The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87923   Message #1645547
Posted By: Genie
10-Jan-06 - 06:57 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Democracy Is Coming to the USA (L. Cohen)
Subject: Lyr Add: Democracy Is Coming To The USA
I wasn't familiar with this song, but I've been hearing it as bumper music on Thom Hartmann's talk radio show at www.airamericaradio.com and I immediately fell in love with the song ) as I have with some other Leonard Cohen songs).

I couldn't find it in a DT/Forum search, so here goes.
Maybe someone can post the chords or a MIDI.

Genie


Democracy Is Coming To The USA

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 God 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.