Heck Of A Guy

The Elimination Of “Anal Sex” From Lyrics Of The Future During The Current Leonard Cohen World Tour¹

One of the few recurrent complaints arising from the concerts of the 2008-2009 Leonard Cohen World Tour comes from fans unhappy with the change in the original lyrics of “The Future,” which replaces “Give me crack and anal sex”² with “Give me crack and careless sex” (and perhaps other variants; more about that anon).

The responses to Cohen’s  use of an alternative to the published lyrics range from neutral, “how about that” observations that the words sung in concert were not those sung on the album recordings and  left-handed approval (e.g., “A bit more tasteful, I suppose”³ ) to professions of intense grief or vehement anger aroused by the presumed censorship on the part of (choose one or more)  local communities, various ordinances, sponsors, any of several levels of government, generic society, record companies, and Leonard Cohen himself.

The History Of Crack And Anal Sex In The Future

Screenshot from the official "The Future" video

A consideration of this phenomenon requires a grasp of the context within which the revision takes place. The original version of that ninth  line, “Give me crack and anal sex,” is shown below in bold  along with the remainder of the  first two verses of the lyrics of “The Future.”

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that’s left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

To those readers who have not heard a performance of “The Future,” I recommend watching the complete version of first video below.  Note: All videos in this post have been set to automatically begin just before the desired sequence, in this case that means they will begin with the focus of  this post, the ninth line. (Unfortunately, I have found no practical means by which to automatically stop the video before the end. The viewer can, of course, simply turn off the player at any point. ) To see some or all of the video that takes place before the automatic start, drag the indicator (the circular button on the bottom bar) to the left.

Bowdlerized versions of “Give me crack and anal sex” in “The Future” (the lead track on “The Future” album, released in 1992) date back at least as early as 1993. Leonard Cohen’s February 12, 1993 performance of the song on CBC’s “Friday Night with Ralph Benmurgui,”⁴ for example, replaces “Give me crack and anal sex” with “Give me speed and careless sex.”

The same substitution of “Give me speed and careless sex” for “Give me crack and anal sex” also takes place in Cohen’s second Austin City Limits appearance (12 July 1993). On the BBC interview show, “Later With Jools Holland,” in 1993, Cohen eschews the “speed” for “crack” exchange, singing “Give me crack and careless sex.”

The official video clip for “The Future,” released by Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) in 1993, takes a different tack altogether. Rather than substitute different words in the lyrics, the video (at least all the video versions I’ve seen) instead beeps out the audio of “crack” and “anal sex” and replaces the interior letters of those same words in the captions with dashes (i.e., “Give me crack and anal sex” becomes “Give me c- – -k and a- -l s-x.” See screenshot just below the heading, “The History Of Crack And Anal Sex In The Future”).

As one might expect, the original line was used in the soundtrack of the end credits from “Natural Born Killers.”

In the 1993 and 1997 tours, Cohen sang the original line, “Give me crack and anal sex” in at least some, if not all concerts. The original lyrics are sung in bootlegs of performances in Oslo in 1993 and in Los Angeles during both the 1993 and 1997 tours as well as in this video of the 1993 Zurich concert.

Fate Of Crack and Anal Sex In The 2008-2009 Word Tour

Throughout the current Leonard Cohen World Tour, “Give me crack and careless sex” appears to have been routinely been used as the ninth line of “The Future” as it was in this May 23, 2008 performance in Moncton, New Brunswick.

I have not listened to each rendition of “The Future” during this tour so I cannot rule out instances in which the original lyrics or other variants were sung. From reviewing audience recordings and videos, however, I can affirm that “Give me crack and  careless sex” was used in the following 2008 concerts: Moncton,  Manchester, Kitchener,  Dublin, Cardiff, Toronto, Amsterdam, Lisboa, Prague, Stockholm, Rotterdam, O2 London, Rome, and Oberhausen.

I have yet to find a recording of a Leonard Cohen concert performed in 2008 or 2009 with a different ninth line. While absence of proof is not proof of absence, I think it legitimate, given the evidence that is available, to hypothesize that replacing “Give me crack and anal sex” with “Give me crack and careless sex” has been the standard procedure during the Word Tour. If a reader can point me to a video or audio recording of a 2008-2009 performance with another version of that line, whether the original “Give me crack and anal sex” or some other variant, I would appreciate it (and will amend this post to reflect whatever I discover).

Similarly, in reports of these concerts, I find many references to the lyrics being changed from “Give me crack and  anal sex” to “Give me crack and  careless sex” while I find no references to the use of “Give me crack and anal sex.”  Of course, unless one is aware that the revised lyrics of “The Future” have been commonly used, hearing the original lyrics sung may not strike many bloggers or reporters as worthy of comment.

I have found the two correspondents (of the dozen or so I contacted) who have attended concerts during the World Tour and who, after searching their memories at my request, believes with varying degrees of certainty, the original lyrics were sung at that concert. In one of these cases, a video of “The Future” from the concert in question is available, which reveals that, the recall of the event notwithstanding, the words sung were actually “Give me crack and careless sex.”

For the record, I found one  reference each to “Give me crack and  casual sex” being used at the June 17, 2008 Manchester show⁵and the concert at the Nice Jazz Festival.⁶ There is a YouTube video of that song’s performance on that night with the words, “Give me crack and  careless sex.” I can find no recording of the Nice show.

The Outliers

On the Internet, I also discovered a comment claiming

… at the concert I went to he [Cohen] changed ‘give me crack and @n*l sex’ to ‘give me crack and abnormal sex’. I thought it was weird for a poet to change his words, especially when the new version was awkward

Well, I wasn’t there, but I think it’s weird too.

Is The Choice Of Versions Limited To Anal Vs Banal?

There exists among those who have commented on the change from the original lyrics of “The Future” a unanimity that the revision has been, directly or indirectly, based on censorship. And, that is a reasonable idea (at least I certainly thought so when I wrote as much in a few comments I made on other blogs).

Censorship does seem the most straightforward explanation for the pattern of determining which lyrics were sung in the period when the song was first introduced. On TV shows (including Letterman), official videos, and radio broadcasts, the more benign “Give me crack and careless sex” prevailed while in concerts, the original line was used. That fits the reality of the cultural environment then, including the explicit use of censors on TV networks.

Consequently, I suppose I can make the leap to imagine, for example, Cohen deciding, with or without counsel from his management, that the benefits of using “Give me crack and anal sex” wasn’t worth even a small chance of problems it might cause. I can also fashion a plausible story about use of “Give me crack and careless sex” being a casually reached decision made during rehearsal that has been perpetuated in the ongoing concert series. Or I can concoct a chain of events in which the choice is made as the result of a special plea by someone important to Leonard Cohen. Heck, I might even swallow the idea that a concert management firm, the record company, or some other business partner leaned on Cohen to eliminate the original lyrics.

Still, it’s difficult to understand the choice of lyrics being based on censorship in 2008 when Leonard Cohen was routinely singing “Give me crack and anal sex” in concerts 15 years ago, especially since there has been a proliferation of bands and singers who produce much raunchier material in 9 of every 10 tracks they cut. It seems unlikely that Cohen is more vulnerable to censorship than, for example, the legions of hip-hop, post-punk, and latter day heavy metal musicians.

Further, Cohen’s longstanding habits of attention to detail and extensive planning make it equally difficult to buy into the idea that the choice of which version of “The Future” to sing was cavalierly made.

Besides, I have an alternative theory. (Quelle surprise, eh?)

The standard reading of “Give me crack and anal sex” casts crack and anal sex as self-destructive, potentially deadly indulgences associated with a denial of personal responsibility for life, whether ones own or the life of someone else. The lust for immediate pleasure then supersedes a more thoughtful course consistent with personable integrity and dignity.

The simple truth, easily and inevitably recognized with a modicum of thoughtful consideration,  is that “careless sex,” regardless of the reasons that terminology was originally developed as an alternative set of lyrics,  more accurately conveys the biological, psychological, and philosophical elements of that premise than does “anal sex.”

Careless Sex posters: Ministries of Health - Zambia (left) & Kenya (right)

In comparison, “Give me crack and anal sex” offers few advantages. There is something special about the original versions of songs although one hears few demands from the audience for “Chelsea Hotel #1.” And, “anal sex” still invokes  a tinge of unsanctioned behavior.

Most tellingly, however, “Give me crack and anal sex” is used as a litmus test to prove that the performance is not censored.

So, has Cohen has been using “Give me crack and careless sex”rather than “Give me crack and anal sex” during The World Tour concerts because, as I propose, it “more accurately conveys the biological, psychological, and philosophical elements of [the song's] premise than does ‘anal sex?’”

I dunno.  But, it seems a reasonable possibility.

And, more to the point, it’s a reasonable possibility that has been given little or no consideration.

The discontent of those (including me) who have been critical of the use of lyrics other than the original has been, it seems, predicated entirely on the presumption that substituting “careless sex” for “anal sex” has been a surrender to censorship.

While anti-censorship is commendable, the conjecture, based on little or no evidence and in the face of a logical alternative,  that the  change in this song’s lyrics necessarily indicates a capitulation to the forces of evil is the result of, at best, lazy reasoning and, more likely, an automatic assumption.

Artists deserve better.

1. Readers unhappy with this title may prefer the heading I would use if this piece were published in a scholarly journal rather than a blog: Implications Of Alterations In Attested Preferred Sexual Practices Named In A Conjoined Imperative Coupled With Illicit Stimulants In Performances  of The Future By Leonard Cohen In The Context Of The Socioeconomic And Cultural Milieu Prevalent In Canada, Europe, and Australia During The 2008-2009 Leonard Cohen World Tour↩
2. I am, by the way, aware that writing about the phrase, “Give me crack and anal sex” entails massive numbers of opportunities to lapse into bad taste. I apologize in advance because with that many possibilities to come off as offensive or puerile, I will, despite my best efforts, inevitably miss one or two. I’m bummed about it, but I won’t back off.↩
3. Nice Jazz Festival↩
4. This is also my favorite of all the videos of Cohen performing “The Future.”↩
5. See Re: Manchester, UK (June 17-20) ↩
6. See Nice Jazz Festival↩