Old Ideas - Memorable lines

[Cheshire gal]

' Yeah, but frankly I don't like your tone'

This is from 'Different Sides'. It's been running through my head since I first heard it.

[TineDoes]

' Yeah, but frankly I don't like your tone'

This is from 'Different Sides'. It's been running through my head since I first heard it.

Yes that line does repeat in the ear, like the very last line of the song and the album...

There are many, many, many memorable lines there, but some stick out for the sound and inner rhyme; like "broken banjo bobbing...." .
Tineke

[IrishMar]

I absolutely love;

"The gates of commitment unwired
And nobody trying to leave"

That is the latest one on repeat in my head.

Mar

[Stamatina]

' Yeah, but frankly I don't like your tone'

You want to change the way I make love
But I want to leave it alone

that's one of mine^

also, I think the "lazy bastard living in a suit" has gone to the Leonard Cohen Hall Of Fame already. And my most favourite lines in the entire album are these:

I know you have to hate me
but could you hate me less

&

tell me again when I'm clean and I'm sober
tell me again when I've seen through the horror
tell me again, tell me over and over
tell me that you want me/need me/love me then
amen

[TipperaryAnn]

GREAT idea for a thread, Cheshire gal.
There are many, but the ones going around in my head at the moment are from "Different Sides" :

The pull of the moon the thrust of the sun
And thus the ocean is crossed
The waters are blessed while a shadowy guest
Kindles a light for the lost.

I have no idea yet what this has to do with the rest of the song, but that doesn't bother me - these are beautiful lines.

[LisaLCFan]

I rather like these lines from Come Healing:

Oh troubled dust concealing
An undivided love
The Heart beneath is teaching
To the broken Heart above

And, I just can't resist this line from Anyhow:

I'm naked, and I'm filthy!

[Jonnie Falafel]

"He wants to write a love song/An anthem of forgiving/A manual for living/with defeat" ~ It fools you into thinking he wants to a manual for living..... and then comes the "with defeat". There's so much humour in Cohen I am at a loss to know why he's painted as a prophet of gloom...... same with Morrissey too.

[holydove]

I think EVERY line from Old Ideas is so very memorable, but here's a few of them:

The wind in the trees
is talking in tongues

and:

Come on, baby, gimme a kiss
Stop writing everything down

and:

Try me again when the angels are panting
And scratching at the door to come in

[twickmag]

Why did he change the line in Darkness from 'from your little ruby cup' ?

[LisaLCFan]

Why did he change the line in Darkness from 'from your little ruby cup' ?

Leonard changed the words in this line quite frequently during the tour (he also used "little golden cup" and "pretty little cup," and perhaps others of which I am unaware). He does that!

[twickmag]

Why did he change the line in Darkness from 'from your little ruby cup' ?

Leonard changed the words in this line quite frequently during the tour (he also used "little golden cup" and "pretty little cup," and perhaps others of which I am unaware). He does that!

Ah, thanks Lisa - I was too engrossed in Las Vegas to notice, but 'little ruby cup' was in the Venice sound check video, & One Heck of a Guy has the same line in the lyrics he has posted

[TipperaryAnn]

Try me again when the angels are panting
And scratching at the door to come in

Delighted you mentioned that one, holydove. The angels of our childhood (Roman Catholic background) always seemed such ethereal, intangible beings, whereas here they're very physical, affectionate, excited dogs!

This is the enjoyable kind of thread where you end up saying YES, all of the above, and......

[tinderella]

I too love the line... Yea, but frankly I don't like your tone

But is it just me but every time I hear him say it... I think he is about to say, i don't like your style ( a common expression) and then quickly changes it to tone.... ?

My fave song is Lullaby, followed by Different Sides, but I doooooooooooo so love the lyrics in Anyhow

[holydove]

I too love the line... Yea, but frankly I don't like your tone

But is it just me but every time I hear him say it... I think he is about to say, i don't like your style ( a common expression) and then quickly changes it to tone.... ?

My fave song is Lullaby, followed by Different Sides, but I doooooooooooo so love the lyrics in Anyhow

Tinderella, I don't know about other countries, but in the U.S., "I don't like your tone" is a very common expression, so the word itself was not a surprise to me, but the way Leonard uses it is definitely a delightful surprise! I, too, LOVE this line, & it's so brilliant how Leonard can take such a common expression & by placing it so perfectly, & pouring so much passion & intensity into it, turn it into something so wonderfully musical & poetic. I see it as another way by which Leonard intertwines mundane & cosmic/spiritual realities.

[linmag]

'A lazy bastard living in a suit'. I suspect that this will become the classic quote from this album.

'A manual for living with defeat'. The neatest one-liner I have ever seen to describe Leonard's work - all of it!

'I know you have to hate me, but could you hate me less'. This had me laughing through the tears as only Leonard can.

'A broken banjo bobbing on the dark infested sea' is so graphically sinister.

And finally, not actually in a song but on one of the notes in the brochure:
'Speak truth to power?
rather
speak truth
to the powerless'.