WHO BY FIRE | LEONARD COHEN

“Who by fire” is Leonard Cohen’s version of the Hebrew prayer "Unetanneh Tokef", chanted on Yom Kippur. It was released in the 1974 album “New Skin for the Old Ceremony.” This is one of the main songs of the album and one of Cohen’s best known songs.

The prayer Cohen heard as a child in the synagogue describes God reviewing the Book of Life and deciding the fate of every soul for the year to come – who will live, who will die and how. The line: “And who shall I say is calling?” can be understood as a break from faith in God. According to Cohen that element of doubt is what made the song into a personal prayer for him.

And who by fire, who by water 
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time 
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial 
Who in your merry merry month of May 
Who by very slow decay 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate 
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt 
And who by avalanche, who by powder 
Who for his greed, who for his hunger 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident 
Who in solitude, who in this mirror 
Who by his lady's command, who by his own hand 
Who in mortal chains, who in power 
And who shall I say is calling? 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by fire who by water 
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time 
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial 
Who in your merry merry month of May 
Who by very slow decay 
And who shall I say is calling? 
And who shall I say is calling?

Anthem | Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang 

at the break of day 

Start again 

I seem to hear them say 

Do not dwell on what 

has passed away 

or what is yet to be. 

Ah the wars they will 

be fought again 

The holy dove 

She will be caught again 

bought and sold 

and bought again 

the dove is never free. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack

A crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in. 

We asked for signs 

and the signs were sent: 

the birth betrayed 

the marriage spent 

Yeah the widowhood 

of every single government

signs for all to see

I can't run no more 

with that lawless crowd

While the killers in high places

Say their prayers out loud

Ah but they've summoned, they've summoned up 

a thundercloud 

and they're going to hear from me. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack

A crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in

You can add up the parts 

but you won't have the sum 

You can strike up the march 

on your little broken drum 

Every heart, every heart 

to love will come 

but like a refugee

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in

"Everybody knows" by Leonard Cohen & Sharon Robinson

Leonard Cohen's bitterly pessimistic song about the state of the world in the late 1980s. When he first introduced the song, he said, "Here's a terrible new song. Yes, it embodies all my darkest thoughts. Here it comes."

In regards to the verse about the plague, Cohen said in an interview, "The plague in the most physical sense is AIDS. But there's another kind of plague going on too, of which AIDS is one of the symptoms. If indeed disease does have ultimately a psychic origin, then there's a plague of alienation and separation and lassitude and panic; a sense of not being in control."

Listening to it again in 2020, and to Sigrid's haunting version for Justice League especially:
    "... Everybody knows that the boat is leaking 
    Everybody knows that the captain lied 
    Everybody got this broken feeling 
    Like their father or their dog just died..." 
and
    "...And everybody knows that the Plague is coming 
    Everybody knows that it's moving fast ..."

I suspect the sense of ominous bleakness still resonates. 
We may not have a "meter on our bed", but we all have an App!
----------------------------------- (Con...)

Kelley Mooney's Easter adaptation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"