leonardcohenforum.com

This one comes from my 7 year old daughter again...she is so used to listening to LC in the car. She will be seeing him in Lyon with us next month and is very excited. Her favorite song is Closing Time.

Anyway, we were listening to Boogie Street and it was this line:

The rivers and the waterfall,
Wherein I bathed with you.

She thought it was:
The rivers and the waterfall
We're in our bathing suits

hehehehehehehe

My younger brother (who died at 16 in 1979) always sang:
Is this what you wanted,
To live in a house that is haunted,
By the ghost of our Aunt Bea.

I imagined he wanted to run with an expert crowd instead of a "novice crowd".

(lawless crowd) (Anthem)

Given the sudden rise in awareness of "Hallelujah" in 2008 you have to wonder how many of the population are wondering what the great event known as "The Mafeking Composing" was all about, but worse, how many think the whole song is about
"The Minotaur in John Major's lift"

Another one from my daughter:

Lift me like an olive branch and "be my homework done"
(instead of "homeward dove" in Dance Me to the End of Love)

It makes sense, in a way, to be someone's homework done. It's a feeling of completeness and satisfaction to have your homework done. The line would be about wanting someone to make you feel that way, or wanting that person to do things for you selflessly.

I like it. Leonard would too, I think.

Mnkyface, I love your daughter's take on Leonard's lyrics. People say his songs mean different things to different people, and this person happens to be a clever seven year old girl.
-Frisco

Until a few days ago, I thought that after 'Destroy another fetus now' in The Future came 'But don't harm children anyhow' instead of 'We don't like children anyhow,' probably because of my pro-choice views. Can't remember any other ones right now.

songster wrote:For a long time I thought LC was singing in the song Democracy about "getting lost in that hopeless little scream"

I did too!

I was disappointed to learn that the correct phrase is :"I'm junk, but I'm still holding up that little wild bouquet." I always heard it as :"I'm choked ...", which actually I think is stroger.

In Bob Dylan's When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky I thought it went 'On the lawn with someone else's wife' instead of 'I don't wanna drown in someone else's wine'.

But you see that nightmare moving through the station....and not 'line there'.

When he tells the officer he was just getting home late, I thought for almost forever that it was, "I was just getting laid... " which made a lot more sense as to WHY he was getting home late in the first place, and something that a man might say to a man [even though he's an officer], anticipating belief and understanding.

Hi Mnkyface

I also thought it was 'homework done' and I have a year or two on your daughter. I still think it's a rather nice line.

Also, until recently, like someone else, I thought it was 'something blonde' in Who by Fire.

I admit that I thought 'battle king' not baffled king.

I think I should go off and get a hearing aid, or maybe one of those wonderful horn things they used to use in days gone by, my opinion is they were rather regal. Not sure they would go down too well at Leonard Cohen concerts though, they could give the person sitting in the next seat a nasty crack on the head.

Evie

mnkyface wrote:Another one from my daughter:

Lift me like an olive branch and "be my homework done"
(instead of "homeward dove" in Dance Me to the End of Love)

It makes sense, in a way, to be someone's homework done. It's a feeling of completeness and satisfaction to have your homework done. The line would be about wanting someone to make you feel that way, or wanting that person to do things for you selflessly.

I like it. Leonard would too, I think.

Evie B wrote:
I think I should go off and get a hearing aid, or maybe one of those wonderful horn things they used to use in days gone by, my opinion is they were rather regal. Not sure they would go down too well at Leonard Cohen concerts though, they could give the person sitting in the next seat a nasty crack on the head.

Evie

Evie,

sorry for the somewhat silly association - but I am in the mood right now: "There is a crack in everything ... ". Imagine Darling (not our forum member, but the famous one!) sitting next to you, it might actually do him good... If that is how the light gets in...

My misheard lyric is from "Blue Alert" and I just can't shake it. Even though I know it's "the innermost door", every now and then when I listen to the song and I'm tired or distracted then... "we're saying goodbye at the animal store"