You realize, he’s only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say ok the bridge or someplace later.
And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind ...
And leaning on your window sill ...
I told you when I came I was a stranger.
One of Cohen’s earliest songs, it was included on Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967) and on Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001). A number of phrases (“he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter” and “you hate to watch another tired man / lay down his hand / like he was giving up the holy game of poker”) can be read as metaphors for Cohen’s abandonment of his literary ambitions for the “shelter” of a musical career. The song is also a good early example of a Cohen trademark – the use of religious images and vocabulary for non-religious purposes.
The Traitor
Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
and the judges watched us from the other side
I told my mother “Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere”
But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
and if she withered I would be to blame
The judges said you missed it by a fraction
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling back
But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison sank and it paralysed my will
I could not move to warn all 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
And long ago she said “I must be leaving,
Ah 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”
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
Included on Recent Songs (1984), this song includes fine examples of Cohen’s literary skills. The phrase “a suntanned woman yawned me through the summer” is wonderfully evocative. An earlier version of the song, then called ‘The Traitor Song’, was played on Cohen’s 1975 tour. At that time, it was co-credited to John Lissauer, but he did not play on and is not credited for the album version.
The Window
Why do you stand by the window
Abandoned to beauty and pride
The thorn of the night in your bosom
The spear of the age in your side
Lost in the rages of fragrance
Lost in the rags of remorse
Lost in the waves of a sickness
That loosens the high silver nerves
Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love
Oh tangle of matter and ghost
Oh darling of angels, demons and saints
And the whole broken-hearted host
Gentle this soul
And come forth from the cloud of unknowing
And kiss the cheek of the moon
The New Jerusalem glowing
Why tarry all night in the ruin
And leave no word of discomfort
And leave no observer to mourn
But climb on your tears and be silent
Like a rose on its ladder of thorns
Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love...
Then lay your rose on the fire
The fire give up to the sun
The sun give over to splendour
In the arms of the high holy one
For the holy one dreams of a letter
Dreams of a letter’s death
Oh bless thee continuous stutter
Of the word being made into flesh
Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love...
Gentle this soul
Included on Recent Songs (1984), and also on Field Commander Cohen – Tour Of 1979 (2001), this song contains some of Cohen’s finest writing – the phrases “oh tangle of matter and ghost” and “ climb on your tears and be silent / like the rose on its ladder of thorns” rank alongside his best lyrical constructions. Unusually, Cohen uses explicitly religious language in a song with a recognisably religious theme, for he is attempting to seduce his woman not into bed but into a state of grace. The last stanza ends with a prayer that would not have disgraced the psalmist and which any poet would be proud to have penned: “oh bless the continuous stutter / of the word being made into flesh”.
There For You
When it all went down
And the pain came through
I get it now
I was there for you
Don’t ask me how
I know it’s true
I get it now
I was there for you
I make my plans
Like I always do
But when I look back
I was there for you
I walk the streets
Like I used to do
And I freeze with fear
But I’m there for you
I see my life
In full review
It was never me
It was always you
You sent me here
You sent me there
Breaking things
I can’t repair
Making objects
Out of thoughts
Making more
By thinking not
Eating food
And drinking wine
A body that
I thought was mine
Dressed as Arab
Dressed as Jew
O mask of iron
I was there for you
Moods of glory
Moods so foul
The world comes through
A bloody towel
And death is old
But it’s always new
I freeze with fear
And I’m there for you
I see it clear
I always knew
It was never me
I was there for you
I was there for you
My darling one
And by your law
It all was done
This song, included on Dear Heather (2004), was co-written by Sharon Robinson. Addressed to an individual woman, this song simply would be flattering and romantic. Given what we know of the complexities of his work and the richness of his love-life, it is surely a better reading to see it as addressed to womankind in general, or to the abstract Love, whose servant Cohen has ever been.
There Is A War
There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn’t.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, that’s right, get in it,
why don’t you come on back to the war, it’s just beginning.
Well I live here with a woman and a child,
the situation makes me kind of nervous.
Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says “I guess you call this love”;
I call it service.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be a tourist,
why don’t you come on back to t
he war, before it hurts us,
why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get nervous.
You cannot stand what I’ve become,
you much prefer the gentleman I was before.
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,
I didn’t even know there was a war.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be embarrassed,
why don’t you come on back to the war, you can still get married.
There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the left and right,
a war between the black and white,
a war between the odd and the even.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden,
why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get even,
why don’t you come on back to the war, can’t you hear me speaking?
Though this song, included on New Skin From The Old Ceremony (1974), lists a number of sociopolitical conflicts, it is clear that Cohen is only really concerned with the war between himself and Suzanne Elrod. Unfortunately, Cohen does not generalise from the particular and the song fails to rise above its partisan and somewhat bilious context.
To A Teacher
Dedicated to A. M. Klein (1909-1972)
Hurt once and for all into silence.
A long pain ending without a song to prove it.
Who could stand beside you so close to Eden,
When you glinted in every eye the held-high
razor, shivering every ram and son?
And now the silent loony bin, where
The shadows live in the rafters like
Day-weary bats,
Until the turning mind, a radar signal,
lures them to exaggerate
Mountain-size on the white stone wall
Your tiny limp.
How can I leave you in such a house?
Are there no more saints and wizards
to praise their ways with pupils,
No more evil to stun with the slap
of a wet red tongue?
Did you confuse the Messiah in a mirror
and rest because he had finally come?
Let me cry Help beside you, Teacher.
I have entered under this dark roof
As fearlessly as an honoured son
Enters his father’s house.
Included on Dear Heather (2004), the words of this song were originally included in Cohen’s anthology The Spice-Box Of The Earth. Abraham Moses Klein was a Canadian writer, best known as a poet and cited by Cohen as an influence. He was a significant figure on the Montreal literary scene from the Thirties onwards, and an important member of the Montreal Jewish community. After 1956, he gave up writing and became a recluse, the “silence” referred to in the song’s opening words.
Tonight Will Be Fine
Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past.
We swore to each other then that our love would surely last.
You kept right on loving, I went on a fast,
now I am too thin and your love is too vast.
But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.
I choose the rooms that I live in with care,
the windows are small and the walls almost bare,
there’s only one bed and there’s only one prayer;
I listen all night for your step on the stair.
But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.
Oh sometimes I see her undressing for me,
she’s the soft naked lady love meant her to be
and she’s moving her body so brave and so free.
If I’ve got to remember that’s a fine memory.
And I know from her eyes
and I know from her smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.
Cohen has described this song, included on his second album Songs From A Room (1969) as the first proper song he wrote, and it contains many elements that he would return to in his later work – the sensual and elegiac tone, the failing relationship, the rainbow moments seized in the face of damnation. The second stanza contains a very good example of the experienced poet at work at the beginning of his songwriting career. Following an by all accounts accurate description of his domestic arrangements, he writes “there’s only one bed and there’s only one …” – the listener expects “chair” – “prayer”, not only hitting the rhyme and achieving surprise but leading neatly into and enhancing the succeeding line “I listen all night for your step on the stair”. The live version included on Live Songs (1973) contains two additional stanzas which, coupled with its harsher arrangement, infuse it with a bitter sarcasm absent from the original.
Tower Of Song
Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song
I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song
So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like me at all
I’m standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they don’t let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song
Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And there’s a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the Tower of Song
I see you standing on the other side
I don’t know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that we lost
We’ll never have to lose it again
Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
A brilliantly achieved essay on the art of songwriting, this song was included on I’m Your Man (1988). Cohen has called it “one of the three or four real songs that I’ve ever written”. It surely entitles him to the rent-free lease of room in the Tower. Hank Williams (1923-1953) was a country music titan and one of the most influential songwriters of the twentieth century. A notable cover version by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds was included on the tribute album I’m Your Fan (1991).
True Love Leaves No Traces
As the mist leaves no scar
On the dark green hill
So my body leaves no scar
On you and never will
Through windows in the dark
The children come, the children go
Like arrows with no targets
Like shackles made of snow
True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It’s lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun
As a falling leaf may rest
A moment on the air
So your head upon my breast
So my hand upon your hair
And many nights endure
Without a moon or star
So we will endure
When one is gone and far
True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It’s lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun
Reusing two stanzas from a 1961 poem ‘As Mist Leaves No Scar’, this song from Death Of A Ladies’ Man (1977) reads on the page like a typical Cohen lyric of his early period. The musical treatment given it by Phil Spector, in one of his more manic phases, shows the distance Cohen had travelled musically at that time, but also suggests that he had travelled involuntarily. As such, historically if not lyrically, it represents a nadir in Cohen’s career.
Undertow
I set out one night
When the tide was low
There were signs in the sky
But I did not know
I’d be caught in the grip
Of the undertow
Ditched on a beach
Where the sea hates to go
With a child in my arms
And a chill in my soul
And my heart the shape
Of a begging bowl
A short but effective song, economically exhibiting Cohen’s poetic skill, it was included on Dear Heather (2004).
Waiting For The Miracle
Baby, I’ve been waiting,
I’ve been waiting night and day.
I didn’t see the time,
I waited half my life away.
There were lots of invitations
and I know you sent me some,
but I was waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.
I know you really loved me.
but, you see, my hands were tied.
I know it must have hurt you,
it must have hurt your pride
to have to stand beneath my window
with your bugle and your drum,
and me I’m up there waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.
Ah I don’t believe you’d like it,
You wouldn’t like it here.
The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition Page 13
