Lyrics:

Heavy northern autumn sky
Mist-hung forest, dark spruce, bright maple
And the great lake rolling forever to the narrow gray beach

I look west along the red road of the frail sun
Where it hovers between shelf of cloud and spiky trees
Receding shore

The world is full of seasons of anguish, of laughter
And it comes to mind to write you this

Nothing is sure
Nothing is pure
And no matter who we think we are
Everyone gets his chance to be nothing

Love's supposed to heal, but it breaks my heart to feel
The pain in your voice
But you know, it's all going somewhere
And I would crush my heart and throw it in the street
If I could pay for your choice

Isn't that what friends are for?
Isn't that what friends are for?

We're the insect life of paradise
Crawl across leaf or among towering blades of grass
Glimpse only sometimes the amazing breadth of heaven

You're as loved as you were
Before the strangeness swept through
Our bodies, our houses, our streets
When we could speak without codes
And light swirled around like
Wind-blown petals
Our feet

I've been scraping little shavings off my ration of light
And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it
I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache
Under a loose board in the floor
And I blow across it and I send it to you
Against those moments when
The darkness blows under your door

Isn't that what friends are for?
Isn't that what friends are for?
Isn't that what friends are for?

I've adored this song ever since I first heard it almost five years ago. It's among the most beautiful and moving songs I've ever heard. On a totally different note, I was just reading through the comments below and I am amazed at how people often jump all over each other when discussing music here. Strange how discussion boards bring out sides of people that they would never otherwise show. Why do folks have to be so hard on each other here? Leave the tension for the outside world, and let's keep RP a supportive place. Perhaps I am just a naive ex-hippy...

ChicoCyclist wrote: Not if he had a rocket launcher.

ChicoCyclist wrote: Actually, I'm with Steve on this one. Stands to reason that most artists who put together a song like this are gonna take a lot of time and care with the lyrics. My (not always fulfilled) hope is that the least we could all do is take a close listen at the lyrics before making rather unintelligent comments like Shimmer's. Course he's free to make his opinion...and we're all free to respond on the same level.

This music is painful, not bad painful, just mournful painful

jazzface78 wrote: Talking intro reminds of Donovan's Atlantis song . . .or maybe I'm crazy.

jazzface78 wrote: I am sorry to hear that...

I DO like the background vocals on this CD by Lucinda Williams....

im into it...this mellow shit really gets me

Shimmer wrote: This sounds like a lovely string of chords, but I'm afarid I don't get it either. I also keep waiting for the music to start.

steve wrote: Add me to that list of people that "don't get it." Steve, I think you "don't get it"; not everyone has to like all music and we're free (at least for the moment) to express that on this site. Try using a little self-restraint when reading other people's comments...Bruce would, right?

In a search for the lyrics to this nice piece by Bruce, I encountered these comments below the lyrics on his web site, The Cockburn Project - (click here). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date: 24 August 1999 - "The 'you' in that song is my friend Jonatha Brooke who's formally of a group called The Story... Jonatha and I had been going through similar things at a distance from each other (a couple years ago now), sort of upheavals in our respective lives and comparing notes over the phone for a while and we finally actually got a chance, after many months . One of the wierd things about being a touring musician is that you make friends with other people who do what you do but you only see them, you know, when you sort of flash past each other waving on the bus, or you know, at the occasional festival once in a while you get lucky enough that you actually end up in the same place at the same time with time to spend. Eventually you know, this happened, with me and Jonatha. While I was waiting for her to show up at the designated rendezvous point, I ended up writing that song based on our phone conversations and a few other bits and pieces from my notebook." - from an interview/live performance with Laura Ellen, "Live in the Sty" programme, KPIG radio station, Freedom, California, 24 August 1999. Anonymous submission. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shimmer, if you spew comments like "Christ. Is he going to play a song or just go on like this the whole time?", maybe you should be listening to another station - somewhere that plays "the hits", like Brittney Spears! You just don't get it - sheesh! :headshake:

Posted 20 years ago by Steve    [ Reply ]

Shimmer wrote: Come on! Th mood of this songs is incredible nice

Christ. Is he going to play a song or just go on like this the whole time?