SONGS:
-- Celestial Horses --
18 August 1978. Nelson, BC. - Summer /2001. Montpelier.

Found on:

Bruce Cockburn's Live On World Cafe (2002)
You've Never Seen Everything (2003)

Slice O Life (2009)
Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 2 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

Here comes those silver celestial horses
Rays of the moon in the mountain air
I'm steeped in the steam of the last wild hot spring
Maybe I'm melting but I don't care
There's darkness in the canyon
But the Light comes pounding through
For me and for you

Tomorrow may be a hissing blowtorch
Maybe a silken sky shaken by the wind
The world's in the wake of those whispering horses
But there's always a pillar of cloud on the valley's rim
There's darkness in the canyon
But the Light comes pounding through
For me and for you

Still river full of the depths of the candles
Burning for the free ones riding on the other shore
Even at the heart of these breathing shadows
You can feel us gathering at the door
There's darkness in the canyon
But the Light comes pounding through
For me and for you

For me and for you




Musicians
Bruce Cockburn: Electric Guitar and Vocals
Gary Craig: Percussion Kit
Larry Taylor: Upright Bass
Hugh Marsh: Violin
Stephen Hodges: Drums, Percussion Jackson Browne: Harmony


Editor's note:

This song was first released in 2001 on Bruce Cockburn's Live On World Cafe which was packaged with Anything,Anytime,Anywhere.


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

  • circa 25 September 2001

    This is a song that won't get recorded probably, until sometime in the new year when we do a "real" new album. The idea for it, which is one that goes back some years and I've been carrying it around all this time.

    The song was borne of an experience in a hot spring out in the Rockies at the end of the 70s. And I was driving through and stopped off and stayed with some people and they introduced me to this place it was an uncommericalized hot spring just bubbling out of the side of the mountain and I went there by myself one night and watched the moon come on the other side of the valley and It was a very, kind of deeply moving experience. And I hadn't "just for the record", imbibed any kind chemicals or substances that might produce the mystical effect but the mystical effect was there none-the-less. For years I was trying to figure out how to make a song out of that and eventually, this year, I was able to do that.

    At the moment it's called Celestial Horses, I'm not sure it'll stay with that title or not. People might remember that at the end of the 70s it was also a tense time because at that point we weren't sure if Russia and China were going to go to war so there was a lot of feeling in the air, a feeling of uncertainty and concern about our future and I think that might've played into the song as well.
    -- From World Cafe 10th Anniversary Show CD, circa 25 September 2001. Submitted by Suzanne D. Myers.


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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.