2. You strike my side by accident
as you go down for gold.
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
is neither starved nor cold.
He does not ask for your company,
not at the center, the center of the world.
3. 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.
4. 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 a shadow, shadow of my wound.
5. I have begun to long for you,
I who have no creed.
I have begun to ask for you,
I who have no need.
You say you’ve gone away from me,
but I can feel you when you breathe.
6. 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.
It is your turn, beloved,
it is your flesh that I wear.
CAME SO FAR FOR BEAUTY
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN AND JOHN LISSAUER
Additional Lyrics
2. I stormed the old casino
For the money and the flesh.
And I myself decided
What was rotten and what was fresh.
And men to do my bidding,
And broken bones to teach,
The value of my pardon,
The shadow of my reach.
But no, I could not touch her
With such a heavy hand.
Her star beyond my order,
Her nakedness unmanned.
I came so far for beauty,
I left so much behind,
My patience and my family,
My masterpiece unsigned.
You KNOW WHO I AM
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. Sometimes I need you naked,
Sometimes I need you wild.
I need you to carry my children in,
And I need you to kill a child.
Chorus
3. If you should ever track me down,
I will surrender there.
And I’ll leave with you one broken man
Whom I’ll teach you to repair.
Chorus
4. I cannot follow you, my love,
You cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
All the moments that we will be.
Chorus
THE SMOKEY LIFE
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. So set your restless heart at ease,
Take a lesson from these autumn leaves.
They waste no time waiting for the snow.
Don’t argue now or you’ll be late,
There’s nothing to investigate.
It’s light enough, light enough to let it go.
Light enough to let it go.
Remember when the scenery started fading,
I held you till you learned to walk on air.
So don’t look down, the ground is gone, there’s no-one waving anyway,
The smokey life is practiced ev’rywhere.
DRESS REHEARSAL RAG
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
2. A There’s no hot water and the cold is running thin,
Well, what do you expect from the kind of places you’ve
been living in?
B Don’t drink from that cup, it’s all caked up and cracked
along the rim,
That’s not electric light, my friend, that is your
vision growing dim.
C Cover up your face with soap, there, now you’re Santa Claus,
And you got a gift for anyone who will give you his applause.
D I thought you were a racing man, ah, but you couldn’t take
the pace.
That’s a funeral in the mirror, and it’s stopping at your face.
E 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?
3. A Once there was a path and girl with chestnut hair,
And you passed the summers picking all of the berries that
grew there.
B There were times she was a woman, there were times she was
just a child,
And you held her in the shadows where the raspberries grow wild.
C And you climbed the twilight mountains, and you sang about the
view,
And ev’rywhere you wandered, love seemed to go along with you.
D That’s a hard one to remember, yes, it makes you clench your fist,
And the veins stand out like highways all along your wrist.
E And yes, it’s come to this.
It’s come to this,
And wasn’t it a long way down?
And wasn’t it a strange way down?
4. A You can still find a job, go out and talk to a friend,
On the back of every magazine, there are those coupons you
can sand.
B Why don’t you join the Rosicrucians? They will give you
back your hope,
You can find your love with diagrams on a plain brown
envelope.
C But you’ve used up all coupons, except the one that seems
To be written on your wrist along with several thousand
dreams.
D Now Santa Claus comes forward, that’s a razor in his mitt,
And he puts on his dark glasses, and he
shows you where to hit.
E And then the cameras pan, the stand-in stunt man,
dress rehearsal rag.
It’s just the dress rehearsal rag,
You know this dress reharsal rag,
It’s just the dress rehearsal rag.
THERE IS A WAR
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
JOAN OF ARC
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. Well, I’m glad to hear you talk this way,
You know I’ve watched you riding ev’ry day.
Something in me yearns to win
Such a cold and lonesome heroine.
“And who are you,” she sternly spoke
To the one beneath the smoke.
“Why I’m fire,” he replied,
“And I love your solitude, I love your pride.”
Chorus
3. “Then fire make your body cold,
I’m gonna give you mine to hold.”
Saying this, she climbed inside
To be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart,
He took the dust of Joan of Arc.
And high above the wedding guests,
He hung the ashes of her wedding dress.
Chorus
4. It was deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of Arc.
And then she clearly understood,
If he was fire, oh, then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself, I long for love and light,
But must it come so cruel and, oh, so bright!
Chorus
WINTER LADY
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. She used to wear her hair like you,
Except when she was sleeping.
And then she’d wea
ve it on a loom
Of smoke and gold and breathing.
And why are you so quiet now,
Standing there in the doorway?
You chose your journey long before
You came upon this highway.
Trav’ling lady, stay awhile
Until the night is over.
I’m just a station on your way,
I know I’m not your lover.
ONE OF US CANNOT BE WRONG
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. I showed my heart to the doctor,
He said I’d just have to quit.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
And your name was mentioned in it.
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
With the details of our honeymoon.
And I hear from the nurse
That he’s gotten much worse,
And his practice is all in a ruin.
3. I heard of a saint who had loved you,
I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
Is to tarnish the golden rule.
And just when I was sure
That his teachings were pure,
He drowned himself in the pool.
His body is gone, but back here on the lawn,
His spirit continues to drool.
4. An Eskimo showed me a movie
He’d recently taken of you.
The poor man could hardly stop shivering,
His lips and his fingers were blue.
I suppose that he froze
When the wind took your clothes,
And I guess he just never got warm.
But you stand there so nice in your blizzard of ice,
O, please let me come into the storm.
WHY DON’T You TRY
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. Why don’t you try to forget him,
Just open up your dainty little hand.
You know this life is filled with many sweet companions,
Many satisfying one-night stands.
Do you want to be the ditch around the tower?
Do you want to be the moonlight in his cave?
Do you want to give your blessing to his power
As he goes whistling past his daddy, past his daddy’s grave?
3. I’d like to take you to the ceremony,
Well, that is if I remember the way.
You see Jack and Jill, they’re gonna join their misery,
And I’m afraid it’s time for everyone to pray.
You can see they’ve finally taken cover,
They’re willing, yeah, they’re willing to obey.
Their vows are difficult, they’re for each other,
So let nobody put a loophole, a loophole in their way.
THE TRAITOR
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
4. The judges said, “You missed it by a fraction,
Rise up and brace your troops for the attack.
The dreamers ride against the men of action,
Oh, see the men of action falling back.”
5. But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment,
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still.
My falsity, it stung me like a hornet,
The poison sank and it paralysed my will.
6. I could not move to warn the younger soldiers
That they had been deserted from above.
So on battlefields from here to Barcelona,
I’m listed with the enemies of love.
7. And long ago she said, “I must be leaving,
But keep my body here to lie upon.
You can move it up and down and when I’m sleeping,
Run some wire through that rose and wind the swan.”
8. So daily 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.
WHO BY FIRE
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. And who in her lonely slip,
Who by barbiturate?
Who in these realms of love,
Who by something blunt?
Who by avalanche,
Who by powder?
Who for his greed,
Who for his hunger?
And who shall I say is calling?
3. And who by brave ascent,
Who by accident?
Who in solitude,
Who in this mirror?
Who by his lady’s command,
Who by his own hand?
Who in mortal chains,
Who in power?
And who shall I say is calling?
FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
From D.S.
I don’t like your fashion business, mister.
I don’t like these drugs that keep you thin.
I don’t like what happened to my sister.
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
(Bridge):
I’d really like to live beside you, baby.
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes.
But you see that line there moving through the station?
And I told you, and I told you,
I told you I was one of those,
And I thank you for those items that you sent me:
The monkey and the plywood violin.
I practiced every night and now I’m ready.
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin. (To Coda)
EVERYBODY KNOWS
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN AND SHARON ROBINSON
Additional Lyrics
4. And everybody knows that it’s now or never.
Everybody knows that it’s me or you.
And everybody knows that you live forever
When you’ve done a line or two.
Everybody knows the deal is rotten:
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows. And everybody knows.
5. Everybody knows that the plague is coming.
Everybody knows thats it’s moving fast.
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past.
Everybody knows the scene is dead,
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose what everybody knows.
6. And everybody knows that you’re in trouble.
Everybody knows what you’ve been through,
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu.
Everybody knows it’s coming apart:
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows. And everybody knows.
LOVER LOVER LOVER
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. He said, “I locked you in this body, I meant it as a kind of trial.
You can use it for a weapon or to make some woman smile.”
Chorus
3. “Then let me start again,” I cried, “Please let me start again.
I want a face that’s fair this time. I want a spirit that is calm.”
Chorus
4. “I never turned aside, “he said,” I never walked away.
It was you who built the temple, it was you who covered up my face.”
Chorus
5. And may the spirit of this song, may it rise up pure and free.
May it be a shield for you, a shield against the enemy.
Chorus and fade
Leonard Cohen Anthology (Songbook) Page 3