Your Favorite Leonard Cohen Line

[Andrew (Darby)]

In the lead up to our recent Toowoomba event, we did a live interview for one of our local ABC radio stations. One of our event performers (who accompanied me) did Famous Blue Raincoat in the studio. The radio station had requested listeners to email them with requests and this was the request from a man who said that it was not only his favourite Cohen song, but (as you suggest Shane) possibly the best song in the world!

I've always loved the mixed emotional tones evoked throughout this song - they beautifully encapsulate the difficult relationship dynamics portrayed or hinted at.

In terms of lines, I echo your choices Shane and Ali, but will add another couple that often spring to mind for me:
"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".

You're right, Ali, cutting and pasting the lot may be the way to go!

Cheers
Andrew (Darby)

[Diane]

I think FBR may have been the first LC song I ever heard. I was captivated by it from the first line: It's four in the morning, the end of December, and still love hearing that line.

You're right, we should post all the lines joined up together. As some ad or other says over here "every one's someone's favourite"!

Diane

[Shane]

It’s four in the morning, the end of december
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New york is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on clinton street all through the evening.

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.

Yes, and jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without lili marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see jane’s awake --

She sends her regards.
And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

-- sincerely, l. cohen

Someone had to do it.

[Ali]

Respect Shane

[The Captain]

I fought againt the bottle,
but I had to it drunk,
took my diamonds to the pawnshop,
but that don't make it junk.

[Sylvia]

When hatred with its package comes
You forbid delivery


You lose your grip
And slip
Into the masterpiece

I'll try to say a little more
Love went on
and on
Until it reached
An open door
Then love itself
Love itself
Was
Gone

[Stranger]

We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky
and lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye

[lizzytysh]

When hatred's package comes
You forbid delivery

I've always loved the precision in this. To narrow such a broadly-scoped, deeply impacting, concept down to these seven words. Amazing.

[Sylvia]

yep that's how he got to be the saint

[johnny7moons]

"i loved you for your beauty. that doesn't make a fool of me. you were in it for your beauty too."

or...

"don't trust your inner feelings; inner feelings come and go"

or maybe...

"now my friends are gone and my hair is grey, and i ache in the places where i used to play..."

but then there's...

"it's coming from the sorrow in the street / from the holy places where the races meet / from the homicidal bitching / that goes down in every kitchen / to determine who will serve and who will eat"

and

"we were locked in this kitchen; i took to religion and wondered how long she would stay. i needed so much to have nothing to touch - i've always been greedy that way"

this is simply impossible

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Sylvia, true. On mine, I had to edit to include "broadly-scoped," as it was in my thinking, but got left out in my words.

[Sylvia]

This is good .. lots of these lyrics I don't know yet. It's great to have this thread going ... you know, he does write with so much precision and care that it's easy to paraphrase and then be surprised. I keep doing that. No harm. It's such a rich consciousness.*

[Tchocolatl]

More lines! Enjoy :

http://www.poemhunter.com/leonard-cohen ... 42/page-1/

[Dead Man]

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.

this song hits me right in the guts each time i hear it

[the earl of kent]

I adore the poetry from his utterly underrated song, Queen Victoria:

"Queen Victoria
I am cold and rainy
I am dirty as a glass roof in a train station
I feel like an empty cast iron exhibition..."


And I might also add, from my favourite song, Take This Longing:

"Your body like a search light
My poverty revealed"