Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Bruce

My all time favourite singer songwriter is Bruce Cockburn.

This month a documentary called Life and Times of Bruce Cockburn is airing on Bravo in Canada. Alas, Bravo in the US does not seem to have picked it up.

Alanis Morissette introduces Bruce Cockburn
benefit concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre




JUSTICE
by Bruce Cockburn

What's been done in the name of Jesus
What's been done in the name of Buddha
What's been done in the name of Islam
What's been done in the name of man
What's been done in the name of liberation
And in the name of civilization
And in the name of race
And in the name of peace!
everybody
loves to see
justice done
on somebody else


Can you tell me how much bleeding
It takes to fill a word with meaning
And how much, how much death
It takes to give a slogan breath
And how much, how much, how much flame
Gives light to a name
For the hollow darkness
In which nations dress?
everybody
loves to see
justice done
on somebody else


Everybody's seen the things they've seen
We all have to live with what we've been
When they say charity begins at home
They're not just talking about a toilet and a telephone
Got to search the silence of the soul's wild places
For a voice that can cross the spaces
These definitions that we love create --
These names for heaven, hero, tribe and state
everybody
loves to see
justice done
on somebody else

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