continued from last post
9) "I walked into this empty church I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard, whispered to my soul
I dont need to be forgiven for loving you so much
Its written in the scriptures
Its written there in blood
I even heard the angels declare it from above
There aint no cure,
There aint no cure,
There aint no cure for love"- There Ain't No Cure For Love
The chorus of this song always bothers me (the "there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure for love" part) because just as there ain't no cure for love there ain't no cure for condescending to write a chorus. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid Leonard, you can barely sing a note and I still love you, if people need to dance to every fucking song then they're spending too much time dancing. Let them step outside and dance out there for five minutes if they need to. Forgetting all that for a minute, I put these lyrics on the list because they're beautiful. The guilt that comes with loving something with all your heart and soul is driven out by Leonard and the angels up above. We're only human, we'll not grow out of this, it's not a phase, it's in our souls. We're not better than this, we're not made for more, we won't look back after having ascended, always and forever this is what we are. The capacity to love away an entire lifetime and fastened to a dying animal. There ain't no cure for love, we're only human.
10) "I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time"- Closing Time
Staggering on the precipice is fun before the fall. The best things in life often end up as regrets. If it feels good do it, but know you'll either end up missing it or regret having done it at all. There's no other way around it, the store can't stay open forever, Leonard knows it, I know it; that "closed" sign is always ready, goodbye my friends, keep that in mind.
Showing posts with label 10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 5)
Continued from last post
8) "Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.
Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around 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"- The Sisters Of Mercy
No one else can see them. In the wings before he walks on, in the corner near the curtain, there are two girls softly smiling, staring straight into his eyes. He looks around him at the stagehands who walk past like they don't notice. But they don't let people back here, and they're too beautiful to just walk by. "Almost show time Leonard", someone says and Leonard murmurs his assent, then looks back to where the girls were standing but now the girls are gone. And frozen in his tracks, the whole theater shakes around him. The heavy lights above the stage fall down and shatter into broken glass. The roadies vanish, the audience follows, the fixtures turn, the curtains fall. Like he's in a dream that's melting, Leonard blinks and rubs his eyes, and he's no longer where he was but in a desert streching out it's waste for miles. Yes the whole thing was a lie. The tour, the records, the reviews, the career...you get strange dreams in a desert; with no hope and no chance come mirages, while the wind blows unforgiving, burning sand, into your eyes. "Yes, now I remember. In my life I've walked this desert, and parching and forsaken, I've come here of my own accord to die. My loved ones; I have left them. I have departed and gone. And my friends, had I kept them...they are departed and gone. And the ones who brought me comfort, they are departed and gone...I lay me down forsaken, a hopeless soul, forgotten, alone in the desert sands I lay me down to die. "We are not departed and gone". My work is done, I thought it special, it was not special work at all. 30 pieces of silver. "We are not departed and gone". All the chances to be happy, and I denied them all..."We are not departed and gone"...but you imagine strange things in a desert..."We are not departed and gone". And there are hands upon him lifting. And like he's in a dream they lead him and carry him to where the stream is running, soft and still full, even after all this time. And they dip a golden cup into the cool clear mountain waters, and to his parched lips lift it up, and let him drink deep from the side. Stunned and half in unbelief, his cracking baritone can barely find the words "I thought that you had left me", as the tears come to his eyes. They smile, shake their heads sadly, and one leans in close and kisses him, and looking straight into his eyes says "We are not departed and gone". And the lights go down. He's backstage again and it's almost time to go on. He doesn't look to where they were standing, it doesn't matter if they're still there. The kiss was something to carry until the next time that he's lost. In his prayers he thanks them soundly, tunes his guitar and walks on.
continued next post
8) "Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.
Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around 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"- The Sisters Of Mercy
No one else can see them. In the wings before he walks on, in the corner near the curtain, there are two girls softly smiling, staring straight into his eyes. He looks around him at the stagehands who walk past like they don't notice. But they don't let people back here, and they're too beautiful to just walk by. "Almost show time Leonard", someone says and Leonard murmurs his assent, then looks back to where the girls were standing but now the girls are gone. And frozen in his tracks, the whole theater shakes around him. The heavy lights above the stage fall down and shatter into broken glass. The roadies vanish, the audience follows, the fixtures turn, the curtains fall. Like he's in a dream that's melting, Leonard blinks and rubs his eyes, and he's no longer where he was but in a desert streching out it's waste for miles. Yes the whole thing was a lie. The tour, the records, the reviews, the career...you get strange dreams in a desert; with no hope and no chance come mirages, while the wind blows unforgiving, burning sand, into your eyes. "Yes, now I remember. In my life I've walked this desert, and parching and forsaken, I've come here of my own accord to die. My loved ones; I have left them. I have departed and gone. And my friends, had I kept them...they are departed and gone. And the ones who brought me comfort, they are departed and gone...I lay me down forsaken, a hopeless soul, forgotten, alone in the desert sands I lay me down to die. "We are not departed and gone". My work is done, I thought it special, it was not special work at all. 30 pieces of silver. "We are not departed and gone". All the chances to be happy, and I denied them all..."We are not departed and gone"...but you imagine strange things in a desert..."We are not departed and gone". And there are hands upon him lifting. And like he's in a dream they lead him and carry him to where the stream is running, soft and still full, even after all this time. And they dip a golden cup into the cool clear mountain waters, and to his parched lips lift it up, and let him drink deep from the side. Stunned and half in unbelief, his cracking baritone can barely find the words "I thought that you had left me", as the tears come to his eyes. They smile, shake their heads sadly, and one leans in close and kisses him, and looking straight into his eyes says "We are not departed and gone". And the lights go down. He's backstage again and it's almost time to go on. He doesn't look to where they were standing, it doesn't matter if they're still there. The kiss was something to carry until the next time that he's lost. In his prayers he thanks them soundly, tunes his guitar and walks on.
continued next post
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 4)
Continued from last post
6) "I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me"- Anthem
And lo there came a settlement to the island of Manhattan in the early 1600's and they built themselves a wall. And a street was run along it that's housed killers now for centuries; and the prayers they've said with no shame they've been saying right out loud. And the wall that had been built to protect from hostile forces has now fallen and they're left alone with danger on all sides. From the darkness that surrounds them, eyes are watching and a records playing; they can't make out what the song is but catch the singer say "you're not safe here anymore". "There is danger all around you now", and Leonard knew that it would happen and transfered all his stocks to bonds.
7) "I fought against the bottle,
But I had to do it drunk –
Took my diamond to the pawnshop –
But that don’t make it junk"- That Don't Make It Junk.
Oscar Wilde wrote that "each man kills the thing he loves...the coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword". But Leonard reminds us that most people are neither cowardly or brave, and usually kill the things they love just in the normal course of their life to get by. The sad midway between two points; an old weathered singer, and crumpled dollars for the diamond he'd once held in the palm of his hand.
Continued next post
6) "I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me"- Anthem
And lo there came a settlement to the island of Manhattan in the early 1600's and they built themselves a wall. And a street was run along it that's housed killers now for centuries; and the prayers they've said with no shame they've been saying right out loud. And the wall that had been built to protect from hostile forces has now fallen and they're left alone with danger on all sides. From the darkness that surrounds them, eyes are watching and a records playing; they can't make out what the song is but catch the singer say "you're not safe here anymore". "There is danger all around you now", and Leonard knew that it would happen and transfered all his stocks to bonds.
7) "I fought against the bottle,
But I had to do it drunk –
Took my diamond to the pawnshop –
But that don’t make it junk"- That Don't Make It Junk.
Oscar Wilde wrote that "each man kills the thing he loves...the coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword". But Leonard reminds us that most people are neither cowardly or brave, and usually kill the things they love just in the normal course of their life to get by. The sad midway between two points; an old weathered singer, and crumpled dollars for the diamond he'd once held in the palm of his hand.
Continued next post
Monday, April 6, 2009
10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 3)
Continued from last post
4) "I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song"- The Tower Of Song
Hank Williams died in 1953 in the back seat of a car at the age of 29. And Leonard says that he's still suffering, he'll never be at rest, like Hendrix is still choking and the King's still on that bathroom floor. Here's the secret of their success, they carry it forever, the heavy door that it unlocks is not to heaven but the tower of song. Yeats came down himself and wrote the cost by saying that it's "only an aching heart concieves a changeless work of art". And look close above the doorway, though faded, the words are still where Dante writ them. In Itallian, but for always, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here"
5) I told my mother "Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
And should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere"- The Traitor
James Dean yells this out to his mom as he goes, and you can blame him for the driving but not the other cars on the road. And whether he was speeding or not sometimes driving fast's the only way to get to where you're going. His last words before the crash were reported to have been "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us." And Leonard heard him like a poet, and the only thing he added were what his next words would have been. In another world where the crash happened just a couple seconds later, he got a chance to say, and Leonard heard him, "I'm sorry ma, I tried".
Continued next post
4) "I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song"- The Tower Of Song
Hank Williams died in 1953 in the back seat of a car at the age of 29. And Leonard says that he's still suffering, he'll never be at rest, like Hendrix is still choking and the King's still on that bathroom floor. Here's the secret of their success, they carry it forever, the heavy door that it unlocks is not to heaven but the tower of song. Yeats came down himself and wrote the cost by saying that it's "only an aching heart concieves a changeless work of art". And look close above the doorway, though faded, the words are still where Dante writ them. In Itallian, but for always, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here"
5) I told my mother "Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
And should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere"- The Traitor
James Dean yells this out to his mom as he goes, and you can blame him for the driving but not the other cars on the road. And whether he was speeding or not sometimes driving fast's the only way to get to where you're going. His last words before the crash were reported to have been "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us." And Leonard heard him like a poet, and the only thing he added were what his next words would have been. In another world where the crash happened just a couple seconds later, he got a chance to say, and Leonard heard him, "I'm sorry ma, I tried".
Continued next post
Sunday, April 5, 2009
10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 2)
Contiuned from last post
2) "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often."- Chelsea Hotel #2
The songs about him meeting Janis Joplin in a hotel in New York in the 60's. And the line "you got away, didn't you babe?" is more poignant knowing it's about her. She's cremated now, her ashes thrown to the pacific ocean. And Leonard stops, his head down, remembering someone he knew for just a moment. And then buttoning his coat he moves on slowly; as the ashes swirl all around him.
3) "Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah"- Hallelujah
The most famous version of this is by Jeff Buckley, another fallen robin. He drowned in a channel of the Mississippi river in 1997 at the age of 30. It's a beautiful cover of a song by a poet and it highlights the fact that Leonard Cohen's songs have more life within them then is sometimes readily apparent from his original recorded versions. There's actually more Leonard Cohen covers that are better than the originals then any other great singer/songwriter I can think of. (With the possible exception of Kris Kristofferson). And "Hallelujah" might be the best Leonard Cohen cover ever. Here's what it's like to find beauty in someone else's work. You can write a beautiful melody and write beautiful words to match it; and sometimes it takes what's close to genius to hear how beautiful they really are.
Continued next post
2) "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often."- Chelsea Hotel #2
The songs about him meeting Janis Joplin in a hotel in New York in the 60's. And the line "you got away, didn't you babe?" is more poignant knowing it's about her. She's cremated now, her ashes thrown to the pacific ocean. And Leonard stops, his head down, remembering someone he knew for just a moment. And then buttoning his coat he moves on slowly; as the ashes swirl all around him.
3) "Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah"- Hallelujah
The most famous version of this is by Jeff Buckley, another fallen robin. He drowned in a channel of the Mississippi river in 1997 at the age of 30. It's a beautiful cover of a song by a poet and it highlights the fact that Leonard Cohen's songs have more life within them then is sometimes readily apparent from his original recorded versions. There's actually more Leonard Cohen covers that are better than the originals then any other great singer/songwriter I can think of. (With the possible exception of Kris Kristofferson). And "Hallelujah" might be the best Leonard Cohen cover ever. Here's what it's like to find beauty in someone else's work. You can write a beautiful melody and write beautiful words to match it; and sometimes it takes what's close to genius to hear how beautiful they really are.
Continued next post
Friday, April 3, 2009
10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 1)
1) "And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"- Suzanne
"Suzanne" was Cohen's first big song, covered by Judy Collins the year it was released (1967) and covered in the years following by, among others, the blues singer Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack. The song is about Leonard encountering a woman named Suzanne Verdal in Montreal in the '60's. She was married to a Canadian sculptor and had also, according to this 1998 CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) story, "served as the muse of dozens of Beat poets". Essentially it's a song answering an old and lingering question. If Darwin wasn't wrong and we're but the products of selection, what's the evolutionary basis for why a man would write a poem? We are but strangers here, preyed upon by unknown forces. What drove our ancestors drives us now in ancient ways we've made our own. The brightest feathers have all been grown for the love of beautiful women. Suzanne, you made us birds of paradise a million years ago.
Continued next post
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"- Suzanne
"Suzanne" was Cohen's first big song, covered by Judy Collins the year it was released (1967) and covered in the years following by, among others, the blues singer Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack. The song is about Leonard encountering a woman named Suzanne Verdal in Montreal in the '60's. She was married to a Canadian sculptor and had also, according to this 1998 CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) story, "served as the muse of dozens of Beat poets". Essentially it's a song answering an old and lingering question. If Darwin wasn't wrong and we're but the products of selection, what's the evolutionary basis for why a man would write a poem? We are but strangers here, preyed upon by unknown forces. What drove our ancestors drives us now in ancient ways we've made our own. The brightest feathers have all been grown for the love of beautiful women. Suzanne, you made us birds of paradise a million years ago.
Continued next post
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