Heck Of A Guy

Three New Songs By Leonard Cohen¹

Over the course of the Leonard Cohen World Tour, three new, unreleased songs were 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 has grouped the available recordings of each for the convenience of listeners interested in how they have evolved thus far.

This post focuses on “The Darkness.”  “Lullaby” was featured in an earlier post, Three New Songs From The Leonard Cohen World Tour – “Lullaby”.  “Feels So Good” will be featured in a future post.

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

“The Darkness” By Leonard Cohen

“The Darkness” was unofficially  introduced during the soundcheck that preceded the August 3, 2009 concert at  Piaza San Marco, Venice that was attended by several invited guests and, as seen in the photo below, observed by a group of fans just outside the venue. Consequently, recordings of the song were almost immediately made available.² “The Darkness” was not played during the Venice concert.

Click on images to enlarge. Both soundcheck photos were taken by Jarkko.

“The Darkness” has been played in the following concerts:

• Venice – July 3, 2009 (soundcheck only)
• Nashville -  November 5, 2009
• St Louis – November 7, 2009
• Las Vegas – November 12, 2009
• San Jose – November 13, 2009

Leonard Cohen – The Darkness (Venice Soundcheck, 7/3/2009)

Video from imyourwoman

Three months later, “The Darkness” reappeared, this time in  its first official public presentation at the Leonard Cohen Nashville concert.

Leonard Cohen – Darkness (Nashville TPAC, 11/5/2009)

Video by bridgebud

Leonard Cohen – Darkness (St Louis, 11/7/2009)

Video from bridgebud

Leonard Cohen – The Darkness (Las Vegas, 11/12/2009)

Video from albertnoonan

Leonard Cohen – The Darkness (San Jose, 11/13/2009)

“The Darkness” By Leonard Cohen – Lyrics

The Darkness – Venice Soundcheck (7/3/2009)
From mnkyface at LeonardCohenForum

….It was drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness
from your little ruby cup
I said ‘is this contagious?’
You said ‘just drink it up’

I got no future baby
I know my days are few
I got no future (honey?)
I said I know my days are few
And the prison’s not that pleasant
Just a lot of things to do

I don’t need your sticky (?) little buzz
I don’t need your alcohol
I don’t need your loving touch
but that’s always been your call
’cause there’s nothing about (but?) the darkness
‘makes any sense to me at all

I should have seen the darkness
It was right behind your eyes
ah, those pools so deep and heartless
I just had to take a dive
ah yeah winning you was easy
yeah but darknesss was the prize

Got no future
Got no future
Got no future
yeah I know my days are few
The prison’s not that pleasant
just a lot of things to do

Don’t need your sticky little buzz…

[here he signals the band to stop- you can hear cathedral bells ringing over them]

The Darkness – Venice Soundcheck (7/3/2009)
From merton at LeonardCohenForum

….. it was drinking from your cup,
I got the darkness
from your little ruby cup
I said ‘is this contagious?’
You said ‘just drink it up’

I’ve got no future baby
I know my days are few
I’ve got no future though
As I say I know my days are few
Is the present not that pleasant (?)
Just a lot of things to do

I don’t like your sticky little bud
I don’t like alcohol
I don’t need your loving touch
That’s always been your call
Cause there’s nothing but the darkness
Makes any sense to me at all

I should have seen the darkness
It was right behind your eyes
All those pools so deep and heartless
I just had to take a dive
Ah yea but winning you was easy
Ah but the darkness was the price

Got no future (x3)

Yea I know the days are few
The present is not that pleasant(?)
Just a lot of things to do

(AND THEN QUASIMODO THE BELLS THE BELLS !!!!)

The Darkness – Nashville Concert (11/5/2009)
From LadyLilley at LeonardCohenForum

I caught the darkness baby,
Drinking from your cup,
I caught the darkness baby,
from your little ruby cup.
I said is this contagious?
You said ‘just drink it up’

I’ve got no future,
I know my days are few
The present’s not that pleasant
just a lot of things to do
I thought the past would last me
but the darkness got there too

I should have seen it coming
it was right behind your eyes
you were young and it was summer
ahhh-I had to take a dive
yeah winning you was easy
but the darkness was the prize

I don’t use no cigerette
and I can’t taste the alcohol
I ain’t had much loving yet
ah but that’s always been your call
ever since the darkness
doesn’t make much sense to me at all

I used to love the rainbow
And I used to love the view
I loved the early morning
and I pretended it was new
but I caught the darkness baby
and I got it worse than you

caught the darkness
drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness
drinking from your cup
I said is this contagious?
you said ‘just drink it up’

Download “Darkness” 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):

• Darkness – Venice Soundcheck (7/3/2009)
• Darkness – Nashville (11/5/2009)
• Darkness – St Louis (11/7/2009)
• Darkness – Las Vegas (11/12/2009)
• Darkness – San Jose (11/13/2009)

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.

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2. See 1st Video, New Leonard Cohen Song – The Darkness and Complete Version Of “The Darkness” – The New Leonard Cohen Song – Now Available [↩]