Leonard Cohen sings Bird on The Wire followed by Everybody knows at the 10,000 strong open air concert at the IMMA in Kilmainham Dublin on September 11th 2012
“Bird on the Wire” is one of Leonard Cohen‘s signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 albumSongs from a Room. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, entitled “Like a Bird”, was added to the 2007 remastered CD. Judy Collinswas the first to release the song on her 1968 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes.
In the 1960s, Cohen lived on the Greek island Hydra with his girlfriend Marianne (the woman depicted on Songs from a Room’s back cover). She has related how she helped him out of a depression by handing him his guitar, whereupon he began composing “Bird on the Wire” – inspired by a bird sitting on one of Hydra’s recently installed phone wires, followed by memories of wet island nights. He finished it in a Hollywood motel.
Cohen has described “Bird on the Wire” as a simple country song, and the first recording, by Judy Collins, was indeed done in a country setting. He later made various minor changes, such as the modifications present on Cohen Live. Different renditions are included on all of his live albums. On occasion he also performed Serge Lama‘s French version, “Vivre tout seul”, in concert.
In the sleevenotes to a 2007 release of Songs From A Room the song was described as “simultaneously a prayer and an anthem, a kind ofbohemian My Way. Kris Kristofferson once told Cohen that he wanted the song’s opening lines (Like a bird on the wire/like a drunk in a midnight choir/I have tried in my way to be free) to serve as his epitaph.”[1]
| “Bird on the Wire” | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Leonard Cohen from the albumSongs from a Room | ||||
| Released | April 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 26 September 1968, Nashville | |||
| Genre | Contemporary folk | |||
| Length | 3:28 | |||
| Writer | Leonard Cohen | |||
| Producer | Bob Johnston | |||
| Songs from a Room track listing | ||||
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Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook,
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
If I, if I have been unkind,
I hope that you can just let it go by.
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/bird+on+the+wire_20082816.html ]
Like a baby, stillborn,
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee.
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, “You must not ask for so much.”
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?”
Oh like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Lyrics from ———————–Here
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