Most retellings of the nativity understandably dwell on the spiritual aspects. Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn went in another direction.
I wanted to put it into terms people can relate to now, because the story itself is so familiar, that its been reduced to traditional images that really work against our understanding of it as a human story. A story that happens to people. You know Joseph’s got a saint in front of his name and Mary’s got a halo. Those images are so entrenched in people’s minds. The fun part of writing a song about it was to crack those images and try to see through to the lives of the people who were directly affected by those events.”
The song appeared on his 1991 album “Nothing But a Burning Light.”
