h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Bruce Cockburn is a Canadian folk legend who was introduced to popular music in 1956 with Elvis Presley, and knew that music was where his heart lay. Although he started out playing trumpet and clarinet, he soon turned to guitar and piano because it was rock and roll music that he wanted to play. He spent most of his high school years playing in top 40 bands but also, to do something different, fell in with some folk musicians. In the 60's he was a street musician in Paris and eventually went to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he studied composition and arranging. After dropping out of Beklee he returned to Ottawa and played in predominantly rock bands like the Esquires and the Children.

In 1967 he had built up a small portfolio of self-penned songs that he felt sounded better when performed alone and decided to pursue a solo career, but it took a year to extricate himself from his band involvements; that was also the year he made his first appearance at the Mariposa Folk Festival. In 1969 he made his way to Toronto where he ran into a musician friend named Eugene Martynec, who knew a manager by the name of Bernie Finkelstein, and when it was decided that Martynec would produce some of Cockburn's solo material, Finkelstein formed True North Records, which to this day remains Cockburn's principal label; Finkelstein also took over management of Cockburn's career and remains in that position now. Martynec also went on to produce the first 11 Cockburn albums.

For the first album, released in 1970, Finkelstein made a deal with CBS Records to distribute the album in the rest of the world, but the deal ended up working only in Canada. Although Epic/CBS released and distributed the album in the US in 1971, they called it True North rather than Bruce Cockburn because they did not know of the True North label's existence. Although always released in Canada on True North, Cockburn's material went on to be released in the US and the rest of the world on labels such as Island, Millenium/RCA, Gold Mountain/A&M, Gold Mountain/ MCA, and Gold Castle. In 1970, Cockburn also released the soundtrack for the film Goin' Down The Road. The Bruce Cockburn album went on to win Cockburn his first of many Junos.

Since his first album, Cockburn has released 25 albums worldwide. He has consistently gone gold and platinum in Canada, earning himself the reputation of being one of the country's most prolific songwriters and strongest live performers. Although starting out mostly as a folk artist, by 1978 his material started going in the more folk-rock direction for which he has become most well-known. His material has always been lyrically strong and challenging to the listener, and has gone in several veins, from the simple folk-oriented material of the first four albums, to more spiritual matters with the fifth (signifying Cockburn's turn towards Christianity in 1974) and keeping in that style for another six years. In that time he changed US labels several times, had albums chart in the US in both Cash Box and Billboard, and started touring the United States regularly in the late 70's with his seventh album, all the while remaining a strong musical force in Canada with his consistent high-profile tours. He also did a tour of Japan in 1977 with True North labelmate Murry McLauchlan and his 1979 single Wondering Where The Lions Are went to #21 on the Billboard charts, taking the album from which it came, Dancing In The Dragon's Jaws to #45.

His 1980 album Humans began to showcase his strong political views, which he has continued voicing to the present day. Since the release of that album, he has again changed US labels many times, earned more Junos, had simultaneous compilation albums released in the US and Canada, won the Dutch music industry's Edison Award, and toured in the Far East, Europe and North America. In 1983 he toured South America as an official observer for charitable organization Oxfam, and his impressions of his trip ended up being released as 1984's Stealing Fire, which contained one of his most popular singles, If I Had A Rocket Launcher (which made it to #88 in the US).

1986's World Of Wonders album, on yet another label in the US, raised the ire of the PMRC in the US with the song Call It Democracy's explicit lyrics, and a warning sticker was put on the first pressing. As if that wasn't bad enough the offending lyrics were also highlighted in yellow and after Cockburn and Finkelstein protested this vehemently, the highlighted lyrics were unhighlighted for subsequent pressings. That album went top 30 in Germany and he toured with a band for most of 1986 and 1987 on the strength of its sales. In 1988 he went back on the road solo.

A two-disc set was released in 1987 containing all the singles back to 1970. Entitled Waiting For A Miracle, it was released in Canada and the US simultaneously. A single off of 1989's Big Circumstance, If A Tree Falls, got US college radio exposure, went top 30 in Australia, and was another big hit in Canada. The subsequent 15-day tour of the US was recorded and released as a live album in 1990, called Live, featuring a version of Monty Python's "The Bright Side Of Life".

After the 1989 tour, Cockburn stayed off the road for two years, during which time Finkelstein managed to ink a new deal with Columbia Records. In 1991 Cockburn went to Los Angeles to record, the first time in his entire career he recorded outside of Toronto. The result was Nothing But a Burning Light, featuring some of LA's most notable session and famous musicians and produced by T Bone Burnett. 1991 also saw Intrepid Records in Canada release Kick At The Darkness - The Songs Of Bruce Cockburn, which featured covers of his songs by such artists as the Barenaked Ladies (their first commercial release), Five Guys Named Moe, Rebecca Jenkins, Chris Bottomley, Fat Man Waving, Jellyfishbabies, and the Skydiggers, among others.

He has shared the spotlight with various luminaries in the 1990's - Salman Rushdie at the Literary Penn benefit in Toronto, 1992; Lou Reed on the Christmas With Cockburn radio show, 1992; Paul McCartney at the Earth Day Show at the Hollywood Bowl, 1993; and performed at the 52nd Presidential Inauguration for Bill Clinton in Washington, 1993. He has also received the Order Of Canada (1997, and an honourary Doctorate from York University.

In 1993 he released his first album of Christmas music, and then returned to LA in 1994 to work with T Bone Burnett for his 24th album, Dart To The Heart. After taking a break from the recording studio, Cockburn return in 1997 with a pair of releases: 'Charity Of Night', his strongest work in years, and a live EP, 'You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance'.

His 20th album of original material, 'Breakfast In New Orleans ... Dinner In Timbuktu', came out in September 1999. It featured a haunting duet with the Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins on the Fats Domino chestnut, 'Blueberry Hill'.

Cockburn is honorary chair of Friends of the Earth.



Singles
1965 Love's Made a Fool of You/Summertime (The Esquires) (Capitol)

1970 Going to the Country/Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon (True North)
1970 Musical Friends/Keep it Open (True North)

1971 One Day I Walk (True North)
1971 Up on the Hillside/Feet Fall on the Road (True North)

1972 It's Going Down Slow/Morning Hymn (True North)

1973 Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long (True North)

1974 All the Diamonds (True North)

1975 Burn/Music for a Lunar Eclipse (True North)
1975 Silver Wheels (True North)
1975 I'm Gonna Fly Some Day (True North)

1976 Vagabondage (True North)

1977 Free to Be (True North)

1978 Laughter (True North)

1979 Wondering Where the Lions Are/After the Rain (True North)
1979 Prenons la Mer (True North)

1980 Fascist Architecture (True North)
1980 Rumours of Glory (True North)

1981 I Wanna Go Walking/Radio Shoes (True North)
1981 You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance/The Light Goes on Forever (True North)
1981 Coldest Night of the Year/If the Wind Could Blow My Blues Away (Murray McLauchlan) (True North)

1983 The Trouble with Nornal/Cala Luna (True North)
1983 Waiting for the Moon/Planet of the Clowns (True North)

1984 Tropic Moon/The Candy Man's Gone (True North)
1984 Lovers in a Dangerous Time/Sahara Gold (True North)
1984 Making Contact/Nicaragua (True North)
1984 If I Had a Rocket Launcher/Maybe the Poet (True North)
1984 Making Contact (True North)

1985 Peggy's Kitchen Wall (True North)

1986 People See Through You (True North)
1986 Call it Democracy (True North)
1986 See How I Miss You/Berlin Tonight (True North)
1986 Waiting for a Miracle/Vagabondage (True North)

1987 Stolen Land (True North)

1989 Don't Feel Your Touch (True North)
1989 If a Tree Falls (True North)
1989 Shipwrecked at the Stable Door/Gospel of Bondage (True North)
1989 Shipwrecked at the Stable Door/Anything Can Happen (True North) [CD single]

1991 Dream Like Mine (Columbia) [CD Single]
1991 Dream Like Mine (True North)

1992 Mighty Trucks of Midnight (True North)
1992 Somebody Touched Me (True North)
1992 Great Big Love (True North)

1993 Les Anges Dans Nos Compagnes (Columbia) [CD Single]

1994 Mary Had a Baby(True North)
1994 Listen for the Laugh(True North)
1994 Listen for the Laugh 5 trk CD Single with Listen for the Laugh (edit), Burden of the Angel/Beast, Southland of the Heart, Tie Me At The Crossroads (Columbia)
1994 Southland of the Heart (Columbia)
1994 Scanning These Crowds(True North)
1994 Burden of the Angel/Beast 3 trk CD single with Scanning These Crowds, If I Had a Rocket Launcher (live) (Columbia)

1995 Someone I Used to Love (True North)

Albums
1970 Bruce Cockburn (True North)

1971 High Winds White Sky (True North)
1971 Sunwheel Dance (True North)

1973 Night Vision (True North)

1974 Salt, Sun and Time (True North)

1975 Joy Will Find a Way (True North)

1976 In the Falling Dark (True North)

1977 Circles in the Stream (True North)

1978 Further Adventures Of (True North)

1979 Dancing In the Dragon's Jaws (True North)

1980 Humans (True North)

1981 Resume (Millenium)
1981 Mummy Dust (True North)
1981 Inner City Front (True North)

1983 The Trouble With Normal (True North)

1984 Stealing Fire (True North)

1985 Rumours of Glory (True North)

1986 World of Wonders (True North)

1987 Waiting For A Miracle (True North) [2 CD set]

1988 Big Circumstance (True North)

1990 Live (True North)

1991 Nothing But a Burning Light (True North)

1993 Christmas (True North)

1994 Dart to the Heart (True North)

1997 Charity of Night (True North)
1997 You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance (EP) (True North)

1999 Breakfast In New Orleans ... Dinner In Timbuktu (True North)

Compilations
1992 Best of Mountain Stage Vol 3: "Waiting For A Miracle" (Blue Plate)

1994 Up Front!: Waiting For A Miracle (Blue Plate)