I've been thinking about Bruce Cockburn lately....

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about his 1984 track Lovers in a Dangerous Time.

I first heard Lovers in a Dangerous Time when I was fifteen, had long hair, and it seemed to just… click.

The version I had heard was a cover by the Barenaked Ladies from their 2001 album Disk 1: All Their Greatest Hits. They had covered it in 1991 originally as part of the Cockburn Tribute album Kick at the Darkness. It earned its place on their greatest hit album, being their first time breaking the Canadian Top 40.

But that’s not why I’ve been thinking about it.

During this second period of lockdown, I’ve been trying to learn to play the guitar. Lovers was one of the top on my list when I was brainstorming songs I would break my heart punching above my weight to try and learn. And it’s funny how when you listen to a song on repeat for a few hours how you hear it in a whole new way.

When the song was written, humanity faced an existential threat. Tensions over the Cold War were at boiling point, the world faced mutually assured destruction and nuclear Armageddon. Yet people still fell in love. Cockburn was compelled to mark that most pure of human intentions, to connect with one another.

“One minute you’re waiting for the sky to fall
Next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it all”

Even when tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed, young Canadians still dreamed of futures together, and of better times to come. In time the song also became associated with the HIV/AIDS crisis, when it was dangerous to be in love. But where it really starts coming home for me is the bridge:

“When you’re lovers in a dangerous time,
Sometimes you’re made to feel as if your love’s a crime
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
You gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight”

The rousing call to arms, the encouragement to fight back for what you love, the empowering image of kicking darkness til light breaks in, the bridge really feels like the mission statement of the piece. Sometimes barriers will be thrown up against your love, but it’s up to you to fight back. Because it’s oh so worth the fight.

So why am I thinking of it now? Well, it’s quite simple really. Every day we hear of people separated from those they love. Some haven’t seen family in months. Some young lovers like those who inspired the song originally are separated. By public health guidelines and to protect one another. We are lovers in a dangerous time. But like the lovers in those dangerous times before it, we’ll come out the other side.

“Never a breath you can afford to waste.”

I’m not saying Bruce Cockburn predicted the Covid Pandemic, but that’s one prescient line. What I am saying is this feels like a dangerous time to be in love, but maybe there’s never been a safe time. Love isn’t safe. But that’s the whole point of it. Cockburn has bet all his chips on love, maybe we can too.

Or maybe I’ve been in lockdown so long I’m over-analysing a song rather than learn its tricky strumming pattern.

C.