Cohen, Leonard - Last Year's Man Lyrics

So effortless yet so damn complicated! One of my all time favorites.

True. His love and hate ran too hot and too cold.
He became a fallen angel. Jealous of Babalon's lovers. He worshipped and cursed his own muse.
What a misogynist pig.
He didn't know love. He fell to lust. He did not know the harmony of partnership, of true love.
May he find his heart again, in hell.

lol..Nice one..new to Me.

Leonard Cohen had a very rare quality: It feels like he had seen and experienced everything he sang about, or at least he believed in every word. The only one other comparable vocalists in this respect I can think of are Bob Marley, Johnny Cash and Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki.

Uplifting

Dance me to the end of love awesome . Cole 2019

I like how as many men enjoyed him as women. He spoke the truth. Truth is a powerful magnet.

you're right, truth is a powerful magnet.

The first song on this album, "Avalanche", is omitted because of it's strongly sexual character.

leonard the best!

This gets more powerful with the years. Proper song.

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Where the fuck is Dress Rehearsal Rag??????????

The rain falls down on last year's man
That's a Jew's harp on the table
That's a crayon in his hand
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
Far past the stems of thumbtacks
That still throw shadows on the wood
And the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
And all the rain falls down amen
On the works of last year's man
I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
Oh one by one she had to tell them
That her name was Joan of Arc
I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while
I want to thank you, Joan of Arc
For treating me so well
And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight
All these wounded boys you lie beside
Goodnight, my friends, goodnight

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived
Bethlehem the bridegroom
Babylon the bride
Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me
And Bethlehem inflamed us both
Like the shy one at some orgy
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
That I had to draw aside to see
The serpent eat its tail

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain
So I hang upon my altar
And I hoist my axe again
And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began
When Jesus was the honeymoon
And Cain was just the man
And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
That the wilderness is gathering
All its children back again

The rain falls down on last year's man
An hour has gone by
And he has not moved his hand
But everything will happen if he only gives the word
The lovers will rise up
And the mountains touch the ground
But the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
And all the rain falls down amen
On the works of last year's man

why repeat. we know what he fucking said

My favorite Leonard Cohen song. Thanks for sharing it here.

Great song, 👍👍👍👏🎤🎸❤️🌹🇧🇪

Acojonante

I wanna thank you Joan of Arc for treating me so well!

Such perfect lyricism. I always love the production on this one. It’s just the right amount of reverb on his guitar that you can imagine you’re sat in some beautiful great room with Leonard playing for you. Beautiful.

The wilderness is gathering it's children back again

IIt's hard to put into words after listening to Leonard Cohen (LC) for over 50 years I still can fine anyone to compare..... I have listened to to the words of this song & many others by LC but this he reveals his true thoughts of there man......

This is the most powerful and intellectual piece of music I can name. I'd take this over Beethoven's 5th in C minor for effect. I feel that this is a timeless feat of musical accomplishment.

Utterly and totally sublime...

And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began
When Jesus was the honeymoon and Cain was just the man

Lees mijn artikel http://robscholtemuseum.nl/cor-hendriks-great-babalon-was-naked-ac-lezing-over-religieuze-teksten-cohen

To simply call this man a lyrical genius is perhaps the understatement of the century...perhaps this and last century. The dichotomy presented in his work is simply tantalizing. It strikes both the chords of the heart and synapses deepest in the mind. And yet, it is presented in the vernacular that comforts us. His words portend of the state of being we have all created in the world, because this state is a summation of everyone and everything. The anger, the betrayal, the subversion...this all cuts deeply into our souls and he saw it for what it was. He tried to warn us, but are we listening?

Gregory Goldberg we are listening as we are walking along. That's all we can do. :)

LC was a good guitar player.

can you go any further in beauty than with this guitar, and a voice ?

Big no for lyrics. Maybe for guitar. No for voice too.

This is a LAST MONTH'S WOMAN cover... Great!
https://youtu.be/mU36VqPTE1E

songs of love and hate has saved me many times from suicide...

Toutes les chasons et music de leonard dans les années 60 a80 sont géniales et pénétrantes j'adore, j'ai 62 ans et je les conseille à tous les sexagénaires. Le papey

I think Dress Rehearsal Rag has taken more lives than the album has saved.

Adolf Noise - me too, they currently are saving me

Ein Genie der Extraklasse! Leider weilt er nicht mehr unter uns!

cohen´s music, ate least in this first albums is clear but with a entire universe in it. i recall my friends, some i am not with for more than 10 years. what can i say about? well, at least one good thing: even with all the confusion and problems around and with in us; artists like leonard cohen or just to mention one other, lou reed, united us.. in a spiritual state of mind and communion that could spare many words.. for the music of cohen was in it self fulfilling of all we had and wanted to say.. :) or could say.. it´s in times like this i value once more the bard.. ( i remember has we all do, the effect it had on us. ) this is a Mountain ( or an high tower of compassion ) on a valley of small minds and hearts.

those chords leonard

rip gutted my favourite singer no words can tell of my sadness

I had forgotten about this great song. Leonard, i am so glad that i got to see you in concert. You were and are so very great. Thanks for sharing

So young, so old ... then and now

Songs of love and hate was the album that REALLY got me in to Leonard. Been listening since the 70's. Total poetry and total genius! I simply love it!

This was my first record and I was instantly a major fan.

Rest in peace!! Cohen was a great singer 😥😥

Sleep well, Leonard

we lost  one of our greats yet again  rest in peace MR  Cohen

For the man who had all the words, I have no words.

A lovely tribute.

Jerry Turner Well said

i have none*

Great words

How was Cohen' last years? Did it rain?

Une étoile de plus dans le ciel !!! Au revoir Monsieur :(

such a devastating song, so much beauty, r.i.p genius, thank you for everything

tearing up at the first notes. RIP, Leonard.

the wilderness is gathering all its children back again

this is my favourite line. also, The skylight is like skin, for a drum I'll never mend..

Lela Childs same

My favourite line. Rings through me like some long forgotton chord.

Goodnight, my friend, goodnight.

Absolutely heartbroken at the news. RIP Leonard Cohen.

Bye Leonard.

Self reflection

We all live under the shadow of our ancestors' choices and decisions. Each point in history has led onto this.

Cohen's song represents little bits and pieces of this history. Think of it as a tapestry, and Cohen picks out and shows little threads in the tapestry.

i listen to this and ive an emotional unstable personality disorder and my mood is contsantly unstable and depression is there but i listen to cohen and maybe sometimes i cry but thats due to losing my dad and this brings back memories but these are tears of happiness cohen lifts my mood so when i read its depressing it depresses me!

Anthony King
Don't be down Anthony, I get depressed but think he was our champion our voice

I’m BPD too, Anthony, and this has always been my favourite song of all time, it’s so great to see your comment. I feel the same, my friend. It has always brought calm to my soul.

‘We were broken then, but now we’re borderline. And I wish there was a treaty, between your love and mine’ - Treaty/ String Reprise

Leonard has varying influences on different personalities. He will be dismissed by those that don't hear him well. Then there is you and me. I take his songs in a similar stride. Sometimes the same ones make me laugh and sometimes cry.

"All the rain falls down amen... On the works of last years man"

but the wilderness is gathering the children again

great babylon was naked yes she stood trembling for me and bethlhem inflamed her like a shy 1 at some orgy well when I went to a orgy I couldn't get aroused for 20 minutes then it went well

yes, it does. Yes, it does.

Listening intently to this music in the 80s friends would invariably dismiss Cohen as depressing; I was always dismayed by such reactions because I had taken his music to heart. Indeed these songs did visit some dark places, a torturous landscape of laid painfully bare by a dark and haunting poetry And yet this, I felt, was not the complete story. To me it seemed they offered, by the quality of their craft, their art, a kind of redemption - through their beauty. His very ability to speak of these things in the way he did meant a great deal, and still does.
Of course he has gone on, in an astonishing way, to develop his music and I have followed him, like so many others, devotedly; but I am still very grateful for these 'dark' songs which have become for me and others like old friends who although they speak of a deep sadness also manage, paradoxically, to warm our hearts.

@Colin - beauty can never be depressing. it is easier for sad people to find something sad, and for boring people to find something boring. life is a beautiful lover perpetually kissing us in the mouth.

Well said, I couldn't think of anything to make it better, just well said.

Perfectly said

Ditto that 100%. Hated when his work was dismissed as 'wrist-slitting music'. To me his music was (and is) life.

So perfectly put.
I have been trying for MANY years to describe this feeling, but people just don’t understand

'like the shy one at an orgy' ... xD

banda de sonido eterna. inmortal

He was playing with her soldiers in the dark one by one she had to tell them she was Joan of Arc beautiful so beautiful they should know her.. Because she knows all of them st. Joan of Arc

So so beautiful and you are with Joan of Arc linen coat.. Upon your back

+Ida Williams glad you took a message from this masterpiece your beautiful and never forget it

+Anthony King thank you and thanks Leonard Cohen he truly loved Joan of Arc.... in some spiritual way they knew each other and I won't forget thank you❤

I think Joan of Arc, who he mentions in other songs too, represents inspiration, or muse. Here he has to thank the muse for treating him well, but he only stayed a little while, because he is feeling out of fashion. He is last year's man.

He may have felt it at the time, but this is one of his greatest songs from that era. And it was certainly not prophetic.

She's a crazy junkie hooker femme fatale. Probably liked cared for and was closer lenny than all of her soilders or John's if you will. She's destroyed and ruined these men with her wreckless chaotic lifestyle. The glory days have gone by some were deported police broke the scene up. She's moved on and lenny is left to pine for how it was when things were good. I'm just speculating here though. Not speaking from a horrible life experience in the underground in America or anything just speculating

!!!!!!! oh Leonard

oh my dear leonard..

this is one of the saddest songs i've ever heard

joy division (with ' decades' for example ) can easily lead you to get suicide after only 2 or " hearings !!

Simon Robeyns The song has a melancholy sound. However I would say the song is more of a hopeful longing rather than a sad awareness.

@athééosl Sarkkos nah Joy Divisions music was stark andcold thanks to the backing instruments;
cohen is just himself and guitar without sappy cliché lyrics, just pure Cohen, honest open and bleaker than it gets.

Leonard Cohen, Epic,Magical Poet

great guitar

So beautiful, so poignant. I was lucky enough to see him in concert at MSG back in 2009 - one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

OMG! LDS commercials on youtube! There's no escape! It's like finding zombies in your closet!

+Rick Bunte Download add block plus mate!

Great composer..

as above 3 of the greatest cohen /baez Santana dusty springfield a lonely women .

I bet that one dislike is a jealous Bob Dylan.

Jellus?

He has many religious themes in his music. It is a far simpler explanation that he was making a biblical reference, being a jewish man who references the talmud in many of his songs, than that he was referencing one of the R+C offshoots or even the non-scriptural Kaballah. Plus he references Joan, a christian Saint.

vitriolicAmaranth ❤️️💚

vitriolicAmaranth he also mentions the Ouroboros. Serpent eating its tail. It's an occult symbol.

that part about babalon/babylon...

was leonard cohen involved with occultism/thelema or something like that??

ive bought his songs since the begining the man has the guts to sing about religion combined with heartache sadness and how the world is going through mans recleness and no consideratoin for other .baez cohen and santana for me each are different but all have concideration for what lives on the planet

brilliant song well put together ive many songs by leonard what can one say along with joan baez best ever

Well said my friend. The sheep will always follow there fake plastic idols to the land of ignorance handed to them on a plate by some very enlightened individuals

I heard this man 40 years ago when I was young and hopeful.I knew then that the world was unfair.Bad things happen to good people,and the shits inherit the earth.A poet,an inspirational songsmith, still touring at his age,due to his agent running off with his money.An inspirational figure,far removed from the xfactor age we now are in.Where talentless people try, and gain from lack of talent of any kind,other than to be famous.In the context of history,are we at the fall of Rome?

beautiful

amazing song

Psilence speaks louder than wurdz.

My favourite Leonard Cohen lyrical song a genius and such a biblical voice to put his lyrics across.