Song · Bruce Cockburn
“Pacing the Cage” by Bruce Cockburn
From the album The Charity of Night (1996)
“Pacing the Cage” by Bruce Cockburn appears on 7 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 2001 and 2020. It was first released in 1996 on the album The Charity of Night. Its best result is #223 on the WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,316 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Pacing the Cage" turns up on Bruce Cockburn's 1996 album The Charity of Night, and it's a lean, unhurried thing: Cockburn's voice and acoustic guitar out front, Rob Wasserman's bass moving underneath, and Janice Powers adding keyboards around the edges. Cockburn wrote it on his own, words and music, and John Whynot recorded and mixed it.
The title paints a picture of restlessness with nowhere to go, and the spare setting suits it, leaving plenty of air around the voice. One station's listeners have kept coming back to it for years.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1366 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 223 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2007 | 602 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2009 | 764 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2009 | 711 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2014 | 680 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2020 | 1140 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
Also listed as: Pacing The Cage.
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