Leonard Cohen lived with a Zen Master for many years, and was even his personal attendant.
Whenever Cohen was cutting a new record album, his Master would visit him in the sound studio and "criticize" his singing and his writing.
He would say: "Sing Sadder, Leonard".
I would say . . . Leonard . . . you are free. Thanks for helping me "drop through the top".
- Russell
Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you To a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have been here before I know this room, I've walked this floor I used to live alone before I knew you. I've seen your flag on the marble arch Love is not a victory march It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know What's real and going on below But now you never show it to me, do you? And remember when I moved in you The holy dove was moving too And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light In every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you And even though It all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
there's a letter on the desktop that i dug out of a drawer the last truce we ever came to in our adolescent war and i start to feel the fever from the warm air through the screen you come regular like seasons shadowing my dreams
and the mississippi's mighty but it starts in minnesota at a place that you could walk across with five steps down and i guess that's how you started like a pinprick to my heart but at this point you rush right through me and i start to drown
and there's not enough room in this world for my pain signals cross and love gets lost and time passed makes it plain of all my demon spirits i need you the most i'm in love with your ghost i'm in love with your ghost
dark and dangerous like a secret that gets whispered in a hush (don't tell a soul) when i wake the things i dreamt about you last night make me blush (don't tell a soul) and you kiss me like a lover then you sting me like a viper i go follow to the river play your memory like a piper
and i feel it like a sickness how this love is killing me i'd walk into the fingers of your fire willingly and dance the edge of sanity i've never been this close i'm in love with your ghost
unknowing captor you never know how much you pierce my spirit but i can't touch you can you hear it a cry to be free oh i'm forever under lock and key as you pass through me
now i see your face before me i would launch a thousand ships to bring your heart back to my island as the sand beneath me slips as i burn up in your presence and i know now how it feels to be weakened like achilles with you always at my heels
this bitter pill i swallow is the silence that i keep it poisons me i can't swim free the river is too deep though i'm baptized by your touch i am no worse than most in love with your ghost
you are shadowing my dreams (in love with your ghost) (in love with your ghost) (in love with your ghost)
