Listen Top Ten: Listen for the Laugh (#6)

Tweet

Today we’re all listening for news about the Queen. I’m certainly wishing her well, as well as all of our friends from the United Kingdom. Along with listening to that, here’s another song from my current countdown. This closes out the “bottom five” of the top ten of songs that have “listen” (or “listening”) in the title. Not one you’ll know, but, hey it isn’t country. #6: Listen for the Laugh - Bruce Cockburn I have a thing for Bruce Cockburn. I saw him in 1980, opening for Warren Zevon in Orlando. I got to meet him, too. A very sweet gentleman. Over the past 50-some-odd years (I saw a recent video of him on YouTube and had to do a double take, then I remembered he is 77 now) he’s been a folk icon in Canada. That hasn’t translated beyond “cult status” in America, but that’s okay. It makes it easier to get tickets to his concerts. A voice with a conscience, spurred by his deep faith (his “hit,” such as it was, is 1980’s “Wonderin’ Where the Lions Are,” which was a song about his life being analogous to Daniel in the lions’ den), Cockburn has turned out some great music. He usually gets a wider audience when someone covers one of his tunes (I used one of his songs, “Pacing the Cage,” in my countdown of songs that Jimmy Buffett has covered on record). He’s one of those acts that you have to search out. And, for me, he’s been well worth the search and discovery. Listen for the Laugh Written by Bruce Cockburn Recorded by Bruce Cockburn From Dart to the Heart, 1994 More of a chainsaw in a velvet glove: