Leonard Cohen – Boogie Street

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  General Comment:My interpretation.
  
  O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,
  (Oh beautiful woman, with such a dark side)
  
  I never thought we�d meet.
  (you always seemed so unobtainable)
  
  You kiss my lips, and then it�s done:
  I�m back on Boogie Street.
  (it was a quick affair)
  
  A sip of wine, a cigarette,
  And then it�s time to go
  (unhealthy diet of single guy)
  
  I tidied up the kitchenette;
  (single guy has no need for full kitchen, sad)
  I tuned the old banjo.
  I�m wanted at the traffic-jam.
  They�re saving me a seat.
  (a musicians life)
  
  I�m what I am, and what I am,
  Is back on Boogie Street.
  (I am single, and just the way it is, sad to be back on bs)
  
  
  And O my love, I still recall
  The pleasures that we knew;
  The rivers and the waterfall,
  Wherein I bathed with you.
  Bewildered by your beauty there,
  (remembering)
  
  I�d kneel to dry your feet.
  By such instructions you prepare
  A man for Boogie Street.
  
  (kneeling down is submitting, by submitting to defeat he loses her interest)
  
  O Crown of Light, O Darkened One�
  
  So come, my friends, be not afraid.
  We are so lightly here.
  (life is delicate, we are not immortal)
  
  It is in love that we are made;
  In love we disappear.
  (we are loved when we pass on -we hope)
  
  Though all the maps of blood and flesh
  Are posted on the door,
  (blood and flesh, the efforts of pioneers and map makers -work)
  
  There�s no one who has told us yet
  What Boogie Street is for.
  
  (true. Boogie street is a place not to be. It's the singles Hell. The problem is the lack of comfort and even though you could be with many, yet, it is the lonley way.)
  
  O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,
  I never thought we�d meet.
  You kiss my lips, and then it�s done:
  I�m back on Boogie Street.
  
  A sip of wine, a cigarette,
  And then it�s time to go�
  
  RJ
  

  Flag RJSoftwareon June 09, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:In an interview with Brian D. Johnson in Maclean's Magazine in October 15, 2001 Cohen said of Boogie Street:
  
  "...during the day Boogie Street is a scene of intense commercial activity... And at night, it was a scene of intense and alarming sexual exchange."
  
  Later he goes on to talk of its metaphorical meaning: "Boogie Street to me was that street of work and desire, the ordinary life and also the place we live in most of the time that is relieved by the embrace of your children, or the kiss of your beloved, or the peak experience in which you yourself are dissolved, and there is no one to experience it so you feel the refreshment when you come back from those moments....So we all hope for those heavenly moments, which we get in those embraces and those sudden perceptions of beauty and sensations of pleasure, but we're immediately returned to Boogie Street."

  Flag baudolinoon June 27, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:I believe it's about his experiences in the buddhist temple (O crown of light, etc) and his return to normal life (Boogie street).
  
  As with all of L Cohen's songs there is a spiritual message in them tinged with a great sense of humour (I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
  They’re saving me a seat.)
  
  What he has achieved in the buddhist experience is acceptance and less anxiety

  Flag jkenyon June 17, 2007   Link

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