One of Us Cannot Be Wrong Lyrics
I lit a thin green candle
To make you jealous of me
But the room just filled up with mosquitos
They heard that my body was free
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
And I put it in your little shoe
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
That you wore for the world to look through
[Verse 2]
I showed my heart to the doctor
He said I just have to quit
Then he wrote himself a prescription
And your name was mentioned in it
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
With the details of our honeymoon
And I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
And his practice is all in a ruin
[Verse 3]
I heard of a saint who had loved you
So I studied all night in his school
He taught that the duty of lovers
Is to tarnish the golden rule
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
He drowned himself in the pool
His body is gone, but back here on the lawn
His spirit continues to drool
An Eskimo showed me a movie
He'd recently taken of you
The poor man could hardly stop shivering
His lips and his fingers were blue
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
And I guess he just never got warm
But you stand there so nice in your blizzard of ice
Oh, please let me come into the storm
About
This song was inspired by Nico. Sylvie Simmons sums up the song as follows:
“One of Us Cannot Be Wrong”, Leonard’s wryly humorous song, inspired by Nico, about a man battered but unbroken by lust (…)
In fact, there was a period when Leonard Cohen was in love with Nico:
Although he never won her, he was “madly in love with her”.
Besides “One of Us Cannot be Wrong”, she was also the source of inspiration for lots of other songs:
But in 1967, feeling he “had no skill” and that he “had forgotten how to court a lady,” Leonard went back alone to his hotel room. His thoughts full of Nico, he wrote “The Jewels in Your Shoulder” and “Take This Longing”, then titled “The Bells,” both of which he later played and taught to Nico. She was both “the tallest and blondest girl” in the song “Memories” and the muse for “Joan of Arc” (…) She also inspired “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong.”
(All quotes are taken from: Simmons, Sylvie, I’m Your Man. The Life of Leonard Cohen, Vintage, 2013).
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Some brief, enlightening remarks from Cohen’s prologues:
Frankfurt 06/05/70 :
This song was written in the Chelsea Hotel, in the elevator, waiting for my friend to wake up…
Berlin 24/09/74
A song from the other side of the marriage bed. The room is empty, the window is opened, the lover is gone, a laugh is heard in the stadium…
Paris 19/10/74
The window is opened,and the lovers have fled. Maybe they were never there to begin with.They were never there to begin with.
- 1.Suzanne
- 2.Master Song
- 3.Winter Lady
- 9.Teachers
- 10.One of Us Cannot Be Wrong