Leonard Cohen – Is This What You Wanted Lyrics

As part of the album’s general theme, “Is This What You Wanted” is widely believed to be part of Leonard Cohen’s farewell message to his then-partner and mother of his two children, Suzanne Elrod.

Cohen compares himself to his partner, perhaps unfavourably, through a series of analogies which can be described as multiple grievances he has felt during his time with her.

The track is the album’s opener, and sets the mood for the rest of the album with its increasingly accusatory lines and music-hall instrumentation.

Is This What You Wanted Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

[Verse 1]
You were the promise at dawn
I was the morning after
You were Jesus Christ, my Lord
I was the money lender
You were the sensitive woman
I was the very reverend Freud
You were the manual orgasm
I was the dirty little boy

[Chorus]
And 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
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?
[Verse 2]
You were Marlon Brando
I was Steve McQueen
You were K-Y Jelly
I was Vaseline
You were the father of modern medicine
I was Mr. Clean
You were the Whore and the Beast of Babylon,
I was Rin Tin Tin

[Chorus]
And is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?
And is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?

[Verse 3]
You got old and wrinkled
I stayed seventeen
You lusted after so many
I lay here with one
You defied your solitude
I came through alone
You said you could never love me
I undid your gown
[Chorus]
And is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?
And is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?

I mean, is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted
By the ghost of you and me?
That’s right, is this what you wanted
To live in a house