Bruce Cockburn - Birmingham Shadows Lyrics
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streetlamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind
We walk, talk some, laugh some
I'm curious what you might be all about
Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do
And you have no idea what you're getting
Out of of your own curiosity and tense energy
Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart
Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve
Wearing the role of young upstart
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well
Before the empty two office blocks
Which we're admonished not to enter
Policeman studies us, finds us confusing
More amusing than threat
Moves on, bemused
Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell
Along the kingdom's midnight marches
I wear my shadows where they're harder to see
But they follow me everywhere
I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light
I guess something you sang made me remember that
I guess I'm saying thanks for that
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It's now or not at all
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night
At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn
I only remember scenes, never the stories I live
The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive
Can't make assumptions about any of this
We're nomads following our own songlines
Who knows what could strike before we meet again?
But if I fall down and die
Without saying goodbye
I give you this: you'll have lost a friend
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It's now or not at all
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Other Lyrics by Artist
- Bruce Cockburn - When You Give It Away
- Bruce Cockburn - Scanning These Crowds
- Bruce Cockburn - Burden Of The Angel/Beast
- Bruce Cockburn - Bone In My Ear
- Bruce Cockburn - All The Ways I Want You
- Bruce Cockburn - Listen For The Laugh
- Bruce Cockburn - Mary Had A Baby
- Bruce Cockburn - It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
- Bruce Cockburn - God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
- Bruce Cockburn - Iesus Ahatonnia (The Huron Carol)
- Bruce Cockburn - Silent Night
- Bruce Cockburn - Shepherds
- Bruce Cockburn - Go Tell It On The Mountain
- Bruce Cockburn - Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes
- Bruce Cockburn - Southland Of The Heart
- Bruce Cockburn - Someone I Used To Love
- Bruce Cockburn - Strange Waters
- Bruce Cockburn - The Charity Of Night
Rand Lyrics
- Eddy Arnold - Little Girls And Little Boys
- Eddy Arnold - Just Across The Mountain
- Eddy Arnold - Olive Tree
- Eddy Arnold - Since You've Been Loving Me
- Eddy Arnold - Little Green Apples
- Eddy Arnold - Wichita Lineman
- Eddy Arnold - I Love How You Love Me
- Eddy Arnold - Sunshine Belongs To Me
- Eddy Arnold - They Don't Make Love Like They Used To
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Bruce Cockburn Birmingham Shadows Comments
How do you get through this centrifuge of feelings, affected this song without tears behind the veil of abnormality?
The line "but if I fall down and die, without saying goodbye. I give you this; you'll have lost a friend." Mighty lyrical exchange, my dear friend, Bruce.
Seamless..
Reading Orson Scott Card's "Enchantment". Page 327
Man, I forgot about this tune. Love this!
I love that line, I wear my shadows where they're harder to see...