Stealing Fire

Bruce Cockburn | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: November 12, 1991
• Label: Columbia
• Copyright: 1984 High Romance Music Ltd.
• Total Length: 41:57
• Genres:
• ASIN: B001BG4K3K
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,261 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kick at the Darkness Till It Bleeds Daylight, September 27, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stealing Fire (Dlx) (Audio CD)

How many artists do you know that U2 quotes in their songs? That line, from Cockburn's "Lovers In A Dangerous Time," eventually made its way into the U2 canon ("God Pt 2"). But it belongs to Cockburn, and is on this, his most perfectly politically charged album. The song "Nicaragua" sounded close enough to sympathizing with the rebels that it even found Cockburn under fire from the Reagan Administration. But it was the naked fury of "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" that drives the point home. The frustration and helplessness fueling the rage that would make a person declare "if I had a rocket launcher, some sonofab*#ch would die" is universal, and it gave Cockburn one of his best known songs.

The compositions on "Stealing Fire" were inspired by Cockburn's fact finding trek with OXFAM through Mexico and Latin America, and they put the face on the political turmoil of the region at that time. "Peggy's Kitchen Wall" nakedly shows the true scope of what warring governments would rather have you not see, and "Sahara Gold" paints a shimmering portrait of the region. Cockburn's always had a fine eye for detail, and that shows in both "Gold" and in "Dust and Diesel" (the original album closer).

In 1984, only Peter Gabriel and U2 were making statements as grand as Cockburn's "Stealing Fire," and outside of The Clash, there has never been an anti-war statement as anger-filled as "Rocket Launcher." Twenty years later, "Stealing Fire" still burns with the sound of the truth.

(PS - the bonus tracks, after the graceful mix of the original album, sound forced and didactic. Once again, proof that some unreleased songs should stay that way.)

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even more to the point, 20 years later!, October 21, 2003

By 

o dubhthaigh (north rustico, pei, canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stealing Fire (Dlx) (Audio CD)

This is the CD that got Bruce's VISA lifted by the Reagan Administration. His endorsement of Nicaragua's Sandanista Movement of itself is one of the most impassioned calls to arms in all of music. Pity Ortega couldn't deliver on the promise. That failure does not invalidate the premises put forth here. And the premises are ever more to the point of the deadly morass perpetrated by the thrust and parry of Islamic terrorism and the last Imperial power (assuming the People's Repression in China never gets its rice together). Remove the seductive Latin underpinings to the songs here, and the struggle of the third world confronting the champion of the WTO remains the central dialectic of this part of the Twenty-First Century. Bruce diseects that dialectic, puts a human face on what the politics of avarice mean.
The music, though, is extraordinary: those Latin underpinings give this disc a samba and a sway that are truly intoxicating. The people he writes about seem to look up at you in your imagination's eye. His anger at the murderous helicopter gunships boils in your blood. You can, after all this time, taste the hatred for Reagan-Thatcher in your mouth, you'll find yourself wishing the IRA had been just a wee bit luckier in Birmingham, this is engaged Christianity on the verge of losing its compassion. To Cockburn's credit, he pulls back from this ledge.
This CD and DANCING are his two best, by virtue of the power of the music and the messages. The remastering job is absolutely STERLING! The additional tracks are as strong as everything else on this remarkable disc. They really add to the power of the CD. No wonder he is Canada's greatest living songwriter.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy this!!!!!, July 3, 2004

By 

slook (St. Catharines, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stealing Fire (Dlx) (Audio CD)

This is probably Bruce's best cd. Beautifuly written and not one bad song. Some latin influenced songs such as Nicaragua, Making Contact(makes you feel like doing the Samba Dance)and Dust and Diesel. Great lyrics on this album which also has Bruce's great sense of humour(smiling girl directing traffic
flow,
45 strapped over cotton print dress,
marimba brown and graceful limbs,
give me a moment of loneliness.