Leonard Cohen – There Is a War Lyrics

Cohen played in Israel in 1973 in order to support the soldier involved in the kippour’s war. The “real war” that he saw inspired him for the war between the good and the evil that takes place inside anybody.

It could be interesting to think about the fact that the war is the action and that peace is the non-action. Every story needs a kind of war, a kind of problem to exist as a real story. At School we learn the history of wars (Independence, World Wars etc) we don’t learn history of peace.

Being a person of peace is creating a new kind of war: the war against the war.

This song can be seen as a sarcastic one, a desperate one.
During a concert in 1993, Leonard Cohen introduced the song with the following words:
“About a thousand years ago, there was this brief period of about 11 to 12 minutes that is now referred to as the 60s. A heady time, an intoxicating time. I enjoyed myself thoroughly for 5 to 6 minutes. It has become a kind of black hole in the sociological cosmos, a kind of Bermuda triangle into which all the nobler and worthwhile ideas have disappeared forever. A seductive moment. However, being the gloomy chap that you know me to be, I was able to resist it. I think it was back in 1971 when it reached its most acute phase. It was then that I was inspired to write this mournful and bitter ditty in response to all the flabby liars of the Aquarian age.”

There Is a War Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

There is a war between the rich and poor
A war between the man and the woman
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
And the ones who say that there isn’t

Why don’t you come on back to the war, that’s right, get in it
Why don’t you come on back to the war, it’s just beginning

Well I live here with a woman and a child
The situation makes me kind of nervous
Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says “I guess you call this love
I call it service”
Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be a tourist
Why don’t you come on back to the war, before it hurts us
Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get nervous

You cannot stand what I’ve become
You much prefer the gentleman I was before
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control
I didn’t even know there was a war

Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be embarrassed
Why don’t you come on back to the war, you can still get married

There is a war between the rich and poor
A war between the man and the woman
There is a war between the left and right
A war between the black and white
A war between the odd and the even

Why don’t you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden
Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get even
Why don’t you come on back to the war, can’t you hear me speaking?