SONGS:
-- Blueberry Hill --
(cover version)

Found on:

Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu (1999)
Lyrics:

I found my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you.

The moon stood still
On Blueberry Hill
And lingered until
My dreams came true.

The wind in the willow played
Love's sweet melody;
But all of those vows we made
Were never to be

Tho' we're apart,
YouÕre part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill


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

  • Editor's Note: Words and Music by Al Lewis, Larry Stock and Vincent Rose


  • Circa 1999

    Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) – "When we met to lay down the vocals for ‘Blueberry Hill’ all I could think was how astoundingly good she was. I asked her to sing, so I knew she was talented, but what she brought out in that song amazed me."
    -- from "Walking the Line With Bruce Cockburn", Indie-Music.com, circa 1999, by Heidi Drockelman.


     

  • August 1999

    "Colin and I have an extracurricular project called Bambi & The Deer Hunters, which is a band that plays once or twice a year at a club in Toronto. We play new stuff of ours, assorted old tunes; songs we don't know. 'Blueberry Hill' was one of those songs. It plays into the New Orleans part of the title, and to me, fit the sensibility of the album. It's a romantic reminiscence. Sort of the other side of the 'Embers Of Eden' coin, which is another song on the CD."
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn, Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu", Ryko press release, undated, circa August 1999. Submitted by Nigel Parry.


  • 6 February 2000

    (Soundbite of Bruce Cockburn's version of "Blueberry Hill")

    BC and Ms. MARGO TIMMINS:(Singing in unison) I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill, on Blueberry Hill, when I found you.

    HANSEN: I have to talk about a cover tune you do on this CD simply because of the way that you do it. I never thought that I could hear another version of "Blueberry Hill," except Fats Domino's version, until I heard this. Whatever possessed you to do it in this way?

    BC: Actually, I was fooling around with the long reverb sound that you can hear on the guitar. That song came--I have sentimental associations with that song from you youth and it seemed to fit. It seemed to fit in the context of my other songs on the album; it's take on loss. It's a lovely, simple statement about an emotional experience that lots of us have. The particular way we did it, of course, like I said, really started with this fooling around in a kind of abstract way with that echo sound and it just kind of developed from that.

    (Soundbite of Bruce Cockburn's version of "Blueberry Hill")

    Ms. TIMMINS: (Singing) The wind in the willow played love's sweet melody, but all of those vows we made were never to be.

    BC and Ms. MARGO TIMMINS: (Singing in unison) Though we're apart...

    HANSEN: The singer on this is Margo Timmins from the Cowboy Junkies.

    BC: Mm-hmm. I didn't really know Margo beforehand, and Margo sings in a way that I've admired for a long time. And I spoke to my manager, Bernie Finkelstein and so he called Margo and just said, 'You know, Bruce is interested in having you sing on this record; are you?' And he said she was and we sent her tapes of the songs that we were thinking of and she picked "Blueberry Hill" and "Mango" are the ones that she particularly wanted to do.
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn, Musician, Shares History and Songs of his New CD, Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbukt"e; by Liane Hansen, Weekend Edition Sunday, National Public Radio, February 6, 2000. Submitted by Suzanne Capobianco.


  • 14 May 2000

    He duets with Timmins again in a moody, almost dirge-like cover of "Blueberry Hill." The Fats Domino classic is a staple in the live set of Cokburn's occasional side project, the drolly named Bambi & the Deer Hunters, and most of the members of that band play on the track.

    When the suggestion arose to include it on the album, Cockburn had his doubts as to whether it would fit. But when he thought about his other songs on the record, such as "The Embers of Eden," which he says deals with "the nonevolvement of a relationship," he realized the old chestnut had a similar theme.

    "I was fooling around with that long reverb sound that you can hear on the guitar one day," Cockburn said, "and I suppose [I was] mulling over the same sort of thing that 'Embers of Eden' is about, and 'Blueberry Hill' just kind of popped out of the past at me."
    -- 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.


  • 7 February 2000

    Brent Bambury: We start off in New Orleans and end up in West Africa. Along the way you drop off on Blueberry Hill.

    BC: That's a New Orleans thing. The album isn't really about travel particularly. At the time these songs were written, I did have breakfast in New Orleans and dinner in Timbuktu. The songs fit on some kind of cultural line that can be extended between the two places. So it seemed to work. And Blueberry Hill plays into the New Orleans side of that balance.

    Brent Bambury: Your version is louder than Fats Domino.

    BC: And slower and whiter. It would be foolish to reproduce that definitive version of the song. There's no way you can play it and do it better than Fats or even as well.
    -- from "Bruce Cockburn on international cuisine", CBC Infoculture, February 7, 2000, by Brent Bambury.


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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.