Leonard Cohen – Bird on the Wire Lyrics

This is the opening song to 1969’s Songs from a Room. It’s a kind of Cohen’s own “My Way.” Country musician Kris Kristofferson has stated he wants the first three lines on his gravestone when it’s his time. Cohen said he’d be insulted if Kristofferson didn’t.

On the 2009 Greatest Hits compilation textbook, Leonard wrote:

I always begin my concert with this song. It seems to return me to my duties. It was begun in Greece and finished in a motel in Hollywood around 1969 along with everything else. Some lines were changed in Oregon. I can’t seem to get it perfect. Kris Kristofferson informed me that I had stolen part of the melody from another Nashville writer. He also said that he’s putting the first couple of lines on his tombstone, and I’ll be hurt if he doesn’t.

Bird on the Wire Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

[Verse 1]
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

[Bridge 1]
If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can just let it go by
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you
[Verse 2]
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

[Bridge 2]
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch
He said to me, “You must not ask for so much”
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door
She cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?”

[Outro]
Oh like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free