This week, a song from a different dangerous time that speaks eloquently to our present one.
“Lovers in a Dangerous Time” is one of two hits from Bruce Cockburn’s Stealing Fire (1984). The other is “If I Had a Rocket Launcher.” “Lovers…” was the bigger hit in his native Canada, and “… Rocket Launcher” was the hit in the U.S. But “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” is one of Cockburn’s best-known songs. Barneaked Ladies’ 1991 cover of the song was the band’s first hit – #16 on the Canadian charts. U2 quotes the “kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight” lyric in “God Part II.” My own cover (such as it is) owes more to Cockburn’s acoustic version from Columbia Records Radio Hour, Vol. 1 (1995) than to the delightfully 1980s Stealing Fire version.
The 1984 music video, which is… very 1984.
Beautiful live acoustic performance from 2011.
Music video for Barenaked Ladies’ 1991 cover.
If you’re seeking a #PlagueSong to perform, check out this ever-expanding playlist. Of course, you may have a song in mind that I don’t know – and that would be welcome, too!
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