Democracy Coming...to the USA?

With midterms approaching, I'm reminded that almost nothing tops (or needs to be heard more than) Leonard Cohen's "Democracy," one of the greatest songs of the previous century. After watching Bono on Colbert on Thursday night talking about USA and democracy for nine minutes, I told my wife, "His hero Leonard did it better in nine WORDS: The cradle of the best / and of the worst. Here is "Democracy" lyrics along with two Leonard video versions, starting with a jazzy partial spoken word thing, and then a surprising live Lumineers version (with Leonard’s backup singers, the Webb Sisters), and down below, “Anthem”: I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd / while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud / But they’ve summoned up a thunder cloud / and they’re going to hear from me. But… there is a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in. Don’t forget to subscribe, it’s still free.

“Democracy,” sincerely, L. Cohen

It's coming through a hole in the air

From those nights in Tiananmen Square

It's coming from the feel

That this ain't exactly real

Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there

From the war against disorder

From the sirens night and day

From the fires of the homeless

From the ashes of the gay

Democracy is coming

to the USA

It's coming through a crack in the wall

On a visionary flood of alcohol

From the staggering account

Of the Sermon on the Mount

Which I don't pretend to understand at all

It's coming from the silence

On the dock of the bay

From the brave, the bold, the battered

Heart of Chevrolet

Democracy is coming

to the USA

It's coming from the sorrow in the street

The holy places where the races meet

From the homicidal bitchin'

That goes down in every kitchen

To determine who will serve and who will eat

From the wells of disappointment

Where the women kneel to pray

For the grace of God in the desert here

And the desert far away

Democracy is coming

to the USA

Sail on, sail on

O mighty ship of state

To the shores of need

Past the reefs of greed

Through the squalls of hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on

It's coming to America first

The cradle of the best and of the worst

It's here they've got the range

And the machinery for change

And it's here they've got the spiritual thirst

It's here the family's broken

And it's here the lonely say

That the heart has got to open

In a fundamental way

Democracy is coming

to the USA

It's coming from the women and the men

Oh baby, we'll be making love again

We'll be going down so deep

The river's going to weep

And the mountain's going to shout, "Amen"

It's coming like the tidal flood

Beneath the lunar sway

Imperial, mysterious

In amorous array

Democracy is coming

to the USA

Sail on, sail on

O mighty ship of state

To the shores of need

Past the reefs of greed

Through the squalls of hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean

I love the country but I can't stand the scene

And I'm neither left nor right

I'm just staying home tonight

Getting lost in that hopeless little screen

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags

That time cannot decay

I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet

Democracy is coming

to the USA

…and “Anthem”

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Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His 2021 film, Atomic Cover-up, has been featured at a dozen festivals this year and is winning awards. His new film, The First Attack Ads, was aired on hundreds of PBS stations in October 2022 and can be viewed online here. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.