Leonard Cohen Songs - Anthem Lyrics

Leonard Cohen - Anthem

Leonard Cohen - Anthem Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Future
Released: 1992

Anthem Lyrics

The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in

We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see

I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
A thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me

(Ring, ring, ring, ring)
Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in

You can add up the parts
You won't have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
But like a refugee

(Ring, ring, ring, ring)
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
Ring the bells that still can ring (ring the bells that still can ring)
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in

Writer/s: COHEN, LEONARD
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Anthem Song Chart

The actress Rebecca De Mornay dated Cohen in the early 1990s. She recalled to Uncut in 2014 how she ended up producing this track. "Leonard was at my house, and I had a synthesizer," she said. "He was off in a room, playing a song that I'd heard him play over and over for a couple of years, that he just wasn't sure what to do with. I went in and said, 'That's it! Exactly like that!' I think he'd moved the lyrics around, because they'd never had that effect on me before. I said, 'It's universal, I'm telling you, like "Silent Night," or "Auld Lang Syne," so why don't we bring in a gospel choir?' And he turned and looked at me very strangely. And he said, 'I want you to produce this song."

De Mornay explained what the song means to her. "To me, 'Anthem' was the pinnacle of his deep understanding of human defeat. 'I can't run no more with that lawless crowd, while the killers say their prayers out loud... And they've summoned up a thundercloud, and they're going to hear from me,'" she said. "That 'I' – that's the soul of Leonard Cohen. He doesn't suffer fools. He's deeply kind and generous-spirited, but he's not a sweet little monk."

This was prominently used on the soundtrack for Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers along with two other Leonard Cohen songs "Waiting for the Miracle" and "The Future."