Music & lyrics:  Marie-Lynn Hammond

Written in the mid 1990s, this song is now several Leonard-Cohen-girlfriends out of date…

I’m sitting in a coffee shop one ordinary day
the radio is blaring out an ordinary tune
ah but then a Leonard Cohen song comes on and right away
the sun sets and the sky turns dark, save for a mournful moon
and the customers start waltzing in a slow and dreamy fashion
and the cashier weeps remembering some ancient crime of passion
and yet I’m not surprised – I know these are the kinds of things
that happen when Leonard Cohen sings

It’s four a.m. on Clinton street, I’m feeling pretty low
so I strum my favourite Leonard tunes and I haven’t long to wait
till the sky fills up with fireworks, or bombs for all I know
and Joan of Arc comes riding by and stops before my gate
and her soldiers fill the streets and now they’re bursting through my doorway
and Joan just shrugs when I demand the reason for this foray
and yet I’m not afraid – I know these are the kinds of things
that happen when Leonard Cohen sings

Ah when Leonard Cohen sings
the broken dove flies up on trembling wings
and I become a child again and yet I’m as old as time
I am the song of Solomon, I am a nursery rhyme
I sit here in the dark regretting all my hopeless flings
when Leonard Cohen sings

Bridge:
And when he sings “Show me slowly what I only know the limits of,
dance me to the end of love,” it takes my breath away
for those lines I’ll forgive his tinny synthesizer solos
I’ll even forgive him that Rebecca de Mornay!
la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la 

I’m in a huge cathedral now and Leonard’s standing near
my hands are gnarled and spotted, my hair is thin and grey
and I don’t know how this came about, I don’t know why I’m here
but I was humming “Closing Time” when I woke up today
and the saints above and fiends below are battling to possess me
till Leonard smiles and tenderly commences to caress me
he is my Prince of Darkness and he is my King of Kings
and I die happy, as Leonard Cohen sings

Ah when Leonard Cohen sings
the trembling dove flies up on mended wings
and I become a child again and yet I’m as old as time
I am the song of Solomon, I am a nursery rhyme
I yearn for pure and burning love detached from all its strings
when Leonard Cohen sings
when Leonard Cohen sings