When I first heard this song the first impression in my mind was that it's sort of talking about an artist involved in senator McCarthy hearings and that it's a sarcastic back and forth conversation and in some points the artist's simoltaneously comical and sad view of it.
"And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty, you keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty. "
"Yes and long live the state by whoever it's made,sir, I didn't see nothing, I was just getting home late."
Quite a few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Leonard Cohen. He told me that he wrote this song after discovering he'd been put on the Nixon Administration's "Enemies List" -- a list of artists, writers, musicians, and other public figures whom the ever-paranoid Nixon considered somehow "dangerous" or "subversive." In some cases, the "enemies" found themselves harrassed by the FBI/CIA, the IRS, or other governmental goons sent by Nixon. (I have no idea whether or not this happened to Cohen, or even why he was on the list in the first place -- probably because he was popular among "hippies" and other unsavory folks!)
Cohen asked me not to print this in the article I was writing -- he said, "I don't want to inflame them even more." So I didn't use it, and as far as I know, it was never revealed anywhere else either, But he definitely did tell me this.
When I first heard this song the first impression in my mind was that it's sort of talking about an artist involved in senator McCarthy hearings and that it's a sarcastic back and forth conversation and in some points the artist's simoltaneously comical and sad view of it. "And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty, you keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty. " "Yes and long live the state by whoever it's made,sir, I didn't see nothing, I was just getting home late."
You're close!
You're close!
Quite a few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Leonard Cohen. He told me that he wrote this song after discovering he'd been put on the Nixon Administration's "Enemies List" -- a list of artists, writers, musicians, and other public figures whom the ever-paranoid Nixon considered somehow "dangerous" or "subversive." In some cases, the "enemies" found themselves harrassed by the FBI/CIA, the IRS, or other governmental goons sent by Nixon. (I have no idea whether or not this happened to Cohen, or even why he was on the list in the first place -- probably because he was popular among "hippies" and other unsavory folks!)
Cohen asked me not to print this in the article I was writing -- he said, "I don't want to inflame them even more." So I didn't use it, and as far as I know, it was never revealed anywhere else either, But he definitely did tell me this.