One of my favourite songs of all time.  All artists.   Definitely My favourite Bruce Cockburn tune.

 "I ride and a I shoot and I play guitar".     Boy, can he ever play guitar.

Ottawhere ???????????????? HEH ?

 jhead wrote: 
Also electric guitar—one of the unsung masters of the instrument.

 martinc wrote: 
I'm from California. Ice skates are something Hans Brinker wore. But I'll travel leagues to see Kathleen Edwards.

There might be only one or two songs each day that are worth interrupting what I'm doing to come here and rate them.  This is one of them, which I came to give a low score to.  But it appears that I've already been here on this song, which I gave a '2'.  Ugh.  Make it stop.

 Cynaera wrote: 

That's so funny....came on here to comment as Bruce is one of my all-time favourite artists....when I was in music school 20 odd years ago, I found out that his birthday is the same day as my wife's...so I sent him a B-day card and offered to write his biography with him ;)  I would definitely like to read his biography.

 WonderLizard wrote: 
Come back again. We have a great Blue Festival in the summer. It always looks like Bill selected the artists. This time of year we also have the longest skating rink in the world to challenge you. (It 's been an unusually warm winter so far so it isn;t open yet. But it will) Winterlude is centered around the canal and lots of things to do around it. Make it in early Feb and you can see Kathleen Edwards at the Bronson Centre!

 ThePoose wrote: 
The first time we went to Ottawa, you couldn't get arrested. Utterly dead town after dark. Went to Hull for fun. This was 1982. Went back a couple of years ago. What a change! Walkable streets, great restaurants, fun.  We went to Hull for the Canadian Museum of Civilization—walked from the National Gallery—but went back to Ottawa for dinner.

I really love this song, as I do most of Cockburn's music.  I can't wait for him to write his biography - imagine his words, describing his childhood, his adulthood, his visions... Yep, I'd spend money for that one. And then I'd block a week to just sit in my garden and read until I felt like taking a nap...

 Yellowstone40 wrote: 
psychic even !

Sweet - Two Bruce Cockburn songs in less than 4 hours .... Good job RP !

I really enjoy Bruce Cockburn lyrics.

My heart is ready for more love!

This prompts me to think of Lindsey Buckingham's 'Big Love,' a song that, while a little self-indulgent, is pretty exciting, I think ... Not on the RP playlist, I see.

 greyfin10 wrote: 

Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date:

 

Circa 1992 -

Johnny Walker: The next song we're going to play, "Great Big Love", you sort of seem to say, "Well, I've got lots of things I should be pleased about. I guess I'm a happy man."

BC: Well, basically, people used to ask me, when I was getting known for songs like "If I Had A Rocket Launcher", for the politically engaged kinds of songs, it seemed as though people, a certain type of person anyway, seemed to think that in order to write songs like that, you had to be depressed, or that you had to be a basically unhappy person looking for some sort of outlet for this, you know. People used to ask me, "Are you a happy man?" when I was writing those kinds of things. How can you answer that, you know? "I'm not happy you just asked me that question because I don't know how to answer it, but otherwise, I'm doing fine, thankyou."

JW: Well, you and I were born in the same year, 1945, so we've had seven years of being in our forty's, and I think one of the things that bought me anyway is that you relax a bit more, and you're quite a bit more content with the way things are at.

BC: Yeah, that certainly happens. Well, content? I think I would tend to describe that as a sense of perspective that kind of allows you to be..., to get worked up over the things you can actually do something about, and to not bother with the things you can't, you know. At least, not be so affected by them. Because I don't feel entirely content. I'm a restless person by nature and I've been involved, on and off, with things that don't go away, really.

JW: There's lots of work ahead.

BC: There's lots of work ahead and there's a lot of vivid images from the past that won't go away either. Some of them are not so nice, so that's kind of a good stimulus, a healthy stimulus, I think, in a way. It keeps you from getting complacent.

JW: But there's been one or two happy moments too.

BC: Oh yes.

— from Radio Interview, BBC Radio 1, 1992, Interviewer is Johnny Walker. Transcribed and submitted by David Newton.

 

 

November/December 1999 -

"...the ninties have had a lot less of that kind of travel and a lot more touring and work . And involvement in other things. I lived on a horse farm for seven years, and that was a different experience for me. Great Big Love, for instance, is a product of that atmosphere."

— from "Fire in an Open Hand" by Susan Adams Kauffman, The Other Side magazine, November/December 1999. Submitted by Nigel Parry.

...this reminds me i absolutely HAVE to upload his acoustic version of
"If I Had A Rocket Launcher" from Dutch radio's "2 meter sessies"!

(in case anyone knows that cut, you'll know why...)

Hey it's one world dudes...and neither country has a corner on the ignorance market...as shows plainly in some of these posts.

 ThePoose wrote: 

As if it matters what the capital of Canada is.  Except when playing Trivial Pursuit, of course.

 ThePoose wrote: 

Ottawa - been there a dozen times, maybe more.  Gorgeous place - especially winter. Patina copper roofs on the Parlament building - people ice skating to work in the winter?  Love that place.   We are not all complete morons down here!

Personally, I think Canada puts out more real musical Talent per capita than any other country on the planet.   Just saw one of your bands last night!

Curious as to what this means... I get the reference to his infamous "anger at Yankee interference in Central America" song... but what's the rest of this about?  Not being sarcastic... I just don't get it and I'd like to know where this is coming from.

Edit:  Looking through the posts for this day, I see that this is most likely a stream of conciousness thing... nevermind, carry on (well, you did, regardless :))

 ndad47 wrote: 

Bruce has got a great big love for us.  big enough to chase the remaining indigenous people swimming across the bering strait for safety as he goes after them with his great big rocket launcher.

ThePoose wrote:

Hey, I was thinking of a blanket on Parliament Hill. Funny, eh? Poose, I didn't know you were a Canuck.
Churs, mate.

Perfect music for a hot summer day on a blanket in a public park. Now only if it was summer....

I'm wonderin' where the lions are. Don't bother: they're here.

Sent from Bruce's hometown: Ottawa (capital of Canada for all you Americans who don't know any better.)

superfido wrote:

as if that's possible...

Stewed_Mulligan wrote:

Bruce is terrific. Especially his earlier albums.

Surely there´s a cowbell in there somewhere?

.....yeah, but his early stuff is GREAT!...."Arrows of Light", "Joy will find a way", "Blues Got The World By The Balls", and so many others....Bruce has been a treasure for decades

Pretty much anything from Bruce works well most any day