I've Never Cared for Leonard Cohen Until

Joan of Arc by Leonard Cohen

Now the flames they followed joan of arc

As she came riding through the dark;

No moon to keep her armour bright,

No man to get her through this very smoky night.

She said, I’m tired of the war,

I want the kind of work I had before,

A wedding dress or something white

To wear upon my swollen appetite.

Well, I’m glad to hear you talk this way,

You know I’ve watched you riding every day

And something in me yearns to win

Such a cold and lonesome heroine.

And who are you? she sternly spoke

To the one beneath the smoke

.Why, I’m fire, he replied,

And I love your solitude, I love your pride.

Then fire, make your body cold,

I’m going to give you mine to hold,

Saying this she climbed inside

To be his one, to be his only bride.

And deep into his fiery heart

He took the dust of joan of arc,

And high above the wedding guests

He hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart

He took the dust of joan of arc,

And then she clearly understood

If he was fire, oh then she must be wood

.I saw her wince, I saw her cry,

I saw the glory in her eye.

Myself I long for love and light,

But must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

I must admit that I've never cared for Leonard Cohen.

I always felt that his songs went on & on & on, rather like my own blog posts.

The main reason why I've never cared for Leonard is because I never bother listening to the words of a song.

I just like listening to the music.

Except of course when it comes to Barry Manilow.

Who on God's earth can ignore Barry's heartfelt entreaties -

'Baby...take Me/ High upon a hill top/ Up where the stallions meet the sky'.

I swear I did not make this up.

But Leonard & his songs are in a whole other universe that I don't inhabit.

If Leonard & I were Venn Diagrams, there would be no point of intersection.

Until now.

After reading my blog post about Joan of Arc, My Best Friend (MBF from now on), Marge told me to listen to Leonard's song about Joan.

I did as I was told.

Even though the song was about Joan being burnt to a crisp, which I specifically said that I was airbrushing out, I loved it.

I hope you do too.

Oh, I'm posting this entry under Top 10000 Victim Tunes. But I'm not sure if that's an accurate label. After all, from my reading, Joan does enter into a dialogue with Fire asking him to be cold.

And although she did cry, there was glory in her eye