| Human Sexual Response – Marone Offering Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| Like the following song on the album, Pound, this one has a driving persistent beat. I have always thought the song was about the temptation of anonymous gay sex. The Fenway was well-known at the time for gay cruising. The "river" in the song is likely the Fenway's Muddy River rather than Boston's Charles River. The police are present, keeping a lookout for public sex. There is danger cruising amid the darkened trees, of course, as suggested by references to blood and jackknife. It was not unusual for gay men to be mugged or beaten while cruising. The temptation remains persistent, however, as the Fenway remains "just a 5 minute walk away." I don't have an explanation for the term "rat date" or "Marone offering." | |
| Leonard Cohen – You Know Who I Am Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Like many Cohen songs, this one is immersed in Judaism. Yahweh, a form of the Hebrew word for God, can be interpreted as He Who Brings into Existence That Which Exists. That is referenced in the song by the phrase, "I am the One who loves changing from nothing to One." The following verse has a number of biblical allusions. "Sometimes I need you naked" references Genesis 2:25, in which we are told that the man and his wife, Adam and Eve, "were naked yet felt no shame." "Sometimes I need you wild" might be a reference to Exodus 16, and the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt, where "they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared." "I need you to kill a child" is certainly a reference to God's testing of Abraham in Genesis 22, in which he is instructed to sacrifice his son, Isaac, a story that Cohen tells most powerfully in his song, Story of Isaac. Although Judaism frequently informs Cohen's work, Christianity also plays a role, so it is seems likely that the verse "I will leave you one broken man, whom I will teach you to repair" is an implicit allusion to Christ, and his role as redeemer. In its religious aspect, then, I think the song is about the distance between God and man, the Creator and his creation, the sacred and the profane. In a metaphorical sense, however, it is likely about relationships in general--parent and child, spouses, lovers, even friends--and the struggle to overcome the distance between us all--"I cannot follow you, my love, you cannot follow me"--and accepting that there will always be some distance "between all of the moments that we will be." |
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