Bruce Cockburn Cover: Rumours of Glory

From his 1980 album, Humans. My suspicion is that he wrote the guitar part *after* recording this song with his reggae band of the time. Playing and singing this song simultaneously is like a Jedi mind trick-- something to do with the rhythm of the guitar part, the way it shift from a downbeat emphasis to an upbeat emphasis. Add to that the fact that the song has a reggae feel, and therefore needs to be perfectly in the pocket. He's said in interviews that he find the original guitar part (on Humans) impossible to play while singing the song; hence I suppose the multiple re-writings of the guitar part over the years. I believe it was on the Breakfast in New Orleans tour that he was performing an astonishingly beautiful version of this song, in his 'drop F#' tuning. The version I'm playing here is from the live concert movie, in standard tuning. It's on Waiting for a Miracle. He plays it Capo III; capo II is more comfortable for my vocal range.

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• Bruce
• Cockburn;
• fingerstyle;
• humans;
• rumours
• of
• glory;
• Martin
• 000-15s;

[MsTubbytube]

I listen to this cover often. I think your combo of singing and playing is perfect on this one. I wonder if you have considered covering the Huron Carol song. That's a new favorite.

[TorontoLarrivee]

@MsTubbytube thanks. I don't think I'll manage to pull of Huron Carol anytime soon-- Cockburn employed a linguistic anthropologist as a vocal coach to get the pronunciation right; don't think that's in my budget. Great song though. Cheers

[MsTubbytube]

@TorontoLarrivee It would be okay if you just did the guitar part. I can't tell which is Cockburn and which is his accompanist, but I'm sure you could figure it out. The lyrics in Wendat are available online, I think if you can sing a crazy fast song like You Pay your money... you can sing the Carol, which follows a simple tune. I suspect R O G is a favorite of yours because you sing it so well. It is a song that brings joy to my heart when I listen to it, I hope it brings joy to yours.

[TorontoLarrivee]

@MsTubbytube Thanks, yeah, I R O G is a standout song to me. Partly because it's gone through so many recreations. If you haven't heard the 2002 live version, seek it out (I notice piratebay has a torrent of a Toronto concert with it).

[animascat]

great song and you do a fine job on it

[zeezclub]

Prolly the best cover I've heard of this Cockburn tune. Thanks for Sharing. Just shared this with my friends.

[MsTubbytube]

I listen to this cover often. I think your combo of singing and playing is perfect on this one. I wonder if you have considered covering the Huron Dance song. That's a new favorite.

[fretishist]

I must apologize that I can't say I am in love with you, nor can I say Ottawa is sinking as a result of your music, but I am enjoying your videos a lot.



[imusbcraz]

That's great stuff. Watching that reminded me of watching McCartney sing and play one of his melodic bass lines at the same time. I have no idea how he does that either.

[JoeSixString]

Trying to learn this song, but my guitar doesn't sound as good dang it lol.