The Future Lyrics

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 s*x
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

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned
The order of the soul

When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
You never will, you never did
I'm the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible

I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
But love's the only engine of survival

Your servant here, he has been told
To say it clear, to say it cold
It's over, it ain't going
Any further

And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned
The order of the soul

When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant

There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
And the white man dancing

You'll see a woman hanging upside down
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets coming round
Tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
And the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
Give me Christ
Or give me Hiroshima

Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned
The order of the soul

When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent
I wonder what they meant
When they said repent repent

Leonard Cohen - Essential Leonard Cohen

Oct 2002

1. Suzanne
2. The Stranger Song
3. Sisters Of Mercy
4. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
5. So Long, Marianne
6. Bird On A Wire
7. The Partisan
8. Famous Blue Raincoat
9. Chelsea Hotel #2
10. Take This Longing
11. Who By Fire
12. The Guests
13. Hallelujah
14. If It Be Your Will
15. Night Comes On
16. I'm Your Man
17. Everybody Knows
18. Tower of Song
19. Ain't No Cure For Love
20. Take This Waltz
21. First We Take Manhattan
22. Dance Me To The End Of Love (Live)
23. The Future
24. Democracy
25. Waiting For The Miracle
26. Closing Time
27. Anthem
28. In My Secret Life
29. Alexandra Leaving
30. A Thousand Kisses Deep
31. Love Itself