Rufus Wainwright – Everybody Knows (From I’m Your Man) Twenty Five Answers to as Many Questions Nobody Asked!

Rufus Wainwright covers Everybody Knows of Leonard Cohen
(From I’m Your Man)

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Leonard Cohen Chelsea Hotel #2 Live

LEONARD COHEN LYRICS

“Chelsea Hotel #2″

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, 
you were talking so brave and so sweet, 
giving me head on the unmade bed, 
while the limousines wait in the street. 
Those were the reasons and that was New York, 
we were running for the money and the flesh. 
And that was called love for the workers in song 
probably still is for those of them left. 
Ah but you got away, didn’t you babe, 
you just turned your back on the crowd, 
you got away, I never once heard you say, 
I need you, I don’t need you, 
I need you, I don’t need you 
and all of that jiving around. I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel 
you were famous, your heart was a legend. 
You told me again you preferred handsome men 
but for me you would make an exception. 
And clenching your fist for the ones like us 
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, 
you fixed yourself, you said, “Well never mind, 
we are ugly but we have the music.” 

And then you got away, didn’t you babe… 

I don’t mean to suggest that I loved you the best, 
I can’t keep track of each fallen robin. 
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, 
that’s all, I don’t even think of you that often.

Leonard Cohen: Story of Isaac (with Suzanne Vega) “A scheme is not a vision…”

The door it opened slowly,
My father he came in, I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
His blue eyes they were shining
And his voice was very cold.
He said, I’ve had a vision
And you know I’m strong and holy,
I must do what I’ve been told,
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
And his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
The lake a lady’s mirror,
We stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
And he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
He looked once behind his shoulder,
He knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchets blunt and bloody,
You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father’s hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
Just according to whose plan,
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
Man of peace or man of war,
The peacock spreads his fan.

Story Of Issac: Leonard Cohen (1985)

STORY OF ISAAC, BY LEONARD COHEN

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, “I’ve had a vision
and you know I’m strong and holy,
I must do what I’ve been told.”
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.
Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady’s mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
and my father’s hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
“Just according to whose plan?”
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.

Leonard Cohen on Q TV (CBC exclusive)

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To celebrate Q’s 2nd anniversary — poet, novelist, songwriter, legend…a special exclusive feature interview with Leonard Cohen… recorded at his home in Montreal.
A great interview by Jian Ghomeshi.

Sometimes I enjoy listening to Leonard Cohen reminding me the value of reverence, self respect…But more than anything I enjoy his enthusiasm, and dedication to his art, the understanding that creation is in the making, art is dynamic, just like the vibration of the music and verse his talent embodies and chants. Modesty is at work in Mr. Cohen’s musical career, perseverance to write something of value, something true about the human condition, love, life and the world and civilization of which he has been part of and a catalyst for change. Mr. Cohen’s philosophy of life has given us some memorable phrases, that are now part of more and more of his contemporaries.
One of the themes appearing is the feelings for the many people suffering in the world, and it really feels like today is a time as good, if not better than any before.

I truly hope that you will find this moments inspirational and enjoy its eloquence, clarity and sincerity and spirituality.

Love Friends.

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Jesus and Mary, Martha Wainwright

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Jesus & Mary, By Martha Wainwright

Remember when you said we’d marry
The wilder shores of love
The tide, it changes fast
Ah when you’re fast it never lasts

I cannot read between your lines
You cannot make me read your tiny mind
Oh who’s got the time
Oh you’d go blind

Jesus and Mary
Are takin’ me down to the other side of town
Where they don’t count the days
With steel blades on the walls of time
They just dance naked in the sun all the time

She’s the jewel in your crown
But I’m the goal that’s gonna weigh you down
I’ll keep you around this dirty old town

Every time I put the stove on
Dinner’s cold by the time you come over
Oh you turn over on that cold shoulder

Jesus and Mary
Are takin’ me down to the other side of town
Where they don’t count the days
With steel blades on the walls of time
They just dance naked in the sun all the time

And you call and you call my name
Baby, hazy, lazy
Oh I am not an animal

When I lie back, I lie on my back
Baby, hazy, lazy
Oh I’ll sign on the dotted line

Don’t bring me down
Don’t bring me down
Don’t bring me down, no
Don’t bring me down
Don’t bring me down
Don’t bring me down
Don’t bring me down

Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian-American folk–rock singer–songwriter. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. With her older brother, Rufus Wainwright, she was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in a musical family. 
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Wainwright)

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TOWER OF SONG-LEONARD COHEN and U2 (From I’m Your Man)

Leonard Cohen

TOWER OF SONG

My friends are gone and my hair is grey.
I ache in the places where I used to play.
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on.
I’m just paying my rent every day in the tower of song.

I said to Hank Williams: “How lonely does it get?”
Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet,
but I hear him coughing all night long,
a hundred floors above me in the tower of song.

I was born like this, I had no choice.
I was born with the gift of a golden voice,
and twenty-seven angels from the great beyond,
they tied me to this table right here in the tower of song.

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
– I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like me at all.
I’m standing by the window where the light is strong.
They don’t let a woman kill you not in the tower of song.

Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure:
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor,
and there’s a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong.
You see, you hear these funny voices in the tower of song.

I see you standing on the other side.
I don’t know how the river got so wide.
I loved you, I loved you way back when –
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed,
but I feel so close to everything that we lost-
We’ll never, we’ll never have to lose it again.

So I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back.
They’re moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track.
But you’ll be hearing from me, baby, long after I’m gone.
I’ll be speaking to you sweetly from my window in the tower of song.

My friends are gone and my hair is grey.
I ache in the places where I used to play.
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on.
I’m just paying my rent every day in the tower of song.

U2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2, find out more about the social impact of this band…find out more about their “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, and much more about the band.

 

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The Traitor, Leonard Cohen Rendition by Martha Wainwright

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A divine composition based on a unique poem, made a complete Leonard Cohen pièce de résistance, and the rendition beyond the realm of words by Martha Wainwright not to forget the out of this world musical arrangement: I am so happy to be able to appreciate this historic moment of excellence in the making. The explanation given by Mr. Cohen to the meaning of the verse describes a predicament in which each and every one of us found ourselves at least once in life, which makes it our life story, within which we can dissolve completely.

The world is indeed the theater in which we’re actors, directors and spectators:

The traitor, by Leonard Cohen

Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
and the judges watched us from the other side

I told my mother “Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere”

But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
and if she withered I would be to blame

The judges said you missed it by a fraction
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling back

But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison sank and it paralysed my will

I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
that they had been deserted from above
So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
I’m listed with the enemies of love

And long ago she said “I must be leaving,
Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
You can move it up and down and when I’m sleeping
Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan”

So daily I renew my idle duty
I touch her here and there — I know my place
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
and people call me traitor to my face

Leonard Cohen: “It was called “The traitor”. It was about the feeling that we have of betraying some mission that we were mandated to fulfill, and being unable to fulfill it, and then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it, and that the deeper courage was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself”.

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Le Partizan: Joe Dassin, parle de Leonard Cohen

This is an interview of Joe Dassin followed by the  interpretation of  “The Partizan” by Leonard Cohen, a long long time ago, another “once upon a time”,  I guess. When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,
I’ve lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
Kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.

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

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we’ll come from the shadows.

Les Allemands e’taient chez moi,
ils me dirent, “Résigne toi,”
mais je n’ai pas peur;
j’ai repris mon âme.

J’ai change’ cent fois de nom,
j’ai perdu femme et enfants
mais j’ai tant d’amis;
j’ai la France entie’re.

Un vieil homme dans un grenier
pour la nuit nous a cache’,
les Allemands l’ont pris;
il est mort sans surprise.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we’ll come from the shadows.

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The Partizan,  by Leonard Cohen

Handsome Family – A Thousand Kisses Deep (Leonard Cohen)

Interview with Rufus Wainwright

A wonderful performance by The Handsome Family w/Linda Thompson of Leonard Cohen’s “A Thousand Kisses Deep”. This performance was taken from the DVD I’m Your Man – a documentary of a fantastic tribute concert celebrating Leonard Cohen’s work.

A Thousand Kisses Deep Lyrics:

The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it’s done —
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed,
I’m back on Boogie Street.
You lose your grip, and then you slip
Into the Masterpiece.
And maybe I had miles to drive,
And promises to keep:
You ditch it all to stay alive,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

Confined to sex, we pressed against
The limits of the sea:
I saw there were no oceans left
For scavengers like me.
I made it to the forward deck.
I blessed our remnant fleet —
And then consented to be wrecked,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed,
I’m back on Boogie Street.
I guess they won’t exchange the gifts
That you were meant to keep.
And quiet is the thought of you,
The file on you complete,
Except what we forgot to do,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat . . .

You can purchase the DVD at:

http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Cohen-I…

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Leonard Cohen: A thousand kisses deep

A thousand Kisses Deep, Leonard Cohen

You came to me this morning, and you handled me like meat.
You’d have to be a man to know how good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin, I’d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in, a thousand kisses deep?

I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat.
You see, I’m just another snowman, standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love, his secondhand physique,
With all he is, and all he was, a thousand kisses deep.

I know you had to lie to me. I know you had to cheat,
To pose all hot and high, behind the veils of sheer deceit.
Our perfect porn aristocrat, so elegant and cheap.
I’m old, but I am still into that, a thousand kisses deep.

I’m good at love, I’m good at hate It’s in between I freeze.
I’ve been working out, but, it’s too late, it’s been too late for years.
But you look good, you really do, they love you on the street.
If you were here, I’d kneel for you, a thousand kisses deep.

The autumn moved across your skin, Got something in my eye,
A light that doesn’t need to live and doesn’t need to die.
A riddle in the book of love, Obscure and obsolete.
To witnessed here in time and blood, a thousand kisses deep.

And I’m still working with the wine, still dancing cheek to cheek.
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne, but the heart will not retreat.
I ran with Diz I sang with Ray, I never had their sweep.
But once or twice they let me play, a thousand kisses deep.

I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat.
You see, I’m just another snowman, standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love, his second hand physique.
With all he is, and all he was, A thousand kisses deep.

But you don’t need to hear me know, and every word I speak,
It counts against me anyhow, a thousand kisses deep.

Hello World!

Welcome to: euzicasa.wordpress.com 

        This website is about art, artists and the way some of them  have influenced my whole life.
If at times the content may seem nostalgic, is only when it resonate in quality, in message and in power to influence human knowledge of one’s feelings.
        I am reminded of the little time we have to meditate upon the beauty around us, in an infinity of forms.
It is a duty, I think to share values, like leaflets over a monotonous life, and troubled civilization, away from the roll of coins that cannot buy neither a soul, nor that which makes us human.
        So happy trails, and I hope you too will find something in theses pages that you’ll like to share with others.

Thank You Friends,

George.

Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows

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Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

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“A Thousand Kisses Deep”: Your Invincible Defeat!

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“The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it’s done –
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.”

“The traitor”

I Came So Far for Beauty: Leonard Cohen

I Came So Far for Beauty,  By Leonard Cohen 

I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned
I thought I’d be rewarded
For such a lonely choice
And surely she would answer
To such a very hopeless voice
I practiced all my sainthood
I gave to one and all
But the rumours of my virtue
They moved her not at all
I changed my style to silver
I changed my clothed to black
And where I would surrender
Now I would attack
I stormed the old casino
For the money and the flesh
And I myself decided
What was rotten and what was fresh
And men to do my bidding
And broken bones to teach
The value of my pardon
The shadow of my reach
But no, I could not touch her
With such a heavy hand
Her star beyond my order
Her nakedness unmanned
I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned

(Source: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/leonard_cohen/i_came_so_far_for_beauty.html)