Bruce Cockburn Unchains Canada
NEW YORK—If quality will out and the cream rises to the top, then the U.S. of A. is seriously out of step—blindfolded andear-muffed—in not according Bruce Cockburn the same degree of commercial success he has achieved in his native Canada for more than a decade.
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Bruce Cockburn Unchains Canada
THE BEAT GOSE ON
NEW YORK—If quality will out and the cream rises to the top, then the U.S. of A. is seriously out of step—blindfolded andear-muffed—in not according Bruce Cockburn the same degree of commercial success he has achieved in his native Canada for more than a decade. Admittedly, folk-based music has suffered a serious popular and artistic decline in the States since its peak in the late 60s and the early 70s. (Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne ;c Paul Simon, et al. just aint what they used to be, and its been a long time since Joni Mitchells Court And Spark.) And those singer-songwriters who do hit it big on the charts tend to emphasize pop slickness and simplistic, if clever, lyrics while moving ever further away from the tradition of self-aware conviction and intellectually reflective observation that inspired the best popular folk music.
Cockburn, of course, hasnt taken an easy route to success: A true intellectual, he has a poetic command of language. At times densely metaphoric, his lyrics reflect various literary, philosophical, and mystical influences; his keen understanding of history and its sociopolitical underpinnings has resulted in a body of work that is demanding and uncompromising. And the primacy of his deep commitment to Christianity, his theological point of view, has served to set him apart from the pop, and even the folk, mainstream. While his lovely folkand-jazz oriented melodies and his excellent, expressive (especially acoustic) guitar-playing have provided a fluid, ingratiating balance for the necessarily serious nature of his concerns, his surprising top 20 hit two years ago,Wondering Where The Lions Are, with its delightful reggaeish leanings, and the fair success of the album from which it was culled, Dancing In The Dragons Jaw (a couple of hundred thousand copies sold in the States), remain the U.S. of A.s only commercial recognition of Cockburns unique talents and versatility.
So how come Cockburn is ensconced at the top of the heap in Canada, with one smash album after another and regularly sold-out tours (although, interestingly,Wondering Where The Lions Are was also his first hit single north of the border) and yet had been unable to firmly break the market in the States? When I talked with the boyish, amiable 35-year-old Cockburn in the offices of his current label, Millennium Records, he suggested a number of reasons, inclusing misunderstanding and mishandling on the part of his previous distributors in the States, CBS and Island. For example, his most commercial early album, Night Vision, was never released here. And since he is not really a singles artist} he recognizes that it takes a great deal of time and effort to reach a broad audience; indeed, he attributes his Canadian success tosix years of hard work, touring and putting out albums. Anyhow, he doesnt seem perturbed:Its not my big aim in life to have top 40 singles. Thats nice if it happens, but... Which makes sense, considering a line from 1976sSilver Wheels:Radio speakers gargle top 40 trash.
As a wordsmith first—-"I find it easier to fit the music around the words — Cockburn acknowledges that he has been influenced by a vastly different set of writers that his musical forebears. In his early years, he was taken with Bob Dylan and John Lennon, andDavid Bowie is probably my favorite songwriter right now, although I would not want to be influenced by one of my contemporaries. Cockburn writes mostly in English, but occasionally in French (admitting,I write better in English than I do in French).I like the idea of mixing the languages—as he does onLoner, from his current LP Inner City Front—although it probably doesnt make as much sense in an American context as in a Canadian context.
While Bruce Cockburn is commited to his Christian devotion, he doesnt ally himself with any particular church.Ones belief—hopefully, its what you live and what you carry around with you all the time. The logical outcome of that compartmentalization is people like the Ayatollah. ("Justice, on Inner City Front, explicates this idea clearly.) Cockburns devotion is gentle, playful and somewhat nonspecific:Its not my business what other people think I am. My business is to write songs. His beliefs...are pretty much grounded in the Bible, because theyre already there, and because theres a million other people saying them, too. Ive got a beef with a lot of Christian artists because of the lack of adventure in their work because of the conservative tendency to just stick to quoting the Bible in various ways. The Bibles an extremely quotable book, and weve seen a lot of its ability to be manipulated throughout history. Nor is Cockburn given to proselytizing, a la latter-day Bob Dylan:Nobody ever really convinced me of anything by hard-selling it. That always gets my defenses up. It again comes down to choice, and the only thing that you can reasonably do, if you have something that you want to convince someone of, unless you dont have much respect for that persons intelligence or integrity, is offer it to them as an invitation or as a suggestion, as a potential... And the first duty of an artist is to produce good art.
As is readily apparent on Inner City Front (his first selfproduced album), Bruce Cockburn doesnt hold out much hope for humanity on earth. Having madea fair study of history, he allows thatI have very little faith in humans ability to get things together for themselves... I dont believe in the humanist ideal at all, in that degree of self-determination. But he refuses to be overwhelmed by the sense of hoplessness of it all. In the midst of the tumultuousness and material squalor in.Alls Quiet On The Inner City Front, he quietly announces his faith:I dont know why I should but I feel content. Bruce Cockburns faith sustains him and inspires him. You may not share his beliefs, but they are affecting and enviable.
Jim Feldman
Bow Wow Wow Take Trip, Yeah!
NEW YORK-The first time Bow Wow Wow were ready to tour America their 15-year-old singer Annabella Lu Win had either a) stage fright, b) a sore throat, c)a fight with her mother, d) nervous exhaustion (choose one or more). As we recall fondly, the groups cancellation at the Ritz was replaced by the PiL art show. But second time around, its as if the first set of problems never happened. This quartet of teenagers, steered into hits and notoriety by Malcolm McLaren, forgot about everything except demonstrating how to have a good time.
Mohican-haired guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leroy Gorman, hidden inside a fraying leather outfit and German helmet, and drummer Dave Barbarossa, an authentic pirate descendant for all you authenticity purists, pounded out an hour of, well, jungle rhythms that made a discos pulsations feel sedate. In front of them, braided hair and swirling harem pants flying, Annabella and two dancers were joyously confident.W.O.R.K. she chanted, as the trio propelled synchronous legs left and right like a latter-day Supremes. Even when the choice of song seemed awkward, as when Annabella sangFools Rush In to a Latin beat, her native enthusiasm made up for a flubbed note or two.
"Annabellas a great singer, insisted Lee the following day, after I had unknowingly committed a faux pas by comparing her performances unconventionality and charm to that of Lene Lovich or Poly Styrene. The young lady was a bit milder in her reaction than her robust bassist, who almost left the room, and was a lot more modest about herself.There, are some singers who cant really sing, she intoned with a straightforward London schoolgirl accent,but theyve got a good sound. Like Rod Stewart —I dont think he can sing, but because of his voice hes got a particular style. I think Im on the same principle. I dont think Im a really good singer, but I think Ive got a style. Its all right, she says flatly.
Though shes just turned 16 (˜Im getting older, she says seriously), Annabellas come quite a distance since she stood up at the local pub at age 10 and sangIsnt She Lovely. At the age where most young Americans are trying to get through two more years of high school and never mind what you want to do after that, this Burmese Britain has made frequent appearances in the Top 10, been in the midst of a controversy over a nude LP sleeve, which was cancelled, and is managed with her group of Adams former Ants by the most media-conscious individual in the entertainment world. Her response to the pressures, at least in the way she handles meetings with reporters, would win admiration from insecure singers many years her senior.
"I didnt know anything about Malcolm until he had interviews, to tell you the truth. Its only when they started asking me questions like, ˜and what do you think of Malcolms Dark Background... the Sex Pistols? and I said, ˜dont know.Shes too young for that, interjects Lee, much more eager than Annabella to get his views across immediately-
"Youve got to expect to get exploited, she admits,especially in music. Well, in every other business youre exploited in some way or another. There are girls walking around the streets now who are being exploited but theyre doing it anyway.And Annabella does it for free, offers Lee, which prompts Annabella to yell,Shut up! and giggle, proving that they can act their age some of the time.
Hyped or not, what Bow Wow Wow are doing, onstage and on their mouthful of an album See Jungle! See Jungle! Join Your Gang, Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy makes a lot more sense to an unemployed teenager than envying Brooke Shields making an entrance at Studio 54 on the arm of that Calvin.
"That type of people have been built up to an image and Im sure when you meet them, theyre nothing like it. But, Annabella reflects,its a bit sad in a way. Those people get forced to live their image because its so strong. I reckon a young guy or girl here ought to go out and form their own band or join one.
Adds Lee,for people my age, theres no jobs, so they just hang out. But for some people, working as a way of life has been so instilled into them that if they dont havq a job they feel a psychological loss. And to fill that, they should do something else thats more exciting. Use the technology, like the Sony Walkman, cause its getting cheaper. Go out and show youre having fun. Like you said, it is ˜a jungle out there, but we like to think of it in a more colorful way.
Toby Goldstein
