Bruce Cockburn Cover: If I had a Rocket Launcher

From Cockburn's 1984 album, Stealing Fire. This is a second take of this one, as the audio on the first was excruciatingly tinny. Standard tuning. The main riff centers around an E minor form at the 7th fret, with a the drone bass note switching from E to C#. Chorus is just Am7, Bm7, repeat. Tricky part is keeping the bass line going during the solo, which Cockburn does with jaw-dropping smoothness. He's got a short instructional video for this song on youtube.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bruce Cockburn
• Cockburn
• Stealing Fire
• Rocket Launcher
• acoustic guitar
• fingerstyle
• Larrivee

[Guilddude2]

Absolutely superb!! I am looking forward the day when some of Cockburns tougher songs like this are within my reach but I am enjoying the musical journey just the same. It must be incredibly rewarding being able to play like your doing here - No easy feat. I'm shure it represents several decades of work. Hope you keep on posting.

Thanks!

[TorontoLarrivee]

@Guilddude2 Thanks for your encouragement man.

[artandsoundandwords]

As always great job just wish it was a little brighter so i could see to copy! :D seriously though great job and it helped a lot with my playing of this song...ever thought of doing world of wonders? As with this song i believe Bruce's solo acoustic version of that song is better than the original (just my opinion though) but its a tough one to play...for me at least

[TorontoLarrivee]

@artandsoundandwords hey, yeah, I will at some point try that acoustic version of WoW-- agreed it's better than the album version. Whenever Cockburn re-does a song from the 80s, odds are it will be better, if only because the 80s production values will be stripped away.

There's an instructional video by the man himself playing Rocket Launcher here on youtube, and the lighting is perfect.

Thanks for your compliments -- you seem to be a pretty accomplished player yourself. Best.

[wadman4321]

In my opinion, the acoustic solo version of this song is a million times better than the band one. Somehow the originality of the finger picking pattern (in standard tuning no less!) is lost.

Thanks again for posting and please, "Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror"?

[TorontoLarrivee]

Yeah, what you say is true of much of his 80's output-- his wonderful guitar parts are buried in the mix.

[iorixs]

wow that's good picking wont you go to the pal talk live music room for a turn?

[seanog75]

Simply superb...well done sir! Seán from Ireland!

[LaurenceEddy]

Super cover man! First time I've seen anyone get close to Bruce's finger style. Well done...

[ajr711]

Wow! that was an amazing cover. I'm still trying to figure out the picking pattern during the main riff. Hate to ask, but any tips?

[Wilje]

Great Job