Daily Archives: 25/10/2011
Leonard Cohen live in 1985
One of my favourite poets performing at the Isle of Wight in 1970. I think it’s his soft, wet eyes, and the bit about the fireflies that makes this performance one of the ones I love the most.
He’s singing the song that’s inspired my next tattoo. I’m having ‘saved all my ribbons for thee’ printed along my collarbone. He varies the lyrics a bit in this live version, but they usually go like this:
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Like a worm on a hook
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee
Oh, like a baby, stillborn
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee
