Leonard Cohen - Boogie Street

 

O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,

I never thought we’d meet.

You kiss my lips, and then it’s done:

I’m back on Boogie Street.

A sip of wine, a cigarette,

And then it’s time to go.

I tidied up the kitchenette;

I tuned the old banjo.

I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.

They’re saving me a seat.

I’m what I am, and what I am,

Is back on Boogie Street.

And O my love, I still recall

The pleasures that we knew;

The rivers and the waterfall,

Wherein I bathed with you.

Bewildered by your beauty there,

I’d kneel to dry your feet.

By such instructions you prepare

A man for Boogie Street.

O Crown of Light...

So come, my friends, be not afraid.

We are so lightly here.

It is in love that we are made;

In love we disappear.

Tho’ all the maps of blood and flesh

Are posted on the door,

There’s no one who has told us yet

What Boogie Street is for.

      The song explores the tension between spiritual transcendence and the ordinary demands of human existence. The song presents life as a journey through desire, pleasure, suffering and disillusionment, where moments of beauty coexist with uncertainty and loss. Boogie Street becomes a metaphor for the earthly world, with its temptations, routines and fleeting encounters. Cohen’s reflective, almost mystical voice suggests that wisdom lies not in escaping life’s contradictions, but in accepting their enduring presence.