First We Take Manhattan

So, the other day, I was listening to my collection of Norwegian heavy metal — as one does — and for some reason, this one particular track off a ten-year-old Sirenia EP got completely stuck in my head.

(Thanks go to Mr/Ms "RaZieL" for helpfully uploading a copy to YouTube with lyrics in both English and what I'm assuming is either Spanish or Portuguese.)

So, anyway, after humming it for days, and turning the lyrics over and over in my head, I decided to go looking for some info. Turns out, it's a song from 1987 that was written by Leonard Cohen and released by Jennifer Warnes — who was one of Cohen's backing singers at the time.

It's Also been covered many many times over the years.

Lots of times, I like to get my hands on instrumental versions of songs, but in this case, I think I'm more fascinated by the words than the music. Now, I get that the art of writing a song is a bit like the art of writing a speech; you want it to sound powerful and moving, but at the same time, it has to be vague enough that everyone can interpret it as speaking directly to them and their own individual situation; but I really would like to know what Len was thinking when he penned this. And I did manage to find some stuff on SongFacts.com:

If you're a bit puzzled by this song, that might be the point. Cohen took a shot at explaining it in the April, 1993 issue of Song Talk. The Canadian singer/songwriter explained: "I felt for sometime that the motivating energy, or the captivating energy, or the engrossing energy available to us today is the energy coming from the extremes. That's why we have Malcolm X. And somehow it's only these extremist positions that can compel our attention. And I find in my own mind that I have to resist these extremist positions when I find myself drifting into a mystical fascism in regards to myself. [Laughs] So this song, 'First We Take Manhattan', what is it? Is he serious? And who is we? And what is this constituency that he's addressing? Well, it's that constituency that shares this sense of titillation with extremist positions. I'd rather do that with an appetite for extremism than blow up a bus full of schoolchildren."

Okay, well, that explains a good chunk of it, but not the bits I'm most curious about. Like, of all the cities in the world, why Manhattan & Berlin? I guess in 1987 the wall was still up, but Manhattan? Is it supposed to represent the the capitalist heart of America? Was he living there at the time?

Also, this bit:

I don't like your fashion business mister
And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin
I don't like what happened to my sister

I think this is the bit that's been sloshing back and forth in my brain the most. Is it a reference to something specific? A news story at the time? Was his "sister" a specific person, or was he making a statement about women generally? Is he talking about the fashion industry's "heroin chic" controversy? Was that an issue as early as '87? (Excuse my ignorance, but I'm not even sure I had a telly at that point) Was there a similar trend that pre-dated it? He's not talking about Twiggy in the '60s, is he? I notice that in Sirenia's much shorter metal version, it's one of the few verses they kept, so there must have been something about it that grabbed them too.

Sadly, in the end, I suspect my ruminations are not going to lead to any sort of satisfying conclusion. There's only one person who knows for sure (and who knows how much longer for). And so, here's the man himself, doing his own rendition, live at … um … somewhere in London, I guess.