LEONARD COHEN LYRICS

ok ok i was close

Close with hand grenades and lyrics is close enough.

Another song from his new CD, "Ten New Songs".....

You Have Loved Enough

I said I'd be your lover.
You laughed at what I said.
I lost my job forever.
I was counted with the dead.

I swept the marble chambers,
But you sent me down below.
You kept me from believing
Until you let me know:

That I am not the one who loves --
It's love that seizes me.
When hatred with his package comes,
You forbid delivery.

And when the hunger for your touch
Rises from the hunger,
You whisper, "You have loved enough,
Now let me be the Lover."

wow

DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN

Ah the man she wanted all her life was hanging by a thread
"I never even knew how much I wanted you," she said
His muscles they were numbered and his style was obsolete
"O baby I have come too late" She knelt beside his feet
"I'll never see a face like yours in years of men to come
I'll never see such arms again in wrestling or in love"
And all his virtues burning in the smoky holocaust
She took unto herself most everything her lover lost

Now the master of this landscape he was standing at the view
With a sparrow of St Francis that he was preaching to
She beckoned to the sentry of his high religious mood
She said "I'll make a place between my legs
I'll show you solitude"

He offered her an orgy in a many mirrored room
He promised her protection for the issue of her womb
She moved her body hard against a sharpened metal spoon
She stopped the bloody rituals of passage to the moon

She took his much admired oriental frame of mind
And the heart-of-darkness alibi his money hides behind
She took his blonde madonna and his monestary wine
"This mental space is occupied and everything is mine"

He tried to make a final stand beside the railway track
She said "The art of longing's over and it's never coming back"
She took his tavern parliament his cap his cocky dance
She mocked his female fashions and his working-class mustache

The last time I saw him he was trying hard to get
A woman's education but he's not a woman yet
And the last time that I saw her she was living with some boy
Who gives her soul an empty room and gives her body joy

So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed
It would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed
It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far

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
You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say ok the bridge or someplace later.

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind ...

And leaning on your window sill ...

I told you when I came I was a stranger.

PAPER THIN HOTEL

The walls of this hotel are paper thin
Last night I heard you making love to him
The struggle mouth to mouth and limb to limb
The grunt of unity when he came in

I stood there with my ear against the wall
I was not siezed by jealousy at all
In fact a burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control
A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control

I listened to your kisses at the door
I never heard the world so clear beafore
You ran your bath and began to sing
I felt so good I couldn't feel a thing

I stood with my ear against the wall ....

And I can't wait to tell you to your face
And I can't wait for you to take my place
You are the naked angel in my heart
You are the woman with her legs apart
It's written on the walls of this hotel
You go to heaven once you've been to hell

A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control

Passing Through

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you"
He said "Talk of love not hate things to do it's getting late
I've so little time and I'm only passing through"

Passing Through passing through
Sometimes happy sometimes blue
Glad that I ran into you
Tell the people that you saw me passing through

I saw Adam leave the garden with an apple in his hand
I said "Now you're out what are you gonna do"
"Plant some crops and pray for rain maybe raise a little cain
I'm an orphan now and I'm only passing through"

I was with Washington at Valley Forge shivering in the snow
I said "How come the men here suffer like they do"
"Men will suffer men will fight even die for what is right
Even though they know they're only passing through"

I was at Franklin Roosevelt's side on the night before he died
He said "One world must come out of World War Two (Ah the fool)
Yankee Russian white or tan" he said "a man is still a man
We're all on one road and we're only passing through"

Ahh, I'm home again. You look at someone who ruined two whole L. Cohen albums. They just sort of died from overplaying. Thanks for the thread. This will precipitate me to go get a cd, huh.

Yes, I have a book of his poems. But I also love his voice.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
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'
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.

When I attempt to write poetry I hear Cohen's voice as I type the words. Can't help it.

his voice is almost eerie, i saw him once at a small club in san diego with the 3 female singers. i was mesmerized as he sang "first we take manhattan"

Tonight Will Be Fine

Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past
We swore to each other then that our love would surely last
You kept right on loving I went on a fast
Now I am too thin and your love is too vast

But I know from your eyes
And I know from your smile
That tonight will be fine
Will be fine will be fine will be fine
For a while

I choose the rooms that I live in with care
The windows are small and the walls almost bare
There's only one bed and there's only one prayer
I listen all night for your step on the stair

Oh 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
Yes I've got to remember That's a fine memory

Avalanche

I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul
When I am not this hunchback that you see
I sleep beneath a golden hill
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn learn to serve me well

You strike my side by accident
As you go down for your gold
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
Is niether starved nor cold
He does not ask for your company
Not at the center the center of the world

When I am on a pedestal
You did not raise me there
Your laws do not compel me
To kneel grotesque and bare
I myself am the pedestal
For this ugly hump at which you stare

You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn what makes me kind
The crumbs of love that you offer me
They're the crumbs I've left behind
Your pain is no credential here
It's just the shadow shadow of my wound

I have begun to long for you
I who have no greed
I have begun to ask for you
I who have no need
You say you've gone away from me
But I can feel you when you breathe

Do not dress in those rags for me
I know you are not poor
Don't love me quite so fiercely now
When you know that you are not sure
It is your turn beloved
It is your flesh that I wear

Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people that you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

everybody knows everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still picking cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it is moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows that the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

I'm a HUGE Leonard Cohen fan! Be sure to check out some of his out of print poetry, you can order used copies on amazon.com.
It's funny how much his voice has changed over the years. I could do without the cheezy high pitched female backup singers, though. In some instances they're good for contrast, in others they're annoying.



A Kite is a Victim

A kite is a victim you are sure of.
You love it because it pulls
gentle enough to call you master,
strong enough to call you fool;
because it lives
like a desperate trained falcon
in the high sweet air,
and you can always haul it down
to tame it in your drawer.

A kite is a fish you have already caught
in a pool where no fish come,
so you play him carefully and long,
and hope he won't give up,
or the wind die down.

A kite is the last poem you've written,
so you give it to the wind,
but you don't let it go
until someone finds you
something else to do.
A kite is a contract of glory
that must be made with the sun,
so you make friends with the field
the river and the wind,
then you pray the whole cold night before,
under the travelling cordless moon,
to make you worthy and lyric and pure.
Leonard Cohen


(that's a poem, but poems have music, don't they?)

No Cohen collection is complete without SELECTED POEMS 1956 - 1968, BEAUTIFUL LOSERS (NOVEL) and THE FAVORITE GAME (novel).

I have
Selected Poems.

Have to complain
though about
the albums, the albums, at
least one of them was blue vinyl.

Each album died, died, fell apart.
Must have been bad plastic.

I've never seen a blue record. I've owned Cohen on black vinyl since 1968, and it's holding up really well. I do have an orange record of Everly Brothers hits, but it's in fine to near mint condition.