The Captain - Leonard Cohen.mp3

[00:07.140]Now the Captain called me to his bed
[00:09.400]
[00:11.080]He fumbled for my hand
[00:12.980]
[00:14.980]"Take these silver bars" he said
[00:18.610]"I'm giving you command"
[00:20.730]
[00:22.170]"Command of what, there's no one here
[00:25.590]
[00:26.160]There's only you and me
[00:28.220]
[00:29.720]All the rest are dead or in retreat
[00:33.850]Or with the enemy"
[00:35.160]
[00:37.470]"Complain, complain, that's all you've done
[00:40.780]
[00:41.660]Ever since we lost
[00:43.590]
[00:44.910]If it's not the Crucifixion
[00:45.400]
[00:48.820]Then it's the Holocaust"
[00:50.260]
[00:52.830]"May Christ have mercy on your soul
[00:55.950]
[00:56.520]For making such a joke
[00:58.770]
[01:00.270]Amid these hearts that burn like coal
[01:04.370]And the flesh that rose like smoke"
[01:05.400]
[01:08.000]"I know that you have suffered, lad
[01:11.170]
[01:11.910]But suffer this awhile
[01:13.850]
[01:15.600]Whatever makes a soldier sad
[01:18.970]
[01:19.660]Will make a killer smile"
[01:21.720]
[01:23.160]"I'm leaving, Captain, I must go
[01:26.970]There's blood upon your hand
[01:28.400]
[01:30.800]But tell me, Captain, if you know
[01:34.590]Of a decent place to stand"
[01:36.400]
[01:38.380]"There is no decent place to stand
[01:41.820]
[01:42.550]In a massacre
[01:43.780]
[01:45.970]But if a woman take your hand
[01:49.160]
[01:50.160]Go and stand with her"
[01:52.160]
[01:53.700]"I left a wife in Tennessee
[01:56.270]
[01:57.640]And a baby in Saigon
[01:59.500]
[02:01.650]I risked my life, but not to hear
[02:05.000]Some country western song"
[02:07.500]
[02:08.800]"Ah, but if you cannot raise your love
[02:12.260]
[02:12.830]To a very high degree
[02:14.690]
[02:16.310]Then you're just the man I've been thinking of
[02:19.690]
[02:20.560]So come and stand with me"
[02:22.810]
[02:24.120]"Your standing days are done", I cried
[02:27.560]
[02:28.120]"You'll rally me no more
[02:30.250]
[02:31.810]I don't even know what side
[02:35.560]We fought on, or what for"
[02:38.060]
[02:39.370]"I'm on the side that's always lost
[02:42.500]
[02:43.310]Against the side of Heaven
[02:45.370]
[02:46.880]I'm on the side of Snake-eyes tossed
[02:51.280]Against the side of Seven"
[02:53.090]
[02:54.450]"And I've read the Bill of Human Rights
[02:57.920]
[02:58.480]And some of it was true
[03:00.780]
[03:02.090]But there wasn't any burden left
[03:05.950]So I'm laying it on you"
[03:07.400]
[03:09.950]Now the Captain he was dying
[03:13.700]But the Captain wasn't hurt
[03:16.060]
[03:17.510]The silver bars were in my hand
[03:21.620]Pinned them to my shirt