TAKE THIS LONGING
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. Your body like a searchlight,
My poverty revealed.
I would like to try your charity
Until you cry, now you must try my greed.
And everything depends upon
How near you sleep to me.
Chorus: Just take this longing from my tongue,
And all the lonely things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down,
Like you would do for one you love.
3. Hungry as an archway
Through which the troops have passed.
I stand in ruins behind you
With your winter clothes, your broken saddle straps.
I love to see you naked over there,
Especially from the back.
Chorus: Ah, take this longing from my tongue,
And all the useless things my hands have done.
Untie for me your high blue gown,
Like you would do for the one you love.
4. You’re faithful to the better man,
I’m afraid that he left.
So let me judge your love affair
In this very room where I have sentenced mine to death.
I’ll even wear these old laurel leaves
That he’s shaken from his head.
Chorus: Just take this longing from my tongue,
And all the useless things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down,
Like you would do for one you love.
Like you would do for one you love.
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. You were Marlon Brando, I was Steve McQueen.
You were K.Y.Jelly, I was Vaseline.
You were The Father of Modern Medicine, I was Mr. Clean.
You were The Whore and the Beast of Babylon.
I was Rin Tin Tin.
Chorus
3. You got old and wrinkled, I stayed seventeen.
You lusted after so many, I lay here with one.
You defied your solitude, I came through alone.
You said you could never love me, I undid your gown.
Chorus
THE STRANGER SONG
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
Additional Lyrics
2. And then sweeping up the jokers that
he left behind,
You find he did not leave you very much,
Not even laughter.
Like any dealer, he was watching for the card that is so high and wild,
He’ll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger,
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.
3. And then leaning on your window sill,
He’ll say one day you caused his will
To weaken with your love and warmth and shelter.
And then taking from his wallet an old schedule of trains, he’ll say,
“I told you when I came I was a stranger,
I told you when I came I was a stranger.”
4. But now another stranger
Seems to want to ignore his dreams,
As though they were the burden of some other.
O, you’ve seen that kind of man before,
His golden arm dispatching cards.
But now it’s rusted from the elbow to the finger,
Yes, he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter.
5. You hate to watch another tired man
lay down his hand,
Like he was giving up the holy game of poker.
And while he talks his dreams to sleep,
You notice there’s a highway that is
curling up like smoke above his shoulder,
It’s curling up like smoke above his shoulder.
6. You tell him to come in, sit down,
But something makes you turn around.
The door is open, you can’t close your shelter.
You try the handle of the road,
It opens, do not be afraid.
It’s you, my love, you who are the stranger,
It’s you, my love, you who are the stranger.
7. Well, I’ve been waiting, I was sure
We’d meet between the trains we’re waiting for,
I think it’s time to board another.
Please understand, I never had a secret chart
To get me to the heart
Of this or any other matter.
When he talks like this,
you don’t know what he’s after.
When he speaks like this,
you don’t know what he’s after.
8. Let’s meet tomorrow, if you choose,
Upon the shore, beneath the bridge
That they are building on some endless river.
Then he leaves the platform
For the sleeping car that’s warm, you realize
He’s only advertising one more shelter.
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger.
And you say, “0. K., the bridge or someplace later.”
9. And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind,
You find he did not leave you very much,
Not even laughter.
Like any dealer, he was watching for the card that is so high and wild,
He’ll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger,
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.
10. And then leaning on your window sill,
He’ll say one day you caused his will
To weaken with your love and warmth and shelter
And then taking from his wallet an old schedule of trains, he’ll say,
“I told you when I came I was a stranger,
I told you when I came I was a stranger.”
HUMBLED IN LOVE
WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEONARD COHEN
