''Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws'' is the ninth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, po ...

. The album has eight songs written around the acoustic guitar and "particularly showcased Cockburn's sparkling guitar work". Up to that time Cockburn's records had been influenced by his Christianity; ''

Third Way The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...

'' magazine wrote in 1987 that "in 1979 the simple Christian faith ockburnhad been celebrating was transformed with the release of his most popular ever album ''Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws'', where, with the help of Charles Williams, his pre-Christian mysticism resurfaced after the baptism of faith as mature Christian mysticism. The poetry was astonishing, like no Christian musician had then, or would since, come even close to." The single "

Wondering Where the Lions Are "Wondering Where the Lions Are" is a song written and performed by Bruce Cockburn. The track is from his 1979 album '' Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws''. Chart performance It was Cockburn's only Top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 21 on ...

" reached No. 21 in the United States, and spent 17 weeks on the ''Billboard'' chart. It was important in bringing Cockburn attention outside Canada, and would be his highest-charting single in the U.S. The album cover is a painting by Canadian aboriginal artist

Norval Morrisseau Norval Morrisseau (March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian artist from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. Known as the "Picasso of the North", Morrisseau created works depi ...

(1932–2007).Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws Album cover by Norval Morrisseau
/ref> In 1992 a remastered edition was released by

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

with two extra tracks, "Dawn Music" and "Bye Bye Idi".J.B. and Paoletta, Michael (ed). "Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws (Music release)." ''Billboard'', December 12, 2002. Vol. 114, Issue 51.

Reception

Music critic Brett Hartenbach, writing retrospectively for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, wrote "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... though it can't match the sheer power of his next few releases, tmay be his most beautiful record, as well as an excellent culmination of his '70s work."

Track listing

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

chimes Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

, vocals * Pat Godfrey –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

, background vocal on "Wondering Where the Lions Are" * Robert Boucher – bass * Bob Di Salle –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest) ...

except on "Wondering Where the Lions Are" * Larry "Sticky Fingers" Silvera – bass, background vocal * Ben Bow – drums,

güiro The güiro () is a Puerto Rican percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro ...

, background vocal

References

{{Authority control 1979 albums Bruce Cockburn albums Albums produced by Gene Martynec True North Records albums