The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition Read online

there’s no one left to torture

  Give me absolute control

  over every living soul

  And lie beside me, baby,

  that’s an order!

  Give me crack and anal sex

  Take the only tree that’s left

  and stuff it up the hole

  in your culture

  Give me back the Berlin wall

  give me Stalin and St Paul

  I’ve seen the future, brother:

  it is murder.

  Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

  Won’t be nothing

  Nothing you can measure anymore

  The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

  has crossed the threshold

  and it has overturned

  the order of the soul

  When they said REPENT REPENT

  I wonder what they meant

  When they said REPENT REPENT

  I wonder what they meant

  When they said REPENT REPENT

  I wonder what they meant

  You don’t know me from the wind

  you never will, you never did

  I’m the little jew

  who wrote the Bible

  I’ve seen the nations rise and fall

  I’ve heard their stories, heard them all

  but love’s the only engine of survival

  Your servant here, he has been told

  to say it clear, to say it cold:

  It’s over, it ain’t going any further

  And now the wheels of heaven stop

  you feel the devil’s riding crop

  Get ready for the future:

  it is murder

  Things are going to slide ...

  There’ll be the breaking of the ancient

  western code

  Your private life will suddenly explode

  There’ll be phantoms

  There’ll be fires on the road

  and the white man dancing

  You’ll see a woman

  hanging upside down

  her features covered by her fallen gown

  and all the lousy little poets

  coming round

  tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson

  and the white man dancin’

  Give me back the Berlin wall

  Give me Stalin and St Paul

  Give me Christ

  or give me Hiroshima

  Destroy another fetus now

  We don’t like children anyhow

  I’ve seen the future, baby:

  it is murder

  Things are going to slide ...

  When they said REPENT REPENT ...

  In this song, the title track of The Future (1992), Cohen pulls off a neat trick – making existential despair entertaining. Amid the collapse of civilisation as we know it, he yearns for the terrible old certainties – the Berlin Wall, Stalin, St Paul, Christ, Hiroshima. There is only one plant poking through this desolate landscape, a plant in which Cohen has shown a keen botanical interest throughout his life: “love’s the only engine of survival”.

  The Great Event

  It’s going to happen very soon. The great event which will end the

  horror. Which will end the sorrow. Next Tuesday, when the sun

  goes down, I will play the Moonlight Sonata backwards. This will

  reverse the effects of the world’s mad plunge into suffering, for the

  last 200 million years. What a lovely night that would be. What

  a sigh of relief, as the senile robins become bright red again, and

  the retired nightingales, pick up their dusty tails, and assert the

  majesty of creation!

  Included on More Best Of Leonard Cohen (1997), this previously unreleased track – it can hardly be called a song – was recited by “Victoria”, clearly not a fluent English-speaker (if indeed she speaks English at all) whose stresses are wrong and whose emphases are those of someone reading an unfamiliar, foreign text. Though produced towards the end of his career, one can imagine such an experimental piece emerging from the Montreal avant-garde of the Fifties in which Cohen first cut his artistic teeth.

  The Guests

  One by one, the guests arrive

  The guests are coming through

  The open-hearted many

  The broken-hearted few

  And no one knows where the night is going

  And no one knows why the wine is flowing

  Oh love I need you

  I need you

  I need you

  I need you

  Oh . . . I need you now

  And those who dance, begin to dance

  Those who weep begin

  And “Welcome, welcome” cries a voice

  “Let all my guests come in.”

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  And all go stumbling through that house

  in lonely secrecy

  Saying “Do reveal yourself”

  or “Why has thou forsaken me?”

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  All at once the torches flare

  The inner door flies open

  One by one they enter there

  In every style of passion

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  And here they take their sweet repast

  While house and grounds dissolve

  And one by one the guests are cast

  Beyond the garden wall

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  Those who dance, begin to dance

  Those who weep begin

  Those who earnestly are lost

  Are lost and lost again

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  One by one the guests arrive

  The guests are coming through

  The broken-hearted many

  The open-hearted few

  And no one knows where the night is going ...

  An important milestone in Cohen’s artistic development, and reflective of the rejuvenating effect of a series of personal difficulties Cohen experienced in 1978, this song was the opening track on Recent Songs (1979). The imagery of the song is influenced by the Persian poets Attar and Rumi, but the song is not easy to interpret. One possible reading is that the party that the guests attend is life itself, and that what is required to mitigate life’s “lonely secrecy” is – not for the first or the last time in Cohen’s work – love. A live version was included on Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001).

  The Gypsy’s Wife

  And where, where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight

  I’ve heard all the wild reports, they can’t be right

  But whose head is this she’s dancing with on the threshing floor

  whose darkness deepens in her arms a little more

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

  Where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

  Ah the silver knives are flashing in the tired old cafe

  A ghost climbs on the table in a bridal negligee

  She says, “My body is the light, my body is the way”

  I raise my arm against it all and I catch the bride’s bouquet

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?...

  Too early for the rainbow, too early for the dove

  These are the final days, this is the darkness, this is the flood

  And there is no man or woman who can’t be touched

  But you who come between them will be judged

  And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?...

  Included on Recent Songs (1979) and Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001), this song was written while “my own marriage was breaking up and in a sense it was written for my gypsy wife … but in another way it’s just a song about the way men and women have lost each other … and become gypsies to each other”.

  The Law

  How many times did you call me
/>   And I knew it was late

  I left everybody

  But I never went straight

  I don’t claim to be guilty

  But I do understand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  Now my heart’s like a blister

  From doing what I do

  If the moon has a sister

  It’s got to be you

  I’m going to miss you forever

  Tho’ it’s not what I planned

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  Now the deal has been dirty

  Since dirty began

  I’m not asking for mercy

  Not from the man

  You just don’t ask for mercy

  While you’re still on the stand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  I don’t claim to be guilty

  Guilty’s too grand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  That’s all I can say, baby

  That’s all I can say

  It wasn’t for nothing

  That they put me away

  I fell with my angel

  Down the chain of command

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a Hand

  This song from Various Positions (1984) may have a title that is a direct translation of the Hebrew word Torah (used to describe the first five books of the Bible), but it is not a religious song. Indeed, some of its ideas are heretical – “I fell with my angel” contradicts the Jewish principle that angels can neither improve nor deteriorate while the suggestion that “you just don’t ask for mercy / while you’re still on the stand” is at odds with Catholic theology and practice. Given that Cohen has said that this song has “got something to do with the fact that there are consequences to our activities”, we may conclude that inso far as the song contains spiritual wisdom it is humanistic wisdom not religious.

  The Letters

  You never liked to get

  The letters that I sent.

  But now you’ve got the gist

  Of what my letters meant.

  You’re reading them again,

  The ones you didn’t burn.

  You press them to your lips,

  My pages of concern.

  I said there’d been a flood.

  I said there’s nothing left.

  I hoped that you would come.

  I gave you my address.

  Your story was so long,

  The plot was so intense,

  It took you years to cross

  The lines of self-defense.

  The wounded forms appear:

  The loss, the full extent;

  And simple kindness here,

  The solitude of strength.

  You walk into my room.

  You stand there at my desk,

  Begin your letter to

  The one who’s coming next.

  Co-written by Sharon Robinson, this song was included on Dear Heather (2004). The phrase “I said there’d been a flood / I said there’s nothing left” may be an oblique reference to the apocalyptic vision Cohen expressed in ‘The Future’, though it is of course a worldview that he has implicitly or explicitly expressed throughout his career.

  The Old Revolution

  I finally broke into the prison,

  I found my place in the chain.

  Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,

  all the brave young men

  they’re waiting now to see a signal

  which some killer will be lighting for pay.

  Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,

  you whom I cannot betray.

  I fought in the old revolution

  on the side of the ghost and the King.

  Of course I was very young

  and I thought that we were winning;

  I can’t pretend I still feel very much like singing

  as they carry the bodies away.

  Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

  Lately you’ve started to stutter

  as though you had nothing to say.

  To all of my architects let me be traitor.

  Now let me say I myself gave the order

  to sleep and to search and to destroy.

  Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

  Yes, you who are broken by power,

  you who are absent all day,

  you who are kings for the sake of your children’s story,

  the hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,

  the hand of your lover is clay.

  Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

  This song, included on Songs From A Room (1969), uses political language but does not address social themes. But, although the song feels chock full of meaning, it is not clear what exactly it does address. That Cohen has not played the song live since its release suggests that its ambiguity has strayed over the boundary into imprecision, that the poet has indeed “started to stutter …”.

  The Smokey Life

  I’ve never seen your eyes so wide

  I’ve never seen your appetite quite this occupied

  Elsewhere is your feast of love

  I know ... where long ago we agreed to keep it light

  So lets be married one more night

  It’s light, light enough

  To let it go

  It’s light enough to let it go

  Remember when the scenery started fading

  I held you till you learned to walk on air

  So don’t look down the ground is gone,

  there’s no one waiting anyway

  The Smoky Life is practiced

  Everywhere

  So set your restless heart at ease

  Take a lesson from these Autumn leaves

  They waste no time waiting for the snow

  Don’t argue now you’ll be late

  There is nothing to investigate

  It’s light enough, light enough

  To let it go

  Light enough to let it go

  Remember when the scenery started fading

  I held you til you learned to walk on air

  So don’t look down the ground is gone,

  there’s no one waiting anyway

  The Smoky Life is practiced everywhere

  Come on back if the moment lends

  You can look up all my very closest friends

  Light, light enough

  To let it go

  It’s light enough to let it go

  Played on Cohen’s 1975 tour under the title ‘I Guess It’s Time’ and co-credited to John Lissauer, the version included on Recent Songs (1979) is credited solely to Cohen. The notion that “the smokey life” refers to drug use is not only simplistic but unevidenced. Clearly, from the song, “the smokey life” is one where all tangible reference points have evaporated. The thrust of the song is that when this happens (as it does “everywhere”), one must not panic: one must continue, one must survive. A live version was included on Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001).

  The Stranger Song

  It’s true that all the men you knew were dealers

  who said they were through with dealing

  Every time you gave them shelter

  I know that kind of man

  It’s hard to hold the hand of anyone

  who is reaching for the sky just to surrender,

  who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.

  And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind

  you find
he did not leave you very much

  not even laughter

  Like any dealer he was watching for the card

  that is so high and wild

  he’ll never need to deal another

  He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

  He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

  And then leaning on your window sill

  he’ll say one day you caused his will

  to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter

  And then taking from his wallet

  an old schedule of trains, he’ll say

  I told you when I came I was a stranger

  I told you when I came I was a stranger.

  But now another stranger seems

  to want you to ignore his dreams

  as though they were the burden of some other

  O you’ve seen that man before

  his golden arm dispatching cards

  but now it’s rusted from the elbows to the finger

  And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter

  Yes he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter.

  Ah you hate to see another tired man

  lay down his hand

  like he was giving up the holy game of poker

  And while he talks his dreams to sleep

  you notice there’s a highway

  that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder.

  It is curling just like smoke above his shoulder.

  You tell him to come in sit down

  but something makes you turn around

  The door is open you can’t close your shelter

  You try the handle of the road

  It opens do not be afraid

  It’s you my love, you who are the stranger

  It’s you my love, you who are the stranger.

  Well, I’ve been waiting, I was sure

  we’d meet between the trains we’re waiting for

  I think it’s time to board another

  Please understand, I never had a secret chart

  to get me to the heart of this

  or any other matter

  When he talks like this

  you don’t know what he’s after

  When he speaks like this,

  you don’t know what he’s after.

  Let’s meet tomorrow if you choose

  upon the shore, beneath the bridge

  that they are building on some endless river

  Then he leaves the platform

  for the sleeping car that’s warm