Diamonds in the Lines : Leonard Cohen in his own live words

The Gypsy's Wife (1979-1980)

1979 from the Harry Rasky's film "The Song of Leonard Cohen"

"The Gypsy's Wife" was one of the last and sweetest song I've written. I started it in L.A. around the time I began recording, which was last March or April.The song was written in about three months. And of course my own marriage was breakin'up at that time and in a sense it was written for my gypsy wife, in other words the wife that was wandering away, but euh.. in another way it's just a song about the way men and women have lost one another. Men and women have wandered away from each other, have become gypsies to each other. And the last verse says: "there is no man or woman you can touch - But you who come between them will be judged". In other words, even though we are in the midst of some kind of psychic catastrophy, it's not an invitation to take an advantage of it. That's mostly what the song is about.

1979, reported by Harry Rasky in his book
"The Song of Leonard Cohen-Portrait of a poet, a friendship and a film"

That particular song started in a woman's apartment last winter. My marriage was breakin' up and she had a guitar. I was waiting for her to get ready and that is exactly what I was thinking, "where, where is my gypsy wife tonight ?" and it was one of those songs that started that way. Most of them are much less fluent in their beginnings, but it was just thinking to myself that one happened very easily and I got that sequence. I guess you could find in it a lot of Spanish or Eastern Music.

Tel-Aviv 24/11/80

This is a little song that I wrote for my wife after she ran away.

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