SONGS:
-- Mango --
released 1999

Found on:

Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu (1999)

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 6 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

She's got a mango in the garden - sweet as can be
She's got a mango in the garden - full of mystery
She's got a mango in the garden - from the original tree
She's got a mango in the garden - shares it with me

Humid gleaming precious well
Love to drink that water
Parallel worlds when the sun goes down
The atmosphere grows hotter

She's got a mango in the garden - sweet as can be
She's got a mango in the garden - full of mystery
She's got a mango in the garden - from the original tree
She's got a mango in the garden - shares it with me

I slip through the glistening gate
Tide began to pound
Tears of light poured over me
And ricocheted all around

She's got a mango in the garden - sweet as can be
She's got a mango in the garden - full of mystery
She's got a mango in the garden - from the original tree
She's got a mango in the garden - shares it with me



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

  • August 1999

    "Once I had the idea of having the kora as a sound on the album, I found myself steering the music in that way, where the song suited that. The kind of finger picking you hear in 'Mango' and typical style of kora playing were made for each other. Lyrically, it's kind of a hymn to female sexuality."
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn, Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu", Ryko press release, undated, circa August 1999. Submitted by Nigel Parry.


  • 14 August 1999

    "...not as bump-and-grindy as the subject matter would suggest."
    -- from "Rykodisc's Cockburn Serves Up 'Breakfast': Singer/Songwriter's 25th Set Takes A More Personal Perspective" by Robyn Lewis, Billboard, Vol.111, Issue 33, 14 August 1999. Anonymous submission.


  • 6 February 2000

    HANSEN: You're going to leave us with a version there in the studios of KQED of your song "Mango" with your guitar.

    BC: Mm-hmm.

    HANSEN: Is there anything more you want to say about it?

    BC: Probably I don't need to say too much because it's fairly self-explanatory, I think. It's a kind of anthem to female sexuality and an attempt to offset all the garbage that's been sung by males on that subject with something respectful. So probably the next thing is to play it.
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn, Musician, Shares History and Songs of his New CD, Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu" by Liane Hansen, Weekend Edition Sunday, National Public Radio, February 6, 2000.


  • 14 May 2000

    "For a long time now [I've] been really partial to the sound of women's voices in my music, and we've seemed to establish kind of a pattern of getting great female characters to contribute to the music," he said.

    Cockburn pairs with Timmins on the humidly seductive "Mango," a song laced with erotic metaphor that Cockburn says "honor[s] female sexuality." Timmins' delicate vocal lends balance to the strongly male sentiment; Cockburn thought it was crucial.

    "It's easy for a guy to sit around and express sexual feelings - and it's been done so many ways, and so many awful ways, in the past," he said. "It's easy to be sexist in that kind of a way, and I felt like having a woman's voice in that song would help offset that."

    He took great care to avoid being offensive.

    "I don't want to come off as some sort of sleazy, sex-obsessed guy - I suppose some people might think I am that, but hopefully, it'll only be one or two," he quipped. "I wanted to say what I wanted to say . . . the idea for it came out of personal experience, but it's broader than any one experience.

    "I've gotten one letter so far where somebody has even thought I sounded like a dirty old man singing that song, but that's outnumbered vastly by the comments I've gotten back to the effect that people like it. And luckily, or at least happily, enough, a lot of women seem to appreciate it, so I'm very pleased about that," he said.
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn: Canadian will bring his band to Whitaker Center," by Kira L Schlechter, The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, PA, May 14, 2000. Submitted by John Peregrim.



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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.