SONGS:
-- Going To The Country --
copyright 1969, released 1970

Found on:

Bruce Cockburn (1970)
Waiting For A Miracle, Singles 1970-1987 (1987) [compilation album]

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 1 (2014) [compilation album]
Greatest Hits (1970-2020) (2021) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

Look out the window, what do I see?
Cows hangin' out under spreading trees.
Zoom! They're gone behind the sign
White letters pointing to the long white line
and I'm going to the country
O, la la la la la
I'm going to the country
Sunshine smile on me

I can smell the grass growing in the field
Wind in my hair tells me how it feels
Farm house, silver roof flashing by
Tractor-trailer truck says goodbye with a sigh
And I'm going to the country
O, la la la la la
I'm going to the country
Sunshine smile on me

Birds singing, I'm singing in my bones
Doesn't much matter now where I'm going
Get it when I get there is what I'll do
If I get enough I'll give some to you
And I'm going to the country
O, happy as can be
I'm going to the country
Sunshine smile on me


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

  • 1986: "This one was born while riding in a car from Ottawa to Montreal. The music was originally conceived to be somewhere between 'Going to Chicago, sorry but I can't take you' and early Elvis Presley in style. Obviously a misconception." - from "All The Diamonds" songbook, edited by Arthur McGregor, OFC Publications 1986. Submitted by Rob Caldwell.

  • 2017: "I dropped out of the Berklee School of Music in Boston at the end of 1965. It wasn't where I was meant to be. By the end of the sixties, I had written maybe 20 songs. They sounded better to me when I did them alone, rather than with any of the bands I was in. Going to the Country was one of the songs that people noticed on my first album. I wrote it as a passenger in a car going to Montreal. I took notes as I looked out the window. The song became a template for one of the strains of songwriting that I've done. The folky guitar and observational lyrics, that perhaps were very early manifestation of the reportage approach to lyric writing that has shown up a lot in my work." - from Bruce Cockburn - a life in seven songs by Brad Wheeler - Globe and Mail. (Inteview date: September 11, 2017)

  • 2021: "Actually I was going through the country, headed from Ottawa to Montreal."

    ~ from the liner notes of Greatest Hits (1970-2020)


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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.