Birmingham Shadows
Bruce Cockburn
GENRE
[Verse 1]
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streetlamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools then elongate behind
We walk, talk some, laugh some
Worked hard, now wired and hanging out
I'm curious what you might be all about
(Curious too what that dark shape in the hard shiny cruiser might do)
And you have no idea what you're giving
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
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
Under velvet trees towering like the sides of a well
Before the empty too bright office blocks
(Which we are 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 I'm travelling toward light
I guess something you sang made me remember that
I guess I'm saying thanks for that
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 3]
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night
At home in the darkness but hungry for dawn
I can only remember scenes, never the stories I live
The good things about that is it's easy to forgive
I make no assumptions about any of this
We're nomads
Follow 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
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streetlamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools then elongate behind
[Spoken]
Thanks for coming everybody. Good night.
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streetlamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools then elongate behind
We walk, talk some, laugh some
Worked hard, now wired and hanging out
I'm curious what you might be all about
(Curious too what that dark shape in the hard shiny cruiser might do)
And you have no idea what you're giving
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
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
Under velvet trees towering like the sides of a well
Before the empty too bright office blocks
(Which we are 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 I'm travelling toward light
I guess something you sang made me remember that
I guess I'm saying thanks for that
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 3]
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night
At home in the darkness but hungry for dawn
I can only remember scenes, never the stories I live
The good things about that is it's easy to forgive
I make no assumptions about any of this
We're nomads
Follow 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
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streetlamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools then elongate behind
[Spoken]
Thanks for coming everybody. Good night.
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