Night Comes On

This song is a journey of loss in the singer's life...

A child who has lost his Mother... he fears he won't make it alone but she (his Spirit Mother says, "I'll be with you, Go back tot he world." Next, he loses his Father, who warns him to "remember,my Son how they lied." Deeply wounded by loss and abandonment issues as he arrives at romantic relationships, takes to religion (he actually worked in the kitchen at a monastery for years) he "I wondered how long she would stay (will I lose her too?). "I needed so much to have nothing to touch (lest I lose that too), I've always been greedy that way." How will he navigate the relationship possibilities with his children? (reacting to his reticence, they cry, "Papa you promised to play."
As they lead him away to their great surprise, "Papa don't peek, Papa cover your eyes!" ...and they hide, they hide in the world. This is the same world his departed Mother keeps telling him to stay in, to go back to each time he joins her in his reverie, his wakeful dreaming world where he connects with her. It could be his Mother or his relationship / wife who may also have departed that he refers to, "Now I look for her always, I'm lost in this calling, I'm tied to the threads of some prayer..." He wants to follow her / them to the other side; Saying, "When will she summon me, when will she call to me, what must I do to prepare?" He finds her (his departed wife or his muse) there, in his wakeful dream where he hangs out with her and make love with her, "when she bends to my longing like a willow, like a fountain, she stands in a luminous aire" He meets her there, in the same etherial place he's met his Spirit Mother, his Spirit wife says, "When I'm gone, I'll be yours, yours for a song." The last verse brings the tragic journey to a full circle, present-time:

Now the crickets are singing The vesper bells ringing The cat's curled asleep in his chair I'll go down to Bill's Bar (he's pretty wasted in this life, but he can make it to the corner bar) I can make it that far And I'll see if my friends are still there Yes, and here's to the few Who forgive what you do And the fewer who don't even care (a comment on the connections of the other alcoholics / friends in the bar... these are all that's left to hime now in this stage of his life) ...but his life-long connection to his Mom, who has been there with him through it all in the Spirit world... "I want to cross over, I want to go home" to her, to God... But she says, "Go Back, go back to the world" ...You're not done on this journey...

For me, he's singing about a lot of things - he's brilliant at writing in layers; listening to his music is like peeling an onion. I hear references to Nazi Germany, to sex, to the Yom Kippur war, to sadness and grief, to the pain of loss, to religion, and even - ultimately - to hope. And I always feel there's more to be heard. I'm not sure I'll ever get enough of this song.

I can't believe nobody has commented on this song. It's been my most recent obsession with Cohen, and particularly that line that he needed so much to have nothing to touch, which is really a type of greed, an envy for defying gravity. A greed for something that is nothing. Great stuff. Now somebody else write something

I reckon the second verse ("We were fighting in Egypt..".) is a reference to the Yom Kippur war, specifically the ceasefire imposed by UN resolution 338, which was broken by the Egyptian armed forces. I know Cohan toured and played shows for Israeli soldiers during the war. Stands to reason.

In any case, it's a very good song. The last two lines really get to me sometimes. It seems to me as being about dealing with the world, with reality, and with growing up and aging. I'd love to read other interpretations, though.

it sounds like he is depressed and wants to die but finds reasons to continue living it reminds me of a robert frost poem "stopping by the woods on a snowy evening"

first time I ever heard this song I was reminded of Frost's "Stopping by woods" also. I certainly get the impression that death, the calm night, is appealing to Cohen but he is moved to stay in the world.

There is lots of imagery in here which I would shy away from trying to disect too much. I get the feeling from the verse about the children that he is speaking of being drawn to death but thoughts of his love and duty to his children keep him. But then his children grow and move out to the world where in a way they are lost to him, so still the calm night calls him.

The first verse sounds like the singer is visiting his mothers grave. He is thinking about suicide, but his mother reminds him that it is wrong. In the second verse his father encorages him to choose life. By the third verse his children have made an apperance making his thoughts of suicide appear to be selfish, which of course it is. In the final verse the mood of the song changes. The melody becomes brighter. Our hero wanders down to the bar and seems to be enjoying life. He's taken to heart the advice given to him by his mother. This is a great song. I love how Leonard's voice had deepened on this album.

love this song....i don't know why im drawn to depressing songs but i just seem to be..anyway this song is about suicide imo...i like it though..there is a bit of hope at the end..but not too much!!!!

The song is obviously about suicide, or suicidal thoughts. The first verse is about him visiting his mother's grave and her mother preventing him from committing suicide. The second verse is about his father, and him preventing him from committing suicide. The third verse is about his children preventing himself from committing suicide. The fourth verse is about his wife preventing him from suicide. And the fifth verse is he himself preventing himself from suicide, and the realization of gifts of life.

this is a novel in song form, and brilliant for all that. Cohen takes notes from his own life, and likely events in the lives of people he met along the way, to compose a complete story in five acts, from the fracturing innocence of a boy dealing with loss and horror all the way to an old man's search for peace amid the debris of regret. And always the open door of death calling to him as an escape from pain; with something always tethering him to life because it isn't yet his time.

It's one of those songs I wish Cohen had turned into a novel.