leonardcohenforum.com

I once read a review from an early '90s gig that called LC's art "Music to slit your wrists to." I suppose that's true, but we all have at least one line he wrote that sticks us in the heart like no other. For me it would have to be..."We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right."

Then of course every time I've had the pleasure of seeing him live..."I've been working out but it's too late. It's been too late for years. But you look good, you really do." Wow. Just wow.

Anyone else want to do a line or two?

Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes...

So don't give me the world today and tomorrow take it away
Don't do that to me darlin'

And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there, and the moss.
(I always think "moths" instead of "moss")

and
You say you've gone away from me,
But I can feel you when you breathe.

and I have to say all of this one:

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time,
Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme,
You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me,
It's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea.

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she cleary understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.

and

I asked my father,
I said, "Father change my name."
The one I`m using now it`s covered up
with fear, filth and cowardice and shame.

and

And he took you up his aeroplane,
which he flew without any hands,
and you cruised above the ribbons of rain
that drove the crowd from the stands.

and

I know that I`m forgiven,
but I don`t know how I know,
I don`t trust my inner feelings -
inner feelings come and go.

"And you who must leave everything that you can not control
It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul."

Gee there are so many to pick from. Almost every song has a phrase that just goes straight to my heart. The following are probably the ones that get me most.....at least at this point in time. This afternoon, or tomorrow, or next week it may be others.

I was born like this, I had no choice,
I was born with the gift of a golden voice

and

And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored –

and

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:

and

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

and

A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.

and

That I am not the one who loves –
It’s love that seizes me.
When hatred with his package comes,
You forbid delivery.


I also wanted to add that the quote made by whoever who described Leonard's music as "Music to slit your wrists to." has never made sense to me. While I've shed many tears while listening to Leonard, I don't find any of it depressing. Even "Waiting for the Miracle" which I've heard described as "suicidal" I find beautiful, touching, even erotic, but never suicidal. I have always preferred what others consider "sad" music. When I was a child, I used to beg my mother to sing an old folk song called "Put My Little Shoes Away". That song is about a little girl who is dying and asks her mother to disperse all her toys to her playmates, but to "put my little shoes away." Sad? Yes. Depressing? No way! Songs that bring tears have just always been my favorites. There's a big difference between sad and depressing.

Lili

My mirror twin my next of kin
I'd know you in my sleep

Marie

There must be hundreds of lines I could possibly post. But I will go with this one:

When I am on a pedestal,
you did not raise me there.
Your laws do not compel me,
to kneel grotesque and bare.
I myself am the pedestal
for this ugly hump at which you stare.

You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn what makes me kind;
the crumbs of love that you offer me,
they're the crumbs I've left behind.
Your pain is no credential here,
it's just the shadow, shadow of my wound.

mnkyface wrote:Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes...

I have always believed that what he sings and intends is:

"And thanks for the trouble you took. From her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried."

If you listen to that verse carefully, I think you can hear him take a breath between 'took' and 'from', and slightly run together 'eyes' and 'I'. To me, it makes more sense this way. Trouble isn't usually shown in the eyes, but most definitely you can be fooled into believing that her love is eternal by the tender way she looks at you.

Lilifyre wrote: I also wanted to add that the quote made by whoever who described Leonard's music as "Music to slit your wrists to." has never made sense to me. While I've shed many tears while listening to Leonard, I don't find any of it depressing. Even "Waiting for the Miracle" which I've heard described as "suicidal" I find beautiful, touching, even erotic, but never suicidal. I have always preferred what others consider "sad" music. When I was a child, I used to beg my mother to sing an old folk song called "Put My Little Shoes Away". That song is about a little girl who is dying and asks her mother to disperse all her toys to her playmates, but to "put my little shoes away." Sad? Yes. Depressing? No way! Songs that bring tears have just always been my favorites. There's a big difference between sad and depressing.
Lili

Depressing, I think not, but suicidal definitely. I think there are songs which express suicidal ideation (e.g. Dress Rehearsal Rag), and some which are explicitely about suicide (e.g. Nancy).

I love all of the lines that have been quoted so far, and it definitely is an impossible choice. But I think I'll go for:

'That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?'


'And I think you're playing far too rough
for a lady who's been to the moon'


'Those who dance, begin to dance
Those who weep begin
Those who earnestly are lost
Are lost and lost again '


'Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows
I mean the shadows'


'And do not dress in those rags for me,
I know you are not poor'


'I know you need your sleep now,
I know your life's been hard.
But many men are falling,
where you promised to stand guard.'


HELP! I CAN'T STOP! WHAT DO I DO?
(Click on submit, quick!)

"So nightly I renew my idle duty
I touch her here and there I know my place
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
And people call me traitor to my face"

Oh yeah, that one always gets me!

I said, Mother I'm frightened
The thunder and the lightning
I'll never come through this alone
She said, I'll be with you
My shawl wrapped around you
My hand on your head when you go
And the night came on
It was very calm
I wanted the night to go on and on
But she said, Go back to the World

---Arlene

I said, Mother I'm frightened
The thunder and the lightning
I'll never come through this alone
She said, I'll be with you
My shawl wrapped around you
My hand on your head when you go
And the night came on
It was very calm
I wanted the night to go on and on
But she said, Go back to the World


Please let me start again
I want a face that's fair this time
I want a spirit that is calm


Because of a few songs
Wherein I spoke of their mystery,
Women have been
Exceptionally kind
to my old age.
They make a secret place
In their busy lives
And they take me there.
They become naked
In their different ways
Look at me, Leonard
Look at me one last time.

Leslie Mutti

mutti wrote:
>"Look at me, Leonard
> Look at me one last time."

Well, the women who covered him up 'lakka baby' sing:
"Look at me, Leonard. Look at me, Leonard.
Look at me one lass ta-uwa-uwam, one lass ta-am!"