SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: The Future by Leonard Cohen

Thursday 17 June 2021

The Future by Leonard Cohen

ED Noor: Once again, my father was right back in 1963 when he opined on the writings of Leonard Cohen, considered one of Canada's finest cultural voices. The issue at hand was Beautiful Losers, a blasphemous novel by Cohen that I was found reading in my attic bedroom.

An innocent Catholic girl at the time (Oh, those were the days!), I was reading about things he disapproved of ~ the meaning of the word "faggot" in modern terminology for example.

The most sacrilegious part my Irish Catholic father took offense with was the line, "I want to f##k St. Kateri Tekawitha." (aka Lily of the Mohawks). The book was taken away from this extremely liberal, silly, teenage girl. But Daddy was right. In retrospect, I began to understand and appreciate his values, but only after years of rebellion!

Over the years I found some of his tunes quite wonderful, the man wrote some of the anthems of our age after all. But I also knew, despite his being a Canadian "treasure", his contributions to literature carried (((the usual germ of disdain))) and, as Dad had seen, a deep core of corruption that taints so much work by (((these folks))). Insidious. Read the words below. I dare you to disagree.

A few weeks ago, I found this song, not new, by Cohen. The words are the absolute truth of (((his people))) and their intentions toward the rest of us.

The tune is haunting. The words prophetic. If you scroll down to the quotes lower on this page, you will find the truths of this song of dire predictions in the words of his tribe.

Leonard Cohen

Give me back my broken night
My mirrored 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

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing (won't be nothing)
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it's overturned
The order of the soul

When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (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 the 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 (do, do, do)
And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future
It is murder (do, do, do)

Things are going to slide
Slide in all directions
Won't be nothing (won't be)
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it's overturned
The order of the soul

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
Western code
Your private life will suddenly explode (ooh, ooh)
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
And the white man dancing

You'll see a woman
Hanging upside down (ooh, ooh)
Her features covered by her fallen gown (ooh, ooh)
And all the lousy little poets
Coming round
Tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
Yeah, the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima (do, do, do)
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby
It is murder (do, do, do)

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing (won't be)
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it's overturned
The order of the soul