What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

LEONARD COHEN  "old ideas"  cd, 2012

recent purchase
couldn't wait, put it at the top of the pile.
twelfth studio set.
t'was a dark turbulent time for Cohen around this time as he discovered his manager
had run off with his life savings leaving him virtually bankrupt.
mood is dark and sombre,
some sarcasm in the lyrics, religious/biblical references also.
sounds like a man realising his own mortality at age 77.
either way, another very good album from Mr Cohen

my favourite:





I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

But he does say what I tell him
Even though it isn’t welcome
He just doesn't have the freedom
To refuse

He will speak these words of wisdom
Like a sage, a man of vision
Though he knows he’s really nothing
But the brief elaboration of a tube

Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore

He wants to write a love song
An anthem of forgiving
A manual for living with defeat

A cry above the suffering
A sacrifice recovering
But that isn’t what I need him
To complete

I want to make him certain
That he doesn’t have a burden
That he doesn’t need a vision
That he only has permission
To do my instant bidding
Which is to say what I have told him
To repeat

I'm going home
Without the sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without this costume
That I wore

I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit