Friday Night indulgence.
Best taken with red wine, drawn curtains, and your partner of choice. Maybe a cigarette - it's been 30 years since I sparked up a Benson's, but Leonard Cohen reminds one just how irresistible temptation is.
That saxophone is something else. Good that they found time to tidy up the kitchenette. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe washing up? The dishwasher never seems to hold enough.
Back on Boogie Street.
So come my friends, be not afraid, we are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made, in love we disappear
Though all the maps of blood and flesh are posted on the door
There's no one who has told us yet what, Boogie Street is for
It is in love that we are made, in love we disappear
Though all the maps of blood and flesh are posted on the door
There's no one who has told us yet what, Boogie Street is for
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we'd meet
You kiss my lips, and then it's done
And I'm back, back on Boogie Street
I never thought we'd meet
You kiss my lips, and then it's done
And I'm back, back on Boogie Street
5 comments:
Hmmm cigarettes Mrs I.
I smoked for nigh on 50 years, first Marlboro’s finest then hand made Roll ups, then, after 3 heart attacks and open heart surgery, five bypasses, I thought it time to give them a miss.
But dear god in heaven, just the faintest whiff of tobacco smoke...there really is nothing to compare to it.
If I’m fortunate to reach 80 years I’ll take them up again, only 15 years to go.
Yes Mr. Cohen he’s a strange one, knows everything about our inability to resist, some of his songs, poems, tug at you, others meh.
Hi, mr inmate,
I really was a dedicated smoker, having been addicted by secondary smoking, both my parents having been Kensitas smokers, and when I went to University I started up my own habit - and being young and image-conscious, whenever the funds were right, I'd smoke Benson and Hedges, Henry Winterman Slim, Black Sobranie, jasmine-flavoured cigarettes, long and white with a gold filter, or cocktail Sobranie - pretty pastel shades. I had a couple of years of Gitanes as that was the brand of choice of my boyfriend at the time, but eventually, like you, ended up on roll-ups. Golden Virginia.
No heart attacks, fortunately, but after about 25 years of smoking, I stopped feeding the nicotine monster, assisted by the Alan Carr Easy Way to Stop Smoking Clinic, and learned there was nothing to give up. Just a matter of stopping hurting myself.
I know what you mean about the scent of fresh tobacco - not the stale stuff that hangs about smokers, but a freshly lit cigarette. I don't quite follow them down the street, nostrils a-quiver, and I don't seriously consider re-addicting myself. It's a mug's game.
Leonard Cohen - you can have too much of him. I was on a lengthy car journey once and the driver put on a compilation tape that he'd made for the trip. I had to beg for something, anything, else as the depression was seeping into my very bones. These two, though, Boogie Street and A Thousand Kisses Deep, are just about perfect.
My own favourite Cohen songs are indeed Thousand Kisses Deep, Dance Me to the end of Love, Ain’t no cure for Love.
But the lyrics to Everybody Knows are just about perfect for the times we’ve lived through these past 40 years, from the Great Terror beginning in 1997 to the great con trick we’re experiencing now.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
If you wish to listen to the best of Mr Cohen I would suggest, Leonard Cohen Live in London, in his mid seventies, his voice praps at it’s dark chocolate best. An a fine bunch of musicians and singers to back him.
I will, mr inmate, thank you for the recommendation. Sounds like a weekend indulgence though, not for a work night.
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