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January 6, 2019

Examining some Leonard Cohen Lyrics   


by Brabantian

Canadian-Jewish musical artist Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) is a profound and ambiguous character, with some clearly spooky elements. But there is an astonishing, unique amount of 'truth' in some Cohen songs - tho, of course, the insider cabal likes revealing much of what they do.
 
Interestingly, Cohen long ago riffed on some of the key issues of male-female psychology.
 
Cohen's most stunning 'truth' songs, both date from the same 1988 album. 'First We Take Manhattan' as above, is one of the most profound songs ever about the mind of a terrorist; and 'Everybody Knows', is maybe one of the best songs ever about the total corruption of society.
 
'First We Take Manhattan' was composed during the late 1980s transition between the classic Gladio era 'Gladio A' terrorism (mostly in Europe, some lesser similar events in Canada), and Gladio B that was just about to get underway, peaking with 9-11.
 
'First We Take Manhattan' is a dialogue between a terrorist and his girlfriend. She reminded him that she could have been one of the people he is about to kill. The song captures the lure of the 'rebel - bad boy - criminal' for the female hind-brain, prizing male aggressiveness to the point that mass-murderers in prison get stacks of love letters sometimes.
 
Great live version of this song from 1988 on German television - Berlin! - Cohen with multi-cultural female counterparts:

 
The woman's voice sings in the above:
You see that line there moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, I was one of those!
[She tells him he is killing people just like her, but she neither acts to leave him nor tries to stop him ... the terrorist replies:]
Well, it's Father's Day, and everybody's wounded
[Men are all wounded inside, but that doesn't stop them]
 
From the same point in Cohen's life, his haunting song 'Everybody Knows' is still cited as one of the ultimate musical statements on the corruption around us. Once again, Cohen also looks deeply into male-female sexuality; here, after political, rich vs poor statements, Cohen sings about how normal sexuality is being destroyed by modern society, how women now go loose to cheat for 'alpha dalliances', and how the surveillance & data-gathering world will make this all much worse.
 

 
Some excerpted lyrics:
 
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
 
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
 
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 that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artefact 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
 


Scruples - the game of moral dillemas

Henry Makow received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 1982. He welcomes your comments at