Leonard Cohen – Sing Another Song, Boys Lyrics

Track seven of Songs of Love and Hate, this song was recorded live at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, where Leonard Cohen found himself performing in his pyjamas not long after a set by Jimi Hendrix. According to some reports, the audience had been rowdy and dismissive of similar acts, namely Kris Kristofferson’s first set earlier during the festival. When Cohen took the stage, however, the audience was transfixed by his performance.
Choen’s set primarily consisted of songs released on his first two albums, but this song along with Diamonds in the Mine and Famous Blue Raincoat were performed at the festival, and the other two were re-recorded in the studio of the album.

Sing Another Song, Boys Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

Let’s sing another song, boys, this one has grown old and bitter

Ah his fingernails, I see they’re broken
His ships they’re all on fire
The moneylender’s lovely little daughter
Ah, she’s eaten, she’s eaten with desire
She spies him through the glasses
From the pawnshops of her wicked father
She hails him with a microphone
That some poor singer, just like me, had to leave her
She tempts him with a clarinet
She waves a Nazi dagger
She finds him lying in a heap;
She wants to be his woman
He says, “Yes, I just might go to sleep
But kindly leave, leave the future
Leave it open.”
He stands where it is steep
Oh I guess he thinks that he’s the very first one
His hands upon his leather belt now
Like it was the wheel of some big ocean liner
And she will learn to touch herself so well
As all the sails burn down like paper
And he has lit the chain
Of his famous cigarillo
Ah, they’ll never, they’ll never ever reach the moon
At least not the one that we’re after;
It’s floating broken on the open sea, look out there, my friends
And it carries no survivor
But let’s leave these lovers wondering
Why they cannot have each other
And let’s sing another song, boys
This one has grown old and bitter