Democracy by Leonard Cohen

on the following CD:

THE FUTURE



 
4/4   march


   /C                F           /C              /C            G      /C
It's coming through a hole in the air, from those nights in Ti-ananmen Square.
    /F                             /Bb            F   
It's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real,
       /C                    G    /C              /E      Am       E
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there. From the wars against disorder,
        /Am     E7        Am           /E     Am     E
from the sirens night and day, from the fires of the homeless,
        /Am    E7         Am    /G                      /F      /C     Fm
from the ashes of the gay:    De-mocracy 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 prayfor the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

C           /G       /F     /C            /C   
     Sail on, sail on     O  mighty Ship of State!
      /G                      /F 
To the Shores of Need Past the Reefs of Greed
           /C               /C             /Dm    /G       /F       /C   /C
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.


Sail on, sail on ...

Unused vers:
It ain't comin' to us European-style,
Concentration camp behind the smile;
It ain't comin' from the east
With its temporary feast
As Count Dracula comes strolling down the aisle.

"Democracy" is one of Leonard's most ambitious songs, nothing less than an attempt at a new national anthem; Neil Diamond meets de Touqueville. Coming on the heels of a presidential campaign where the issues are astoundingly trivialized by the media, this is the real stuff, the CNN of the soul: "It's coming through a hole in the air; from those nights in Tiananmen Square: 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."

If Democracy is the New Covenant, it becomes possible here: "It's coming to America first/ the cradle of the best and of the worst... 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."

Over a military march beat and propelled by stunning background vocals from Jennifer Warnes and Julie Christensen, Leonard delivers a chorus that is positively Whitmanseque: "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..."