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The Future (1992), is Leonard Cohen's last great album.
In this work, Cohen demonstrates that "Various Positions" and "I'm Your Man", the albums that preceded it, were not flashes in the pan; the truth is that Cohen had truly returned to greatness after a dark decade (74-83). The tone of the album is nonetheless relaxed and sometimes even happy, although we cannot help but notice the apocalyptic end-of-millennium vibes of the lyrics. When asked to comment on the 9/11 attacks, Cohen simply referred the interviewer to the lyrics of three of his songs: "The Future", "Anthem" and "Closing Time". There isn't space here to provide translations of these lyrics, but I highly recommend reading them.
The entire album is suffused with an atmosphere of sinister premonitions and the end of something ("Closing Time", indeed, closing time). Evidently, Cohen observed things deeply, managing to perceive what was in the air better than the intelligence services...
Within this very inspired album, we find refined and adult pop that is somewhat dark. But as we know, the word Pop has very little to do with Cohen; you have to let yourself be carried away by the emotions and nothing more.
The first song in this collection is also the one that gives it its name. The Future is a virile pop-rock tune with Cohen's hoarse shouter voice, a bit macho and glossy (intentional, not an end in itself).
"There’ll be the breaking of the ancient Western code / Your private life will suddenly explode / There’ll be phantoms / there’ll be fires on the road
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 The Future (06:43)
Give me back my broken night,
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here, there's no one left to torture.
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby, that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole in your culture.
Give me back the Berlin Wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother: it is murder.
''(chorus)
Things are going to slide,
slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it's overturned the order of the soul.
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant…''
You don't know me from the wind
You never will. You never did.
I'm the little jew, who wrote the bible.
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all,
but love's the only engine of survival.
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it aint' goin' any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the Devil's riding crop
get ready for the future, it is murder.
''(Chorus)''
There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code
Your private life will suddenly explode!
There'll be phantoms, there'll be fires on the road.
And a white man dancing
You'll see a woman hanging upsidedown
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets come around
Tryin' to sound like, Charlie Manson
And the white man dancing.
Give me back the Berlin Wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby, it is murder.
''(Chorus)''
02 Waiting for the Miracle (07:43)
Baby, I've been waiting,
I've been waiting
Night and day
I didn't see the time,
I waited half my life away
There were lots of invitations
And I know you sent me some,
But I was waiting
For the miracle,
For the miracle to come
I know you really loved me
but, you see,
my hands were tied
I know it must have hurt you,
it must have hurt your pride
to have to stand
beneath my window
with your bugle
and your drum,
and me I'm up there waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come
Ah I don't believe you'd like it,
You wouldn't like it here
There ain't no entertainment
and the judgements are severe
The Maestro says it's Mozart
but it sounds like bubble gum
when you're waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come
Waiting for the miracle
There's nothing left to do
I haven't been this happy
since the end of World War II
Nothing left to do
when you know
that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
when you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
when you've got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come
I dreamed about you, baby
It was just the other night
Most of you was naked
Ah but some of you was light
The sands of time were falling
from your fingers and your thumb,
and you were waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come
Ah baby, let's get married,
We've been alone too long
Let's be alone together
Let's see if we're that strong
Yeah let's do something crazy,
Something absolutely wrong
While we're waiting
For the miracle,
for the miracle to come
Nothing left to do ...
When you've fallen
on the highway
and you're lying
in the rain,
and they ask you
how you're doing
of course you'll say
you can't complain --
If you're squeezed
for information,
that's when you've got to
play it dumb:
You just say
you're out there waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come
Ah baby, let's get married,
We've been alone too long...
03 Be for Real (04:32)
Are you back in my life to stay
Or is it just for today
Oh that you're gonna need me?
If it's a thrill you're looking for
Honey, I'm flexible. Oh, yeah.
Just be for real won't you, Baby
Be for real oh, Baby
You see I, I don't want to be hurt by love again
So you see I'm not naive.
I just would like to believe
Ah what you tell me.
So don't give me the world today
And tomorrow take it away.
Don't do that to me, darling.
Just be for real won't you, Baby
Be for real won't you, Baby
Been hurt so many times see I, I don't want to be hurt by love again.
(I don't give a damn about the truth, Baby
Except for the naked truth. Oh yeah)
Just be for real won't you, Baby
Be for real won't you, Baby
No, no, no, no
It's just that I, I don't want to be hurt by love again.
Thanks for the song Mr. Knight.
04 Closing Time (06:00)
Ah we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
all the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME
Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME
Ah we're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
and I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but CLOSING TIME
I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
CLOSING TIME
I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME
Yeah I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME
Yeah we're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight
and I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME
The whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME
Oh the women tear their blouses off the men they dance on the polka-dots
It's CLOSING TIME
And it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It's CLOSING TIME
I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
It's CLOSING TIME
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
But CLOSING TIME
I loved you when our love was blessed
I love you now there's nothing left
But CLOSING TIME
I miss you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex.
05 Anthem (06:09)
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Ah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see
I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
A thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
You can add up the parts
But you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart, every heart
To love will come
But like a refugee
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in
06 Democracy (07:14)
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on ...
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
08 Always (08:04)
(By Irving Berlin)
(Oh friends, ... don't matter if you're a man or a woman.
If you're in love with somebody,
these are the words that you got to learn to say.
Now listen carefully. Here it comes...)
I'll be loving you always
with a love that's true, always
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will understand, always, always
Days may not be fair, always
Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year, but always.
I said that I'll be loving you, always
with a love that's true, always.
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will, I will understand, always, always
(Oh that's pretty ... that's pretty too ... Oh darling)
The days may not be fair, always
Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always
Not for just a second, or a minute, or an hour,
Not for just a weekend and a shake down in the shower,
Not for just the summer and the winter going sour,
But always, always, always
(Ok if you don't want to quit, let's try it one more time)
I'll be loving you, always
with a love that's true, always.
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will understand, I will, I will understand, always, always
The days may not be fair, always
(Don't worry, baby)
That's when I'll be there, always
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year, but always.
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