The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition

by Leonard Cohen

  It’s not the laughter of someone who claims to have seen the light

  No it’s a cold and it’s a very lonely Hallelujah.

  Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

  I did my best, it wasn’t much.

  I couldn’t feel, so I learned to touch.

  I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come all this way to fool you.

  Yeah even tough it all went wrong

  I’ll stand right here before the Lord of Song

  With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah.

  Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah …

  Originally included on Various Positions (1984), a substantially different version (dating from 1988) was included on Live In Concert (1994). One of Cohen’s finest songs, it has been extensively covered by other artists, with notable versions by John Cale, Jeff Buckley (a posthumous American # 1), Rufus Wainwright and Alexandra Burke (who had an unlikely UK number one with it after winning The X Factor talent show).

  Heart With No Companion

  I greet you from the other side

  Of sorrow and despair

  With a love so vast and shattered

  It will reach you everywhere

  And I sing this for the captain

  Whose ship has not been built

  For the mother in confusion

  Her cradle still unfilled

  For the heart with no companion

  For the soul without a king

  For the prima ballerina

  Who cannot dance to anything

  Through the days of shame that are coming

  Through the nights of wild distress

  Tho’ your promise count for nothing

  You must keep it nonetheless

  You must keep it for the captain

  Whose ship has not been built

  For the mother in confusion

  Her cradle still unfilled

  For the heart with no companion ...

  I greet you from the other side ...

  Included on Various Positions (1984), and in a live 1988 version on Live In Concert (1994), this song expresses Cohen’s Buddhism and in particular the compassion which is a major element of that faith. As often with his most spiritual songs, Cohen uses no explicitly religious language in it.

  Here It Is

  Here is your crown

  And your seal and rings;

  And here is your love

  For all things.

  Here is your cart,

  And your cardboard and piss;

  And here is your love

  For all of this.

  May everyone live,

  And may everyone die.

  Hello, my love,

  And my love, Goodbye.

  Here is your wine,

  And your drunken fall;

  And here is your love.

  Your love for it all.

  Here is your sickness.

  Your bed and your pan;

  And here is your love

  For the woman, the man.

  May everyone live,

  And may everyone die.

  Hello, my love,

  And my love, Goodbye.

  And here is the night,

  The night has begun;

  And here is your death

  In the heart of your son.

  And here is the dawn,

  (Until death do us part);

  And here is your death,

  In your daughter’s heart.

  May everyone live,

  And may everyone die.

  Hello, my love,

  And my love, Goodbye.

  And here you are hurried,

  And here you are gone;

  And here is the love,

  That it’s all built upon.

  Here is your cross,

  Your nails and your hill;

  And here is your love,

  That lists where it will.

  May everyone live,

  And may everyone die.

  Hello, my love,

  And my love, Goodbye.

  Included on Ten New Songs (2001), this song was co-written by Sharon Robinson. The phrase “the love / that it’s all built upon” eloquently expresses a perennial Cohen them, and would be a suitable description of his songwriting.

  Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye

  I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,

  your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,

  yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new,

  in city and in forest they smiled like me and you,

  but now it’s come to distances and both of us must try,

  your eyes are soft with sorrow,

  Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

  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,

  but let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie,

  your eyes are soft with sorrow,

  Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

  I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,

  your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,

  yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new,

  in city and in forest they smiled like me and you,

  but let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie,

  your eyes are soft with sorrow,

  Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

  One of the finest and most famous songs from Cohen’s early period, it was included on his debut album Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967) and, in a live version, on Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001).

  Humbled In Love

  Do you remember all of those pledges

  That we pledged in the passionate night

  Ah they’re soiled now, they’re torn at the edges

  Like moths on a still yellow light

  No penance serves to renew them

  No massive transfusions of trust

  Why not even revenge can undo them

  So twisted these vows and so crushed

  And you say you’ve been humbled in love

  Cut down in your love

  Forced to kneel in the mud next to me

  Ah but why so bitterly turn from the one

  Who kneels there as deeply as thee

  Children have taken these pledges

  They have ferried them out of the past

  Oh beyond all the graves and the hedges

  Where love must go hiding at last

  And here where there is no description

  Oh here in the moment at hand

  No sinner need rise up forgiven

  No victim need limp to the stand

  And you say you’ve been humbled in love...

  And look dear heart, look at the virgin

  Look how she welcomes him into her gown

  Yes, and mark how the stranger’s cold armour

  Dissolves like a star falling down

  Why trade this vision for desire

  When you may have them both

  You will never see a man this naked

  I will never hold a woman this close

  And you say you’ve been humbled in love...

  Included on Recent Songs (1979), this deals with a familiar early period Cohen theme – the failure of a relationship – but with a less astringent, more adult attitude than had tended to muster previously.

  Hunter’s Lullaby

  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  He’s deep in the forest so wild

  And he cannot take his wife with him

  He cannot take his child

  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  In the quicksand and the clay

  And a woman cannot follow him

  Although she knows the way


  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  Through the silver and the glass

  Where only greed can enter

  But spirit, spirit cannot pass

  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  For the beast we’ll never cannot bind

  And he leaves a baby sleeping

  And his blessings all behind

  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  And he’s lost his lucky charm

  And he’s lost the guardian heart

  That keeps the hunter from the harm

  Your father’s gone a-hunting

  He asked me to say goodbye

  And he warned me not to stop him

  I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t even try

  This song, included on Various Positions (1984), seems at first a simple re-working of an old folk song. But it is much more complex than that. For what has the hunter gone “a-hunting”? Who, and of which gender, is the narrator? The context suggests she is the wife-and-mother of the hunter and his child, and that he has not gone hunting for food or fur or the necessaries of life. One plausible reading of the song is that it is the carnal world which the hunter is seeking, the mother and child left behind representing the spiritual world abandoned in that quest. Such an interpretation would certainly be consistent with Cohen’s known themes and interests at the time wrote the song.

  I Can’t Forget

  I stumbled out of bed

  I got ready for the struggle

  I smoked a cigarette

  And I tightened up my gut

  I said this can’t be me

  Must be my double

  And I can’t forget, I can’t forget

  I can’t forget but I don’t remember what

  I’m burning up the road

  I’m heading down to Phoenix

  I got this old address

  Of someone that I knew

  It was high and fine and free

  Ah, you should have seen us

  And I can’t forget, I can’t forget

  I can’t forget but I don’t remember who

  I’ll be there today

  With a big bouquet of cactus

  I got this rig that runs on memories

  And I promise, cross my heart,

  They’ll never catch us

  But if they do, just tell them it was me

  Yeah I loved you all my life

  And that’s how I want to end it

  The summer’s almost gone

  The winter’s tuning up

  Yeah, the summer’s gone

  But a lot goes on forever

  And I can’t forget, I can’t forget

  I can’t forget but I don’t remember what

  This song, included on I’m Your Man (1988), originally had an entirely different set of lyrics, entitled “Taken Out Of Egypt” and dealing with the Jewish Exodus as a ‘metaphor for the journey of the soul from bondage into freedom”. This had taken Cohen several months to write, but in the studio he found himself unable to sing it. These lyrics were hastily written so as not to waste the melody, with a somewhat less august and portentous theme. Perhaps, in what is essentially an extended literary riff on an old joke, the song itself journeyed out of bondage!

  I Left A Woman Waiting

  I left a woman waiting

  I met her sometime later

  She said, I see your eyes are dead

  What happened to you, lover?

  What happened to you, my lover?

  What happened to you, lover?

  What happened to you?

  And since she spoke the truth to me

  I tried to answer truthfully

  Whatever happened to my eyes

  Happened to your beauty

  Happened to your beauty

  What happened to your beauty

  Happened to me

  We took ourselves to someone’s bed

  And there we fell together

  Quick as dogs and truly dead were we

  And free as running water

  Free as running water

  Free as running water

  Free as you and me

  The way it’s got to be

  The way it’s got to be, lover

  The first two stanzas were taken from “Poem # 2” in his collection The Energy Of Slaves; the third was newly written for this song, which was included on Death Of A Ladies’ Man (1977). In the original poem, the protagonist tells his “faithless wife” to go to sleep. In the song, he suggests they stay awake.

  I Tried To Leave You

  I tried to leave you, I don’t deny

  I closed the book on us, at least a hundred times.

  I’d wake up every morning by your side.

  The years go by, you lose your pride.

  The baby’s crying, so you do not go outside,

  and all your work it’s right before your eyes.

  Goodnight, my darling, I hope you’re satisfied,

  the bed is kind of narrow, but my arms are open wide.

  And here’s a man still working for your smile.

  Included on New Skin For The Old Ceremony (1974), this is one of the shortest songs Cohen has recorded, although in concert it is often one of the longest, Cohen using it as a vehicle for introducing the band.

  If It Be Your Will

  If it be your will

  That I speak no more

  And my voice be still

  As it was before

  I will speak no more

  I shall abide until

  I am spoken for

  If it be your will

  If it be your will

  That a voice be true

  From this broken hill

  I will sing to you

  From this broken hill

  All your praises they shall ring

  If it be your will

  To let me sing

  From this broken hill

  All your praises they shall ring

  If it be your will

  To let me sing

  If it be your will

  If there is a choice

  Let the rivers fill

  Let the hills rejoice

  Let your mercy spill

  On all these burning hearts in hell

  If it be your will

  To make us well

  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

  If it be your will.

  One of Cohen’s most overtly religious songs, it is based both musically and lyrically on the synagogue prayer “ May it therefore be Your will, Lord our God” recited on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Perhaps for this reason, it is more monotheistic than, for example, “Heart With No Companion” which was the preceding track on Various Positions (1984). Cohen has said that the song “took a long time to write because the lyric and the melody are so simple that if there were a false step it would really collapse the structure … but I think it’s probably one of the best songs I’ve ever written”.

  I’m Your Man

  If you want a lover

  I’ll do anything you ask me to

  And if you want another kind of love

  I’ll wear a mask for you

  If you want a partner

  Take my hand

  Or if you want to strike me down in anger

  Here I stand

  I’m your man

  If you want a boxer

  I will step into the ring for you

  And if you want a doctor

  I’ll examine every inch of you

  If you want a driver

  Climb inside

  Or if you want to take me for a ride

  You know you can

  I’m your man

  Ah, the moon’s too bright

  The chain’s too tight

/>   The beast won’t go to sleep

  I’ve been running through these promises to you

  That I made and I could not keep

  Ah but a man never got a woman back

  Not by begging on his knees

  Or I’d crawl to you baby

  And I’d fall at your feet

  And I’d howl at your beauty

  Like a dog in heat

  And I’d claw at your heart

  And I’d tear at your sheet

  I’d say please, please

  I’m your man

  And if you’ve got to sleep

  A moment on the road

  I will steer for you

  And if you want to work the street alone

  I’ll disappear for you

  If you want a father for your child

  Or only want to walk with me a while

  Across the sand

  I’m your man

  If you want a lover

  I’ll do anything you ask me to

  And if you want another kind of love

  I’ll wear a mask for you

  The title track on I’m Your Man (1988), this song was also included on Live In Concert (1994). In the live version Cohen adds a couple of adjectives – “I’ll wear a leather mask for you” in the first stanza and “if you want a Jewish doctor” in the second. However, these are best considered an entertainer’s ad lib rather than a definitive emendation of the text.

  In My Secret Life

  I saw you this morning.

  You were moving so fast.

  Can’t seem to loosen my grip

  On the past.

  And I miss you so much.

  There’s no one in sight.

  And we’re still making love

  In My Secret Life.

  I smile when I’m angry.

  I cheat and I lie.

  I do what I have to do

  To get by.

  But I know what is wrong.

  And I know what is right.

  And I’d die for the truth

  In My Secret Life.

  Hold on, hold on, my brother.

  My sister, hold on tight.

  I finally got my orders.

  I’ll be marching through the morning,

  Marching through the night,

  Moving cross the borders

  Of My Secret Life.

  Looked through the paper.

  Makes you want to cry.