SONGS:
-- Strange Waters --
7 November 1995. Halton Hills.


Found on:

The Charity Of Night (1996)

You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance (1997) [live album]

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

I've seen a high cairn kissed by holy wind
Seen a mirror pool cut by golden fins
Seen alleys where they hide the truth of cities
The mad whose blessing you must accept without pity

I've stood in airports guarded glass and chrome
Walked rifled roads and landmined loam
Seen a forest in flames right down to the road
Burned in love till I've seen my heart explode

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters

Across the concrete fields of man
Sun ray like a camera pans
Some will run and some will stand
Everything is bullshit but the open hand

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

You've been leading me
Beside strange waters
Streams of beautiful lights in the night
But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
If I loose my grip, will I take flight?



Musicians:
Bruce Cockburn: Resophonic and Electric Guitars and Vocal
Gary Craig: Drums, Percussion
Rob Wasserman: Bass
Jonatha Brooke and Patty Larkin: Vocals




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


  • 18 January 1997

    Scott Simon: "It just comes to me now that you have a really stunning phrase... you've probably got about a hundred stunning phrases in here, I must say... but on 'Strange Waters', where you say, 'I've seen alleys where they hide the truth of cities..'?"

    BC: "Yeah, well, I guess I got on to that idea when I lived in Boston in the sixties, because I was sleepless, as I have been much of my life, or at least disinclined to go to sleep, let's say. And every night before I went to bed I'd go for a long walk, and the alleys were always the most interesting part of the city to walk in at that hour. You know, people's garbage...they don't clean those up the way they do the sidewalks, so you kinda see the other side of things, and I suppose in a way that the need to see the other side of things has been one of the driving forces of my entire life. "

    - from "Weekend Edition", interviewed by Scott Simon, 18 January 1997, National Public Radio. Anonymous Submission.


  • 22-29 May 1997

    [Discussing "Strange Waters", he says that he feels] "just as led by God" [as the anonymous author of the psalm he borrowed from]

    - from "Night Reveals Clues, Not Answers - Bruce Cockburn internalizes his angst while looking forward to an awakening", by Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight, 22-29 May 1997. Submitted by Nigel Parry.


  • November/December 1999

    Susan Adams Kauffman: "Strange Waters" is one of your songs that is rich in autobiographical detail. You cite the various observations you've made, places you've been. Then, as tension builds, you passionately state that "everything is bullshit but the open hand." What is this open-handedness you're referring to?

    BC: I could have said open heart. It's openness, period, the willingess to share what you have and to accept what others are willing to share with you, and what God or the universe is willing to share with you, and you back. Defensiveness or defendedness can become an impediment to love, obviously. Since it's love that makes the world go 'round, defendedness keeps the world from going 'round.

    - from "Fire in an Open Hand" by Susan Adams Kauffman, The Other Side magazine, November/December 1999. Submitted by Nigel Parry.



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