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Editorial Reviews

Originally released in 1984, Stealing Fire, beautifully remastered with bonus material and re-released by Rounder in 2003, is the cornerstone of Bruce Cockburn's modern sound. While he had used elements of reggae as early as Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws in 1979 and broadened the instrumental palette of his band on Humans in 1980, this recording sought to fully embrace and employ the influence that various world musics had on the artist as he traveled. The record was also a hit. Cockburn scored mightily with "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" and to a lesser degree with "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," veritable anthems informed by the Reagan era. Other tracks that received attention and airplay included "Making Contact" and "Maybe the Poet." Cockburn's first overtly political album, Stealing Fire was recorded soon after he made his first trip to Chiapas and had taken up the cause of the Sandinistas and El Salvadoran rebels (who were under assault by the U.S.-backed Contras from Honduras), Oxfam, and Guatemalan peasants who were under siege by American-made military helicopters. Amazingly, given how closely Cockburn always wove the personal, spiritual, amorous, and political, these songs sound not only timely over 20 years later, they provide enduring pleasure and warnings that are still to be heeded. While the album's production is of its time with clipped, shifting fretless basslines, heavily reverbed guitars, and droning synths, it nonetheless transcends those trappings compositionally and musically. The infusion of Latin and Caribbean rhythms, the use of exotic instruments, and the prevalence of keyboards and gospel choruses are truly visionary and ahead of their time. Cockburn utilized world music not to be "authentic," but to color, texture, and expand his cultural palette. In other words, no matter how he and the band turned the lens, the aural photo the listener gets is still Cockburn's and his restless quest for the perfect song. The bonus material here, "Yanqui Go Home" and "Call It the Sundance," are from the same sessions. While not as heavily painted, they nonetheless make fitting additions to the material here. Stealing Fire is simply one of Cockburn's classics. Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

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