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R.I.P. Leonard Cohen

Democracy (is coming to the USA)

It's coming through a hole in the air, from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.

It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows 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 you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And 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 pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows 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

Sail on, Mr. Cohen,

With gratitude,

Talkleft

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  • Display: Sort:
    Jeralyn, thank you for the memory (5.00 / 2) (#3)
    by NYShooter on Fri Nov 11, 2016 at 01:45:57 AM EST
    My girlfriend (later, my wife) sent me this cassette (yes, cassette) about two weeks before I was to be discharged from my stint at "saving the free world from godless commies." After listening to this song (and crying like a baby) I wrote back, "Vickie, you know I'm not a religious person (she was a practicing Catholic) but, after listening to this song, where else could Judy's voice come from if not from heaven? God, I love you."........."Suzanne," sung by Judy Collins

    Leonard Cohen's Prince Of Asturias Speech (none / 0) (#1)
    by hilts on Fri Nov 11, 2016 at 12:27:22 AM EST
    Leonard Cohen's Prince Of Asturias Speech
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIR5ps8usuo

    At 6:27 of the clip, Leonard tells a very moving story of a man who gave him guitar lessons.

    Dance me to the End of Love (none / 0) (#2)
    by Mr Natural on Fri Nov 11, 2016 at 01:04:00 AM EST
    - sung by a Chanteuse from a new generation of Cohen interpreters, Madeleine Peyroux

    Cohen's final prayer (none / 0) (#4)
    by Mr Natural on Fri Nov 11, 2016 at 11:32:45 AM EST
    You Want it Darker

    A million candles burning for a help that never came,
    You want it darker, we kill the flame

    Some exegesis of the song's deep religious component, published at the time of the song's release on Cohen's 82nd birthday.

    It's not his first dip into the Story of Isaac  (Suzanne Vega's version)

    I will kill you if I must;
    I will help you if I can,


    Thanks for that. I love that osng on his latest (none / 0) (#5)
    by ruffian on Fri Nov 11, 2016 at 03:42:04 PM EST
    CD, for the beauty and poetry of it. I did not know the deeper meaning.

    His songs really fit my mood this week. I will be playing them all. The 'Live in London' set is one of my favorite CDs in my collection.  

    RIP Leonard and thank you for the beauty that is sorely needed.

    Parent

    Leonard Cohen's last Audio interview (none / 0) (#6)
    by Mr Natural on Sat Nov 12, 2016 at 03:03:06 AM EST
    "What to drink to mourn Leonard Cohen (none / 0) (#7)
    by Mr Natural on Mon Nov 28, 2016 at 02:40:02 AM EST
    - and the unravelling of civilisation?"

    Grapes from the cradle of civilisation, planted under fascism, nurtured in soil that remembers being molten, destructive rock: if that is not appropriate drinking for the 2016 American election, I don't know what is.

    - Nina Caplan, The New Statesman, 27 November, 2016



    Jennifer Warnes discusses Leonard Cohen (none / 0) (#8)
    by Mr Natural on Tue Nov 29, 2016 at 09:36:55 PM EST
    His songs always had the full range of emotion.  There was enough meat in there that I felt I could lend my personality to the tunes honestly, and there was some popular songs that, although they're treasures in their beauty, they just didn't have enough guts, not enough...  I myself feel like I'm an intensely complex person and in order to be honest in song I had to have a complex lyric that spoke about complex mixtures of God and sex and sprituality and myth and forgiveness and lostness, all in one song.  And he's able to do that.

    - my transcription.  any errors are my own.

    Remembering the Poet of Brokenness (none / 0) (#9)
    by Mr Natural on Wed Nov 30, 2016 at 08:13:30 PM EST
    - Mikal Gilmore: Rolling Stone, 11-30-2016, "Leonard Cohen: Remembering the Life and Legacy of the Poet of Brokenness"

    "By the time I finished my tour in 1993, I was in some condition of anguish that deepened and deepened. Prozac didn't work. Paxil didn't work. Zoloft didn't work. Wellbutrin didn't work. In fact, the only comic element in the whole thing was when I was taking Prozac, I came to believe that I had overcome my [sexual] desires. I didn't know that it has that side effect. I thought it was a spiritual achievement."