Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour – "Lullaby"

Three New Songs By Leonard Cohen¹

Over the course of the Leonard Cohen World Tour, three new, unreleased songs have been presented in concert, giving rise to speculation that they may be included on a forthcoming Leonard Cohen album:

• “Lullaby”
• “The Darkness”
• “Feels So Good” (formerly known as “The Other Blues Song”)

Because the lyrics and arrangements of these songs have been subject to change, Heck Of A Guy is publishing a series of posts presenting the YouTube recordings of each new song along with the lyrics and information about when and where the songs and their variations appeared. In addition, my observations on the popularity of and fans’ interest in these songs are included. Little, however, in the way of analysis of style, musicology, interpretation, … sullies this series of posts.

This post focuses on “Lullaby.” “The Darkness” and “Feels So Good” will be covered in upcoming posts.

Update: Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour – “The Darkness” and Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour – “Feels So Good” AKA “The Other Blues Song”, the posts focusing on “The Darkness” and “Feels So Good” are now online.

“Lullaby” By Leonard Cohen

“Lullaby” was the first new song introduced in concert during the Tour. debuting in Austin on April 1, 2009.  In the 7-8 months since then, however, it has been, as far as I can determine, performed in only four concerts:²

• Austin, Texas – April 1, 2009
• Grand Prairie,Texas – April 3, 2009
• Oakland, California – April 13, 2009
• Dublin, Ireland – July 22, 2009

Leonard Cohen Has A New Song – But Who Cares?

Of the three new songs, “Lullaby,” by my unofficial, subjective, and non-statistical – yet uncannily accurate – assessment, created the least buzz.

While fans, such as participants on LeonardCohenForum were interested,³ reviewers and bloggers made little mention of the song and even some long time fans were unaware of it until the excitement about “The Darkness” and “Feels So Good” triggered listings of all the new songs, which brought “Lullaby” to the attention of those who had not previously noticed it.

My own report of this debut, Leonard Cohen’s Austin Audition Of “Lullaby”, is telling:

Because Leonard Cohen’s April 1, 2009 Austin concert appeared to be just one more exquisite performance, I didn’t post on it. On reading the reports more carefully, however, I discovered one unique and potentially important point.

Among the songs played as part of the encore was “Lullaby,”⁴ the song Cohen discussed in his February 20, 2009 interview with Rolling Stone.⁵

Assuming my reading of the level of interest is valid, ⁶ the question becomes, “Why did/does ‘Lullaby’ generate less interest than “The Darkness” and “Feels So Good?’”

That it was only presented in concert four times could, of course, be a factor. One could also speculate that it is not as strong a song as the other two in its cohort. Or, perhaps it’s just a matter of being played in the wrong places at the wrong time.

Perhaps one or all of these, alone or in combination, are the reason(s), or it may be that there is another explanation altogether.

I’m promoting the another explanation altogether option, but  information about the introductions of the other two new songs is necessary for me to make that case. Consequently, that revelation must be deferred until I complete the other two posts in this series, Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour.

The Fate Of “Lullaby”

The fate of  “Lullaby” and with any songs Leonard Cohen introduces during a tour is also addressed  in my post, Leonard Cohen’s Austin Audition Of “Lullaby”:

As far as I can determine, ["Lullaby"] is the first new or unreleased material Cohen has performed in any of the concerts of this tour – which may or may not be significant.

On one hand (that would be the significant hand), this could presage development of the long awaited album of new Leonard Cohen songs that has been the subject of discussion since at least as long ago as June 2006.⁷

Historically, however, Cohen has sometimes performed unreleased music in his concerts that was never to be issued as part of an album. An excellent example of this phenomenon would be one of my personal favorites, “Do I Have To Dance All Night,”⁸ which was frequently played as the final song of concerts for a couple of years and was issued in Europe as a 45 rpm single but was never released in the US or as part of an album.

It is also significant that no audio or video recording of that first performance of “Lullaby” is readily available.⁹

A video¹⁰ of Leonard Cohen singing “Lullaby,” from the second performance at Grand Prairie, Texas on April 3, 2009, did appear on YouTube. Later, a true video of the performance during the  July 22, 2009 Dublin concert was also uploaded to YouTube.

Leonard Cohen – Lullaby (Grand Prairie, TX 4/3/ 2009)

Video  from musicloveraustria2

Leonard Cohen – Lullaby (Dublin O2, 7/22/2009)

Video from IrishMar

“Lullaby” By Leonard Cohen – Lyrics

Lullaby Grand Prairie, Texas (4/3/2009)
From  Laura at LeonardCohenForum

I can’t break the code
of our frozen love.
It’s too late to know
what the password was.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Though they twist the news
and the world believes,
we will live our truth,
be it on our knees.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Through a net of lies,
oh, I will come to you.
When our dead arrive,
I will salute them too.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Though it’s much too late,
and we’ve taken our stand.
And they call up your name,
we’ll go hand in hand.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Lullaby - Oakland (4/13/2009)
From rgraff at LeonardCohenForum.

I can’t break the code
of our frozen love.
It’s too late to know
what the password was.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Through the tears of lies,
oh, I will come to you.
When our dead arrive,
I will wait there too.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Though we stand accused,
and the world believes,
I will live our truth,
be it on my knees.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

I reach for the past
But I come up short
And I lift my life [light?]
Like a last resort
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

In a time of shame,
and we make a stand,
and they have your name,
we’ll go hand in hand.
If your heart is torn,
I don’t wonder why.
If the night is long,
here’s my lullaby.
Here’s my lullaby.

Download “Lullaby” MP3s

Update: A summary of all MP3 downloads available as of August 30, 2010 for 2010 performances of  the songs introduced during the Leonard Cohen World Tour, “Feels So Good,” “The Darkness,” “Lullaby,” and “Born In Chains,” can be found at Leonard Cohen’s “Born In Chains,” “Feels So Good” “Lullaby”, & “Darkness” – Downloads Updated.

Note: These MP3 files were converted from the videos shown in this post.

To download,

1. Right-click on the links corresponding with the song versions you prefer and then choose “Open link in new window” or “Open link in new tab” to open the download service pages in new windows or tabs (left clicking on the links may open the download service pages in this same window; in that case, click the “Back” arrow on your browser to return to this post):

• Lullaby – Dublin
• Lullaby – Grand Prairie

2. On the download service pages that open, click on this image:

Then choose “Save File.”

3. Each file is downloaded as “Darkness – [venue name].mp3.”

4. The files  can be used in iPods and other MP3 players. The appropriate tags (title, artist, etc) and art should display automatically when the files are loaded into an MP3 program such as iTunes. The files can also be burned onto a CD.

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1. The title of this post, “Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour,” is extrapolated from an amalgam of the names of two of Cohen’s albums, “Songs From A Room” and “Ten New Songs.”  The graphic atop this post is rendered in the style of the latter album.
   [↩]
2. “Lullaby” was reported to have also been played at some pre-concert soundchecks, such as the May 25, 2009 soundcheck in Ottawa. [↩]
3. Garnering the interest of hard core Cohen fans is itself not much of an indicator of the song’s quality or value. If Leonard Cohen recited the lyrics of the 1968 hit, “Bang-Shang-A-Lang” by the Archies, Forum entries would expound on the profundity Cohen has discovered in this forgotten masterpiece – and I would write it up in a Heck Of A Guy post [↩]
4. Documented by several sources, including the set lists published by the Decider Austin. [↩]
5. See last section of Leonard Cohen Rolling Stone Interview Offers Fragments Of New Songs But Little Else [↩]
6. It is. [↩]
7. See Two Very Raw, Unreleased Leonard Cohen Songs “Puppets” And “Book Of Longing” [↩]
8. See The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve Never Heard (Probably) [↩]
9. Many of the concerts, such as the Oakland show, are recorded but appear only as torrent downloads. I have not included those versions because, for many of us, they are not readily available. [↩]
10. Note: The scene on the video screen is fixed; it is only a static background for the audio recording of the song [↩]