SONGS:
-- Incandescent Blue --
New York. released 1979


Found on:

Dancing In The Dragon's Jaws (1979) & (2002)

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 3 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

I sneaked across the border -- it was threatening rain --
So I could stand in this tunnel, waiting for the roaring train
And watch those black kids working out kung fu moves
If you don't want to be the horses' hoofprints you got to be the hooves

Hear that lonesome violin play
See the notes float up into the overcast
and change to white birds as they sail on through
and soar away free into incandescent blue

People getting ready behind all those rectangles of light
"Put on your grin mask, babe, you know we're steppin out tonight"
You hear that sound, like hammers only small?
It's what the people's heads say when they beat them against the wall

Hear that lonesome violin play
See the notes float up into the overcast
and change to white birds as they sail on through
and soar away free into incandescent blue

Concrete vortex sucks down the wind
It's howling like a blinded violin.
Oh -- tongues of fire, come and kiss my brow
if I ever needed you, well I need you now

Hear that lonesome violin play
See the notes float up into the overcast
and change to white birds as they sail on through
and soar away free into incandescent blue




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

  • 1986 - "New York, street life under the angular ribbons of sky shaped around the tops of buildings - a book of poems by the Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa- and an acute awareness of the absence of a work visa for the gig at the Other End." - from "All The Diamonds" songbook, edited by Arthur McGregor, OFC Publications 1986. Submitted by Rob Caldwell.


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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.