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Take this longing from my tongue,
whatever useless things
my hands have done;
let me see your beauty broken down,
like you would do
for one you love.

Mutti

'You held on to me like I was a crucifix
as we went kneeling through the dark'

'Do not dress in those rags for me, I know you are not poor,
And don't love me quite so fiercely now, when you know that you are not sure'

'Your eyes are wild and your knuckles are red and you're speaking far too low
No, I can't make out what your master said before he made you go'.

'Between the newsreel and your tiny pain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.'

'Then she dances so graceful
and your heart's hard and hateful
and she's naked
but that's just a tease.
And you turn in disgust
from your hatred and from your love
and she comes to you
light as the breeze.'

It's weird but no other songwriter (yet) has made me feel quite the way he does with those lines... Completely agree with Lilifyre about the difference between sad and depressing. For me, the beauty in Leonard's lyrics prevent me from ever finding it depressing.

she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight

Mutti

somewhat_nifty wrote:And you turn in disgust
from your hatred and from your love
and she comes to you
light as the breeze.'

When I listen to this verse, I hear 'lust' not 'love'. It fits the rhyming scheme as well.

hydriot wrote:

somewhat_nifty wrote:And you turn in disgust
from your hatred and from your love
and she comes to you
light as the breeze.'

When I listen to this verse, I hear 'lust' not 'love'. It fits the rhyming scheme as well.

Me too actually, I always thought that was what it was until I checked, and I think it fits with the lyrics better, but according to Stranger Music it's 'love'. Once I was aware of it I could hear Leonard singing it as well. But I still think 'lust' is better!

The narrator says "love" – but because of the rhyming scheme we know that he actually means "lust".

Hope you don't mind me jumping in, but I think he actually means what he says - "love" - and lust would be included in the kind of love he is talking about, but many other things with which we "tyrannize" (his word) ourselves are also included with the use of the word "love", such as all the emotional & psychological mazes & prisons which we create within that phenomenon which we call love. I think the use of the word "love" makes it a much bigger & more poignant statement; & I think he gives it a really brilliant twist with that word (as only LC, in his beautiful & inimitable way, can), because most of us think of love as something very positive, but here he feels the need to turn away from it, because it has become as tyrannical & monstrous as his hatred. That's my take on it, anyway. . .

but I think he actually means what he says - "love"

Quite possible.

But anyway, it's a neat trick: using one word, and through the rhyming scheme implying an additional one.

Hartmut, I agree - it is a very cool trick (that ever clever little devil - brilliant as usual)! Thank you for pointing it out. . .

Very true, I think both meanings are meant, and they can often be one and the same.

When you've fallen on the highway
and you're lying in the rain,
and they ask you how you're doing
of course you'll say you can't complain...

This line always makes me laugh, and yet, it also makes me sad.

Ring the bell that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the Light gets in.

Its the same line as in my signature at the moment.

"Well I've been where you're hanging I think I can see how you're pinned."

Love that one.

Great thread, Dan K., as there are so many lovely Leonard lines to choose from, and it's not as painful as trying to choose favourite song, album, etc.!

I love the sound of:
It's coming like the tidal flood beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious, in amorous array.

The sadness of:
Nancy wore green stockings, and she slept with everyone.

And for love of life and refusal to surrender :
The band is playing Old Lang Syne but the heart will not retreat.

Many of the lines that get me every time have already been quoted, thank you. Here are another few


'So set your restless heart at ease
Take a lesson from these Autumn leaves
They waste no time waiting for the snow
.......
It's light enough, light enough
To let it go
Light enough to let it go'


These both sad an soothing lines:
'Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Tho' you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you'

Question: Is there a thread that discusses word use in LC lyrics?
For example as some one quoted from Take this Waltz ' earlier in this thread: "With the photographs there and the moss'
But that person always thinks of 'moths'. I always here LC sing 'moths'.

Tineke