Now that jazzmanchg has underlined most of the explanations by his/her account of Leonard Cohen’s own words, I am trying to complete the interpretation of this song.
Line 1: the accusation Cohen wrote this poem about hasn’t been stated aloud, its more a secret he maybe came across by accident (in fact he was put on a list of state enemies by state intelligence – how do you discover you are on it?).
Line 2, 3, 4: the order of the words is important. First there has to be confessed, and the answer is a ‘yes’ already before the list of his...
Now that jazzmanchg has underlined most of the explanations by his/her account of Leonard Cohen’s own words, I am trying to complete the interpretation of this song.
Line 1: the accusation Cohen wrote this poem about hasn’t been stated aloud, its more a secret he maybe came across by accident (in fact he was put on a list of state enemies by state intelligence – how do you discover you are on it?).
Line 2, 3, 4: the order of the words is important. First there has to be confessed, and the answer is a ‘yes’ already before the list of his crimes has been read aloud to him and the court.
In fact Cohen is criticizing the fact that he wasn’t aware of his being accused of something he had done. Also he thinks someone might defend him and ask for mercy, but this has been refused to him by the way things are going, he doesn’t even get a chance, so someone who accuses him loves to see him being proven guilty. The metaphor of a setup trial, with a messy procedure and an outcome that had been put-up in advance.
Line 5: the ladies in the courtroom (at any rate perceptible to the judge) are going moist, they are sexually aroused by what has been read as a list of his crimes probably, and this is taken by the judge as an unmistakable proof that the I-figure is guilty. By using the court metaphor Cohen implicitly invites us to reflect on what exactly he is accused of, what in his songs it is that makes him a suspect.
Line 6: the punishment or measure will be, that the singer (Leonard Cohen) must die, because of the ‘lie in his voice’. That may mean, sarcastically, that it’s not the words but the sound in the songs that were untrue. Cohen is working this out in the next four lines.
Line 7, 8, 9, 10: Cohen pretends to be grateful to ‘them’, his criticizers, as if they are doing the job they are morally obliged to, to guard Truth and Beauty (what he himself is creating with his songs). He points out that his and their vision are opposite to each other, and he sarcastically says they are right of course. He even drives this to the extreme of apologizing for polluting (smudging) the air with the sound of his ‘dirty’ songs, as if he were guilty.
Second part:
Line 11, 12, 13, 14: Cohen alludes to the way he is defending himself against the allegations he outlined in the first part of the poem. He is doing this in a very obscure way, like in the surroundings of a very dark night. He seems to say that if he were wearing women’s clothes, her silken draperies and even her flesh, he would be more forgiving. Because yes, he is convinced ‘they’ with this putting him on a list have done him an injustice. Maybe this is the core of this song: he refers to making love to a woman, feeling united, one, and then his longing for mercy, grace may be returned, inspiring him to the poems he has written (the words ‘mercy’ and ‘grace’ respectively meaning ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ but also ‘forgiveness’, so he can do the same and forgive ‘them’ their mistake. Now he has created this song in return to his discovery of the existing list, and at any rate he intends to give a clear message but he has concealed it in the poem, especially by the sound of his voice. (Listen carefully to the intonation of his voice when he is singing this song). So he is telling us how he is concealing his message. The other tension he is creating is, that he is accused of making songs so he defends himself by singing another song, indeed perpetrating ‘their’ rules again.
Line 15: When you hear the way Cohen sings this line, he is lamenting and stressing the endlessness of the nights following one after another. So the goodnight wish has a sarcastic twist, because in this (dark, evil) political climate he will need all nights, obscurity, to hide himself in his love songs. And as if the only thing he is singing about is ‘making love’, at the same time it’s the only way that’s left him to do for a living. Ultimately behind this all may lay an allusion to an outcry of that time: Make Love, Not War, like people cheered in the streets when they demonstrated against the Vietnam war.
Last part:
Line 16: Cohen states he listening because he feels intimidated
Line 17, 18, 19: He describes the security men working for Nixon as ‘sun-glassed protectors’, i.e. men who themselves show no identity, but what they do to ‘you’ (to Cohen, but also to people in general) is that they are the ones who are scaring people. The effect of being scared is that Cohen is taking the threat seriously, he is listening to ‘you’ (Nixon).
So the first two ‘you’s are addressed to Nixon, the next three times ‘you’ are to the public in general and to Cohen himself in particular. He describes the threat of violence that makes him fearful in the way these ‘protectors’ operate, by first describing their ‘tasks’, and secondly mentioning the violent street-fighting way they use in how they approach ‘you’, announced and stressed lightly by the words: ‘It’s their ways…’
Line 20: Built-up sarcasm in the exclamation ‘Long live the state’, pointing to an obscure system of repression, and to the not-to-mention one who is responsible for this. In fact, thanks to jazzmanchg we now know who he is pointing at: president Nixon.
Line 21: Secrecy and lawlessness are expressed in the elusive reaction of people who live in this repressive system, whether they are executors or victims: they allege to be useless as witness, because they state they weren’t at the scene. Cohen may implicitly point to everyone being compromised by this system, which sustains the illegal practices of the government.
Note that in the first part the illusion of a fair trial in court is torn down, in the third part the street fighting techniques are in the limelight and in between is the beauty of poetry in the night where Leonard Cohen is hiding.
I'm sorry -- I was clumsy and I repeated the post below. I didn't intend to. I'm not spamming anyone. I apologize again.
Now that jazzmanchg has underlined most of the explanations by his/her account of Leonard Cohen’s own words, I am trying to complete the interpretation of this song. Line 1: the accusation Cohen wrote this poem about hasn’t been stated aloud, its more a secret he maybe came across by accident (in fact he was put on a list of state enemies by state intelligence – how do you discover you are on it?). Line 2, 3, 4: the order of the words is important. First there has to be confessed, and the answer is a ‘yes’ already before the list of his...
Now that jazzmanchg has underlined most of the explanations by his/her account of Leonard Cohen’s own words, I am trying to complete the interpretation of this song. Line 1: the accusation Cohen wrote this poem about hasn’t been stated aloud, its more a secret he maybe came across by accident (in fact he was put on a list of state enemies by state intelligence – how do you discover you are on it?). Line 2, 3, 4: the order of the words is important. First there has to be confessed, and the answer is a ‘yes’ already before the list of his crimes has been read aloud to him and the court. In fact Cohen is criticizing the fact that he wasn’t aware of his being accused of something he had done. Also he thinks someone might defend him and ask for mercy, but this has been refused to him by the way things are going, he doesn’t even get a chance, so someone who accuses him loves to see him being proven guilty. The metaphor of a setup trial, with a messy procedure and an outcome that had been put-up in advance. Line 5: the ladies in the courtroom (at any rate perceptible to the judge) are going moist, they are sexually aroused by what has been read as a list of his crimes probably, and this is taken by the judge as an unmistakable proof that the I-figure is guilty. By using the court metaphor Cohen implicitly invites us to reflect on what exactly he is accused of, what in his songs it is that makes him a suspect. Line 6: the punishment or measure will be, that the singer (Leonard Cohen) must die, because of the ‘lie in his voice’. That may mean, sarcastically, that it’s not the words but the sound in the songs that were untrue. Cohen is working this out in the next four lines. Line 7, 8, 9, 10: Cohen pretends to be grateful to ‘them’, his criticizers, as if they are doing the job they are morally obliged to, to guard Truth and Beauty (what he himself is creating with his songs). He points out that his and their vision are opposite to each other, and he sarcastically says they are right of course. He even drives this to the extreme of apologizing for polluting (smudging) the air with the sound of his ‘dirty’ songs, as if he were guilty.
Second part: Line 11, 12, 13, 14: Cohen alludes to the way he is defending himself against the allegations he outlined in the first part of the poem. He is doing this in a very obscure way, like in the surroundings of a very dark night. He seems to say that if he were wearing women’s clothes, her silken draperies and even her flesh, he would be more forgiving. Because yes, he is convinced ‘they’ with this putting him on a list have done him an injustice. Maybe this is the core of this song: he refers to making love to a woman, feeling united, one, and then his longing for mercy, grace may be returned, inspiring him to the poems he has written (the words ‘mercy’ and ‘grace’ respectively meaning ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ but also ‘forgiveness’, so he can do the same and forgive ‘them’ their mistake. Now he has created this song in return to his discovery of the existing list, and at any rate he intends to give a clear message but he has concealed it in the poem, especially by the sound of his voice. (Listen carefully to the intonation of his voice when he is singing this song). So he is telling us how he is concealing his message. The other tension he is creating is, that he is accused of making songs so he defends himself by singing another song, indeed perpetrating ‘their’ rules again. Line 15: When you hear the way Cohen sings this line, he is lamenting and stressing the endlessness of the nights following one after another. So the goodnight wish has a sarcastic twist, because in this (dark, evil) political climate he will need all nights, obscurity, to hide himself in his love songs. And as if the only thing he is singing about is ‘making love’, at the same time it’s the only way that’s left him to do for a living. Ultimately behind this all may lay an allusion to an outcry of that time: Make Love, Not War, like people cheered in the streets when they demonstrated against the Vietnam war.
Last part: Line 16: Cohen states he listening because he feels intimidated Line 17, 18, 19: He describes the security men working for Nixon as ‘sun-glassed protectors’, i.e. men who themselves show no identity, but what they do to ‘you’ (to Cohen, but also to people in general) is that they are the ones who are scaring people. The effect of being scared is that Cohen is taking the threat seriously, he is listening to ‘you’ (Nixon). So the first two ‘you’s are addressed to Nixon, the next three times ‘you’ are to the public in general and to Cohen himself in particular. He describes the threat of violence that makes him fearful in the way these ‘protectors’ operate, by first describing their ‘tasks’, and secondly mentioning the violent street-fighting way they use in how they approach ‘you’, announced and stressed lightly by the words: ‘It’s their ways…’
Line 20: Built-up sarcasm in the exclamation ‘Long live the state’, pointing to an obscure system of repression, and to the not-to-mention one who is responsible for this. In fact, thanks to jazzmanchg we now know who he is pointing at: president Nixon. Line 21: Secrecy and lawlessness are expressed in the elusive reaction of people who live in this repressive system, whether they are executors or victims: they allege to be useless as witness, because they state they weren’t at the scene. Cohen may implicitly point to everyone being compromised by this system, which sustains the illegal practices of the government. Note that in the first part the illusion of a fair trial in court is torn down, in the third part the street fighting techniques are in the limelight and in between is the beauty of poetry in the night where Leonard Cohen is hiding.