Wonders he finally lashed out at the injustice perpetuated by the American government. Consider these lines from the song, "Call It Democracy." "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 it's quality who render rage a necessity-by turning countries into labor camps-modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom.", or these lines from "People See Through You:" "You've got good manipulators, got your store of dupes-got the idiot clamor of your lobby groups- you like to play on fears, but people see through you." No doubt, Cockburn is angry -- and whether you choose to believe it or not, he believes his view points are justified.
From the onset, Cockburn's music has incorporated blatantly spiritual themes. On 1975's Joy Will Find A Way, he "Laments [sic] for The Last Days" by singing "I will drink from the cup that stands on Jesus' table. “1978’s Further Adventures Of... included the praise oriented song "Can I Go With You" with the lines "when you ride out of the shining sky to claim the ones that love you-can I go with You." In 1980 Bruce released Dancing In the Dragons' Jaws, one of his largest selling albums and the first one that sparked many Christian's interest in his music. The single "Wondering Where the Lions Are" is a musical question regarding Christians and their tribulations... the wonder of life with Christ if you would. Don't misunderstand, Cockburn's spiritual musings are not limited in number-these are merely examples.
Possibly Cockburn's most spiritual album in nature is Nothing But A Burning Light. Leaving his political days in the shadows, to a degree, Cockburn emerged in 1989 with Big Circumstance, a less pessimistic album that even found time for some of the joy he once relayed so well. Burning Light picks up where Circumstance left off and as Bruce explains, changes were taking place in his life during the album's construction. "Perhaps it's the fact that the time wasn’t characterized by any great adventure, I mean I didn't go to Central America or Africa or anything." During this period, Cockburn moved from the from the city (Toronto) where he had lived for many years into the great expanse of the country. This decision left him, as the song "Great Big Love" explains, time to take life a little easier. "I ride and I shoot and I play guitar, and I like my life just fine...Got a woman I love and she loves me, we live on a piece of land-I never know how to measure these things but I guess I'm a happy man."
Throughout Nothing But A Burning Light, Bruce touches on blatant spiritual issues. "Soul of A Man," a song penned by street preacher/musician Blind Willie Johnson, examines the spiritual life that lies beneath the surface while "Somebody Touched Me" announces “Somebody touched me, making everything new" and "Great Big Love" has Cockburn "feeling the touch of love in the works of God."
Possibly the most inspiring song, for Christians, is "Cry Of A Tiny Babe" a re-telling of the Christmas story. As Cockburn explains, he wanted to look at the event as though it actually happened, because quite frankly-it did. "We've tended to lose sight of the reality of that story, of the immediacy of that story because it's so tied up in historical baggage. Mary is always the Madonna with a blue vale and everything. But in the story Mary is a woman who finds herself pregnant and can't explain it to anyone, especially Joseph who's kind enough not to want to see her executed but is sort of trying to extricate himself from the situation. You figure what must have been going through their heads at that time, I wanted to do a song that would address that fact-the humanity of the people involved" finishes Cockburn.
There is no time to look back for Cockburn, barely enough to look forward.
COCKBURN: I think it's a result of not traveling but also out of a desire to not keep repeating myself. I don't think it's necessary to keep on saying the same things even though they still may be true. I can stay involved in certain issues without them coming out in songs. The same process I just described went into writing the political songs as well. If I'm not working with those sort of things for a period of time, or if I'm still working but the novelty's worn off(laughs), then I don't produce those types of songs anymore. It requires a fair amount of emotional justice to get those type of songs going. Let me add to that, the fact, though I didn't think of it at the time, Trouble With Normal, Stealing Fire, and World Of Wonders seemed to be a sort of trilogy. After doing those it seemed like I have said enough about the North-South things. At least until a new experience gives me something to add to it. (Note: COCKBURN is currently involved in an international movement to curb the use of land mines.)
CASE: What do you think of President Clinton, are things getting better?
COCKBURN: Well. I don't think things are getting better (laughs). I think there's a lot of the same old stuff going on and maybe a few added twists that aren't so positive. Maybe they're things that anyone in his position would be doing with the exception of specifically democratic policies like health care. In terms of how the country is being run and what kind of subtle decisions are being made, the business is bad. The government is addressing itself to communications and electronic surveillance and you're not hearing much in the news, but to me it has quite sinister implications. Though it’s not being talked about in those terms, they're starting a system where they'd be able to monitor... everything. That's not really good (laughs).
CASE: What's the most satisfying part of being an artist to you? Is it writing, recording, performing, traveling?
COCKBURN: The one element I would keep if I had to choose would be the writing; that's when I'm really creating. Performing is just re-interpreting something and trying to keep it fresh for people, but the actual writing is pure creativity. You're there and you've got the flow or you don't.
CASE: What musical artists do you like?
COCKBURN: I don't listen to much of anything these days not because I don’t like things but because my ears are tired. I make enough noise of my own. I do thing that Sam Phillips is an excellent songwriter. There’s a lot of good records out there. I like a little jazz, some classical. Mark Heard was one of my favorite songwriters to listen to when he was around.
CASE: How do people respond to your more spiritual numbers?
COCKBURN: Before I was a Christian I'd watch those people (Christians) of television making fools of themselves and feel complete alienation from them at best and usually it involved a little bit of snickering. So I certainly understand what people think Christianity is when they react badly to it. You don't have to be a Christian to recognize a good song and once you see it as that maybe you’ll listen to the words and go 'hey, that makes me shiver a bit'.
CASE: Does anyone ever ridicule you for your beliefs?
COCKBURN: Occasionally, but I get the same amount of flack from people who think I'm not spiritual enough or I'm trying to sell them something bad. People get hung up on stupid things and what are really just distractions.