Old Enough to Forget

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 the point as I ever get. When I think of this album I think of two songs, which happen to be the one-two punch that kicks off side one. The title track, with 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 get away with before he lost t...

Bruce Cockburn is an artists' artist. One whose conviction and seriousness seem overwhelming and, to be honest, a little intimidating. He always seemed like a guy who had a sense of humour but kept it in a shoe box on the shelf in his closet lest he use it and undermine his own sense of purpose. As a teenager my first exposure to him was when he hit it big with "Wondering Where the Lions Are," a song that is intricately structured. I saw him perform the song on Saturday Night Live, and I remember thinking, "Wow, he's on T.V.," followed closely by, "Man, I can't stand that song." It was true, it was right up there as a twofer along with Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as songs I could appreciate the grandeur and scope of, but couldn't stand. Then there'd be other songs, and for whatever reason I never forgot his appearance on The Alan Hamel Show (that later devolved into The Alan Thicke Show , and w...