“I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.”

I’m often reminded of how varied people’s exposure to music can be. Twenty years is an eternity in the music industry. Those same years make a gap in musical generations that most people don’t bother to cross.

I don’t follow what I refer to as ‘pop culture”, so I don’t really know who most of the artists are on Billboard’s Top 40. I figure that ten years from now most people won’t remember most of those artists either, so it’s easier for me not to bother in the first place.

There are countless numbers of people who aren’t familiar with Leonard Cohen. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Lou Reed has described Cohen as belonging to the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters”. I won’t even bother to delve into who Lou Reed is, for those of you who might be at a loss.

On February 19, 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in fifteen years at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. He’s 75 years old now, and continues to write and perform wonderful music. Here is Democracy. Truly great music never goes out of style.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHI9BTpGkp8

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.

1 comment

    • khan on 2009/12/27 at 00:05
    • Reply

    I was just thinking of Leonard Cohen:
    “I told you when I came I was a stranger”

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