Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen

19 Aug 00 - 11:23 PM (#280988)
Subject: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,CBJames

"As they poured across the border I was cautioned to surrender This I could not do"

This was on his first or second album. Does not appear in any of the anthologies I have managed to find.

Memory indicates part of the lyric was in French.

Anybody else remember this one? I would love to have the full words.

jb.

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19 Aug 00 - 11:44 PM (#281003)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Pene Azul

You can get the lyrics to "The Partisan" here (click).

PA

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19 Aug 00 - 11:51 PM (#281007)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,CBJames

Pene

Thanks!

jb

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20 Aug 00 - 12:19 AM (#281023)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: rangeroger

No wonder I couldn't find it in my Leonard Cohen songbook, he didn't write it.

Another good Leonard Cohen site is Leonard Cohen rr

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26 Jun 02 - 11:22 AM (#737378)
Subject: Lyr Add: A PARTISAN (sung by Leonard Cohen)
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

Pene's link from 2000 is no longer active so here are the lryics:

A PARTISAN
(from the album 'SONGS FROM A ROOM')


When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,
I've lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.

Les Allemands e'taient chez moi,
ils me dirent, "Signe toi,"
mais je n'ai pas peur;
j'ai repris mon arme.
J'ai change' cent fois de nom,
j'ai perdu femme et enfants
mais j'ai tant d'amis;
j'ai la France entie`re.
Un vieil homme dans un grenier
pour la nuit nous a cache',
les Allemands l'ont pris;
il est mort sans surprise.

[The Germans were at my home
They said, "Sign yourself,"
But I am not afraid
I have retaken my weapon.
I have changed names a hundred times
I have lost wife and children
But I have so many friends
I have all of France
An old man, in an attic
Hid us for the night
The Germans captured him
He died without surprise.]

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.


by Anna Marly and Hy Zaret, MCA Music (ASCAP), A division of MCA Inc.

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26 Jun 02 - 11:28 AM (#737382)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Mrrzy

Woof - nice one! And thanks for the finding where the link used to go...

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26 Jun 02 - 11:31 AM (#737390)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,JTT

Supposed to be about Mao. With the later revelations about Mao's mistresses and fat-cat-cap lifestyle, makes funny reading.

I like the one on the same album that starts:

A bunch of lonesome and very quarrelsome heroes/WEre smoking out along the open road...

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26 Jun 02 - 11:38 AM (#737398)
Subject: Lyr Add: COMPLAINTE DU PARTISAN (de La Vigerie)
From: Wolfgang

Perhaps for this beautiful song the original lyrics and the name of the author should be posted too. Note especially that 'mais je n'ai pas peur' (I am not afraid) in Bill's version has to be corrected to 'mais je n'ai pas pu' (I couldn't).

COMPLAINTE DU PARTISAN
(written by Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie, 1943 in London)

Les Allemands étaient chez moi
On m'a dit résigne toi
Mais je n'ai pas pu
Et j'ai repris mon arme.

Personne ne m'a demandé
D'où je viens et où je vais
Vous qui le savez
Effacez mon passage.

J'ai changé cent fois de nom
J'ai perdu femme et enfants
Mais j'ai tant d'amis
Et j'ai la France entière.

Un vieil homme dans un grenier
Pour la nuit nous a cachés
L¹ennemi l'a su (Les Allemands l'ont pris)
Il est mort sans surprise.

Hier encore nous étions trois
Il ne reste plus que moi
Et je tourne en rond
Dans la prison des frontières.

Le vent souffle sur les tombes
La liberté reviendra
On nous oubliera
Nous rentrerons dans l'ombre

copied and adapted from Song of the French partisan

Wolfgang

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26 Jun 02 - 11:41 AM (#737403)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Wolfgang

I forgot: tune by Anna Marly

Wolfgang

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26 Jun 02 - 11:48 AM (#737409)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Wolfgang

It was never a song about Mao.

Wolfgang

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26 Jun 02 - 01:04 PM (#737483)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Mrrzy

Wolfgang, are you sure of the title? I thought Complainte du Partisan was the one Goerges Moustaki sings about Nous sommes deux, nous sommes trois, nous sommes mille vingt et trois, avec le temps avec la pluie, avec le sang qui a seché...

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26 Jun 02 - 01:13 PM (#737488)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Wolfgang

I'm not sure, Mrrzy, I copied it as I found it. The song by Moustaki, however, I only know by its first words: "Nous sommes deux.."

Wolfgang

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26 Jun 02 - 01:19 PM (#737492)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

thanks for the link Wolfgang, and the correction

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26 Jun 02 - 01:43 PM (#737519)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Wolfgang

The information and the audios on that link are really great (I only read it after posting the lyrics), but I'm not completely confident that the lyrics are correct. After all, mais je n'ai pas peur that Bill has makes sense as well. The line il est mort sans surprise I have in memory as il est mort sans soupire which makes more sense to me.

Wolfgang

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26 Jun 02 - 02:04 PM (#737537)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

for those of you who can't read through the entire link, and more importantly due to the inevitability of the link disappearing someday, (which they all may, which means to me that useful as they are, some 'hard' copy of info from the links should be added to the threads, not just a series of 'click here' s that might not have much web life) I mention this here: Hy Zaret, who did the English verses, apparently heard the song on the radio, and copyrighted it in England, rightly creditting Anna Marly for the music. He may not have heard the name of the original lyricist. The copyright in my posting of the leonard Cohen version is correct as far as it goes, but Wolfgang is correct in giving the name of 'Bernard', the partisan Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie as the original songwriter. Other versions mentioned are by Joan Baez, Buffy S. Marie, Isabelle Aubret, Esther Ofarim, Anna Prucnal, all of whom it seems changed something, omitted or added a stanza, altered a phrase, etc.

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26 Jun 02 - 05:04 PM (#737676)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar

Mrzzy,

I wouldn't know where to look for the words to confirm this, but I suspect that the song sung by Moustaki which you're referring to is 'Le chant des partisans', also sung by Yves Montand.

I always used to wonder about the fact that the Cohen song made sense. Now that I know he didn't write it, that figures ;o)

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26 Jun 02 - 07:14 PM (#737781)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: firínne

On Leonard Cohen's L.P., he only says he learned the song from a friend when he was 15 yrs old, he doesn't mention who wrote it. Never heard of it being about Mao!! I always assumed it was about the French Resistance.

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26 Jun 02 - 07:27 PM (#737789)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Lanfranc

If it's not the Irish misattributing songs, it's the Chinese, it seems! (JTT = Jing Tse Tung ?? )

As Wolfgang says, this song has sod all to do with Chairman Mao, OK!

Thanks for the additional info, folks.

Alan

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27 Jun 02 - 04:57 AM (#738001)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: fogie

Please could somebody get me the lyrics of Bernadette, as sung on Jenifer Warnes Famous blue raincoat- I cant see the lyrics on the otherwise excellent L.C. site

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27 Jun 02 - 05:24 AM (#738007)
Subject: Lyr Add: BERNADETTE (Leonard Cohen)
From: Watson

I don't think Leonard Cohen has recorded it himself which may be why you can't find it.

There was a child named Bernadette
I heard the story long ago
She saw the Queen of Heaven once
And kept the vision in her soul
No one believed what she had seen
No one believed what she heard
That there were sorrows to be healed
And mercy, mercy in this world

So many hearts I find
Broke like yours and mine
Torn by what we've done and can't undo
I just want to hold you
Won't you let me hold you
Like Bernadette would do

We've been around, we fall, we fly
We mostly fall, we mostly run
And every now and then we try
To mend the damage that we've done
Tonight, tonight I cannot rest
I've got this joy inside my breast
To think that I did not forget
That child, that song of Bernadette

So many hearts I find ...

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27 Jun 02 - 09:12 AM (#738093)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: fogie

Thank you ever so much Watson, now I'll have to remember how the blessed song goes , I really thought I knew but it's gone from my memory, Is there a way of hearing it? I'll go see if theres a J.W. site.

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28 Jun 02 - 04:02 AM (#738718)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: fogie

There is a J.W. site and there's music to hear but not from F.B.R. If anyone could abc it for me I'd be eternally grateful.

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28 Jun 02 - 11:22 AM (#738873)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Grab

On the LC words to the first verse of the French version, I seem to remember that the "Best of LC" CD has the line

Ils me dit "resignez-toi"

which is very ungrammatical French.

Graham.

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24 Feb 03 - 05:24 PM (#897689)
Subject: Lyr Add: SUZANNE (Leonard Cohen)
From: GUEST,Q

Lyrics to Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," Judy Collins version in the DT, is incomplete and some words are changed, shifting the intent of the original. Here is the correct version.

Lyr. Add: SUZANNE

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the bots go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half-crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover-

And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor
When He walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when He knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But He himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone-

And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For He's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours like honey
On Our Lady of the Harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowerws
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror-

And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.

Leonard Cohen.
Our Lady of the Harbour is a reference to the Montreal church near the waterfront, once frequented by sailors (still the case?). Its silver-painted Mary looks seaward.
The lines separated off as "chorus" in the DT revision are really integral parts of the preceding verses. They are separated here to make the written text more visible.

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25 Feb 03 - 12:25 AM (#897983)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Mark Cohen

Thanks, Q, I've always preferred the original to Judy Collins' minor but significant emendations. But I didn't realize how prescient ol' Leonard must have been about the cyber world, when he talked about seeing the bots go by! (Oof! Sorry, I don't generally poke fun at people's typos, especially not helpful guests, but I just couldn't resist this one.)

Aloha,
Mark (no relation)

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28 Apr 03 - 09:53 AM (#941859)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: voyager

Drving to work.....
Listening to NINA SIMONE singing SUZANNE
Very rich singing of this somewhat mysterious song...
Made me wonder....

ALLEGORY and FOLK MUSIC has this thread been beaten
to death on MUDCAT. Stories within stories, songs
within songs....

For example - "she feeds you tea and oranges that come
all the way from China".....does this image hang on some
other story....

Anyways....Monday morning is a good time to go fishing
for threads.

voyager

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28 Apr 03 - 10:17 AM (#941878)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Leo Condie

I'm sure it does, voyager - Lenny is no slouch. Very well read man and unlike most songwriters, definitely a poet first and a musician second. In fact he WAS a poet first, for 15 years before he bothered to release a record.

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28 Apr 03 - 11:24 PM (#942460)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: sharyn

In an interview in Songwriters on Songwriting, Cohen was asked whether Suzanne Villancout fed him tea and oranges and he said, "She fed me a tea called Constant Comment, which has small pieces of orange rind in it, which gave birth to the image."

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29 Apr 03 - 02:15 AM (#942523)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Mark Cohen

But when my first girlfriend came to visit me at college in 1970, she brought me tea and oranges that came all the way from Boston! And she definitely had the song in mind. Her name was Susan, though, not Suzanne. Oh, well...

Aloha,
Leonard Mark

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08 May 03 - 02:03 PM (#948775)
Subject: Lyr Add: DE VLUCHTELING (Dutch 'The Partisan')
From: Letty

Having just heard this song on Remembrance Day in the Netherlands,
here is a Dutch translation of Leonard Cohen's The Partisan, as
sung by Herman van Veen (I don't know if he wrote the translation himself):

DE VLUCHTELING

Toen de vijand is gekomen
als dieven in het donker
werd mijn land vertrapt
en liet ik alles achter

Ik ben mijn naam vergeten
heb vrouw en kind verloren
maar ik ben niet alleen
de bergen zijn mijn vrienden

Hoor de wind, de wind die fluistert
en belooft als je goed luistert
dat er vrede komt
misschien vandaag of morgen

Een boerin heeft mij verborgen
onder kolen in de kelder
toen de vijand kwam
ze stierf zonder iets te zeggen

Voor wie vlucht is elke schaduw
een soldaat of een verrader
en er is steeds de angst
die je nooit alleen laat

Hoor de wind, de wind die fluistert
en belooft als je goed luistert
dat er vrede komt
misschien vandaag of morgen

Nu de aarde is besmeurd
en de hemel wordt verscheurd
door geschreeuw om hulp
is het leven zinloos

En in Warschau of in Praag
1940 of vandaag
er is geen verschil
voor wie op de vlucht is

Hoor de wind, de wind die fluistert
en belooft als je goed luistert
dat er vrede komt
misschien vandaag of morgen


Translating back to:

THE REFUGEE

When the enemy came
like thieves in the dark
my land was trampled
and I left everything behind

I forgot my name
lost my wife and child
but I am not alone
the mountains are my friends

Hear, the wind, the wind it whispers
and promises if you listen well
that there will be peace
perhaps today or tomorrow

A farmer's wife hid me
under coals in the cellar
when the enemy came
she died without saying a word

To someone who flees, every shadow
is a soldier or a traitor
and there is always the fear
that will never leave you alone

Hear, the wind, the wind it whispers
and promises if you listen well
that there will be peace
perhaps today or tomorrow

Now that the earth has been tainted
and the heavens torn apart
by cries for help
life is meaningless

And in Warsaw or in Prague
in 1940 or today
there is no difference
to someone who is fleeing

Hear, the wind, the wind it whispers
and promises if you listen well
that there will be peace
perhaps today or tomorrow

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08 May 03 - 02:32 PM (#948803)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,Q

Thanks for the explanation of tea and oranges, sharyn.
I had assumed that he was referring to the mandarin oranges from Japan and China (and lately Korea), which we, here in Canada, look for eagerly when the snow starts to fall. Christmas isn't Christmas without them.

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01 Apr 06 - 11:02 PM (#1708605)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: open mike

Correction to the Leonard Cohen song
SUZANNE

the lyrics posted on 24 feb 03
are more complete for SUZANNE

they contain this line
"She is wearing rags and feathers from
from Salvation Army counters"

instead of repeating the line about hearing
the boats going by and spending the night....

can a clone correct this in the D.T.
i think hte rags and feathers line is

in the third verse....

and i see a comment here that the
song suzanne by harry Belafonte
might be an altogether different
song...unlike what it says in D.T.,
i hope we can set the record right on this...

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02 Apr 06 - 10:57 AM (#1708783)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Cattail

Hi all, here's another Cohen site for you to try.

http://cohenchords.com/

Cheers

Cattail !

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20 Oct 10 - 12:52 AM (#3011222)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,"The Patriot"

The song you refer to is titled "The Patriot" and is included in the "Essential Leonard Cohen" two-CD release.

r

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25 Oct 10 - 09:48 PM (#3015429)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Jim Dixon

According to Allmusic.com, "The Essential Leonard Cohen" does not contain any song called THE PATRIOT but it does contain a song called THE PARTISAN.

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25 Oct 10 - 10:43 PM (#3015442)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: Beer

You are correct Jim.
ad.

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26 Oct 10 - 03:59 PM (#3016142)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,ifor

My understanding is that Leonard learnt this song as a teenager from a trade union /left wing songbook when he attended a summer camp in Canadain the easrly 1950s.
The song is absolutely fantastic!
There is a great live version by Leonard and band taken from his 2008 World Tour which can be viewed on Youtube.
The'mandolin' player is superb.
Ifor

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27 Oct 10 - 05:11 AM (#3016533)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Early Leonard Cohen
From: GUEST,Andrew

Leonard has said himself in interviews that Suzanne was a friend and the wife of a friend and thy did go down to the river and drink tea by the church mentioned earlier.

Andrew

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