Leonard Cohen Anthology (Songbook) Read online

  And while he talks his dreams to sleep,

  You notice there’s a highway that is

  curling up like smoke above his shoulder,

  It’s curling up like smoke above his shoulder.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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, you realize

  He’s only advertising one more shelter.

  And it comes to you, he never was a stranger.

  And you say, “0. K., the bridge or someplace later.”

  9. 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.

  10. 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.”

  HUMBLED IN LOVE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. Children have taken these pledges,

  they have ferried them out of the past,

  Oh, beyond all the graves and the hedges

  where love must go hiding at last.

  And here where there is no description,

  here in the moment at hand,

  No sinner need rise up forgiven,

  no victim need limp to the stand.

  Chorus

  3. And look, dear heart, look at the virgin,

  look how she welcomes him into her gown.

  Yes, and mark how the stranger’s cold armor

  dissolves like a star falling down.

  Why trade this vision for desire

  when you may have them both.

  You will never see a man this naked,

  I will never hold a woman this close.

  Chorus

  SISTERS OF MERCY

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. Yes, you who must leave everything

  That you cannot control,

  It begins with your family,

  But soon it comes round to your soul.

  Well, I’ve been where you’re hanging,

  I think I can see how you’re pinned.

  When you’re not feeling holy,

  Your loneliness says that you’ve sinned.

  3. They lay down beside me,

  I made my confession to them.

  They touched both my eyes,

  And I touched the dew on their hem.

  If your life is a leaf

  That the seasons tear off and condemn,

  They will bind you with love

  That is graceful and green as a stem.

  4. When I left, they were sleeping,

  I hope you run into them soon.

  Don’t turn on the lights,

  You can read their address by the moon.

  And you won’t make me jealous

  If I hear that they sweetened your night.

  We weren’t lovers like that,

  And besides, it would still be all right.

  We weren’t lovers like that,

  And besides, it would still be all right.

  FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. The last time we saw you, you looked so much older,

  Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder

  You’d been to the station to meet ev’ry train,

  You came home without Lili Marlene.

  And you treated my woman to a flake of your life,

  And when she came back, she was nobody’s wife.

  Chorus: Well, I see you there with a rose in your teeth, one more thin gypsy thief.

  Well, I see Jane’s away, she sends her regards.

  3. And what can I tell you my brother, my killer,

  What can I possibly say?

  I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you,

  I’m glad you stood in my way.

  If you ever come by here for Jane or for me,

  Well, your enemy is sleeping and his woman is free.

  Chorus: Yes, thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes.

  I thought it was there for good, so I never tried.

  Coda: And Jane came by with a lock of your hair,

  She said that you gave it to her,

  That night that you planned to go clear.

  Sincerely, L. Cohen.

  AIN’T NO CURE FOR LOVE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  (No) DIAMONDS IN THE MINE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. Well, you tell me that your lover has a broken limb.

  You see, I’m kind-a restless now, and it’s on account of him.

  Well, I saw the man in question, it was just the other night.

  He was eating up a lady where the lions and Christians fight.

  Chorus

  3. Ah, there is no comfort in the covens of the witch.

  Some very clever doctor went and sterilized the bitch.

  And the only man of energy, yes, the revolution’s pride.

  He trained a hundred women just to kill an unborn child.

  Chorus

  STORY OF ISAAC

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. The trees, they got much smaller,

  The lake a lady’s mirror,

  We stopped to drink some wine.

  Then he threw the bottle over,

  Broke a minute later,

  And he put his hand on mine.

  Thought I saw an eagle,

  But it might have been a vulture,

  I never could decide.

  Then my father built an altar,

  He looked once behind his shoulder,

  He knew I would not hide.

  3. You who build the altars now

  To sacrifice these children,

  You must not do it any more.

  A scheme is not a vision,

  And you never have been tempted

  By a demon or a god.

  You who stand above them now,

  Your hatchets blunt and bloody,

  You were not there before.

  When I lay upon a mountain,

  And my father’s hand was trembling

  With the beauty of the word.

  4. And if you call me brother now,

  Forgive me if I inquire

  Just according to whose plan?

  When it all comes down to dust,

  I will kill you if I
must,

  I will help you if I can.

  When it all comes down to dust,

  I will help you if I must,

  I will kill you if I can.

  And mercy on our uniform,

  Man of peace or man of war,

  The peacock spreads his fan.

  TONIGHT WILL BE FINE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. I choose the rooms that I live in with care.

  The windows are small and the walls must be bare.

  There’s only one bed and there’s only one prayer.

  And I listen all night for your step on the stair.

  Chorus

  3. Sometimes I see her undressing for me.

  She’s the soft naked lady love meant her to be.

  And she’s moving her body so brave and so free.

  If I’ve got to remember, that’s a fine memory.

  Chorus

  THE GUESTS

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  3. And all go stumbling through that house in lonely secrecy,

  Saying, “Do reveal yourself,” or, “Why hast thou forsaken me?”

  Chorus

  4. All at once the torches flare, the inner door flies open.

  One by one, they enter there in every style of passion.

  Chorus

  5. And here they take their sweet repast while house and grounds dissolve.

  And one by one, the guests are cast beyond the garden walls.

  Chorus

  6. And those who dance begin to dance, those who weep begin.

  And those who earnestly are lost, are lost and lost again.

  Chorus

  7. One by one, the guests arrive, the guests are coming through.

  The broken-hearted many, the open-hearted few.

  SING ANOTHER SONG, BOYS

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  (After 1st ending)

  Bridge II. He stands where it is steep,

  Ah, I guess he thinks that he’s the very first one.

  His hands upon his leather belt now,

  Like it was the wheel of some big ocean liner.

  And she will learn to touch herself so well,

  As all the sails burn down like paper,

  And he has with the chain of his famous cigarillo.

  3. They’ll never, they’ll never ever reach the moon,

  At least not the one that we’re after.

  (To 2nd ending)

  A SINGER MUST DIE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,

  You keepers of Truth, you guardians of Beauty.

  Your vision is right, my vision is wrong,

  I’m sorry for smudging the air with my song.

  La la la la, la la la la la la,

  La la la la la, la la la la la la.

  3. The night, it is thick, my defenses are hid

  In the clothes of a woman I would like to forgive,

  In the rings of her silk, in the hinge of her thighs,

  Where I have to go begging in beauty’s disguise.

  Goodnight, goodnight, my night after night,

  My night after night after night after night.

  4. I am so afraid that I listen to you,

  Your sunglassed protectors, they do that to you.

  It’s their ways to detain, it’s their ways to disgrace,

  Their knee in your balls and their fist in your face.

  Yes, and long live the state, by whoever it’s made.

  Sir, I didn’t see nothing, I was just getting home late.

  THE GYPSY’S WIFE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. Ah, the silver knives are flashing in the tired old café.

  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.

  Chorus

  3. 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 can be touched.

  But you who come between them will be judged.

  Chorus

  SEEMS SO LONG AGO, NANCY

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. It seems so long ago,

  none of us were strong.

  Nancy wore green stockings,

  and she slept with everyone.

  She never said she’d wait for us,

  although she was alone.

  I think she fell in love for us

  in nineteen sixty-one,

  in nineteen sixty-one.

  3. It seems so long ago,

  Nancy was alone.

  A forty-five beside her head,

  an open telephone.

  We told her she was beautiful,

  we told her she was free.

  But none of us would meet her in

  the House of Mystery,

  the House of Mystery.

  4. And now you look around you,

  see her everywhere.

  Many use her body,

  many comb her hair.

  And in the hollow of the night,

  when you are cold and numb,

  You hear her talking freely then,

  she’s happy that you’ve come,

  she’s happy that you’ve come.

  TAKE THIS WALTZ

  WORDS BY LEONARD COHEN/GARCIA LORCA

  MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  LADY MIDNIGHT

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. Well, I argued all night like so many have before,

  Saying, “Whatever you give me, I seem to need so much more.”

  Then she pointed at me where I kneeled on her floor.

  She said, “Don’t try to use me or slyly refuse me,

  Just win me or lose me, it is this that the darkness is for.”

  3. I cried, “Oh, Lady Midnight, I fear that you grow old,

  Stars eat your body and the wind makes you cold.”

  “If we cry now,” she said, “It will just be ignored.”

  So I walked through the morning, the sweet early morning.

  I could hear my lady calling, “You’ve won me, you’ve won me, my lord.”

  “You’ve won me, you’ve won me, my lord.”

  “Yes, you’ve won me, you’ve won me, my lord.”

  LOVE CALLS You BY YOUR NAME

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics

  2. The women in your scrapbook

  Whom you still praise and blame,

  You say they chained you to your fingernails,

  And you climb the halls of fame.

  But here, right here,

  Between the peanuts and the cage,

  Between the darkness and the stage,

  Between the hour and the age,

  Once again, once again,

  Love calls you by your name.

  3. Shouldering your loneliness

  Like a gun that you will not learn to aim,

  You stumble into this movie house,

  Then you climb, you climb into the frame.

  Yes, and here, right here,

  Between the moonlight and the lane,

  Between the tunnel and the train,

  Between the victim and his stain,

  Once again, once again,

  Love calls you by your name.

  4. I leave the lady meditating

  On the very love which I, I do not wish to claim.

  I journeyed down the hundred steps,

  But the street is still the very same.

  And here, right here,

 
Between the dancer and his cane,

  Between the sailboat and the drain,

  Between the newsreel and your tiny pain,

  Once again, once again,

  Love calls you by your name.

  5. Where are you, Judy? Where are you, Ann?

  Where are the paths your heroes came?

  Wondering out loud as the bandage pulls away,

  Was I, was I only limping, was I really lame?

  Oh, here, come over here,

  Between the windmill and the grain,

  Between the sundial and the chain,

  Between the traitor and her pain,

  Once again, once again,

  Love calls you by your name.

  AVALANCHE

  WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN

  Additional Lyrics