SONGS:
-- After The Rain --
13 June 1979. Toronto, Canada.

Found on:

Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws (1979) & (2002)
Bruce Cockburn Live (1990) & (2002)
Lyrics:

After the rain in the streets light flows like blood
I can just taste salt on the humid wind

Here comes that gasoline
Spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar

I'm blown like smoke and blind as wind
Except for when your love breaks in

Maybe to those who love is given sight
To pierce the wall of seeming night
And know it pure beyond all imagining

Engine throb street cruise light bullet car flash
Hollow beauty night gleam oily river tension glass

Ultraflame! Glittering dust falling in slow motion
Clouds tumbling one over another into apparent emptiness

It's like a big fist breaking down my door
I never felt such a love before

Maybe to those who love it's given to hear
Music too high for the human ear
And clear as hydrogen to go singing



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

  • 30 October 2005 -

    [paraphrasing a comment made at a live performance]
    One thing he said that I have never heard him mention before was that "After The Rain" was his attempt at a Bee Gees tune. He said that if you listen to it carefully you will notice that it's a disco tune without the bass line.

    -- from the The Gothic Theatre show in Denver 30 October 2005. Submitted by Graham Knight.

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    This page is part of The Cockburn Project, a unique website that exists to document the work of Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Bruce Cockburn. The Project archives self-commentary by Cockburn on his songs and music, and supplements this core part of the website with news, tour dates, and other current information.