"First We Take Manhattan...Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A."
The Leonard Cohen concert at the Olympia in Paris last night was better than I could have imagined it to be...and it made so much more sense as I listened to every single word of his lyrics. He spoke about the financial crisis and what was going on in the world several times between songs....and two of them seemed to be especially prescient.
His deep deep battered voice of suffering sang out,
"First We Take Manhattan"
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
And towards the end of the concert, Cohen had everyone calling for more as he sang "Democracy". Every time he sang the words, "And Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A.", people started clapping and cheering. As an Expat in the mostly French audience, I had tears in my eyes...we ARE Democracy.
"Democracy"
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.
It was as if he were singing for all of us, everywhere...Thank you Leonard!
Follow Vivian Norris de Montaigu on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vivigive
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There is a new fire beginning to burn across the country...
He did indeed take Berlin...l
By the way, Obama was greeted by 250,000 in Berlin on his way to take Manhattan. It is indeed a beautiful song.
It's funny, but I thought of that Leonard Cohen song as soon as Obama won. But then I am a Leonard Cohen fan and familiar with the lyrics to that song.
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