One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong
By: Leonard Cohen

Original Performance: Leonard Cohen
Written by: Leonard Cohen

Versions:
  1. One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (5:40)
    Available on Songs Of Leonard Cohen.
    Credits
    Bram Inscore: Bass
    Andrew Van Wyngarden: Drums
    Beck Hansen: Keyboard / Synthesizer
    Ben Goldwasser: Keyboard / Synthesizer
    Binki Shapiro: Vocals
    Devendra Banhart: Vocals
 
Lyrics:
One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong [Version (a)]:

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

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

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
 
The Song:

"One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" is a particularly surreal and pretty song by Leonard Cohen. It appears on his debut album, Songs Of Leonard Cohen. Beck and his friends recorded the entire album for the Record Club section of his website.

Sung by Devendra Banhart and Binki Shapiro, they give a relaxed, somewhat hushed run through of the song.
 
Notes: