Page type: lyric reference
Artist: Bruce Cockburn
Canonical path: /cockburn-bruce/birmingham-shadows
Related lyric paths: 6
Video embedded: yes
Lyric guide
Birmingham Shadows
Read Birmingham Shadows lyrics by Bruce Cockburn on LyroVerse, with linked artist context and related song paths.
person
Curated by Ethan Walker
LyroVerse team
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Lyrics
Birmingham Shadows
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Birmingham
Just behind the mountain
Sparse streelamps glow in hot half-moon haze
Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind
We walk, talk some, laugh some
Worked hard, now wired, and hanging out
I'm curious what you might be all about
Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do
And you have no idea what you're getting
out of of your own curiosity and tense energy
Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart
Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve
Wearing the role of young upstart
Chorus:
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It's now or not at all
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well
Before the empty two office blocks
Which we're admonished not to enter
Policeman studies us, finds us confusing
More amusing than threat
Moves on, bemused
Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell
Along the kingdom's midnight marches
I wear my shadows where they're harder to see
But they follow me everywhere
I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light
I guess something you sang made me remember that
I guess I'm saying thanks for that
Chorus:
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It's now or not at all
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
(Instrumental Break)
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night
At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn
I only remember scenes, never the stories I live
The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive
Can't make assumptions about any of this
We're nomads following our own songlines
Who knows what could strike before we meet again?
But if I fall down and die
Without saying goodbye
I give you this: you'll have lost a friend
Chorus:
Birmingham shadows fall
You show a little, I let something show too
It's now or not at all
Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Quick answers
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Who performs "Birmingham Shadows"?
Bruce Cockburn performs "Birmingham Shadows", and this lyric page sits inside the Bruce Cockburn catalog on LyroVerse.
Are there related songs to explore after "Birmingham Shadows"?
Yes. The related section below points to All The Ways I Want You and Don't Feel Your Touch with a short reason for opening each page next.
Where can I find more songs by Bruce Cockburn?
Use the artist link near the top of the page or the related paths section below to keep moving through Bruce Cockburn's lyric pages.
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