"Master Song" analysis.

[angelcarnivore]

Okay, so... I'm looking online for the lyrics to this song... because I LOVE this song, right? I'd marry this song and have babies with it I love it so much. (I feel that way about a lot of Cohen's music, actually.) And through looking on google I find the article Judith Fitzgerald wrote to explain the song, (and consequently this forum) and while I do like and agree with much she wrote- there's a lot she does not touch upon.

So... in respect to her perspective- I throw in my own two cents..

<a href="http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/jfmaster.html">Here is where you can find the original article- which I will refer to now and again, probably.</a>


<i>"I like to sing a song which is called the 'Master Song' and it's about the Trinity. Leave that for the scholars: It's about three people." -- Leonard Cohen, The BBC Sessions, 1968</i>

I believe that you heard your master sing
When I was sick in bed
I suppose that he told you everything
That I keep locked away in my head
Your master took you traveling
Well, at least that’s what you said
And now do you come back to bring
Your prisoner wine and bread

JF: "Between the pair stands the woman; she completes the trinity of "three people.""

Me: For the purposes of this essay I will refer to the third as Desire.

You met him at some temple
Where they take your clothes at the door

M: A reference perhaps to either a metaphorical orgy, or perhaps instead a clinic, or support group where one takes off one's armor and shows their vunerability to others. The imagery is sensual in nature (most of Cohen's writing is) but that does not necessarily make it only to sexual situations.

He was just a numberless man in a chair
Who had just come back from the war

M:Numberless could mean either the Master (before, indeed, becoming Desire's Master) was just another face in the crowd, not especially noteworthy in anyway... OR -which is what I lean to- that much like Number Six in the BBC television show The Prisoner (Released in 1967, a year before Cohen sings this for BBCsessions... Eh? Eh?) the Master has already fought his own war against his personal demons and won his Individuality. ("I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed or debriefed. I am not a number, I am a free man!")

And you wrap up his tired face in your hair
And he hands you the apple core


Her: " Mary Magdalen proves to be one of the three points of the equidistant triangle. She dries Jesus's feet with her hair."

M:There is also a reference to a previous affair, an Eve as it were, the Master is handing Desire the apple core... which as a metaphor for Original Sin means that at this point when Desire- in her naked state- meets with him, he has not just tasted from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he's eaten all of one of its apples... leaving for her the core. In Greek Mythology, there are also Golden Apples to consider: the Apple of Discord which started the Trojan war, The winning of Atlanta by Melanion, and ofcourse, one of the labors of Hercules. At any rate, in each of these allegories... the Master is shown to have already concluded his own personal quest.

What is interesting is that what the Master has to give to her, the seeds of the apple... can be either for good (she can use these seeds of knowledge from his experiences to her own benefit) or ill (since apple seeds contain the poison arsenic, should she "ingest" too much of what knowledge he gives her could prove fatal to her.)

Then he touches your lips, now so suddenly bare
Of all the kisses we put on sometime before

M: Desire is already won over by him. She goes to console the Master (wrapping his tired face in her hair is a loving gesture) and when presented with some proof to his wider realm of experience at one touch Desire forgets everything that she has gone through with the Prisoner. (Whose prisoner is the singer? He was Desire's Prisoner certainly, for it is Desire that The Prisoner is singing to.)

And he gave you a german shepherd to walk
With a collar of leather and nails

JF:In context, the word, "German," reverberates with echoes of The Holocaust, the genocide of several million European Jews among others by the Nazis during World War II. Juxtaposed with the word, "shepherd," of course, the idea of Christ (and King David) may bear futher scrutiny in this context, particularly since Christ was nailed to the Cross with spikes."

M: Cohen often has references to the Holocaust in his songs, but most people forget that the word is defined not just as the horrific event that happened during WWII but, as a sacrifice to God since in the Old Testement a holocaust is "a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD"-Leviticus) Cohen uses the word again in "Death of a Ladies Man" obviously without the WWII reference. In any case, Desire goes with the Master... who uses her for menial tasks (walking a dog?) The question remains, is the collar for the dog or for Desire?

And he never once made you explain or talk
About all of the little details
Such as who had a worm and who had a rock
And who had you through the mails

M: During the "honeymoon" of this affair, perhaps one of the selling points that keeps Desire is that she does not have to explain herself, the Master has no interest in judging her (throwing stones), or learning about Desire's own checkered past.

Now you love is a secret all over the block

M: Ofcourse, while Desire may not have told everyone in her vincitity- the
change within her over time would become obvious. Desire gets odd looks from her neighbors who talk about how she has "changed". And because she is not encouraged to talk about what is going on within her, she becomes an easy target for gossip.

And it never stops not even
When your master fails

M: At a point, these changes that Desire goes through are no longer directly under the control of the Master. He simply pointed her onto the path she is walking (in a collar, with a dog, with all the neighborhood squawking.) There is no turning back, even if Desire's Master fails at teaching Desire to win her own individuality. (Which, one supposes, is what she wants.)

And he took you up in his aeroplane
Which he flew without any hands

M: Directionless- intentionally not using his own control over the situation.

And you cruised above the ribbons of rain
That drove the crowds from the stands

M: Now, above the conditions that keep others from going on the journey that the Master is taking Desire.

Then he killed the lights in a lonely lane

M: (Sorry in advance, folks) "Dick is hard- must park." The car was one of the those inventions that allowed a change in the courtship rituals the early twentieth century, since it allowed girls and boys to have intimate privacy without chaperonage for the first real time. This may be a reference to Desire and the Master having a truly one-on-one moment.

And an ape with angel glands
Erased the final wisps of pain
With the music of rubber bands

Her: "It is said during the twenties a popular medical procedure involved seeking the fountain of youth and discovering it might well exist in the form of an extract made from monkey glands. Here, the master, the one who apes the prisoner, becomes "the ape.""

M: "An ape with angel glands" is a human. The last moments of the "human" relationship between Desire and the Master has Desire's pain end with a small, silly act.

And now I hear you master sing
You kneel for him to come
His body is a golden string
That your body is hanging from
His body is a golden string
My body has grown numb
O now you hear you master sing
Your shirt is all undone

JF: "One item worth noting is the golden string echoing the sword of Damocles."

M: For those of you who (like me) only remember the Sword of Damocles from that song from Rocky Horror Picture Show, basically, there's this guy who wants to be king, until he sees that the King has this dread all the time, for all his fine riches, because there's a chance that at any moment, the sword will fall and kill the King. Knowing this, the guy doesn't want to be king anymore. Thus, Desire hangs from the Master like a weapon, Desire no longer is part of a love affair, but is simply an instrument weilded by the Master. The Prisoner though, no longer hopes nor dreads ("Love cannot exist when one ceases to hope, or dread)- which is why his body is numb to Desire- which is what the Master, quite literally in this verse, holds over him.

And will you kneel beside this bed
That we polished so long ago
Before you master chose instead
To make my bed of snow

M: "Will you now play the impersonal slave when we had loved each other and were once intimate with each other?" In other words, the Prisoner asks Desire if she will continue this charade of acting as though he does not truly know her simply because now Desire belongs to the Master.

Your eyes are wild and your knuckles are red
And you are speaking far too low
No, I can’t make out what your master said
Before he made you go

M: So, now it seems that the Master and Desire have had a falling out- perhaps because the Master has reduced her to a thing... which is what that dynamic is all about. Perhaps she returns the the Prisoner after the Master has sent her way, simply because she's had a bad case of "got what you wanted, don't want it anymore"? Or perhaps being in this room with the living artifact of her "unexplained" past (the Prisoner) is not her desire at all, and she is unwillingly following her Master's order.

And I think you’re playing far too rough
For a lady who’s been to the moon

M: Afterall, the Master took her travelling far above the clouds... has taken her to the moon and back- and now Desire, who used to hold the power in her relationship with her Prisoner, is playing the slave, this lowly thing, coming to the prisoner with gifts of all things, an offering of spiritual perspective (the wine and bread of the Eucharist?).

I’ve lain by this window long enough
To get used to an empty room

M: And during all of this time, the Prisoner (who was a prisoner to Desire) has learned to come to terms with himself, and is not really a prisoner at this point anymore, since he is used to his empty room. He has chosen his solitude, he has decided for himself that he does not truly need Desire, or what Desire may have to offer him.

And your love is some dust
In an old man’s cuff
Who is tapping his foot to a tune

M: And now all that Desire has given, in both of her entanglements with her Master and her Prisoner- is nothing more than a speck of dust on the cuff of a person who has no notice or care of Desire or her misery.

And your thighs are a ruin
You want too much
Let’s say you came back sometime too soon

JF:" It comes as no surprise "reaching the moon" infers orgasm; the woman's ruined thighs refer not to the fact they're ruined for her; rather, they're forever ruined for the prisoner who's become "used to a lonely room." Additionally, it may prove useful to ask who ruined Her thighs and, again, for whom are they ruined?"

M: Her thighs are a ruin from sex play, or perhaps, more accurately, using sex -and love- in a powerplay with the Master. And now Desire (because Desire is what it is) wants both things... too much. She wants to hold power over the Prisoner and be the doting slave to the Master at the same time,to have her cake and eat it too. "Let's say you came back sometime too soon." The Prisoner is not entirely dismissing her, but is saying, rather coldly- that he is aware of Desire's limitations and lack of growth in a way that it appears Desire is unaware of.


I loved your master perfectly
And I taught him all that he knew

M: And, now the confession of who the Prisoner, truly is...

He was starving in some deep mystery
Like a man who is sure what is true

M: ...he is the one who put the apple core into the hand of the Master. (Hence the use of the word "starving" and why only the apple core remains for the Master to give Desire.)

And I sent you to him with my guarantee
I could teach him something new
And I taught him how you would long for me
No matter what he said, no matter what you do

M: So it turns out that it was the Prisoner who sent Desire to find the Master- that in fact, Desire's leaving him to go to the temple was not a lover's betrayal, but actually the action that turned the Prisoner into Desire's true Master, since all actions after that point come from the Prisoner's initial decision. In the end, no matter how Desire has allowed herself to be debased, she remains a possession of the Prisoner, who was/is Desire's own possession.

I believe that you heard you master sing
While I was sick in bed
I’m sure that he told you everything
I must keep locked away in my head

M: The Prisoner is certain that Desire learned his true nature through the Master... which is why, after what the Master said, she is here kneeling as the slave to the Prisoner.

Your master took you traveling
Well, at least that’s what you said
And now do you come back to bring
Your prisoner wine and bread.

...


Or am I totally off my rocker there?

[annaedith]

hello!
i don't have anything to add t this interpretation. it is quite a complete interpretation which sees things behind the words one usually wouldn't see. thanks for it.
just to complete the story of damocles: this king, damocles, had his sword hung on a horsetail hair above his throne. knowing it could fall all the time, he was aware that his position of a king wouldn't help him from being mortal like his subjects. and i'm sure i prevented him from thinking too much of himself and making crazy, exaggerated plans - when every day could be your last one, you rather care for more important, practical things.