Popular Problems: Memorable Lines

Cheshire gal · Post by **Cheshire gal** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:12 am

Slow: A great song.

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

I love this Album.

Greengage · Post by **Greengage** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:12 am

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"

mnkyface · Post by **mnkyface** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:20 am

Cheshire gal wrote:Slow: A great song.

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

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.

HelenOE · Post by **HelenOE** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:47 am

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.

Cheshire gal · Post by **Cheshire gal** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 3:59 pm

Me too mnkyface, but I thought it was just me....

friscogrl · Post by **friscogrl** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 5:13 pm

Same here, I just expected it.

M

medicinejar · Post by **medicinejar** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:06 pm

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).

panjandrum · Post by **panjandrum** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:22 am

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 · Post by **Diane** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:41 am

I seventh that!

UrPal · Post by **UrPal** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:25 am

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 · Post by **Diane** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 12:00 am

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

AlanM · Post by **AlanM** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:36 am

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

Greengage · Post by **Greengage** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 1:55 am

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 · Post by **fusional** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:36 pm

Cheshire gal wrote:Slow: A great song.

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

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.

Cheshire gal · Post by **Cheshire gal** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:43 am

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.

ps: maybe I should just speak for myself though.