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Bruce Cockburn — Justice
Album: Inner City Front
Avg rating:
5.8

Your rating:
Total ratings: 250








Released: 1981
Length: 4:46
Plays (last 30 days): 0
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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
Comments (36)add comment
 bam23 wrote:
As an American listener, I can suggest that you are overly dismissive of quite a few of us. I have no real trouble seeing why this country has its negative image outside the borders. When I lived in Japan, it was quite interesting to see this country's actions from a great remove. The sense I got was of a large and dim giant blundering through the world. Many of us are very critical of the country and its continuing failure to live up to our oft-proclaimed principals. But I think Bruce Cockburn is great and have been hoping for some time that he would show up near where I live.
 
{#Cheers}
Posted 7 years ago by On_The_Beach    [ Reply ]
 nicknt wrote:
Great song from a good album with great lyrics (very actual by the way), I'm very surprised by the low rating.

 
Maybe because he is such a whiner.
Posted 7 years ago by BCarn    [ Reply ]
 westslope wrote:
Love it.

But yeah, I can see how this song would make most American listeners very uncomfortable.

 
As an American listener, I can suggest that you are overly dismissive of quite a few of us. I have no real trouble seeing why this country has its negative image outside the borders. When I lived in Japan, it was quite interesting to see this country's actions from a great remove. The sense I got was of a large and dim giant blundering through the world. Many of us are very critical of the country and its continuing failure to live up to our oft-proclaimed principals. But I think Bruce Cockburn is great and have been hoping for some time that he would show up near where I live.
Posted 7 years ago by bam23    [ Reply ]
As per comment below - too preachy. Just a long series of rhetorical questions and statements. pxd
Posted 7 years ago by pxd    [ Reply ]
Love it.

But yeah, I can see how this song would make most American listeners very uncomfortable.
Posted 7 years ago by westslope    [ Reply ]
 nicknt wrote:
Dubito fortemente che il grande Bruce conoscesse quel brano
raga wrote:
Reggae guitar copy of italian artist Loredana Bertè ".. e la luna bussò" 1979

 

 

Tu credi? Col successo che ha fatto quel pezzo in Italia solo due anni prima?
Secondo me lo conosceva eccome, è solo un gran volpone...
Posted 7 years ago by raga    [ Reply ]
 nicknt wrote:
Great song from a good album with great lyrics (very actual by the way), I'm very surprised by the low rating.

 
Dunno Nick, lyrics are kind of preachy. Becomes annoying when musicians get too carried away with their political opinion as if it is objectively determinable truth, IMHO of course.
Posted 7 years ago by bitbanger    [ Reply ]
 nicknt wrote:
Great song from a good album with great lyrics (very actual by the way), I'm very surprised by the low rating.

 
Definitely agree. I gave it an 8.
Posted 7 years ago by poetdancer    [ Reply ]
Dubito fortemente che il grande Bruce conoscesse quel brano
raga wrote:
Reggae guitar copy of italian artist Loredana Bertè ".. e la luna bussò" 1979

 


Posted 8 years ago by nicknt    [ Reply ]
Great song from a good album with great lyrics (very actual by the way), I'm very surprised by the low rating.
Posted 8 years ago by nicknt    [ Reply ]
Reggae guitar copy of italian artist Loredana Bertè ".. e la luna bussò" 1979
Posted 8 years ago by raga    [ Reply ]
BRILLIANT ARTIST
Posted 8 years ago by hayduke2    [ Reply ]
Best album he did, singing the truth sometimes hurts...
Posted 8 years ago by Bert7    [ Reply ]
The music is meh, but the words are very powerful and appropriate today.

I've heard it said that we judge others by their actions while ignorant of their intentions but we judge ourselves by our intentions regardless of our actions.
Posted 8 years ago by Ahnyer_Keester    [ Reply ]
Velveeta.
Posted 8 years ago by kgage    [ Reply ]
Not one of Bruce's better ones.
Posted 8 years ago by bluematrix    [ Reply ]
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

amen. 

 
Posted 8 years ago by RabbitEars    [ Reply ]
This little ditty is mighty preachy.
Posted 9 years ago by bitbanger    [ Reply ]
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.-Wilde
Posted 9 years ago by thewiseking    [ Reply ]
 Kaisersosay wrote:
Look at Bruce rocking a little rasta,,,,its a happy little ditty.....oh wait,,,maybe not....

 
You said it
Posted 9 years ago by Lampje99    [ Reply ]
I like it. Sound a bit like Colin Bass' Indonesian band.
Posted 9 years ago by alvarorb    [ Reply ]
Look at Bruce rocking a little rasta,,,,its a happy little ditty.....oh wait,,,maybe not....
Posted 9 years ago by Kaisersosay    [ Reply ]
Good lyrics
Posted 9 years ago by EdHommersen    [ Reply ]
Probably because I've been living in New York for the last year, this anniversary of the attacks is particularly melancholy. Thanks for the set.

Posted 18 years ago by lmic    [ Reply ]
This particular song is...meh. But it's shaping up to be quite a set.
Posted 18 years ago by mattt    [ Reply ]
The lyrics are interesting, but too much \"I want to make a great philosophical song\" for me. It\'s too PC as well. One line that redeems the rest though is: everybody loves to see justice done on somebody else Still, \"If I had a Rocket Launcher\"\'s lyrics are much better IMHO... they get basicaly the same point across, but much better, and do not feel arrogant like those can.
Posted 21 years ago by Kinniken    [ Reply ]
His voice is too strained. Also, this is the \"type\" of song that\'s forgettable to me, like most Grateful Dead or something.
Posted 21 years ago by strangechord    [ Reply ]
Socially-conscious but in a white-bread, trite sort of way.
Posted 21 years ago by eric    [ Reply ]
not a bad song, has a catchy Reggae beat, but might sound better if it didn\'t sound so polished. to me, this kind of music needs to be raw, more discordant, more rebellious, not as canned as this sounds...but i still like it anyways. no wonder is Bob Marley was such a genius....his legacy can be heard a million times a day all over the world. Peace, brothers :p
Posted 21 years ago by BLADERUNNER    [ Reply ]
Not a bad song, but not one of his strongest efforts in my opinion. Maybe it\'s the production on the studio albums, but some of his songs from this era come across much better live (including on his live recordings). The version of \"Broken Wheel\" on this album is kind of so-so, but the live version just kicks ass.
Posted 21 years ago by lbeaton    [ Reply ]
I just love the line "everybody loves to see justice done - on somebody else"...
Posted 21 years ago by webmink    [ Reply ]
I've always been a big fan of Bruce Cockburn... this track is great, I'd forgotten all about it and it couldn't be more relevant today... a bit of an antithesis to his angrier "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" but as most people do, he's probably had time to rethink his politics too... this should be recorded in several languages and released worldwide... Cheers Jacques Radio Paradise: What Radio Could Have Been.
Posted 22 years ago by Jacques    [ Reply ]