SONGS:
-- Yanqui Go Home --
1983

Found on:

German version of Rumours of Glory (1985) [compilation album]
Stealing Fire (2003)

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 3 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

Yanqui wake up
You know it's time to go
The sun is almost up and we want to be alone

Yanqui head spin
Better get some rest
Tomorrow we can talk about the way you insulted the guests

Ivan's outside
Sulking in the yard
Everyone got bad communication when the time gets hard

Not a nice guy
But he's got troubles of his own
Anyway it's best if you both just leave the rest of us alone

Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party's over --
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost

Yanqui wake up
Don't you see what you're doing
Trying to be the Pharoah of the West bringing nothing but ruin

Better start swimming
Before you begin to drown
All those petty tyrants in your pocket gonna weigh you down

You're my friend but I say
Yanqui go home
You had too much
Better go sleep it off
Party's over
Time to meditate on it
Time to tally up the cost


Editor's Note:
6 September 2003 - This song is included on the 2003 remastered version of Stealing Fire.


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

  • 15 November 1984

    "I often get requests to do this... this is a song which is kind of a downer but .....although it may be sort of appropriate in some ways, not that you -

    I don't want you to think that it's aimed at you personally. There's a lot of people in this country that don't really have any concept of what... what... what the country looks like from the outside. And this is, one, facet of that picture."

    -- from an intro to the song at a gig at the Cotati Cabaret, Cotati, Sonoma County, California. Submitted by Bobbi Wisby.


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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.