Guest post by Don Berg: Evolution of Bruce Cockburn lyrics Part 18) The Charity of Night

Guest post by Don Berg: Evolution of Bruce Cockburn lyrics

by Don Berg

Part 18:
The Charity of Night (1996)

“Don & Jen & Andrew- God Bless, Bruce Cockburn” it says on the cover of our Charity of Night CD. When Bruce came to Oregon for his “Charity of Night” tour, we were in the hospital for the premature birth of our first child, Andrew. Needless to say we missed that concert, but my Sister returned from it with a signed CD for us. Andrew is now driving and Bruce is still singing. I had feared that this album signaled the end of Cockburn’s career, as it sounded like a memoir in many ways. Did all of the references to night signal the twilight of his career? Seldom is an artist so transparent as is Bruce in “Pacing the Cage.”

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 darkness is your friend, and sometimes you lie on your back beneath a starry evening, and your tears, “they fill the whole night sky.” This is no simple dark night, but a dark night of the soul.

The Whole Night Sky

Derailed and desperate
How did I get here?
Hanging from this high wire
By the tatters of my faith
 


Dawn is no relief to this dark night of the soul, but it comes none-the-less in “Get Up Jonah.” The rising sun does not reveal the beauty of creation as in earlier songs. This dawn is dreaded, as it reveals a view from a window full of refineries and factories, and heaven seems out of touch. Bruce feels the weight of the dark night that is past and now faces the horseman of the Apocalypse. He, like Jonah, has a prophetic message, and also like Jonah, must pass through this dark night of the soul to be reborn out of the belly of the whale.

Get Up Jonah

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...

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


Cockburn likens his dark night to the valley of the shadow of death from Psam 23. While David was led beside quiet waters, Bruce claims that God has been leading him beside “Strange Waters.” He equates these strange waters with the stars of the dark night of the soul in the line: “Streams of beautiful lights in the night.” He then asks: “But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?” Then asks: “If I loose my grip, will I take flight?” Now this is not a question of losing his grip, but of letting go of his own volition. Does he have enough faith to let go of his life? Can he be like Jonah, and be thrown off the boat into the storm of strange waters, out of sight of the promised pastureland?

Strange Waters

I've seen a high cairn kissed by holy wind
Seen a mirror pool cut by golden fins
Seen alleys where they hide the truth of cities
The mad whose blessing you must accept without pity

I've stood in airports guarded glass and chrome
Walked rifled roads and landmined loam
Seen a forest in flames right down to the road
Burned in love till I've seen my heart explode

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters

Across the concrete fields of man
Sun ray like a camera pans
Some will run and some will stand
Everything is bullshit but the open hand

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?
  (hard-edged album version below)


(very intimate solo- acoustic version below)