Customer Reviews

Inner City Front

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's funny, but as the world marches toward war once again, this title is remastered with a sense of immediacy that warrants reflection. At this point in his life, Cockburn had undergone a number of changes, including the dissolution of his marriage. He moved to Toronto and assembled a brilliant cadre of top flight musicians, hit the road, recorded and moved generally from mystic to engaged.
All the songs here, be it the cityscapes of "Pay Your Money" or "Coldest Night", the political observations of "Strong One" and "Justice", or the merry atmosphere of "Radio Shoes" and "Walking" reveal how he moved on.

The remastering job on this brings out great pleasures in the guitarwork. This was a particularly hot band live, and perhaps some vault stuff will emerge to document the liberties Bruce took with his material. Kathryn Moses was a great on-stage foil for him, vocally and musically. Hugh Marsh on fiddle was a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, "Strong One" as a studio cut packs none of the punch that it did live, and that's likely due to the addition of Fergus Jamison Marsh on stick.

Nonetheless, this is powerful stuff. It would get more so with time. The 2 extra cuts are genius. There is some kind of 80's effect on the drums that dates the recording, but it is made up for by the clarity on the guitars from the remastering. Altogether, another gem.

Inner City Front was the album that introduced me to the great talent of Bruce Cockburn. The title track is a unique blend of mystical guitars and keyboards. The lyrics are tinged with a feeling of angst,but not hopelessness. But the real gem of this CD is the final cut, LONER. I guarentee that you will never feel quite the same about yourself after listening to this incredible song. Even an outgoing Type A person with a million friends has to go through this every once in a while. If you live in a state with cold weather, it's best during the winter. Listen.

The title of this review is two of the BEST Cockburn songs... PERIOD! I would say this is my second favorite recording of Bruce next to Humans, which can't be equaled. This record made very little fuss upon it's release, which is a darn shame. This is in the middle of his first transformation period (from folk to more of a pop edge). It is, in many ways, his most honest recording where he personally was not completely sure where he was going in his life. I love Bruce! If you hear a chant from me of, "Bbrruuuce", it is Cockburn and not Springsteen... for me anyway! Excellent spin!

Some of the other reviewers have urged newcomers to Bruce Cockburn not to start here, but I've just tried this record after years of loving and recognizing the intricacies of BC's folkier stuff and I STILL can't really handle it. Those drum machines, those synthesizers... ack. If you listen to late-70s early 80s jazz and like it, never mind my criticisms. I recognize some of this music, especially the track 'Radio Shoes', as smart, but I prefer all my cockburn as earthy as possible, so I will play this CD hardly ever. 'You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chances' is a great song, ignoring the production (i partly also like it because it brought Kensington Market, where I used to live, back into my mind vividly) and I think he ought to record it again, put out a copy without the 80s sound.

New to Cockburn? A lot of his most famous records were recorded in the late 70s through the 80s and therefore suffer from 80s production, but he has some gorgeous acoustic-guitar-based folk records from the early 70s you ought to check out, primarily Sunwheel Dance, High Winds White Sky, his first LP Bruce Cockburn, and the live record from that early period, Circles In The Stream. They have guitar work as mesmerizing as Leo Kottke's, combined with a creative melody sense Nick Drake fans will like and early Bruce's unironic hippie lyrics. One of his more recent folk records, Charity of Night, is also recommended, as the least overproduced of his 90s stuff and his most engaging songs. Looking forward to hearing "Speechless", too.

I'm a Cockburn completist and bought the remastered record for that reason alone. Not being one of my favorites, this album had seen little play. Now however, with the addition of the two bonus tracks ('The Coldest Night of the Year' and 'The Light Goes On Forever') this record is in frequent rotation in my player. 'Loner' is a look into Cockburn's mind with gorgeous violin embellishment by Hugh Marsh. 'Justice' is as timely and pointed now as it was when it was written in the 80's. 'The Light Goes On Forever', dropped from the original record to trim length, is the 'new' gem here. It contains some of Bruce's best poetry of his entire career. It is sung rather than spoken, as much of his more recent stuff.

not one of Bruce's better albums (at least of the nine that I've heard). It's still got some very good songs; "Radio Shoes" is a great, jazzy, sleek instrumental, while "All's Quiet on the Inner City Front" contains some of his trademark spoken descriptions of life in other parts of the world, but a few too many are drowning in that late 70s-early 80s synth-heavy, anemic drum production, especially "The Strong One", and the slightly overproduced (but still good) "Pay Your Money and Take Your Chance", which is much better on the homonymous 1998 live EP. Same goes for "Broken Wheel" on the 1990 Live CD. Good, but Bruce has done better. I get the feeling he was being pressured at the time to "go with the sound of the times", maybe a bit against his own will.

(fourteenth album, a.k.a. The Toronto Album)
(56.06 minutes)

This one was the big push for Bruce Cockburn - a big push in the direction he started traveling during Humans a year earlier. Humans marked the advent of the electric music, but Inner City Front was electric and it clicked. I can't rightly say that one is superior to the other, but Inner City Front is the Jazziest album he ever released and it works. Jazz is difficult, good Jazz anyway, and Bruce and the band managed to pull it off in style.

If you are contemplating a purchase of this here album, and I recommend it highly, then my humble (but astute) opinion is that you'd be better off getting the re-mastered version with the extra cuts. It comes out to almost an hour of wonderful music and includes the tunes "The Light Goes on Forever" which was until 2002 only available as a B side on a 45, and "The Coldest Night of the Year" which wasn't so rare, but a lot of folks didn't have it until 2002.

I am aware of a lot of folks that refer to this as his "Toronto Album" because of all the influence the city had on the music. He also manages to drop a number of Toronto-area place names in to the lyrics (St. Andrew, Kensington, Yonge Street, Scarborough) but mainly he describes the city more generically as if he was gazing out some unidentified window at the cityscape and wrote a song about what he seen. In fact, his look-out-the-window-and write-a-song-about-what-you-see technique was at its panicle with this album. If you ain't never heard any of them tunes, then don't be put off by the idea. Bruce manages to look out windows and make some interesting, insightful observations based not only what he sees, but the emotion interwoven in to the vision. It is the interplay of human beings that he sings about, even after looking out a window and seeing a man standing beside a telephone booth. The man must have a story, and that's woven in to the lyrics.

I can't praise this album of work enough and I hereby give it the Huckabee Seal of Approval for all around musical pleasure and ambiance. The aural quality is top notch even today, and the infusion of Jazz into the work of a rocking folkie comes off beautifully. Go ahead on and buy this one first if you ain't never before heard any of his work because this is as good a place to start as any and even if you never again get any of his music, this one will be one of the discs that finds its way in to your player time and again. The Huckabees especially like this one to be playing on Saturday mornings when we get up and commence to doing chores around the double wide trailer because it fills the trailer with a pleasant. Melodious atmosphere that takes some of the drudgery out of the chores. In fact we can't get Junior to hose the chicken droppings off the entryway unless this album is playing - he claims it is the only thing that will get him to do it, that and the promise that his Mama will fix up some grits for breakfast later in the morning.

Originally released in 1981, Bruce Cockburn's "Inner City Front" marked the transition between his 1970s incarnation as a world beat influenced folkie, (best shown on his 1978 masterpiece "Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws") to his darker, angrier 1980s political music (most typified by 1984's superb "Stealing Fire"). As is often the case with an artist in the process of altering his style, "Inner City Front" is somewhat of a jumble. For example, "And We Dance," is an airy, jazzy tune in the "Dragon" mode, while the song "Justice" that follows it is a rant against evil perpetrated in the name of religion.

The album's stylistic inconsistency wouldn't matter, of course, if the songwriting was more consistent. Other standout songs include a fine instrumental, "Radio Shoes," the brief but snappy "Wanna Go Walking," and the opening "You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chances." On the downside, some of the other political stuff sounds a bit forced and the closing (on the original version of the album) "The Loner" is a seven minute epic that doesn't take off. Bottom line is that if you're already a Cockburn fan, you'll find plenty to like, but those just getting acquainted with him would be well advised to start elsewhere.

Overall, an uneven album that marked the turning point in Bruce Cockburn's long career.

Bruce Cockburns most powerful works are Dragons Jaws, Humans, and last but not least, "Inner City Front". Once you have become familiar with this album you will remember it word for word for the rest of your life.
Rob Miedema

Bruce "the Moose" Cockburn is a thinking man or woman's musician. He is thoughtful, poetic, spiritual, and sensitive and his music is fun. Too bad this LP (and artist) is a secret to many. He is one of the top Canadian artists and has won their Juno award (their Grammy) and on this album he displays his sense for reality. Real life with its pains and pleasure. This guy is a genius. A great album, one of his best.