Breakfast was Mahler and coffee
Dinner’s Lightnin’ Hopkins and rye
Everything you say comes back to bite you
These days only beauty makes you cry
The chapel is closed for the COVID
Black mold owns the city by the sea
Dew-beaded cobweb in the moonlight -
Halo for a saint who’s yet to be
And the dead shall sing
To the living and the semi-alive
Bells will ring
When you arrive
You're limping like a three-legged canine
Backbone creaking like a cheap shoe
Dragging the accretions of a lifetime
But you oughta make another mile or two...
And the dead shall sing
To the living and the semi-alive
Bells will ring when you arrive
QUAND TU ARRIVERAS
Le déjeuner consistait en du Mahler et du café
Le diner en du Lightnin Hopkins et du rye
Tout ce que tu dis revient pour te mordre
Ces jours-ci, seulement la beauté te fait pleurer
La chapelle est fermée à cause de la Covid
Une moisissure noire conquiert la ville en bordure de la mer
Fils d'araignées perlés de rosée au clair de lune
Auréole pour un saint en devenir
Les morts chanteront
Pour les vivants et les demi-vivants
Les cloches sonneront
Quand tu arriveras
Tu boites comme un chien à-trois -pattes
L'épine dorsale qui craque comme un soulier bon marché
Trainant les dépôts de toute une vie
Mais tu devrais être capable de faire encore un mille ou deux
Les morts chanteront
Pour les vivants et les demi-vivants
Les cloches sonneront quand tu arriveras
SF, 27 juillet 2020
Musicians
Bruce Cockburn / Vocal, Resonator Guitar
Gary Craig / Drums, Percussion
Viktor Krauss / Upright Bass
Jim Hoke / Clarinet, Saxophones
Chris Brown / Drums
Shawn Colvin, Allison Russell, Buddy Miller,
Sarah Jarosz, Ann & Regina McCrary / Vocals
Traduction français par Marcel Moussette et Jane Macaulay.
All songs by Bruce Cockburn, c 2020 Holy Drone Corp
Released on O Sun O Moon 12 May 2023
Editors Note:
FOUR NEW SONGS was a video demo, made in January and February of 2021. Recording was done at Yahiro Barn Studio in San Francisco. The expectation is that in the fullness of time there will be an album containing these songs and others yet to be written. If live shows were possible they would be showing up in the repertoire. Since that isn’t happening, here they are...
This first premiered on YouTube for San Fransisco Lighthouse Church 2 May 2021.
Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date:
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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.
