Lines that get you every time

General discussion about Leonard Cohen's songs and albums
merton
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:23 pm

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by merton »

Hi Steven,

Looks like I'm suffering from 'cut 'n paste' fatigue!!. A great song from an album that is working its way through me - slowly but surely.

All the best,
Merton
Liamberney
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by Liamberney »

'But climb on your tears and be silent, like the rose on its ladder of thorn'
Has this line really not been included yet? I may have missed it as I have sped through the thread. It hit me between the eyes the very first time I heard it and always listen for it. I live in hope that Leonard will include The Window in the 2012 tour (now we have a violin in the band :) )
meglos2000
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Location: Kent UK

Lines that get you every time

Post by meglos2000 »

To every heart love will come
But like a refugee

That line from Anthem gets me everytime.

In fact I put it on order of service for my wedding!
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david birkett
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by david birkett »

Time for a sub-thread called 'Cohen lines on orders of service'? We had:
So come my friends, be not afraid
We are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made,
In love we disappear.
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.
Robin Orfe
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Location: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by Robin Orfe »

Everybody knows the boat is leaking,
Everybody knows that the captain lied.
Robin Orfe
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Location: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by Robin Orfe »

We met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
You held on to me like I was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.

It's so hard to pick just ONE line from ONE song. That's why I had to add this one too.

Robin
beokii
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Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:57 pm

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by beokii »

With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl
I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world.
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SeldomSeen
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by SeldomSeen »

I just found this site, but I've been a Leonard Cohen fan for almost 20 years and felt compelled to post. The line that gets me every time is from "Famous Blue Raincoat." I've been to the desert a few times, so the starkness and loneliness of this line is devastatingly beautiful.

"I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert,
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record."
March 24, 2013: Memphis
March 30, 2013: Louisville
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AlanM
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Location: Adelaide, Australia

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by AlanM »

The Traitor
Ah, the dreamers rise against the men of action,
Oh, see the men of action falling back.

The Stranger Song

And while he talks his dreams to sleep
You notice there's a highway
That is curling just like smoke above his shoulder.

Hunter's Lullaby

Your father's gone a-hunting
Through the silver and the glass
Where only greed can enter
But spirit, spirit cannot pass

The Captain
"There is no decent place to stand
In a massacre;
But if a woman take your hand
Go and stand with her."

Lady Midnight
She said “Don’t try to use me or slyly refuse me
Just win me or lose me, it is this that the darkness is for.”

The Smokey Life
So set your restless heart at ease
Take a lesson from these Autumn leaves
They waste no time waiting for the snow

Etc. etc. etc. ...
Too much Leonard Cohen is never enough.
London 1972, Adelaide 1980, 1985, 2009
Sydney 2010; Adelaide 2010
Sydney 2013 X2; Melbourne 2013; Adelaide 2013
djregan
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by djregan »

First time poster long time reader

Love it that you can listen to Leonards music for so long and still discover pearls.

from Teachers

"Follow me the wise man said
but he walked behind."
merton
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:23 pm

Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by merton »

Hi,

from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.

It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:

- Democracy


All the best,
Merton
Ultraviolet
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by Ultraviolet »

Some lines are "Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win" I love that! and "Ah remember me, I used to live for music"
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TineDoes
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by TineDoes »

'The sands of time were falling
from your fingers and your thumb'


Waiting for the Miracle.
(The whole song is beautiful, but these lines really bring the waiting home for me; the sands just seem to fall and fall and fall, there is just no way of holding on to time. If I could it would have been during this song in Dublin)

'The Autumn moved accross your skin,
Got something in my eye
A light......'


Recitation Thousand Kisses Deep.
"There’s no forsaking what you love ...."

Rotterdam 2008; Antwerpen, Dublin 2009; Gent 2x, Lille , Las Vegas 2x 2010, Gent, Amsterdam, Dublin 2x 2012, Antwerp, Berlin, Rotterdam 2013
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comehealing
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by comehealing »

Great question but as others have intimated, almost impossible to answer.
A bit like asking a parent, if they have more than one child, who their favourite
is.

Could choose several stretching from the earliest to the present but will
proffer a couple from the last two albums.

The Faith (Dear Heather)
The sea, so deep and blind
the sun, the wild regret
the club, the wheel, the mind
O love aren't you tired yet?


Lullaby (Old Ideas)
Sleep baby sleep
there's a morning to come
the wind in the trees
they're talking in tongues
Alexis
"Who, being loved, is poor?"
(Oscar Wilde)
"That love is all there is" (Emily Dickinson)
"A miracle, just take a look around: The inescapable earth" (Wislawa Szymborska)
Meltea
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Re: Lines that get you every time

Post by Meltea »

My love for Leonard started when I first felt what I call the Roberta-Flack-effect ("killing me softly with his song, telling my whole life with his words") listening to the lyrics of The Stranger Song. "I know that kind of man. It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender". So true. So beautifully put. Such a touching resume.
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