Description
Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws is the ninth studio album by the Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bruce Cockburn, released on True North Records in 1979. It was distributed by Columbia Records in the US mainstream music market and later on by Myrrh Records in the Christian market. The album was recorded and mixed May – June 1979 by Gary Gray at Manta Sound in Toronto, Canada; with Gene Martynec producing. The record peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200. The single “Wondering Where the Lions Are” reached No. 21 in the US and spent 27 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was important in bringing Cockburn attention outside Canada. The cover artwork features a painting by Canadian aboriginal artist Norval Morrisseau (1932–2007).
Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws was included among CCM Magazine’s Top 10 Contemporary/Rock Albums of 1979 – Impeccably original words and music from Canada’s poet laureate. As yet unreleased in the U.S., but well worth the extra effort to secure a copy.
Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws features eight songs written around the acoustic guitar and particularly showcased Cockburn’s sparkling guitar work. The album was included in Acoustic Guitar Magazine‘s article “100 acoustic guitar recordings you’ve got to hear” published in their September 1996 issue: “Cockburn is an acoustic troubadour, blending pastoral and mystical poetry with state-of-the-art fingerstyle guitar. In the ’70s, his songs began fusing folk and jazz with world music rhythms (notably Jamaican backup on the hit «Wondering Where the Lions Are»), and he delivered dazzling guitar instrumentals that were compositionally and technically years ahead of their time.”
BRUCE COCKBURN – Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws, Millennium BXL17747 (RCA). Produced by Eugene Martynec.
Canadian Cockburn plays a cool brand of folk-rock which often has jazz tinges. Though musicianship is top notch, Cockburn pays attention to his lyrics too as they are assiduously crafted. All the compositions are lengthy, with «Wondering Where The Lions Are» being the shortest at 3:42, but they never drag as Cockburn and company keep it interesting. Fans of Dan Fogelberg and Kenny Rankin should like this. Best cuts: «Creation Dream», «No Footprints», «Badlands», «Northern Lights». [Billboard’s Top Album Picks; Billboard’s Recommended LPs. (Billboard SPECIAL SURVEY For Week Ending 2/9/80), Billboard Magazine, February 9, 1980]
DANCING IN THE DRAGON’ JAW – BRUCE COCKBURN – Millennium BXL1-7747 (RCA) (7.98)
Cockburn is one of Canada’s biggest artists and his classically oriented acoustic guitar work is all but revered there. This first LP for a new label features some of the lovliest imagery around and he’s an artist who’s ready for U.S. popularity. [Record World (Album Picks), January 26, 1980]
After nearly a decade spent in relative obscurity outside of his native Canada, Bruce Cockburn finally made a dent in the US market with the Top 40 hit «Wondering Where the Lions Are» from 1979’s Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws. The album continues the jazz-inflected folk he had been pursuing on his past several releases, but with a heavier emphasis on the worldbeat rhythms that would play a larger part in his music in the years to come. This album is the gentler side of Bruce Cockburn, beautiful and searching, with his acoustic guitar once again at the forefront; his intricate, yet melodic patterns the perfect backdrop for his poetic ruminations on spirituality and nature. From the opener, «Creation Dream», his vision of the Earth’s genesis to the meditative «No Footprints» Cockburn is overcome by the wonderment of God’s work. Even amidst the “concrete vortex” and “people looking ill-at-ease,” there’s a sense of peace and overwhelming faith that runs throughout. Only «Incandescent Blue» (coincidentally the only song written outside of Canada) exhibits the kind of urban tension and consciousness that would become so evident in his work throughout the next decade; although he still finds a sort of respite in the chorus with its “white birds…[soaring] away free.” Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws, though it can’t match the sheer power of his next few releases, may be his most beautiful record, as well as an excellent culmination of his ’70s work. [Brett Hartenbach, AMG]
CD re-issue, 2002
Of all Bruce’s rich and wonderful output of albums down the years, this is (quite scandalously) the only one which ever got marketed into British Christian retail. Now that may not be a problem if you view Christian bookshops as an unhealthy cultural ghetto (and we won’t go there with this review) but it does seem a tragedy that Canada’s finest has been so neglected by those who purport to sell Christian music. But what of this 1979 album? Does it stand up to the re-issued-and-remastered treatment? Absolutely. Being as it were the third of a trio of what the sleevenote calls “acoustic jazz-folk albums”, ‘Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws’ is like an old wine which the years have enriched so, if anything, its subtle charms are increased. It also features some of his finest guitar work ever and anyone who hasn’t caught one of his too-infrequent UK sojourns will know that this man is one of the best guitar pickers in the whole gamut of 20th century music. (Apparently, Acoustic Guitar magazine put Cockburn in the prestigious company as such renowned fret wizards as Django Reinhardt, Andries Segovia and Mississippi John Hurt!IMAG) The album also proved to be a commercial breakthrough for Bruce, with a single from it, the classic «Wondering Where The Lions Are», becoming a Top 40 hit in both the singer/songwriter’s Canadian homeland and in the USA. The album boasts a bright, celebratory tone. Bruce once said the album was about “being joyful in the face of everything.” Not that this is a shallow piece of Christian triumphalism. Bruce went on to say, “I wanted to give a concrete expression of the suffering that’s all too evident in the world.” It opens with a couple of spiritual songs with «Creation Dream» underpinned by Pat Godfrey’s shuffling marimba rhythms and «Hills Of Morning» where over a loping guitar figure the singer depicts a street scene in which portrays a street person in first century Jerusalem. This breathtaking vision is followed by «Badlands Flashback», sung in French and with some of the most dazzling fingerpicking you’ll hear this side of Heaven. Talking of Bruce’s deft guitar skills, there are two instrumentals on this set, one written after the overthrow of the brutal Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin (a wonderful bonus track). In the words of sleevenote writer Nicholas Jennings, it features “so many lightning fast notes that you’ll think Cockburn was playing a 21-string African kora, rather than a six-string guitar.” One final rave, «Wondering Where The Lions Are» is still an arresting song. Backed by the rhythm section of Jamaican reggae legend Leroy Sibbles, the fluid melodic groove is matched by some of the best lyrics ever to grace a pop chart hit, “I’m thinking about eternity, some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me,” he muses before that joyful chorus emerges. There is a lion outside the camp seeking to devour us but sometimes the joy and ecstasy we find in our communion with Christ ensures the Enemy and his demons are just that, OUTSIDE the camp. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, January 2003]
[CCM, December 1979]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/dancing-in-the-dragons-jaws-deluxe-edition/303304016)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Creation Dream” – 4:00
A2. “Hills Of Morning” – 4:25
A3. “Badlands Flashback” – 6:12
A4. “Northern Lights” – 4:06
Side Two
B1. “After The Rain” – 3:59
B2. “Wondering Where The Lions Are” – 3:42
B3. “Incandescent Blue” – 4:35
B4. “No Footprints” – 5:38
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by True North Records, with the vinyl edition housed in a gatefold jacket with lyrics printed on the inside, and a black, printed inner sleeve with the lyrics translated into French. (Released on 8-track tape, cassette, and 12-inch vinyl LP in the US by Millennium Records, January 1980.) In 1992 a remastered edition was released on CD by Rounder Records with two bonus tracks, “Dawn Music” and “Bye Bye Idi”. Available at Bandcamp: https://brucecockburn.bandcamp.com/album/dancing-in-the-dragons-jaws-deluxe-edition
An advertisement for Myrrh Records’ re-issue of Bruce Cockburn’s 1979-album Dancing in the Dragons Jaws was featured in the May 1986 issue of CCM Magazine.
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