Closing Time

This song is about closing time at a bar, and the end of the world:

The whole damn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and once for Christ But the Boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding lights, Busted in the blinding lights Of Closing Time

There is a reference to revelations, where everybody goes crazy for the anti-christ, then the second coming occurs and everybody goes crazy for Christ. At the same time its just about a bar. Cohen has a wonderful ability to capture the divine in the mundane...Sisters of mercy was about three ladies who picked him up hitchhiking in a snow storm and let them stay in their hotel room, according to an interview.

It's about all the excesses in life, sin if you will. All good things must come to an end--"The Boss don't like these dizzy heights, we're busted in the blinding lights of closing time". The "Boss" (God/ our conscience/ our mortality) always seems to surface when we are enjoying overabundance. Reality and responsibility eventually set in, a similar feeling to when the lights go on in a bar after closing time; you realize the fun's over and it's time to go home. Or like a deer caught in the headlights--frozen for a moment not knowing what to do next. At the beginning of the song he reflects on how life was all about drinking, dancing, sex and superficial beauty--and how much fun it was. Later in the song he's older and has been either unwilling or unable to change the direction his life was going, except now he knows "the awful truth" which is that despite all the fun to be had, he has lived a somewhat lonely and empty life.

Ofcourse we all use personal experiences to interpret everything. My personal interpretation goes this way...

One night he's at a party with this friend of his who is dancing and rubbing up against half the guys in the bar. After the party ends and the bar closes, he takes her home to make sure she's safe, but they are both lonely and at the top of the steps or possibly on her roof or balcony they end up sharing a passionate kiss, have sex and enter into a relationship. This is a relationship where it all started because of her beauty and her body (i.e lust), but there was love also. But they realized that the relationship was headed no where and called it off, but he still loves her as a friend. And because he still loves her as a friend he's sorry that the relationship never worked out. And I loved you when our love was blessed And I love you now there's nothing left But sorrow and a sense of overtime And I missed you since the place got wrecked And I just don't care what happens next Looks like freedom but it feels like death It's something in between, I guess

The breakup was freedom from a bad relationship and each other but the pain of it still makes it feel like death.

Now years later, they bump into each other at a bar and she's old but she still dresses to attract men like she did when she was young. They laugh and drink and they dance a little but there is an awkwardness and something is missing, which is why the place seems dead. He realizes the awful truth which was that they threw away a friendship for sex and in the long run the sex wasn't really worth as much as he had valued her friendship.

And the whole damn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and once for Christ But the Boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding lights,

When they realize what they gave up, their mind goes crazy with the realization the first time. The second time is when the fleeting thought comes in that they still care about/love each other and maybe it can work. But life (i.e. the boss) has taken them down different paths and when reality takes hold and their dreams of being together again are busted.

Closing time as in It's The End Of The World As We Know It, it's about spending your last night alive with a major blow-out. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

this is one of my favorite cohen songs...the images are so vivid...i love it

I dont think its about the end of the world, rather the end of a relationship (which sometimes can feel like the world though). He is out drinking after breaking up and its getting closer to closing time, which is usually when the sorrows and a realisations kicks in.

One of my all time favourite lines in a song is: "..the Johnny Walker wisdom running high"

This song is about closing time at a bar, and the end of the world:

The whole damn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and once for Christ But the Boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding lights, Busted in the blinding lights Of Closing Time

There is a reference to revelations, where everybody goes crazy for the anti-christ, then the second coming occurs and everybody goes crazy for Christ. At the same time its just about a bar. Cohen has a wonderful ability to capture the divine in the mundane...Sisters of mercy was about three ladies who picked him up hitchhiking in a snow storm and let them stay in their hotel room, according to an interview.

This song is about closing time at a bar, and the end of the world:

The whole damn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and once for Christ But the Boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding lights, Busted in the blinding lights Of Closing Time

There is a reference to revelations, where everybody goes crazy for the anti-christ, then the second coming occurs and everybody goes crazy for Christ. At the same time its just about a bar. Cohen has a wonderful ability to capture the divine in the mundane...Sisters of mercy was about three ladies who picked him up hitchhiking in a snow storm and let them stay in their hotel room, according to an interview.

This song is about closing time at a bar, and the end of the world:

The whole damn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and once for Christ But the Boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding lights, Busted in the blinding lights Of Closing Time

There is a reference to revelations, where everybody goes crazy for the anti-christ, then the second coming occurs and everybody goes crazy for Christ. At the same time its just about a bar. Cohen has a wonderful ability to capture the divine in the mundane...Sisters of mercy was about three ladies who picked him up hitchhiking in a snow storm and let them stay in their hotel room, according to an interview.

I think this song is about the ills of sexual and drug-induced debauchery, and how true love is not akin to lust.

Basically he meets a woman at an orgy, they fall in love (or perhaps lust?). "And I loved you for your body. There's a voice that sounds like God to me declaring that your body's really you." sounds like God, but perhaps it isn't. They get married "I loved you when our love was blessed".

Eventually the relationship ends, because it was based on lust, not love. Broken by the "weeds of sex".

Then another scene, he is with a different companion, they are old and happy. The "awful truth" would be that lust doesn't necessarily equal tru love, but the youth will not listen. And now, he/they are going "crazy" the 2nd time around, but this time because they found god.

Anyway, that's how I interpret it (not that I necessarily agree with it).