Leonard Cohen

2 great songs by Songwriter and Poet Leonard Cohen describe current events---written in 1992


Leonard Cohen Wikipedia     Leonard Cohen Files website

Songs Democracy  and The Future

Democracy Full Lyrics     The Future Full Lyrics

Analysis of The Future by David Whiteis

A Reading of the Future

The Future (Selected lyrics)  video

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul

Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother: it is murder.

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival

There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code
Your private life will suddenly explode

You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'






Democracy (is coming to the USA)   video   Occupy Wall St video of song

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.

From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:   (written in 1992---well before 2008 auto bailouts)
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen. 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:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

____________________________
Unused verse:  link here
It ain't comin' to us European-style,
Concentration camp behind the smile;
It ain't comin' from the east
With its temporary feast
As Count Dracula comes strolling down the aisle.

______

Commentary
"Democracy" is one of Leonard's most ambitious songs, nothing less than an attempt at a new national anthem; Neil Diamond meets de Touqueville. Coming on the heels of a presidential campaign where the issues are astoundingly trivialized by the media, this is the real stuff, the CNN of the soul: "It's coming through a hole in the air; from those nights in Tiananmen Square: From the wars against disorder, from the sirens night and day; from the fires of the homeless, from the ashes of the gay: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

If Democracy is the New Covenant, it becomes possible here: "It's coming to America first/ the cradle of the best and of the worst... It's here the family's broken and it's here the lonely say that the heart has got to open in a fundamental way."


First we Take Manhattan Then we Take Berlin lyrics  Lyrics with German
                                                                                  video video with German
                                                                                                                                 discussion
                                                                                                                                    quotes

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within 
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin 
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens 
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin 
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin 

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? 
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of those 

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win 
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline 
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin 

I don't like your fashion business mister 
And 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 

I'd really like to live beside you, baby ... 

And I thank you for those items that you sent me 
The monkey and the plywood violin 
I practiced every night, now I'm ready 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin 

I am guided 

Ah remember me, I used to live for music 
Remember me, I brought your groceries in 
Well it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin