First we take Manhattan ....

It, and about every other song, is about what is says. The writer says what he means to say, he says, sings, and sits down. What he felt he wrote on the paper, what you felt is another matter entirely.

Joe( I too can be obtuse or oblong, or equilateral)Nation

The first time I heard this song I was in a club with my brother in San Diego and out of nowhere and unannounced came Cohen with three female backup singers and they performed this song then left the stage. I was dumbdounded. sometime later the CD came out with the same song.

Yes, I'll bet you were dumbfounded, dys! It's an knock-out!

OK. The same as any other piece of art or music that's ever been created It's always had this rather mysterious sort of quality for me. I just wondered what others made of it, that's all ....

I can understand on a visceral level, but putting it into any other words somehow defeats the purpose, it seems.

Yeah, you're probably right, edgar.

This may be of interest to folk who like Leonard Cohen's music. A transcript of a BBC Radio One program in which he spoke about his music:

http://www.serve.com/cpage/LCohen/BBCshow.html

Jennifer Warnes did a cover of this. As for the context of the song, I think Cohen may have written it during the time of student rebellion back in the late 1960s - but I could be wrong. However it has that sort of revolutionary zeal feel to it.

Yes, goodfielder, she was featured in that BBC 1 link I posted above.

So now we have:

Leonard C

REM

Jennifer Warnes

who have recorded "Manhattan"


I'm sure there are others, but who?

Well, OK, I think I framed the expectations of this thread rather clumsily in the first place.
I mean, was I really wanting any of you to explain this wonderful song? Of course not! It's like trying to explain why a sunset is beautiful & compelling. Why do it? It's beautiful because it's beautiful.

Really, I just wanted to share my appreciation of this great bit of music with others who feel the same way. I'm certain that I'm not alone in finding it wonderful.

So maybe I should have asked things like: When did you first hear it? (Thanks, dys)
What impact did it have on you? Don't you think it's great? How does it affect you?
Do you know any of the stories, rumours & myths surrounding this track? Whether true or the stuff of music mythology, why don't you share it with us? Let's gossip!
But, above all, let's just celebrate a great bit of music!

Nothing worse than creating a thread about a wonderful subject & leaving folk who feel the same way with no where to go! Ooops!

Ever since I bought Cohen's first record album unheard in 1968, I have bought each new one as a matter of course. I know I will like them beforehand.

Well, for someone who hasn't bought a Cohen album for a long, long time & has regained an interest in his music, edgar, are there any stand out favourites in your collection? I wouldn't mind a recommendation. There are so many to choose from. I can't buy all of them!

First version of this I ever heard was actually the Jennifer Warnes one. But when I listened to the lyrics (I had no idea it was a Leonard Cohen song by the way) for me it was an immediate throwback to the late sixties. May 1968 the student and worker rebellion that almost brought down the government of De Gaulle, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and all that.

But it also has a sense of the would-be revolutionary getting out of the slammer and being more determined, less ideallistic, less about street protest and more about subterfuge. Probably just projection on my part anywa.

I particularly like his
Recent Songs
Songs of Love and Hate
and the one with Democracy is Coming to the USA on it - forget the title.

Now that's interesting, goodfielder!

Thanks, edgar.

To me, it's a sort of anthem of hope, liberation .... Of breaking out of the strictures, of saying f**k you, I don't have to accept YOUR rules & I won't. I have better ways than yours! ... & I'm finding my own way out of here, whatever it takes.




It also makes me want to dance.

I was walking in new york city and I brushed up against the man in front of me. I felt a cardboard placard on his back. and when we passed a streetlight, I could read it, it said please do
pass me by - I am blind, but you can see -I've been blinded totally - please don't pass me by. I was walking along 7th avenue, when I came to 14th street I saw on the corner curious mutilat
Of the human form; it was a school for handicapped people. and there were cripples, and people in wheelchairs and crutches and it was snowing, and I got this sense that the whole city was singing
Oh please don't pass me by,
Oh please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh please don't pass me by.

And you know as I was walking I thought it was them who were singing it, I thought it was they who were singing it, I thought it was the other who was singing it, I thought it was someone else.
as I moved along I knew it was me, and that I was singing it to myself. it went:

Please don't pass me by,
Oh please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Well, I've been blinded totally,
Oh please don't pass me by.
Oh please don't pass me by.

Now I know that you're sitting there deep in your velvet seats and you're thinking uh, he's up there saying something that he thinks about, but I'll never have to sing that song. but
Omise you friends, that you're going to be singing this song: it may not be tonight, it may not be tomorrow, but one day you'll be on your knees and I want you to know the words when the time co
Because you're going to have to sing it to yourself, or to another, or to your brother. you're going to have to learn to sing this song, it goes:

Please don't pass me by,
Ah you don't have to sing this .. not for you.
Please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh please don't pass me by.

Well I sing this for the jews and the gypsies and the smoke that they made. and I sing this for the children of england, their faces so grave. and I sing this for a saviour with no one to save.
Won't you be naked for me? hey, won't you be naked for me? it goes:

Please don't pass me by,
Oh please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh now, please don't pass me by.

Now there's nothing that I tell you that will help you connect the blood tortured night with the day that comes next. but I want it to hurt you, I want it to end. oh, won't you be naked for me?
W:

Please don't pass me by,
Oh please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh now, please don't pass me by.

Well I sing this song for you blonde beasts, I sing this song for you venuses upon your shells on the foam of the sea. and I sing this for the freaks and the cripples, and the hunchback, and the
Ed, and the burning, and the maimed, and the broken, and the torn, and all of those that you talk about at the coffee tables, at the meetings, and the demonstrations, on the streets, in your mus
N my songs. I mean the real ones that are burning, I mean the real ones that are burning

I say, please don't pass me by,
Oh now, please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, but you can see,
Ah now, I've been blinded totally,
Oh no, please don't pass me by.

I know that you still think that it's me. I know that you think that there's somebody else. I know that these words aren't yours. but I tell you friends that one day

You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down on your knees,
You're going to get down ...

Oh, please don't pass me by,
Oh, please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, yeah but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh, please don't pass me by.

Well you know I have my songs and I have my poems. I have my book and I have the army, and sometimes I have your applause. I make some money, but you know what my friends, I'm still out there on
Corner. I'm with the freaks, I'm with the hunted, I'm with the maimed, yes I'm with the torn, I'm with the down, I'm with the poor. come on now ...

Ah, please don't pass me by,
Well I've got to go now friends,
But, please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, yeah but you can see,
Oh, I've been blinded, I've been blinded totally,
Oh now, please don't pass me by.

Now I want to take away my dignity, yes take my dignity. my friends, take my dignity, take my form, take my style, take my honour, take my courage, take my time, take my time, .. time .. 'cause
Now I'm with you singing this song. and I wish you would, I wish you would, I wish you would go home with someone else. wish you'd go home with someone else. I wish you'd go home with someone el
On't be the person that you came with. oh, don't be the person that you came with, oh don't be the person that you came with. ah, I'm not going to be. I can't stand him. I can't stand who I am.
S why I've got to get down on my knees. because I can't make it by myself. I'm not by myself anymore because the man I was before he was a tyrant, he was a slave, he was in chains, he was broken
Then he sang:

Oh, please don't pass me by,
Oh, please don't pass me by,
For I am blind, yes I am blind, oh but you can see,
Yes, I've been blinded totally,
Oh, please don't pass me by.

Well I hope I see you out there on the corner. yeah I hope as I go by that I hear you whisper with the breeze. because I'm going to leave you now, I'm going to find me someone new. find someone

And please don't pass me by.

dyslexia


Wow.

Thank you.

and the yossarians