Master Song
By: Leonard Cohen
Original Performance: Leonard Cohen
Written by: Leonard Cohen

Version Of: Master Song

This Version:
  • Master Song (6:38)
    Available on Songs Of Leonard Cohen.
    Credits
    Ben Goldwasser: Bass
    Bram Inscore: Drums
    Beck Hansen: Guitar (Electric), Keyboard / Synthesizer, Vocals
    Brian Lebarton: Keyboard / Synthesizer, Vocals
    Devendra Banhart: Maracas, Recorder, Vocals
    Andrew Van Wyngarden: Oud, Percussion
    Will Berman: Vocals
 
Lyrics:
If we could all gather around
Make love to me, girl
He took you up in his aeroplane
Master song
I'm the master
Can I rap?
Go ahead

I believe that you heard your master sing when I was sick in bed
I suppose he told you everything that I keep locked in my head
Your master took you travelling, well at least that's what he said
And now do you come back to bring your prisoner wine and bread?

You met him at some temple where they take your clothes at the door
He was just a numberless man in a chair who'd just come back from the war
And you wrap up his tired face in your hair and his hand on the apple core
Then he touches your lips now so suddenly bare of all the kisses from some time before

And he gave you a German Shepherd to walk with a collar of leather and nails
And he never once made you explain or talk about all of the little details
Such as who had a word and who had a rock and who had you through the mails
Now your love is a secret all over the block and it never stops, even when your master fails

And he took you up in his aeroplane which he flew without any hands
And you cruised above the ribbons of rain that drove the crowd from the stands
Then he killed the lights in a lonely lane and an ape with angel glands
Erased the final wisps of pain with the music of rubber bands

It's the master, master, master song
Motherfuckin' master song, yea
I was playing my guitar

And now I hear your master sing, you kneel for him to come
His body is a golden string that your body is hanging from
His body is a golden string, my body has grown numb
And now you hear your master sing, your shirt is all undone

Dang! One more time

And will you kneel beside this bed that we polished so long ago
Before your master chose instead to make make that bed of snow?
Your eyes are wild and your knuckles are red and you're speaking far too low
Now I can't make out what your master said before he had to go

It's the master song
Master, master, master, it's the master song
Master, master, master, it's the master song
It's the motherfuckin' master song
Motherfuckin' master song
Go go go go
SONG!

Then I think you're playing far too rough for a lady who's been to the moon
I've laid by this window long enough, now I live in an empty room
And your love is some dust in an old man's cough who is tapping his foot to a tune (to a tune!)
And your thighs are a ruin, you want too much, let's say 'come back soon'

Come back later!
Wake me up before you go go
Master master motherfuckin' master song
Master master it's the motherfuckin' master song
Master

I loved your master perfectly, I taught him all that he knew
He was starving in some deep mystery like a man who is sure what is true
And I sent you to him with my guarantee I could teach him something new
And I taught him how you would long for me, no matter what
He said no matter what you do

Say what?

I believe that you heard your master sing while I was sick in bed
I'm sure that he told you everything I must keep locked away in my head
Your master took you traveling, well at least that's what you said
And now do you come back to bring your prisoner wine and bread?

Gimme some bread
Gimme some bread
Gimme some bread
So loooong, Marianne
Master
Hey
That's no way
To say goodbye
Master master, it's the motherfuckin' master song
Master master, it's the motherfuckin' master song
Fuck that
Master master, it's the motherfuckin' master song
Hook me up
Waaaaahhh
Get some autotune!
Waaaaaa
Haha
That sounds good!

Fish fillets
Fish fillets!
Come back
Bring that beat back in
Don't go