SONGS:
-- The Light Goes On Forever --
Ottawa, 25 March, 1980

Found on:

Inner City Front (2002)

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 7 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

Shaman clambers up the world dream tree
Looking for clues about what is to be
Chants and trances give his spirit wings for flight
Wings still shackled to history
The chain of events is broken so easily
Oh, let me rest in the place of light

Skull-drum skin stretched tight
Sends out ripples in the gathering night
The deepest darkness breeds the brightest light
Music rising from the bones of saints
From the pungent smell of sad sweet poems and paintings
Oh, let me rest in the place of light

God waves a thought like you'd wave your hand
And the light goes on forever
Through the seasons and through the seas
The light goes on forever
Through the burning and the seeding
Through the joining and the parting
The light goes on forever

Gypsy searches through the cards for clues
Alchemist searches for eternal youth
Human reaching almost makes it but not quite
The soul strikes out at what the wind blows by
You live and it hurts you, you give up you die
Oh, let me rest in the place of light

Fugitives in the time before the dawn
Backed up to the wall with weapons drawn
Like mounted nomads always ready for a fight
This creature that thinks and so can fake its own being
Lightless mind's eye not much good for seeing
Oh, let me rest in the place of light

God waves a thought like you'd wave your hand
And the light goes on forever
Through the people and through the walls
The light goes on forever
Through who obeys and who does not
Through who gets rich and who gets caught
The light goes on forever

Uptight lawyer on Damascus road
Becomes a nexus where the light explodes
Concentrated, overpowering sight
Two way whirlpool churning up all time
Infinity stoops to touch the human mind
Oh, let me rest in the place of light

God waves a thought like you'd wave your hand
And the light goes on forever
Through the buildings and through the hills
The light goes on forever
Through the struggles and the games
Through the night's empty doorframes
The light goes on forever


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

Editor's Note - *B-side of True North single for "You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance" (1981).

12 August 2007 - This song was referenced in whole in Bruce's May 11, 2007 Convocation Speech at Queen’s University Theological College.

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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.