1424 – Leonard Cohen – Field commander Cohen (1974)

 

Escrita por Leonard Cohen, foi gravada em fevereiro de 1974 e lançada no disco New skin for the old ceremony, em 11 de agosto de 1974. Leonard Cohen tocou violão e cantou. John Lissauer tccou teclado e fez backing vocals. Emily Bindiger fez backing vocals. Gerald Chamberlein tocou trombone. Erin Dickins fez backing vocals. Lewis Furey tocou viola. Ralph Gibson tocou violão. Armen Halburian tocou percussão. Janis Ian cantou. Gail Kantor fez backing vocals. Jeff Layton tocou banjo, bandolim, violão e trompete. Barry Lazarowitz tocou percussão. Roy Markowitz tocou bateria. John Miller tocou baixo.

A letra:

Field Commander Cohen, he was our most important spy.
Wounded in the line of duty,
parachuting acid into diplomatic cocktail parties,
urging Fidel Castro to abandon fields and castles.
Leave it all and like a man,
come back to nothing special,
such as waiting rooms and ticket lines,
silver bullet suicides,
and messianic ocean tides,
and racial roller-coaster rides
and other forms of boredom advertised as poetry

.
I know you need your sleep now,
I know your life's been hard.
But many men are falling,
where you promised to stand guard.

I never asked but I heard you cast your lot along with the poor.
But then I overheard your prayer,
that you be this and nothing more
than just some grateful faithful woman's favourite singing millionaire,
the patron Saint of envy and the grocer of despair,
working for the Yankee Dollar.

I know you need your sleep now
I know your life's been hard.
But many men are falling,
where you promised to stand guard.

Ah, lover come and lie with me, if my lover is who you are,
and be your sweetest self awhile until I ask for more, my child.
Then let the other selves be wrong, yeah, let them manifest and come
till every taste is on the tongue,
till love is pierced and love is hung,
and every kind of freedom done, then oh,
oh my love, oh my love, oh my love,
oh my love, oh my love, oh my love.

A versão de Leonard Cohen: