Skip to main content

Bruce Cockburn - The Trouble with Normal

It's been a long time since I've sat and listened to this one all the way through. When I wrote about World of Wonders almost a year ago I spent half of the meanderamble talking about this particular album before finally getting to the point ... or as close to point as I ever get.

Bruce Cockburn
When I think of this album I think of two songs, which happen to be the one two punch that kick of side one. The title track and the awesome stick work by Dennis Pendrith, and "Candy Man's Gone" a song so good that it still stops me in my tracks. When Mister Cockburn had a mind to he could craft one hell of a pop song that had some real bite to the lyrics. There were no baby baby songs here. This was heavy stuff that you needed to sit and read as you listened.

I'll be the first to admit that I like the shiny objects and the pretty music with a hook. For Bruce it seemed like he relished setting the hook early and then seeing how much he could getaway with before he lost the fish. In keeping with that analogy I'll freely admit that once I'd tasted the worm on those first two cuts, the nearly eight minutes of near spoken word poetry over musical dissonance that was the challenging "Hoop Dancer" often more often than not would lose me. I have no idea what it's about, but my goodness it was earnest and wonderfully crafted ... and I still don't really like it, but it as wee bit of art.

liner notes
What would a Bruce Cockburn album be if it didn't nearly collapse under the serious musical hubris of an artists' artist and a guy who walked the walk and talked the talk. I know this sounds like I'm shitting on Bruce, but I'm not. Even listening to this I feel intimated and intellectually stunted. I feel like a little kid who accidentally got seated at the adult table at Thanksgiving and everyone is talking about grown up stuff, and all I want to talk about are guitar solos. So no, I'm not shitting on Bruce ... I'm in awe of Bruce, but I also don't care for some of the music. Thankfully he'll throw in enough "pretty" pop songs to appease the Luddites like me who buy records.

Thank you Bruce.

the band credits
As you can tell, I'm going to spend the rest of my time skimming along the surface and praising the album for the songs that meant a lot to me over forty years ago. When I  dropped the needle the opening to "The Trouble with Normal" just transported me back in time. I was 20 and this was fresh and new, and it was so good. It was the song that made me want to buy the album, and as I played it I was looking for the next pop masterpiece, and I didn't have to wait long for "Candy Man's Gone" and that would have been enough for me. There were more though, "Tropic Moon" was yet another weighty pop song. I wasn't used to music like this. 

The songs that resonated all those years ago still get me in the feels, and the songs I didn't spend as much time with mean more to me now with the passage of time. The album still sounds great, and even the songs I found more challenging in my youth have a sonic punch that'll still take your breath away. Bruce was (is) a master player and the band is no less adept. I'd forgotten how haunting the closing track "Planet of the Clowns" was, if I'd remembered before I'd dropped the needle it would have been top of mind. It wasn't and as it played deep and forgotten memories were exhumed. It's a poignant piece. If I'm being honest it's probably the favourite revelation as I revisited the album. Lyrically I'm not sure how to take the song. It reads like a lament and it seems like everything is pointless, and in the end we all walk on the same beach and no escapes getting a soaker.

back cover
I suppose that really is the trouble with normal ... it always gets worse.

Oh by the way, Mister Cockburn thank you for expanding my musical horizons. I may not have always appreciated what you did, but I did listen. I just didn't always get it. I still don't, but I'm trying. Oh on the plus side, I loved your guitar solo on "Tropic Moon" - way to rip it up.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure.  I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again.  I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...