Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

This section is dedicated to the new studio album and the Dublin concert video
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Cheshire gal
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Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Cheshire gal »

Slow: A great song.

'A weekend on your lips, a lifetime in your eyes' :D :D :D

I love this Album.
'...and here's a man still working for your little smile' -Leonard Cohen
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Greengage
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Greengage »

You could almost cite the whole album but these are some that jumped out at me

"Is it still raining
Back in november?"

Witnessing a massacre in 'Almost like the blues'

"I couldn’t meet their glances
I was staring at my shoes"

or New Orleans from the song 'Samson in New Orleans':

"Was our prayer so damn unworthy
The sun rejected it?"

Born in chains has some memorable lines:

"I was idle against my soul
When I heard you could use me"

and

"The name be blessed
Written on my heart
In burning letters
That's all I know
I cannot read the rest"
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mnkyface
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by mnkyface »

Cheshire gal wrote:Slow: A great song.

'A weekend on your lips, a lifetime in your eyes' :D :D :D

I love this Album.
Is it just me, or does anyone else always think "lifetime on your thighs" at this point in the song? I know the correct lyric but my mind just always goes there (what does that say about me - ha). I blame Leonard...all his references to thighs over the years.
"In this world of shallow, he is the abyss."~ YouTube commenter greg450318
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HelenOE
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by HelenOE »

mnkyface wrote: Is it just me, or does anyone else always think "lifetime on your thighs" at this point in the song?
No, not just you.
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Cheshire gal
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Cheshire gal »

Me too mnkyface, but I thought it was just me.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
'...and here's a man still working for your little smile' -Leonard Cohen
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friscogrl
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by friscogrl »

Same here, I just expected it.

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medicinejar
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by medicinejar »

I keep waiting for it too.... I wonder if he did not go there because he's done it before.

My favourite thigh moment is probably "But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment"

From this album, my favourite line thus far is:

"A husband leads. A wife commands."

And yes, I am married.... and sometimes I lead (I definitely don't command).
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panjandrum
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by panjandrum »

mnkyface wrote:
Cheshire gal wrote:Is it just me, or does anyone else always think "lifetime on your thighs" at this point in the song? I know the correct lyric but my mind just always goes there (what does that say about me - ha). I blame Leonard...all his references to thighs over the years.
Yep. Totally. First time through my brain automatically heard "thighs"...
Diane

Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Diane »

I seventh that!
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Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by UrPal »

The original saying is a foreboding about chocolate - "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips". It's sometimes been quoted to me by a woman I know as I hit the biscuit tin for brain sugar recovery. Fascinating that so many women at this forum are "hearing" a minor rhyming adaptation of the original phrase rather than Cohen's more masculine adaptation, but don't attribute the source of their mental interjection. Incidentally, I think Cohen's words are "a weekend on your hips, a lifetime in your eyes" (maybe I'm mishearing the "hips" bit though on account of a male perspective).

The particularly striking lyrics to me are:

"so gather up the killers
get everyone in town"

"And when I'm finished thinking
I have to die a lot
There's torture and there's killing
And there's all my bad reviews"

"The lemon trees blossom
The almond trees whither
Was I ever someone
Who could love you forever?"


"Drove you to the station
Never asked you why
Drove you to the station
Never asked you why
Held you for a little while
My Oh My Oh My"

"There is no need
That this survive
There’s truth that lives
And truth that dies"

"Word of Words
And Measure of all Measures
Blessed is the Name
The Name be blessed
Written on my heart
In burning Letters
That’s all I know
I cannot read the rest"

"You got me singing
Even tho’ the news is bad
You got me singing
The only song I ever had"
Diane

Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Diane »

Were it not for LC's thing about thighs, we might not be here today: http://www.leonardcohen-prologues.com/t ... _waltz.htm
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AlanM
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by AlanM »

Greengage wrote: "Was our prayer so damn unworthy
The sun rejected it?"
The official lyrics are:
"Was our prayer so damn unworthy
The Son rejected it?"

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/popula ... s.html#113

I think this meaning of Son/sun is a New Testament reference rather than an Old Testament/Talmud one.
Son is quite different to sun in meaning, both here and elsewhere.

Alan
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Greengage
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Greengage »

AlanM wrote:
Greengage wrote: "Was our prayer so damn unworthy
The sun rejected it?"
The official lyrics are:
"Was our prayer so damn unworthy
The Son rejected it?"

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/popula ... s.html#113

I think this meaning of Son/sun is a New Testament reference rather than an Old Testament/Talmud one.
Son is quite different to sun in meaning, both here and elsewhere.

Alan
Ah, I was wondering about that.

Makes a little more sense, it being 'Son' rather than 'sun'. Sun felt a little pagan and the figure of Jesus has a way of turning up in LC:s lyrics.
(another of my favourite lines of his are:
Show me the place where The Word became a man
show me the place where the suffering began
)
fusional
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by fusional »

Cheshire gal wrote:Slow: A great song.

'A weekend on your lips, a lifetime in your eyes' :D :D :D

I love this Album.
This is probably my least favourite line on the album. It ranks up there with "I don't smoke no cigarettes / I don't need no alcohol" from the Darkness amongst my least favourite in any of his albums...

Edit. - I just read the discussion above on this. I'm sure he was referencing 'moment on the lips / lifetime on the thighs'. He must have been. Which is one of the reasons I dislike it.

On the whole, I've always prefered the 'storytelling' side of Leonard - Partisan (even if not his own words), Famous Blue Raincoat, The Stranger Song etc. I'm not as sold by the self-referential types stuff in the last two albums even though I like both albums on the whole.
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Cheshire gal
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Re: Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Post by Cheshire gal »

Hi fusional:

This is what most women find appealing about Leonard. His sense of humor.
Perhaps you are male and just do not get it. :D :D

ps: maybe I should just speak for myself though. :lol:
'...and here's a man still working for your little smile' -Leonard Cohen
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