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    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition
    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition
    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition
    Ebook310 pages2 hours

    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition

    By Leonard Cohen

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    About this ebook

    The enhanced The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen is a four decade-spanning collection, containing the lyrics of Suzanne, Hallelujah, So Long, Marianne, Everybody Knows, Famous Blue Raincoat and many more, including songs written but never recorded by Cohen himself. Blackly comic, tender, and polished until they shone like diamonds, Cohen’s lyrics were unmistakable.

    This Omnibus Enhanced edition includes curated Spotify playlists for each song in this collection, showcasing both the recorded works of Leonard Cohen and a selection of the many interpretations and reimaginings of his songs. Additionally, alongside an exclusive tribute to the man, there is also an interactive timeline of his life, complete with rare videos and images of life performances, book extracts and more.

    Cohen was an accomplished novelist and poet before releasing his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. His music documented the tender yearnings and salved the heartbreaks of romantics around the world for six decades. The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen is an examination of the literary influence of the master wordsmith and a dazzling display of the work of one of our most passionate musical artists. Rediscover his genius in with this celebratory volume.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOmnibus Press
    Release dateAug 15, 2011
    ISBN9781783238835
    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen: Enhanced Edition
    Author

    Leonard Cohen

    Leonard Cohen is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. His first book of poetry, ‘Let Us Compare Mythologies’, was published in 1956 and his first novel, the semi-autobiographical ‘The Favourite Game’, in 1963. Cohen has recorded numerous albums and published several books of poetry and an experimental novel, ‘Beautiful Losers’ (1966). Cohen lives in Montreal, Canada.

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    • 5/5
      My Amazon review - Fun Book.There ought to be more books like this.
    • 5/5
      Oh, Leonard. This Hollywood Girl stayed at the Chelsea Hotel the first time she/I went to New York. Had I known you were there in the late sixties, if I could rewind time, I'd have insisted on a bat mitzvah and to study at NYU rather than "City Lights" San Francisco. I can hear your voice in every song in this book. I'll always love you.

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    The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen

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    A Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes

    A bunch of lonesome and very quarrelsome heroes

    were smoking out along the open road;

    the night was very dark and thick between them,

    each man beneath his ordinary load.

    I’d like to tell my story,

    said one of them so young and bold,

    "I’d like to tell my story,

    before I turn into gold."

    But no one really could hear him,

    the night so dark and thick and green;

    well I guess that these heroes must always live there

    where you and I have only been.

    Put out your cigarette, my love,

    you’ve been alone too long;

    and some of us are very hungry now

    to hear what it is you’ve done that was so wrong.

    I sing this for the crickets,

    I sing this for the army,

    I sing this for your children

    and for all who do not need me.

    I’d like to tell my story,

    said one of them so bold,

    "Oh yes, I’d like to tell my story

    ‘cause you know I feel I’m turning into gold."

    Included on Songs From A Room (1969), the third stanza had previously appeared as the second stanza of ‘New Poem’ in Cohen’s Selected Poems 1956-1968. There are no reports of Cohen ever singing this song in public.

    A Singer Must Die

    Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess.

    Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes.

    Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine,

    I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.

    And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice,

    a singer must die for the lie in his voice.

    And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,

    you keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty.

    Your vision is right, my vision is wrong,

    I’m sorry for smudging the air with my song.

    Oh, the night it is thick, my defences are hid

    in the clothes of a woman I would like to forgive,

    in the rings of her silk, in the hinge of her thighs,

    where I have to go begging in beauty’s disguise.

    Oh goodnight, goodnight, my night after night,

    my night after night, after night, after night,

    after night, after night.

    I am so afraid that I listen to you,

    your sun glassed protectors they do that to you.

    It’s their ways to detain, their ways to disgrace,

    their knee in your balls and their fist in your face.

    Yes and long live the state by whoever it’s made,

    sir, I didn’t see nothing, I was just getting home late.

    Included on New Skin For The Old Ceremony (1974), Cohen has claimed that this song is political in a certain way – though perhaps not in a way that a politician or a lexicographer would recognize.

    A Thousand Kisses Deep

    for Sandy

    The ponies run, the girls are young,

    The odds are there to beat.

    You win a while, and then it’s done –

    Your little winning streak.

    And summoned now to deal

    With your invincible defeat,

    You live your life as if it’s real,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed,

    I’m back on Boogie Street.

    You lose your grip, and then you slip

    Into the Masterpiece.

    And maybe I had miles to drive,

    And promises to keep:

    You ditch it all to stay alive,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    And sometimes when the night is slow,

    The wretched and the meek,

    We gather up our hearts and go,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    Confined to sex, we pressed against

    The limits of the sea:

    I saw there were no oceans left

    For scavengers like me.

    I made it to the forward deck

    I blessed our remnant fleet –

    And then consented to be wrecked,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed,

    I’m back on Boogie Street.

    I guess they won’t exchange the gifts

    That you were meant to keep.

    And quiet is the thought of you

    The file on you complete,

    Except what we forgot to do,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    And sometimes when the night is slow,

    The wretched and the meek,

    We gather up our hearts and go,

    A Thousand Kisses Deep.

    The ponies run, the girls are young,

    The odds are there to beat…

    One of Ten New Songs (2001) co-written by Sharon Robinson, this song is a good late-period example of Cohen’s world-weary stance and lyrical inventiveness. The song is dedicated to Sandy Merriman (1945-1998) of whom Cohen has said: She was a woman in her middle fifties, and she committed suicide at a certain point. We corresponded and she kind of indicated that my work kind of got her through the night. But, I guess itfailed. I just wanted to keep her memory alive. She was an American woman. She had cancer and as in a lot of pain. (For a description of Boogie Street, see the song of that name.)

    Ain’t No Cure For Love

    I loved you for a long, long time

    I know this love is real

    It don’t matter how it all went wrong

    That don’t change the way I feel

    And I can’t believe that time’s

    Gonna heal this wound I’m speaking of

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure for love

    I’m aching for you baby

    I can’t pretend I’m not

    I need to see you naked

    In your body and your thought

    I’ve got you like a habit

    And I’ll never get enough

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure for love

    There ain’t no cure for love

    There ain’t no cure for love

    All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky

    The holy books are open wide

    The doctors working day and night

    But they’ll never ever find that cure for love

    There ain’t no drink no drug

    (Ah tell them, angels)

    There’s nothing pure enough to be a cure for love

    I see you in the subway and I see you on the bus

    I see you lying down with me, I see you waking up

    I see your hand, I see your hair

    Your bracelets and your brush

    And I call to you, I call to you

    But I don’t call soft enough

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure for love

    I walked into this empty church I had no place else to go

    When the sweetest voice I ever heard, whispered to my soul

    I don’t need to be forgiven for loving you so much

    It’s written in the scriptures

    It’s written there in blood

    I even heard the angels declare it from above

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure,

    There ain’t no cure for love

    There ain’t no cure for love

    There ain’t no cure for love

    All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky

    The holy books are open wide

    The doctors working day and

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