OLD IDEAS

January 2012

From our master singer-songwriter, here are ten new songs that mine the heart, shake the body, and break the boundaries as everybody knows only Leonard Cohen can do. A signature of our time, Leonard's baritone holds us like the voices of Hank, Frank, and Ray. These are songs that nobody knows and everyone will treasure.

The album by Leonard Cohen was produced with Patrick Leonard, Anjani Thomas, Ed Sanders and Dino Soldo. Complementing Cohen's signature baritone on Old Ideas are the exceptional vocalists Dana Glover, Sharon Robinson, The Webb Sisters (Hattie and Charley Webb) and Jennifer Warnes. The album's cover design and drawings are Cohen's own.

Old Ideas is Cohen's twelfth studio album with Columbia Records since 1967.

Tracks:

1. Going Home 3:10
2. Amen 7:39
3. Show Me The Place 4:08
4. Darkness 4:30
5. Anyhow 3:09
6. Crazy to Love You 3:08
7. Come Healing 2:53
8. Banjo 3:26
9. Lullaby 4:48
10. Different Sides 4:10


Going Home
I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

But he does say what I tell him
Even though it isn’t welcome
He just doesn’t have the freedom
To refuse

He will speak these words of wisdom
Like a sage, a man of vision
Though he knows he’s really nothing
But the brief elaboration of a tube

Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain

Going home
Without the costume
That I wore

He wants to write a love song
An anthem of forgiving
A manual for living with defeat

A cry above the suffering
A sacrifice recovering
But that isn’t what I need him
to complete

I want to make him certain
That he doesn’t have a burden
That he doesn’t need a vision
That he only has permission

To do my instant bidding
Which is to SAY what I have told him
To repeat

Going home…

I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

Lyrics by Leonard Cohen
Music written, produced, arranged, engineered, programmed and performed by Patrick Leonard
Additional engineering: Jesse String
Violin: Bela Santelli
Women's parts arranged and sang by Dana Glover


Amen
Tell me again
When I’ve been to the river
And I’ve taken the edge off my thirst
Tell me again
We’re alone & I’m listening
I’m listening so hard that it hurts
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me you want me then
Amen

Tell me again
When the victims are singing
And Laws of Remorse are restored
Tell me again
That you know what I’m thinking
But vengeance belongs to the lord
Tell me again…

Tell me again
When the day has been ransomed
& night has no right to begin
Try me again
When the angels are panting
And scratching the door to come in
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again…

Tell me again
When the filth of the butcher
Is washed in the blood of the lamb
Tell me again
When the rest of the culture
Has passed thru’ the Eye of the Camp
Tell me again…

Words & music by Leonard Cohen
Produced and engineered by Ed Sanders
Basic tracks arranged, programmed and played by Leonard Cohen
Guitar: Leonard Cohen
Women's parts arranged and sang by Sharon Robinson
Synth bass: Sharon Robinson
Violin: Robert Korda (OBM)
Drums: Chris Wabich
Guitar: Jordan Charnofsky




Show Me The Place
Show me the place
Where you want your slave to go
Show me the place
I’ve forgotten, I don’t know
Show me the place
For my head is bending low
Show me the place
Where you want your slave to go

Show me the place
Help me roll away the stone
Show me the place
I can’t move this thing alone
Show me the place
Where the Word became a man
Show me the place
Where the suffering began

The troubles came
I saved what I could save
A thread of light
A particle a wave
But there were chains
So I hastened to behave
There were chains
So I loved you like a slave

Show me the place
Where you want your slave to go
Show me the place
I’ve forgotten, I don’t know

Lyrics by Leonard Cohen
Music written, produced, arranged, engineered, programmed and performed by Patrick Leonard
Additional engineering: Jesse String
Violin: Bela Santelli
Women's parts arranged and sang by Jennifer Warnes


The Darkness
I caught the darkness
Drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness
Drinking from your cup
I said: Is this contagious?
You said: Just drink it up

I got no future
I know my days are few
The present’s not that pleasant
Just a lot of things to do
I thought the past would last me
But the darkness got that too

I should have seen it coming
It was right behind your eyes
You were young and it was summer
I just had to take a dive
Winning you was easy
But darkness was the prize

I don’t smoke no cigarette
I don’t drink no alcohol
I ain’t had much loving yet
But that’s always been your call
Hey I don’t miss it baby
I got no taste for anything at all

I used to love the rainbow
I used to love the view
I loved the early morning
I’d pretend that it was new
But I caught the darkness baby
And I got it worse than you
I caught the darkness…

The Unified Heart Touring Band performed Darkness:
Roscoe Beck (musical director): bass
Javier Mas: archilaud Bob Metzger: guitars
Dino Soldo: horns
Rafael Bernardo Gayol: drums
Neil Larsen: keyboards
Sharon Robinson and Hattie and Charley Webb, the Webb Sisters: vocals
Leonard Cohen: guitar and vocals
Mark Vreeken, Leanne Ungar: engineers
Women's parts arranged and sang by Sharon Robinson (with the Webb Sisters)
Anyhow
It’s a shame and it’s a pity
The way you treat me now
I know you can’t forgive me
But forgive me anyhow
The ending got so ugly
I even heard you say
You never ever loved me
Oh but love me anyway

Dreamed about you baby
You were wearing half your dress
I know you have to hate me
But could you hate me less?

I used up all my chances
And you’ll never take me back
But there ain’t no harm in asking
Could you cut me one more slack?
I’m naked and I’m filthy
And there’s sweat upon my brow
And both of us are guilty
Anyhow

Have mercy on me baby
After all I did confess
Even though you have to hate me
Could you hate me less?

It’s a shame and it’s a pity
I know you can’t forgive me
The ending got so ugly
You never ever loved me
Dreamed about you baby
I know you have to hate me
I’m naked and I’m filthy
And both of us are guilty
Anyhow
Have mercy on me baby

Lyrics by Leonard Cohen
Music written, produced, arranged, engineered, programmed and performed by Patrick Leonard
Additional engineering: Jesse String
Women's parts arranged and sang by Dana Glover
Crazy To Love You
Had to go crazy to love you
Had to go down to the pit
Had to do time in the tower
Begging my crazy to quit

Had to go crazy to love you
You who were never the one
Whom I chased through the souvenir heartache
Her braids and her blouse all undone

Sometimes I’d head for the highway
I’m old and the mirrors don’t lie
But crazy has places to hide in
Deeper than saying goodbye

Had to go crazy to love you
Had to let everything fall
Had to be people I hated
Had to be no one at all

I’m tired of choosing desire
Been saved by a sweet fatigue
The gates of commitment unwired
And nobody trying to leave

Sometimes I’d head for the highway…

Had to go crazy to love you
You who were never the one
Whom I chased through the souvenir heartache
Her braids and her blouse all undone

Lyrics by Leonard Cohen
Music by Anjani Thomas
Produced by Anjani Thomas
Engineered by Ed Sanders
Guitar by Leonard Cohen
Come Healing
O gather up the brokenness
And bring it to me now
The fragrance of those promises
You never dared to vow

The splinters that you carry
The cross you left behind
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
The cruelty or the grace

O solitude of longing
Where love has been confined
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

O see the darkness yielding
That tore the light apart
Come healing of the reason
Come healing of the heart

O troubled dust concealing
An undivided love
The Heart beneath is teaching
To the broken Heart above

O let the heavens falter
And let the earth proclaim:
Come healing of the Altar
Come healing of the Name

O longing of the branches
To lift the little bud
O longing of the arteries
To purify the blood

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

O let the heavens hear it

Lyrics by Leonard Cohen
Music written, produced, arranged, engineered, programmed and performed by Patrick Leonard
Additional engineering: Jesse String
Violin: Bela Santelli
Women's parts arranged and sang by Dana Glover
Banjo
There’s something that I’m watching
Means a lot to me
It’s a broken banjo bobbing
On the dark infested sea

Don’t know how it got there
Maybe taken by the wave
Off of someone’s shoulder
Or out of someone’s grave

It’s coming for me darling
No matter where I go
Its duty is to harm me
My duty is to know

There’s something that I’m watching
Means a lot to me
It’s a broken banjo bobbing
On the dark infested sea

Words and music by Leonard Cohen
Produced and engineered by Dino Soldo
All instruments played by Dino Soldo
Cornet: Neil Larsen
Women's parts arranged and sang by Sharon Robinson
Lullaby
Sleep baby sleep
The day’s on the run
The wind in the trees
Is talking in tongues

If your heart is torn
I don’t wonder why
If the night is long
Here’s my lullaby

Well the mouse ate the crumb
Then the cat ate the crust
Now they’ve fallen in love
They’re talking in tongues

If your heart is torn…

Sleep baby sleep
There’s a morning to come
The wind in the trees
they’re talking in tongues

If your heart is torn
I don’t wonder why
If the night is long
Here’s my lullaby

Words and music by Leonard Cohen
Produced and engineered by Ed Sanders
Basic tracks arranged, programmed and played by Leonard Cohen
Guitars: Leonard Cohen, Ed Sanders
Synth bass: Sharon Robinson
Men's choral parts arranged and sang by Ed Sanders
Women's parts arranged and sang by Sharon Robinson
Different Sides
We find ourselves on different sides
Of a line that nobody drew
Though it all may be one in the higher eye
Down here where we live it is two

I to my side call the meek and the mild
You to your side call the Word
By virtue of suffering I claim to have won
You claim to have never been heard

Both of us say there are laws to obey
But frankly I don’t like your tone
You want to change the way I make love
I want to leave it alone (I want to leave it…)

The pull of the moon the thrust of the sun
And thus the ocean is crossed
The waters are blessed while a shadowy guest
Kindles a light for the lost

Both of us say there are laws to obey…

Down in the valley the famine goes on
The famine up on the hill
I say that you shouldn’t you couldn’t you can’t
You say that you must and you will

Both of us say there are laws to obey…

You want to live where the suffering is
I want to get out of town
C’mon baby give me a kiss
Stop writing everything down

Both of us say there are laws to obey
But frankly I don’t like your tone
You want to change the way I make love
I want to leave it alone

Both of us say there are laws to obey

Words and music by Leonard Cohen
Produced and engineered by Ed Sanders
Basic tracks arranged, programmed and played by Leonard Cohen
Hammond B3, piano, synth bass and percussion: Neil Larsen
Women's parts arranged and sang by Dana Glover


The album is discussed here on the Forum - thousands of comments and details
Marie's Old Ideas Media Report is here.
Old Ideas page also here, hosted by Roman Gavrilin.


The lithography of the special edition



Listen to the song Darkness



Watch the lyric video of the song Show Me the Place. The director/animator of the video is Aaron Hymes.
A song by Leonard Cohen/Patrick Leonard.
Vocals Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes.
Bela Santelli on violin. Music arranged
and performed by Patrick Leonard.

Listen to the song Going Home




[PREV PAGE] [NEXT PAGE] [INDEX PAGE] [SUB INDEX PAGE]