Leonard Cohen : Bird on the Wire (Perla Batalla)

The most beautiful interpretation of “Like The Bird On The Wire“, ever. Perla flies like a dove above all, off a wire up in the skies, and dive on the winds of the accordion  so divinely played. Perla Batalla is the priestess of freedom and joy of life everlasting in this magnificent scene: Sweet like nectar, and the salt of the Earth. If Leonard is the man, Perla is the woman, the lover, enchanter, charmer, the voice. Do you see that too, or is it only me?

 

Leonard Cohen, Bird on the Wire & Everybody Knows, Dublin, IMMA , 11-09-12

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
“Bird on the Wire” (1) “Story of Isaac” (2)

Songwriters: COHEN, LEONARD

Like a bird on the wire, 
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

 

Leonard Cohen: Like A Bird On The Wire, Perla Batalla Singing

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Like a bird on the wire
By Leonard Cohen
Like a bird on the wire,
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.
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.

This song is about fighting to overcome obstacles, and dealing with the evils and graces that are thrust upon us in everyday life. And in dealing with the evils, asking for forgiveness from the person the wrong was done to, or from whatever religious being that person may believe in. It’s about redemption.
It is about the dual nature of the human being Free and in Bondage at the same time, in spirit: Our thoughts can set us free one moment, only to call us bach into the bounds, the next, like a captive kite, free within boundaries of the line’s lengths, and free to dive around in an erratic pattern of the wind, held up, or let down by the presence or absence of the air current: But captive, unlike the balloon set free, the white doves liberated above the human stadion, the theater, the Pantheon. The duality and imperfection of human nature, this poem is about. To Keep and hold, to free and to leg go, it is about that too. To overcome limitation and to be thoughtful and noble, to confess and to be forgiven, it is about that too. It’s about me and it is about you. It is about us, all of us, in this boat that will soon be too small, to contain us all: It is about “all of those things first”.

“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?”
Human predicament: Free within physical, social, cultural limitations.

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• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_on_the_Wire