Diamonds in the Mine Lyrics
The man in white -- that's you -- says he has no friends.
The river is swollen up with rusty cans
And the trees are burning in your promised land.
And there are no letters in the mailbox,
And there are no grapes upon the vine,
And there are no chocolates in the boxes anymore,
And there are no diamonds in the mine.
You say you're kind of restless now and it's on account of him.
Well, I saw the man in question, it was just the other night,
He was eating up a lady where the lions and Christians fight.
And there are no grapes upon the vine,
And there are no chocolates in the boxes anymore,
And there are no diamonds in the mine.
Some very clever doctor went and sterilized the bitch,
And the only man of energy, yes the revolution's pride,
He trained a hundred women just to kill an unborn child.
Oh no, there are no, no grapes upon your vine,
And there are no diamonds in your mine.
And there are no letters in the mailbox,
And there are no grapes upon the vine,
And there are no chocolates in your boxes anymore,
And there are no diamonds in your mine.
This is a bleak song sang as an insanely peppy folk tune.
The gist of the song is that life is empty now and there is nothing special (no diamonds in the mine, no chocolates in the boxes)
No refuge in the coven of the witch.. sterilized the bitch (2nd best line) There is no comfort in religion a doctor(scientist) sterilized it of any truth or meaning.
As for the Lover with a broken limb. She worked hard to take care of him, but he cheated on her. "Eating up a lady where the lions and Christians fight" (best line) Eating up a lady where her passions meet her morals (her genitals) The lions of passion fight the Christian morals of celibacy. (he uses sex and religion a lot)
Man of energy... The man who was supposed to save the world is wasted. (miraculously intelligent people (doctors)waste their talents on abortion, Viagra, and other things that are products of a modern moral-less society.
I hope my deciphering of the last musical poet was helpful.
the first poster says the chorus is clear enough, so maybe s/he gets it, but this song isn't simply about life being empty.
the first poster says the chorus is clear enough, so maybe s/he gets it, but this song isn't simply about life being empty.
as far as i can tell, this song is specifically about a woman after her prime. nobody's sending her letters, nobody's buying her wine, nobody's giving her chocolates, and nobody's "mining for diamonds" in her vagina. it's basically the bitterest song ever, and i love it.
as far as i can tell, this song is specifically about a woman after her prime. nobody's sending her letters, nobody's buying her wine, nobody's giving her chocolates, and nobody's "mining for diamonds" in her vagina. it's basically the bitterest song ever, and i love it.
@Winters Trite and Obvious. Bear in mind, "SOL&H" is a mirrored album, the songs on side A, the hate side having a correspondent song on the Love Side, side b. So that would make this song the mirror of "Joan of Arc". Given that Joan of Arc is about Cohen's one time lover Nico and her descent into heroin, that's where you have to start in breaking this song down.
@Winters Trite and Obvious. Bear in mind, "SOL&H" is a mirrored album, the songs on side A, the hate side having a correspondent song on the Love Side, side b. So that would make this song the mirror of "Joan of Arc". Given that Joan of Arc is about Cohen's one time lover Nico and her descent into heroin, that's where you have to start in breaking this song down.
I don't know about the lyrics but I think he sings in a very bitter way. Hatred and bitterness are expressed and represented in a great way. I just love this song.
The "man of energy" and "revolution's pride" that "trained a hundred women just to kill an unborn child" is actually Charles Manson, whose followers murdered then-pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It's a common misconception (and an understandable one, particularly after the release of "The Future"), but this, by his own admission, wasn't what Cohen had in mind when writing the song.
@JQT And nor would it be, as it's unlikely given the recording timeline for this album (it took 18 moths to make, so that means that its tenuous that the story about Charles Manson would have been known at the time of the songs writing.
@JQT And nor would it be, as it's unlikely given the recording timeline for this album (it took 18 moths to make, so that means that its tenuous that the story about Charles Manson would have been known at the time of the songs writing.
Well, the chorus is clear enough, but I've got know idea what the rest of the song is about. Where the lions and Christians fight? Trained a hundred women? Whaa?
Either way, I like how he just gets crazier as the song goes on, and he's just yelling at the end. It amuses me.
@jebso Leonard Cohen is brilliant. Notice also how he changes it to "your vine" and "your boxes" - nailing each of us personally. He ends by yelling the pain and frustration - very appropriate to the theme. He's done it before. At then end of "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" he sings "la da da da..." (the haunting melody) louder and louder, getting rough and off-key, screaming as he fades out. Like a man who tried to drown the pain with booze now leaving the stage. It's my favorite Cohen song.
@jebso Leonard Cohen is brilliant. Notice also how he changes it to "your vine" and "your boxes" - nailing each of us personally. He ends by yelling the pain and frustration - very appropriate to the theme. He's done it before. At then end of "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" he sings "la da da da..." (the haunting melody) louder and louder, getting rough and off-key, screaming as he fades out. Like a man who tried to drown the pain with booze now leaving the stage. It's my favorite Cohen song.
this song is completely nuts. at the end he's just screaming his lungs out, it's fucking insane.
this song sounds to me like a hybrid of lou reed and tom waits. in the lyrics and the way they're sung. it's pretty great,
I always thought it had something to do with abortion. No Diamonds in the Mine, meaning no fertile eggs in a women?
I think there are definitely some references to the Manson family thrown in here. He references them again in the equally bleak song "The Future." The last verse here is really the tell as it describes the Tate-LaBianca killings.
it's about abortion, iirc.