| Wondering Where the Lions Are | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Bruce Cockburn |
| Album: | Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws |
| Length: | 3:42 |
| Label: | True North |
| Producer: | Gene Martynec |
| Prev Title: | Laughter |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | Tokyo |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
"Wondering Where the Lions Are" is a song written and performed by Bruce Cockburn.[1] The track is from his 1979 album Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws.
The song was indirectly inspired by a dinner meeting between Cockburn and a relative that worked in a defense-related government position. The relative suggested that there was considerable concern that a war might break out between China and the Soviet Union and suggested "We could wake up tomorrow to a nuclear war". Cockburn was upset, and had dreams that night about lions at his front door, but not in a threatening way. When he awoke the next morning to find war had not broken out, he began using elements of the dream to compose the song.[2]
It was Cockburn's only Top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100,[3] and it peaked at No. 92 in Australia.[4]
While also a Top 40 hit in Cockburn's native Canada, it was not his biggest hit in that country, where seven of his subsequent singles reached higher chart positions. It was, however, named the 29th greatest Canadian song of all time in the 2005 CBC Radio series .[5]
. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 67.