I think this song is about lust. Maybe I’m gutterminded but I’ve always thought so. Now, obviously, desire is one the most popular subjects for songwriters, right up there with love and slightly above chemical intoxicants and cars. While there isn’t a singer alive who hasn’t sang at some point about their ongoing quest to ‘get some’, very few are able to do so in a dignified manner. The overwhelming majority of songs are about sex and the majority of those songs rely on metaphors of the log/fireplace variety. That doesn’t mean they’re bad songs, necessarily, or that everyone should always be trying to write highmindedly about the laughable business of getting laid. It does remain, though – there’s not too many songs dealing with desire in a way that is emotionally convincing. Of those, an awful lot are about rejection, misery and self-loathing. That makes for a very few songs about desire that make desire itself seem like a desirable thing, let alone a spiritually edifying one. Of those, a disproportionate number is by Leonard Cohen. To whit, there are very very few songs about lust, sex and desire that are not silly, or sleazy, or stupid, or depressing and are not written by Leonard Cohen. Of those, a very minute number are written and performed by women. Taking a moment, let me say there’s plenty of good sex songs by women, but too many of them fall into the self-loathing/depressing category. As far as songs about sex, by women, that are empowering, poetic, non-cheezy, emotionally realistic, and, you know, good…I think it’s mostly just this one. On the other hand, I could be completely off base in my interpretation anyway. It could well be about picking dandelions in the park with Mapplethorpe for all I know.
Dancing Barefoot
she is benediction
she is addicted to thee
she is the root connection
she is connecting with hehere I go and I don’t know why
I fell so ceaselessly
could it be he’s taking over me…I’m dancing barefoot
heading for a spin
some strange music draws me in
makes me come on like some heroin/eshe is sublimation
she is the essence of thee
she is concentrating on
he, who is chosen by shehere I go and I don’t know why
I spin so ceaselessly,
could it be he’s taking over me…[chorus]
she is re-creation
she, intoxicated by thee
she has the slow sensation that
he is levitating with she …here I go and I don’t know why,
I spin so ceaselessly,
’til I lose my sense of gravity…[chorus]
(oh god I fell for you …)
the plot of our life sweats in the dark like a face
the mystery of childbirth, of childhood itself
grave visitations
what is it that calls to us?
why must we pray screaming?
why must not death be redefined?
we shut our eyes we stretch out our arms
and whirl on a pane of glass
an afixiation a fix on anything the line of life the limb of a tree
the hands of he and the promise that s/he is blessed among women.(oh god I fell for you …)
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