Never any good
I was never any good at loving you
I was pretty good at taking out the garbage
Pretty good at holding up the wall
I’m sorry for my crimes against
the moonlight
I didn’t think
I didn’t think
I didn’t think the moon would mind at all
I was never any good at loving you
At doing what a woman really wants
a man to do
You’re going to feel much better
When you cut me loose forever
I was never any good
Never any good
I was never any good at loving you
Unreleased until included on More Best Of Leonard Cohen (1997), this song is an entertaining excursion to a familiar corner of the Cohen theme park. With all the confidence of a man who, having leant from his mistakes, can repeat them with precision, Cohen applies his considerable skill to seducing his beloved into leaving him. The card-playing imagery in the second stanza is a good example of Cohen’s literary skill – not only is the metaphor an effective one in itself but the ambiguity of “called” (matched a bet or telephoned/visited) and “folded” (declined a bet or crumpled) adds poetic value to the lyric.
Night Comes On
I went down to the place
Where I knew she lay waiting
Under the marble and the snow
I said, Mother I’m frightened
The thunder and the lightning
I’ll never come through this alone
She said, I’ll be with you
My shawl wrapped around you
My hand on your head when you go
And the night came on
It was very calm
I wanted the night to go on and on
But she said, Go back to the World
We were fighting in Egypt
When they signed this agreement
That nobody else had to die
There was this terrible sound
And my father went down
With a terrible wound in his side
He said, Try to go on
Take my books, take my gun
Remember, my son, how they lied
And the night comes on
It’s very calm
I’d like to pretend that my father was wrong
But you don’t want to lie, not to the young
We were locked in this kitchen
I took to religion
And I wondered how long she would stay
I needed so much
To have nothing to touch
I’ve always been greedy that way
But my son and my daughter
Climbed out of the water
Crying, Papa, you promised to play
And they lead me away
To the great surprise
It’s Papa, don’t peek, Papa, cover your eyes
And they hide, they hide in the World
Now I look for her always
I’m lost in this calling
I’m tied to the threads of some prayer
Saying, When will she summon me
When will she come to me
What must I do to prepare
When she bends to my longing
Like a willow, like a fountain
She stands in the luminous air
And the night comes on
And it’s very calm
I lie in her arms and says, When I’m gone
I’ll be yours, yours for a song
Now the crickets are singing
The vesper bells ringing
The cat’s curled asleep in his chair
I’ll go down to Bill’s Bar
I can make it that far
And I’ll see if my friends are still there
Yes, and here’s to the few
Who forgive what you do
And the fewer who don’t even care
And the night comes on
It’s very calm
I want to cross over, I want to go home
But she says, Go back, go back to the World
Though this song, included on Various Positions (1984), contains autobiographical, none of the actions ascribed to the mother, father or children specifically identify them as Cohen’s and the song’s literal suggestion that his father fought alongside him in Egypt is patently false. The family members are clearly more symbolic than flesh-and-blood. The emotional bleakness and personal despair in this song are hardly new departures for Cohen, but the knowledge that the singer must follow his mother’s injunction to “go back to the world” offers a rarer redemptive insight.
Nightingale
I built my house beside the wood
So I could hear you singing
And it was sweet and it was good
And love was all beginning
Fare thee well my nightingale
‘Twas long ago I found you
Now all your songs of beauty fail
The forest closes ‘round you
The sun goes down behind a veil
‘Tis now that you would call me
So rest in peace my nightingale
Beneath your branch of holly
Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Tho‘ you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you
Co-written by Anjani Thomas, this song, included on Dear Heather (2004), is a beautiful lament for the loss of … – that what is lost is unspecified (love? youth? capability?) only enhances the poetic effectiveness of this song. It is dedicated to the singer and actor Carl Anderson (1945-2004).
On That Day
Some people say
It’s what we deserve
For sins against g-d
For crimes in the world
I wouldn’t know
I’m just holding the fort
Since that day
They wounded New York
Some people say
They hate us of old
Our women unveiled
Our slaves and our gold
I wouldn’t know
I’m just holding the fort
But answer me this
I won’t take you to court
Did you go crazy
Or did you report
On that day
On that day
They wounded New York
Included on Dear Heather (2004) and co-written by Anjani Thomas, this song is Cohen’s response to suicide attacks on America co-ordinated by al Qaeda on 11 September 2001, during which two hijacked aircraft were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong
I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me.
But the room just filled up with mosquitos,
they heard that my body was free.
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
and I put it in your little shoe.
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
that you wore for the world to look through.
I showed my heart to the doctor: he said I just have to quit.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
and your name was mentioned in it!
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
with the details of our honeymoon,
and I hear from the nurse that he’s gotten much worse
and his practice is all in a ruin.
I heard of a saint who had loved you,
so I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
is to
