One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong

[jerry]

This was the first LC song I heard. It was sometime in the early 1970's very late one night.I was just about to fall asleep and the room was dark.The radio was on and I had on WNEW FM-New York.I think the DJ was Alison Steele.To this day it's still my favorite set of LC lyrics.


One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong

I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me.
But the room just filled up with mosquitos,
they heard that my body was free.
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
and I put it in your little shoe.
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
that you wore for the world to look through.

I showed my heart to the doctor: he said I just have to quit.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
and your name was mentioned in it!
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
with the details of our honeymoon,
and I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
and his practice is all in a ruin.

I heard of a saint who had loved you,
so I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
is to tarnish the golden rule.
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
he drowned himself in the pool.
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
his spirit continues to drool.

An Eskimo showed me a movie
he'd recently taken of you:
the poor man could hardly stop shivering,
his lips and his fingers were blue.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
and I guess he just never got warm.
But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice,
oh please let me come into the storm.

[Tchocolatl]

It was before the zen style writing. Very beautiful indeed. I never get tired to look at such beauty. He is really gifted.

One of us cannot be wrong seems to me : "How I love you, how desirable you are and how it is difficult for me to handle this situation".

[lizzytysh]

A powerful introduction ~ that setting with those words ~ Jerry. They must have burned into your psyche as you lay there in the dark, disbelieving and in awe of what you were hearing.

It's one of the songs that always carried the obvious, yet unspoken, message between me and my former husband, former even at the time, as he played the guitar and we sang it together.

Thanks for bringing this song to the fore. One of my always-favourite songs, too.

~ Lizzy

[jerry]

Actually the same thing happened the frist time I heard Bruce Springsteen.Exactly the same scenario.New York City Serande came on the radio.After hearing Leonard and Bruce for the first time things were never the same for me again.One of those moments in your life when everything shifts.That's only happened to me twice musically.Once with Leonard and once with Bruce.

[tomsakic]

I simply can't bare it when I'm listening to this song, particulalry in its 1988 rendition. Maybe it's his trongest song ever... It's so full of sadness and true love, and this final cry-out, "Oh please let me come into the strom [which is you]", it always knocks me down. It's one of few songs which are richer and deeper with every listening, even if you are listening to it every single day. One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, Anthem, few songs like that. Not to say that others aren't great:-) But my mouth are always wide open and my eyes bewildered whenever I heard these.

[humanponysss2000]

Has anyone compiled a list of 'medical references' in Leonard's songs, poetry, novels?

Also, I would suggest a list of institutions that fill the landscape of his work: hospitals, orphanages, churches...


Leonard Cohen
The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1968)
Teachers

I met a woman long ago
Her hair the black that black can go
Are you a teacher of the heart
Soft she answered No.

I met a girl across the sea
Her hair the gold that gold can be
Are you a teacher of the heart
Yes but not for thee.

I met a man who lost his mind
In some lost place I had to find
Follow me the wise man said
But he walked behind.

I walked into a hospital
Where none was sick and none was well
When at night the nurses left
I could not walk at all.

Morning came
and then came noon
Dinner time the scalpel blade
Lay beside my silver spoon

Some girls wander by mistake
Into the mess that scalpels make
Are you the teachers of my heart
We teach old hearts to break.

One morning I woke up alone
The hospital, the nurses gone
Have I carved enough, my lord
Child, you are bone.

I ate and ate and ate,
No, I did not miss a plate
Well, how much do these suppers cost
We'll take it out in hate.

I spent my hatred every place
On every work on every face
Someone gave me wishes
And I wished for an embrace.

Several girls embraced me,
Then I was embraced by men
Is my passion perfect
No, do it once again.

I was handsome, I was strong
I knew the words of every song
Did my singing please you
No, the words you sang were wrong.

Who is it whom I address
Who takes down what I confess
Are you the teachers of my heart
We teach old hearts to rest.

Well, teachers are my lessons done
I cannot do another one
They laughed and laughed and said
Well, child are your lessons done.

Are your lessons done
Are your lessons done.

[tomsakic]

>>>hospitals, orphanages, churches...

... asylums...

[Anne-Marie]

The live version of that is the greatest of all.

[kleinschmidt]

Leonard: I showed my heart to the doctor: he said I just have to quit.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
and your name was mentioned in it! ...1968

Dylan: Well, I asked the doctor if I could see you
It's bad for your health, he said
Yes, I disobeyed his orders
I came to see you
But I found him there instead (leopard-skin pill box hat) ...1966

Coincidence. I think not.

[Simon]

Interesting indeed. Musicians influence one another, for example when jaming at parties. Had the two of them met before 1966? When where the lyrics in fact written?

I heard recently of the controversy around the publication of Albert Einstein theory of relativity. Apparently he had to fight for recognition. Someone else was claiming it too.

When Time out of Mind came out, there were rumours that Dylan had 'borrowed' lyrics for one of the songs on the album from a musician in Canada. If I can retrace the info, I'll bring it here...

[Tchocolatl]

There was a lot of scandals around orphanages, churches, hospitals and aylums, a lot of horror story about abuses. But unfortunatetely (fortunately those institution can make a reflection about their action, which is not the case for all abusers, particularly for the pedophilia sexual tourist industry, for example), the doors of these institutions were and still are not the only one to hide abuses. So The more we bring this to light, the better. Keep running humanponeysss2000!

***

It appears that when an idea is meant to appear, it can appears in many places a the same time. Like fruits in a tree appear on many branches.

I don't know.

For the song.... well.... considering how long one of those singer-songwriter takes to write a song, it may be beginning before 1956. So. You know. Have your conclusion. (joke).

[euphrates]

this one's my favorite as well. It's the perfect ending to a perfect album. The last stanza is perhaps the most powerful lyric I've ever heard in my entire life. Whenever I play a cover of this song I always sing the last line three times instead of once. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

[Anth]

Indeed it's a great one, but only "Live" version. I tried so many times to translate it into my native language and I always was confronted with huge difficulties.
And of course the lines:

I showed my heart to the doctor
He told me I just had to quit
Then he wrote himself a prescription
Your name was mentioned in it

are superb.

[tomsakic]

Live version of it (the 1988 cut from San Sebastian, on Cohen Live) is the absolute peak of Leonard Cohen's career.

[linda_lakeside]

And that, Tom, would be a matter of opinion.