Thanks for the Dance...Leonard Cohen

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Thanks for the Dance...Leonard Cohen's last or posthumous album stands so powerfully for so much in my life. I first discovered Cohen as an 18 year old in the Summer of 1976 and this last album touches me as much at the advanced age of nearly 62. In 1976 I was 'meeting Christ and reading Marx" and now in 2020 I ask the "young messiah what happens to the heart?". Cohen has always run about 24 years ahead of me. He was born in 1934 and myself in 1958. Long ago in that summer of 1976 the words of the first album burst into my mind and my psyche as a whole. I have known my own Marrianne and Suzanne and I have run through the crises and dramas of my life mediated by Cohen's lyrics. Through bankruptcy and break up and high drama through shame and elation and through the lens of his albums I have measured out the years and tears of so much of my life. There have been many "Nights of Santiago" in those years surprisingly from the last few years and particularly since 2010. Though I must point out since meeting my partner in that year I have realised just what " our steps will always rhyme" means. The challenge of fatherhood and it's complexities too are so powerfully dealt with .

I have long asked what happens to the heart? . I have been through the horrors of modern politics and the age of Trump and fake news. I know now that " the angels have a fiddle, the Devil's got a harp, every soul is like a minnow, every mind is like a shark" Cohen sings of the vastness, baseless and basenesss nature of post modern fascism and populism. His song "Puppets" sums up Brexit, Trump, Farage and others so perfectly. While ":in the prison of the gifted I was friendly with the guards" . Yet Cohen always brings me back to my own shadow and actions and forces me to confront my personas and false selves. I am at times as corrupt and shallow as the rest "I was selling Holy Trinkets, I was dressing kinda sharp, I had a pussy in the Kitchen and a panther in the yard"

Thanks for the dance Leonard you are further down the road than I, your last album touches me far more deeply than your first. Perhaps this is because of time, maturity and insight .
I may have forgotten half my life but I always remember this.. your album is a great one, a worthy farewell and a path to understanding . Thanks to Andrew Evans for introducing me to Cohen and to John Wallen and others with whom I have discussed his words endlessly . Sorry to those I may have bored with my ravings and ceaseless quotings of his words. Yet I too have I introduced many to his brutal and insightful wisdom. "here's to the few who don't mind what you do, and the fewer who don't even care m" Thanks for the Dance Leonard i hope to dance with the ruffian on the stairs through the mortality of the portal of existence one day.. you are further down the road Leonard I long to meet you. After all I could only believe in a goddess/god who could dance..

Happens to the Heart

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
I got my shit together
Meeting Christ reading Marx
Sure it failed my little fire
But it's bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the heart

There's a mist of summer kisses
Where I tried to double-park
The rivalry was vicious
And the women were in charge
It was nothing, it was business
But it left an ugly mark
So I've come here to revisit
What happens to the heart

I was selling holy trinkets
I was dressing kind of sharp
Had a pussy in the kitchen
And a panther in the yard
In the prison of the gifted
I was friendly with the guard
So I never had to witness
What happens to the heart

I should have seen it coming
You could say I wrote the chart
Just to look at her was trouble
It was trouble from the start
Sure we played a stunning couple
But I never liked the part
It ain't pretty, it ain't subtle
What happens to the heart

Now the angel's got a fiddle
And the devil's got a harp
Every soul is like a minnow
Every mind is like a shark
I've opened every window
But the house, the house is dark
Just say Uncle, then it's simple
What happens to the heart

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
The slaves were there already
The singers chained and charred
Now the arc of justice bending
And the injured soon to march
I lost my job defending
What happens to the heart

I studied with this beggar
He was filthy he was scarred
By the claws of many women
He had failed to disregard
No fable here no lesson
No singing meadowlark
Just a filthy beggar blessing
What happens to the heart

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
I could lift, but nothing heavy
Almost lost my union card
I was handy with a rifle
My father's .303
We fought for something final
Not the right to disagree

Sure it failed my little fire
But it's bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the heart

The Night of Santiago

Leonard Cohen

She said she was a maiden
That wasn't what I heard
For the sake of conversation
I took her at her word
The lights went out behind us
The fireflies undressed
The broken sidewalk ended
I touched her sleeping breasts
They opened to me urgently
Like lilies from the dead
Behind a fine embroidery
Her nipples rose like bread
Then I took off my necktie
And she took off her dress
My belt and pistol set aside
We tore away the rest

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
So I took her to the river
As any man would do

Her thighs they slipped away from me
Like schools of startled fish
Though I've forgotten half my life
I still remember this
Now, as a man I won't repeat
The things she said aloud
Except for this, my lips are sealed forever
And for now
And soon there's sand in every kiss
And soon the dawn is ready
And soon the night surrenders
To a daffodil machete
I gave her something pretty
And I waited till she laughed
I wasn't born a gypsy
To make a woman sad

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
I took her to the river
As any man would do
The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
I took her to the river
As any man would do

I didn't fall in love of course
It's never up to you
But she was walking back and forth
And I was passing through
When I took her to the river
In her virginal apparel
When I took her to the river
On that night of Santiago
And yes she lied about it all
Her children and her husband
You were born to judge the world
Forgive me but I wasn't

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
I took her to the river
As any man would do

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
I took her to the river
As any man would do

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
So I took her to the river
As any man would do

The night of Santiago
And I was passing through
So I took her to the river
As any man would do

Leonard Cohen Lyrics

"Puppets"

German puppets burned the Jews
Jewish puppets did not choose
Puppet vultures eat the dead
Puppet corpses they are fed
Puppet winds and puppet waves
Puppet sailors in their graves
Puppet flower, puppet stem
Puppet time dismantles them
Puppet me and puppet you
Puppet German
Puppet Jew

Puppet Presidents command
Puppet troops to burn the land
Puppet fire, puppet flames
Feed on all the puppet names
Puppet lovers in their bliss
Turn away from all of this
Puppet reader shakes his head
Takes his puppet wife to bed
Puppet me and puppet you
Puppet German, puppet Jew

Puppet Presidents command
Puppet troops to burn the land
Puppet fire, puppet flames
Feed on all the puppet names
Puppet night comes down to play
The after act to puppet day