Dance Me to the End of Love - L. Cohen

[anoldsmoothie]

Leonard Cohen - Dance Me to the End Of Love - YouTube

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

[Solluna]

Thank you for posting this. I saw Cohen a year ago in Vegas and most of his songs brought me to tears. Tears of happiness of course....... Thanks!

[slumberland]

Thank you, one of my favorite songs. I want to cry now though...

[anoldsmoothie]

I only wish I had hooked on to this guy when I was younger. I'm thinking he was crowded-out by Dylan in the USA. I find his lyrics much more poetic than Dylan and certainly more mature.

He strikes a raw chord with lyrics like:

"Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone"

Then there's So Long, Marianne (kinda appropriate for what's going on around here, eh?):

Leonard Cohen - So long, Marianne [Studio Version] - YouTube

"I see you've gone and changed your name again"

Cohen refers to himself as a poet/songster, so you really got to see the lyrics as well as catch his simple folkie renditions. He sure knows how to use refrains:

So Long Marianne lyrics
Songwriters: Leonard Cohen

Won't you come over to the window, my little darling?
I'd like to try to read your palm
You know I used to think I was some kind of gypsy boy
Before I let you take me home

So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry
And laugh about it all again

Well, you know that I love to live with you
But you make me forget so very much
I forget to pray for the angels
And then the angels forget to pray for us
So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry
And laugh about it all again

Now we met when was it? We were almost young
We stand by the green lilac park
You held on to me like I was a crucifix
As we went kneeling through the dark

So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry
And laugh about it all again

Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry
And laugh about it all again

For now, I need your hidden love
I'm cold as a new razor blade
You left when I told you I was curious
Did I ever say that I was brave?

So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry, cry
And laugh about it all again

Oh, you are really such a pretty woman
I see you've gone and changed your names again
And just when I climbed this whole mountainside
To wash my eyelids in the rain
So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry
And laugh about it all again

So long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry, cry
Laugh about it all again

[SireneB]

I love Leonard Cohen, had never heard of him until a friend drove my past his house (former house?) while I was visiting in Montreal last year - looked up his music and been hooked ever since. This song is one of my favorites, but there are many more. A lot of the older stuff is not on YouTube, but I was able to find it on Spotify. I have a 15-hour playlist of his songs on Spotify and have been listening to it straight through almost every weekend!

I love his poetry, and one of the other things I like is his development through the decades, and attitude now as an older musician, the attitude comes out in the comments he makes in the recording of his live performances.

And (appropriate to this thread) his attitude about women and relationships. Too bad the forum is closing, we could have a whole thread about that.

Instead:
leonard cohen closing time - YouTube

We're drinking and we're dancing
But theres nothing really happening
The place is dead as heaven on a saturday night
And my very close companion
Gets me fumbling gets me laughing
Shes a hundred but shes wearing
Something tight
I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you cant reveal to the ears of youth
Except to say it isnt worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
And its once for the devil and its once for christ
But the boss dont like these dizzy heights
We're busted in the blinding lights
Of closing time

[anoldsmoothie]

You sounded the siren, Sirene.

Nice pick on closing time.