From: pisces@cs.mcgill.ca (L. M. P. McPherson)
Subject: Uranus and Neptune and "The Future"
Organization: McGill University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 22:36:37 GMT

Leonard Cohen's new CD, entitled "The Future," strikes me as a
tribute to the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune. Not that he is
an astrologer, but as I recall he has the Sun conjunct Neptune,
and, like many poets, he has a very sensitive nature. As such, he
can surely detect the currents we associate with celestial
events.

I reproduce below the lyrics for three of the songs on the CD.
They read much like poetry (but their rhythm makes more sense
when you hear the music). Enjoy.


ANTHEM

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.

The wars, they will be fought again;
The holy dove, be caught again;
bought and sold, and bought again;
the dove is never free.

(Chorus:)
Rings the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is 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;
the widowhood of every government --
signs for all to see.

Can't run no more with the lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned up a mighty thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

(Chorus)

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
to love will come,
but like a refugee.

(Chorus)


DEMOCRACY

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that it 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 on 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 G-d in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

(Chorus:)
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...

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
that 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.

(Chorus)

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.


THE FUTURE

(Written partly from the perspective of a tyrant who cannot
stomach the changes in the world.)

Give me back my broken night,
my secret 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 in all directions.
Won't be nothing,
nothing you can measure anymore.
The blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul.
When they said "Repent!"
I wonder what they meant?
When they said "Repent!"
I wonder what they meant?
When they said "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 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 ain't going 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 the white man dancing.
You'll see the woman
hanging upside down,
her features covered by her fallen gown,
and all the lousy little poets coming round
trying to sound like Charlie Manson.

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)