Beautiful Friend

by Heather Rudynski

I could leave us, I could leave us a painting
Our lives are-a-changing

• The Charlatans - My Beautiful Friend

My friend and me looking through her red box of memories, faded, I'm sure but love seems to stick in her veins, you know

• The Verve - Sonnet

Here's some britpop to make you think of the lost ones for your evening.

Happy Birthday, Leonard Cohen. Please live on.

• I'm Your Man - The Cohen tribute
• Clip form the tribute - Tower Of Song
• Famous Blue Raincoat - Live 2008
• Leonard Cohen Files
• Martha Wainwright's cover of The Traitor
• Rufus Wainwight's cover of Chelsea Hotel

And when it's over, I'll see you again

by LamElena

Moving, just keep moving,
Well I don't know why to stay,
No ties to bind me,
No reasons to remain.

• Supergrass - Moving
• Kate Bush - Moving
  

You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out

By Evil-Shoelace

She knows its too late as were walking on by
Her soul slides away
"But don't look back in anger"
I heard you say

• Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger
• Don Henley - Boys of Summer
  

Gimme one reason to stay here, you gotta make me change my mind

by Hahahayeah

• Tracy Chapman with Eric Clapton - Gimme One Reason
• Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

"I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
to try and make me change my mind and stay
we never did too much talkin' anyway
so don't think twice, it's all right"

So long, Marianne

Hydra, Greece

We met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
You held on to me like I was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.

For now I need your hidden love.
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious,
I never said that I was brave

I came across this interview with Marianne Ihlen, Leonard Cohen's muse in Hydra in the sixties. I've always loved the elusive lyrics of So Long Marianne which I guess is the most famous, most often sung Cohen song among camp-fire troubadors and buskers and such. Maybe I'll do Suzanne next week.

• So long Marianne - Leonard Cohen
  
• A 2005 interview with Marianne
  

haunted

by Vefenie

Is this What you wanted, to live in a house that is haunted by the ghost of you and me?

• Is this what you wanted? - Leonard Cohen
• Haunted - Sinead O'Connor and Shane MacGowan
  

Bachelorette, you'll got o Paris on your own!

by Novic

Leave me now, return tonight
The tide will show you the way
If you forget my name, you will go astray
Like a killer whale trapped in a bay

I'm a tree that grows hearts
One for each that you take
You're the intruders hand
I'm the branch that you break

• Björk - Bachelorette

Bachelorette, you climb on rooftops and you -
Bachelorette, you can turn dust into champagne
you even remembered his name!

Bachelorette, you fly alone now and you cry sometimes
There's nothing like it in the world
You'll go to Paris on your own!

• Tori Amos - Bachelorette

Someone pointed out that both of these wonderful songs are tangos which is a strange coincidence or maybe an homage to Björk. Tori's is a b-side on Spark and as for Bjork's, I couldn't find the original music video.

Do it now, don't care how

by Colorcreations

If you wanna be my friend
And you wanna repent
And you want it all to end
And you wanna know when
Well do it now, don't care how
Take your final bow
Make a stand
Take my hand
And blow it all to hell

- Lay me Low - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

• Everything is Everything - Lauryn Hill
  

Winterlong

I waited for you, Winterlong
You seemed to be where I belong.
It's all illusion anyway.

• Winterlong - Pixies live cover
• Set Fire to the Third Bar - Martha Wainwright and Snow Patrol

Fleetwood fucking Mac

Fleetwood Mac was enchanting! I saw them two days ago at the Air Canada Centre for their tour. Stevie looks 15, Mick Fleetwood looks like Santa and Lindsay Buckingham looks more kick-ass than ever and they all performed wonderfully. Their last song was Silver Springs which is my favourite; a sweet surprise.

• Dreams
• Silver Springs
• Never Going Back Again
  

(hard to find decent sounding clips)

Do not say the moment was imagined

By Shotgun Serenade

Even though she sleeps upon your satin;
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined;
Do not stoop to strategies like this.

As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect.

And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored
–Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving;
Alexandra leaving with her lord.

- Leonard Cohen
(One of his most beautiful; an adaptation of a Lorca poem)

• Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen
• Selah - Lauren Hill

She Hangs Brightly

I found this album by Mazzy Star (1990) at a used record store after this. I have no choice but to use the term "wicked" for this one. She Hangs Brightly is like a mellow, shoe-gazing 90s Velvet Underground. Whenever I find a Mazzy Star CD, the slaes clerk and standers-by make sure to re-assert how awsome it is.

• Halah (video)
• Give You My Lovin'
• Be My Angel

Part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time

If we look closely, it seems there may be fragments of Leonard Cohen lingering in Joni Mitchell's music. I read about it here. Who else could she be referring to in The Gallery?

Lady, please love me now,
I am dead, I am a saint, turn down your bed
I have no heart, that’s what you said
You said, I can be cruel
But let me be gentle with you

Maybe even A Case of You (my favourite)

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "constant in the darkness, where's that at?"
...
Oh I could drink a case of you
And I would still be on my feet

I thought I would also post this video I found of Joni on the Johnny Cash show singing
I Still Miss Someone

She was an unknown legend in her time

by iNeedChemicalX

She's been running half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Colliding with the very air she breathes

You know it ain't easy
You've got to hold on
She was an unknown legend in her time
Now she's dressing two kids
Looking for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look in her eyes.

• Unknown Legend - Neil Young
  

Rituals

"There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice--patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

• Happy Phantom - Tori Amos

Fleet Foxes

A new album I'm quite impressed with.
Lovely sixties-esque folk harmonies.

• White Winter Hymnal
• Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
  

Happy Birthday

To Annie.

With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
with the morning sun?
Not that I did compare,
But I do compare
Now that she's gone.

- Leonard Cohen

• Annie Dog - Smashing Pumpkins
• Heart of Glass - Blondie

I'm pretty sure Annie Dog is about a crack whore, but hey, it's a good song and it's the Pumpkins. So to balance it out is the glitteriest, most fun song ever. Have a smashing Birthday.

A New Year

By Gerald Fantone

“the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is."
- Vladimir Nabokov

Happy New Year. I'm about ten behind.

• Jeff Buckley - New Year's Prayer