A note from the Author

A partial inspiration for this project was the Rush Fan's Guide to Toronto which I stumbled upon years ago before I had ever been to Canada. Since then, I had thought about doing a similar thing, centering on Bruce Cockburn. I had a lot of fun putting it together. Besides researching info on one of my favorite musicians, it gave me a reason to explore some of Toronto, being a recent transplant to the area. Some may think this "guide" a little excessive, but it just kind of grew as it progressed, and became a sort of "well, why not include every Bruce Cockburn-Toronto parallel I can think of?". My hope is that it is a good guide for fans of Bruce's music who are visiting the city, as well as somewhat interesting reading for those nowhere near Toronto at all.

Introduction

In the beginning at least, Toronto didn't seem to hold a strong attraction for Bruce Cockburn. "O Jesus, don't let Toronto take my song away" he sang in his 1969 song Thoughts On A Rainy Afternoon, seeming to eye the city and the urban life it represented with some wariness.

Shortly after this, Cockburn wrote the songs for the film Goin' Down The Road, a story of two friends looking for a bright new future in Toronto and having their dreams dashed instead:

"I came to the city with the sun in my eyes
My mouth full of laughter and dreams
But all that I found was concrete and dust
And hard times sold in vending machines."

--from the title track Goin' Down The Road

Though Cockburn would turn down requests for the songs from this movie during performances from this time, saying that he had written the songs to represent the points of view of the characters in the film and not his, he wasn't exactly extolling the virtues of the city by writing them.

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In the late 1960's, Bruce Cockburn was entering into what fellow singer/songwriter Murray McLauchlan referred to as his "buccolic phase". He was finding inspiration and ideas in nature and not the concrete and steel that pervaded Toronto.

By the early 1980's, though, Bruce was a permanent denizen of the city, embracing Toronto's urban environment and finding much imagery for his increasingly less pastoral songs. His 1981 album Inner City Front might be looked at as his "Toronto album". He had just moved back to the city after his divorce and was acquainting himself with a "newly discovered urban landscape of love, lust, and speakeasies" (quoted in the Rumours Of Glory 1980-1990 songbook, cited in the Project's notes for You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance).

Since then, Cockburn has lived off and on in the city. With such a long connection to Toronto, there are specific places and areas in the city that figure in his songs and musical history.

This is a "Bruce Cockburn Fan's Guide To Toronto". It is not completely comprehensive, but every effort has been made to be as complete as possible.

Rob Caldwell

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Sources used

• The Cockburn Project, of course.
• Toronto.com (Great directory of the city)
• Gavin's Woodpile (Bruce Cockburn newsletter)
• Jennings, Nicholas. Before The Goldrush, Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1997.
• McLauchlan, Murray. Getting Out Of Here Alive: The Ballad of Murray McLaughlan, Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1999.