Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #brucecockburn, aggregated by home.social.
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Another Canadian hero artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IX4gWkFqvU
Ted Tocks Covers
Stolen Land
Originally posted on September 29, 2022
On this day of #TruthAndReconciliation
“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?”
Just want to remind everyone that this legend is still alive. Back off death!!!
#BruceCockburn #Music #80YearOlds #SongsOfAGeneration #WonderWhereTheLionsAre
https://youtu.be/JY__agG_eXc?si=UY2vvtYJC26cupZC
Canadian artist for Canada Day.
Bruce Cockburn was an amazing songwriter and storyteller. This song is even more relevant today!
#CanadianArtist #BruceCockburn #Music #Songs #CanadaDay #IfIHadARocketLauncher https://youtu.be/O9HFjErMMlA?si=gcnr7NZDUcjf8GNw
🎵If this were the last night of the world,
What would I do? 🎵
I’d dance to this song!!💃
#Music #Songs #BruceCockburn #LastNightOfTheWorld
https://youtu.be/AQPDWvfJo9A?si=7trVQTxm18GMBPLP
This song resonates today as much as it did back in 1984. #BruceCockburn #IfIHadARocketLauncher #Music #ResistanceMusic
https://youtu.be/O9HFjErMMlA?si=DYbRfC2Gi0sQYXGg
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Canadians around the world celebrated the 81st birthday of #BruceCockburn this past week! 🇨🇦 🎶 🎉 https://parade.com/celebrities/70s-rock-legend-bruce-cockburn-turns-81-five-decade-career
He had one of his biggest hits after visiting Guatemalan refugee camps across the border in Southern #Mexico. “If I had a rocket 🚀 launcher” was a #resistance to #fascism anthem at the time.
But considering how things have worked out for #Guatamala since then, I think a better way to #resist is to go ahead with needed cataract surgery.
Explanation in replies…
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Ted Tocks Covers
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Originally posted on March 30, 2018.
A Good Friday tradition.
“Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just 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”
#montypython #brucecockburn #harrynilsson #artgarfunkel #ironmaiden
https://tedtockscovers.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life/
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
2025 in Music
According to Soundcloud I spent most of my time listening to various shows on Afropop Worldwide, Rinse FM and Sleep’s Dopesmoker. All of which made on appearance on previous years lists. The new addition for 2025 was Jay Electronica’s “A Written Testimony” EP trilogy (?). Compared to last year, my Soundcloud list is about the same, while a quick review of my history/timeline for a few other platforms indicates I’ve still been repping lots of Bad Bunny, KEXP, LaRussell, Tiny Desk and Western AF. What is perhaps most interesting about that is that 90% of my Soundcloud time is logged from my work-station and given how/when I listen, each platform has a distinct vibe/represents a particular set of activities and their corresponding soundtrack. So John Carroll Kirby was still a top artist (Tuscany serving as a regular soundtrack for family dinners) and I listened to about the same amount of Alice Coltrane (mostly while keeping up my yoga practice) and Keith Hudson (while hanging outside/working in the yard).
Some new favorites were Eladio Carrion, Hugh Mundell, LA LOM and as already mentioned I played this track repeatedly. One new trend was a return to alt and 90s rock (Beastie Boys, Fugazi, Nirvana et al.), mostly as a result of trying to find music all three of us (my son, wife and I) can agree on. Especially, when in the car together.
In terms of concerts, Bitchin Baja’s and Prairiewolf at glob were a blast and included a bonus hang-night with a buddy visiting from West Cost. While the first night of Denver Metal & Beer Fest with my BIL was fun and the surprise for me was OKC based Chat Pile. Plus, he and I caught a couple of great sets at the 2025 Bluegrass on the Arkansas (in Salida, CO), including night one’s closer, Magoo.
While I listen primarily to digital-streaming, I did make an effort to dig into my vinyl collection more. Especially, in the second half of the year. There were a handful of records added to the collection this year, with the best being World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever – The Existential Soul of Tim Maia and 400% Dynamite Ska, Soul, Rocksteady, Funk and Dub in Jamaica, both gifted by friends. The former has been on heavy rotation for at least last few years so I was pumped to unexpectedly get my own copy and while I wasn’t aware of the later, it is chock full of classics! In terms of my own finds, I thrifted a copy of Stealing Fire by Bruce Cockburn along with 1 or 2 LPs from Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson.
Otherwise, I still use an old dedicated MP3 music player for running and it’s library hasn’t been updated in some years. It a weird mix of early/mid aughts London bass and grime mixes, DatPiff downloads and stuff like Pink by Boris. I probably listen to this from Elijah & Skilliam (ft JME and Skepta) the most. For me it’s perfect running energy/vibes!
Finally, this Butthole Surfers mix has become a regular evening (usually to kickoff or end the weekend) listen and I unwind from many a weekday, with NTS Radio. In particular the Raja Vibrations show.
I really dug that Night Slugs with Scotti Dee & Spidey G setBad Bunny tracks made 3 of my top 5 on AmazonFor a total of 152 hours but that’s just the one platform#Boris #BruceCockburn #Dopesmoker #JayElectronica #JME #JohnCarrollKirby #Music #RagaVibrations #RinseFM #Skepta
Slice of Canadiana in a cover song.
#GoinDownTheRoad #BruceCockburn #cover #SCTV #JoeFlaherty #JohnCandy #DonShebib #Canada #music
Ted Tocks Covers
Stolen Land
Originally posted on September 29, 2022
On this day of #TruthandReconciliation
“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?”
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Ted Tocks Covers - Year 8 - Day 71
Turn, Turn, Turn
Going back decades and centuries with The Byrds, Pete Seeger and Ecclesiastes
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”
#PeteSeeger #thebyrds #Ecclesiastes #TheLimeliters #judycollins #ninasimone #verngosdin #brucecockburn #DollyParton #wilsonphillips #brucespringsteen #chrisdeburgh #walkofftheearth
One of if not THE most successful cover bands in #Canadian history the @barenakedladies.com! For @charlieangus104.bsky.social and #Canada 🇨🇦
"Youve gotta kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight" - #LoversInADangerousTime, #BruceCockburn
youtu.be/k_oOc3Zj0KU?...
Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a...
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
@SocraticEthics Can a certain #BruceCockburn #resistance song be heard playing from a boom box among the ‘Welcome’ crowd in Anchorage, #Alaska ? 🤔
@SocraticEthics For the listening pleasure of the #fediverse near Anchorage, #Alaska , #BruceCockburn the great folk musician from #Canada singing one of his most celebrated #resistance songs, “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”: https://youtu.be/_AG7g0eCtcI?si=XXMCac3q1AT-Lhf3
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
If only listen to one single #BruceCockburn album in your life, let it be this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09bvxlDwPEU&list=PLvcZIP8ignRMym89F5iKjYYdb0Si88LOK
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Bruce Cockburn: Lyrical Genius and Activist 📜
Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics have walked the line between poetic & political.
Since the '70s, the #Canadian singer-songwriter has woven environmentalism, spirituality, & human rights into intricate arrangements. With tracks like If I Had a Rocket Launcher & Lovers in a Dangerous Time, he shaped folk-rock into a vehicle for both introspection and action. 🇨🇦 #Canada #BruceCockburn #CanadianMusic #FolkRock
Bruce Cockburn Sings “The Trouble with Normal”
Listen to this track by one-time mystic folkie turned world traveling political songwriter Bruce Cockburn. It’s “The Trouble with Normal”, the title track to his 1983 album. With the prompting and aid of several NGOs just before this record came out, Bruce Cockburn found himself packing a bag and getting on planes so he could see worlds that not many North American citizens got to see; those regions which are violently impacted by policies mandated by corporations and governments at home.
By this time, Cockburn was also expanding his sound by incorporating new wave, jazz fusion, art rock, reggae, and world music to his already sturdy folk-rock sound. Cockburn shifted his sound in other ways. He took on a new approach to production and arrangements that present his new material as a united front with his band rather than focusing on his detailed guitar work. This period kicked off a new phase for Cockburn as a songwriter, too. He began to supplant the spiritual abstracts evidenced in his earlier material in favour of more earthbound and confrontational subject matter that has him examining global trends and events with a critical eye.
In this respect and in others, The Trouble with Normal album was a template and first entry in a trilogy of records that now includes Stealing Fire (1984) and World of Wonders (1986). These releases share similar thematic emphases and a sonic palette between them. The songs serve as travelogues to some of the world’s most troubled locales and provide details as to why they are so troubled. At the same time, Cockburn’s material presents affectionate portraits of the people who live in those regions and who get on with their work and lives and families despite everything.
This title track from The Trouble With Normal is the record’s thesis statement, highlighting some of the underhanded tactics in campaigns of economic imperialism by the U.S in Central America and other regions. But it also includes references to workers’ rights in North America, with strikes for higher wages met by scab labour and mass firings to keep working people desperate and in their place. Most importantly of all, it touches on the attitudes of the average person in the street who often seems frustratingly disconnected from the issues and their social implications.
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 …~ “The Trouble with Normal” by Bruce Cockburn
The central function that keeps the machine well-oiled and running is these attitudes of regular citizens. It’s our acceptance of bad faith practices and the denial of the grievous costs paid by others that justifies and perpetuates a slowly worsening status quo. In this, Cockburn presents his main takeaway. The “centrist” view on global economics, government policy, the public good, and what is perceived to be normal and stable is not a fixed value and never has been. In fact, being in the so-called center during times of grave injustice is such a slippery position that it barely registers as a position at all.
When a planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage, the “center” gets pulled right along with it. We’ve certainly seen this phenomenon play out this year, and to disastrous effect. We’ve seen what can happen when movements like this are met without resistance and are greeted with concessions instead, seemingly ignorant of history. Examining how this plays out goes beyond misplaced senses of balance and “both-sidesing” the issues at hand.
Defining what normal means demands context. It relies on a keen sense of discernment from every citizen. It demands a universal dedication to truth. We must decide on what normal or acceptable are guided by how our society can and should benefit as many people as possible, wherever they live. Social stability and people’s lives depend on it.
The issues “The Trouble with Normal” raises haven’t changed very much today, even when most of what it comments on seems like old news by now. We know that corporations and governments do dirty deals to get things done. We know that happens at the cost of human lives. By now, this is what normal feels like. In this, the trends, movements, practices, and patterns this song warned us about over forty years ago have come to their full fruition.
The back sleeve notes from Bruce Cockburn’s 1983 album The Trouble With Normal.This is what makes this song so impactful today; it’s still so infuriatingly relevant. One might call “The Trouble with Normal” downright prescient if today’s fascism and authoritarian structures hadn’t been so effectively modelled in the 1980s. This grinding devolution of the democratic dream took decades to unfold. But it felt normal to so many people the whole way along. Pretty soon, we became the little dog in the burning room declaring “this is fine“. Maybe we’ve always been that little dog.
As dense and politically incendiary as the lyrics are, they are as compelling as anything Cockburn wrote about spirituality and connections between the divine and the beauty found in the natural world. In fact, the anger in this song stems from his personal devotion to the sacred and to the central Christian tenet of “love thy neighbour as thyself”. Among other things, this is what made so much of what Cockburn writes about here particularly striking, given that a planet lurching to the right certainly included the increasingly enriched Christian Right – a trend that stands today more than ever.
Because Cockburn was so deliberate in personally experiencing how the tools of oppression really work on a global scale before writing about it, “The Trouble with Normal” escapes being a leftist political tract. Instead, it’s a set of firsthand observations in reaction to the documented practices of multinational business interests, governments, and their various agencies in exploited regions in the world. It’s a comment on how fear and insecurity can shape our perceptions domestically, too, and how that makes us prone to manipulation.
Yet in its anger, there’s also a sense of resolve, too. Whatever normal is, it’s our lot to work out what it means and what it doesn’t together in good faith with boldness as goalposts continue to shift.
Bruce Cockburn is an active songwriter and performer today. You can visit brucecockburn.com to learn more about his history, extensive discography, and upcoming shows.
Cockburn recorded an alternate version of “The Trouble with Normal” which appears on 1987’s Waiting for a Miracle compilation record. You can listen to that version right here.
To get a sense of Bruce Cockburn as a live act when this tune and others from its namesake album were brand new, check out the full Bruce Cockburn concert film Rumours of Glory. It was filmed in late 1981 and released the following year. The film features many of his jazz-rock and ensemble-oriented songs, plus a couple re-imagined gems from his early career.
Finally, check out this list of 20 Great Bruce Cockburn Songs, also by your humble host.
Enjoy!
#80sMusic #BruceCockburn #politicalMusic #PoliticalSongs #singerSongwriters
Bruce Cockburn: If I Had a Rocket Launcher Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Here comes the helicopter
Second time today
Everybody scatters
And hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered
Only God can say, hey
[Chorus]If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd make somebody pay
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would retaliate
[Verse 3]
On the Rio Lacantún
One hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation
Or some less humane fate
Cry for Guatemala
With a corpse in every gate
[Chorus]If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would not hesitate
[Verse 4]
I wanna 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
[Chorus]If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
Some son of a bitch would die
genius.com/Bruce-cockburn-if-i…
#Music #Lyrics #Resistance #Oldies #BruceCockburn #RocketLauncher
40 years ago this week, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by #BruceCockburn entered the #Top100 at 89. It peaked at 88 on 16 Feb 1985. It did better here in Canada, getting to 49, and I remember hearing it a lot on the radio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vCww3j2-w #1980s #MusicHistory #MusicVideo
Valentine's Day is coming up while the world burns down, so unfortunately here's a #StupidAccordionTrick for the Stupidest Timeline: #BruceCockburn's 1984 #LoversInADangerousTime.
It's a good thing I don't have a rocket launcher, because I know where it would be aimed, but I'll let #BruceCockburn tell you all about it in this live #Music clip. #CanadianArtists #Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYxPf_Ahp4&list=LLUwhfey9MublWMilUTVvxBQ&index=30
Listening to the album "Sun, Salt and Time" by Bruce Cockburn today. Record is over 50 years old, but it is perfect for addressing my stress today. Bruce is a Canadian treasure.
Here is the title track: https://youtu.be/XY8M_9FP7Ec?si=eLUnRMdcwEIYB03q #BruceCockburn