|
Read
the original lyrics of the song
|
|
Read also the history of this song
|
 Frankfurt
06/05/70
|
|
This is a song called "The
Partisan". When I say in the song "The Germans poured across the
borders...then the Germans came... " I don't really mean the Germans
you know. And when I say in the song "I took my gun and vanished"
I don't really mean that I took my gun and vanished. Nothing that I say in
the song doesn't really mean. But there must be something true about it,
and
I'll try to locate that each time. I'd like to dedicate this song to the
memories of the four students....(*) *The four students from the Kent State University (Ohio,USA) killed by the Police on the 4th of May 1970. read more |
|
Dublin
18/03/72
|
|
Modified verses, in fact translation of the original verse
of d'Astier de la Vigerie "Effacez mon passage" I've changed my name so often Lost my wife and my children Comrades you who know You erase all traces of my passage |
|
Frankfurt
06/04/72 (melted with the song)
|
|
Just after the last stanza, the following
improvisation is spoken…: I don't know ... I think the shadows have a long life. I think you may marry and beget children and die in these same shadows. They're tearing down the most beautiful parts of Frankfurt even today and building buildings -- shadow buildings. You will live in them. They tell me that you were heavily into drugs last year but that now you're kind of quietened down, buying farms in the country. Well I hope you like it there with the animals… Singing again… Ah the wind the wind is blowing Through these graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come Then we'll come from the shadows. How sad it is to sing a song of resistance - a revolutionary song - people have paid for tickets - for a singer who is paid to sing the songs - for musicians who are paid to play with me. But I wanna tell you something about us, I mean the players, I mean the musicians on the stage. It's gone a long way beyond that. Gone a long way beyond the wage. Gone a long way beyond the people with salaries. OK so we're spies in the board room -- we're traitors in the cupboard. Whatever goes down with money between us is a very tiny part of what is happening with people I play with on the stage. I don't expect the system to dissolve under the assault of this song. This song means nothing now. I can only tell you between us - the players on the stage - all that has already been sorted out. And that's the only strength that I have and that's the only way I can sing this song and not feel totally disgraced. I don't know how you're going to work it out among yourselves. Singing again… Ah the wind the wind is blowing Through these graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come Then we'll come from the shadows. We sleep with each other and we play music with each other. We haven't tried to establish the theory. We have no dogmatic program. We just sleep with each other and we just play music with each other and that seems to put it in the right place. I don't know how you're gonna work it out. Ah the wind the wind is blowing Through these graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come Then we'll come from the shadows I mean the shadows |
|
Berlin
24/09/74
|
|
This is a song for the resistance |
|
Frankfurt
06/10/74
|
|
This is a song of Resistance. It was written a
long time ago,about someone's grandparents, about your grandparents. But this song for me is an allegory for Resistance. |
|
|
|
Original Musical Part (Raoul Breton Editor)- Document scanned from the book "Anna Marly, Troubadour de la Resistance", Tallandier-Historia ISBN 2-235-02279-0 |
|
Paris 20/10/74
|
|
In every generation there is a
Resistance,and in every generation it's the only place to be. This song
comes out of a resistance in an old conflict and perhaps the Resistance in
this generation is not the resistance against another side but a
Resistance against ideology as it is. |
|
New-York 29/11/74
|
|
This next song comes out of the second world war. It stands for Resistance |
|
Bryn-Mawr
(USA) November 75
|
|
This song comes from a happier time when we
knew who the enemy was. |
|
Mainz
(Germany) May 4th, 1976
|
|
So a long time ago, your grandfathers and my
grandfathers were engaged in some kind of conflict. Nothing much remains
of that conflict except some snow and some paper-weights, and some old
songs. This is one of the songs that seem to persist. |
|
Paris 05/06/76
|
|
Je dédicace cette chanson à ceux qui sont
oubliés (I dedicate this song to those who are forgotten) |
|
|
|
|
|
Nuremberg 18/06/76
|
|
A long time ago, your grandfathers and mine were engaged in some serious
struggle which they have then forgotten. Out of that struggle came a song that
stands as an allegory for resistance, everywhere. |
|
1976 Backcover of "Greatest Hits" ("Some notes on the songs")
|
|
I learned this from a friend when I was 15. He was 17. His father was a union organizer.
We were working at a camp in Ste Margeite, Quebec. We sang together every morning,
going through the People's Song Book from cover to cover.
I developed the curious notion that the Nazis were overthrown by music. |
|
|
|
The "People's Songbook" which contains the "Song of the French Partisan". 1948 edition, from personal collection. Boni & Gaer ed. |
|
München
Dec. 12th, 1979
|
|
Here's a song written by the ghosts of our grandfathers. |
|
|
|
Document scanned from the book "Anna Marly, Troubadour de la Resistance", Tallandier-Historia ISBN 2-235-02279-0 |
|
Warsaw 22/03/85
|
|
This is a holy land that has been sanctified by the
blood of martyrs. |
|
Portland 28/10/88
|
|
After singing "Everybody Knows", "The Partisan" was introduced that way: |
|
Austin 31/10/88
|
|
Austin
has always been known as a kind of seed of resistance. It's a subtle situation. No
flags are burned, no offensive rethoric. But everyone knows that somehow the
spirit reigns free here. This is a song of another Resistance a long time ago.
It's called "The Partisan". |
|
|
|
Frontcover of the vinyl single by Dominique Walter |
|
© 1998-2009 www.leonardcohensite.com - Production et Management : Patrice Clos et Olivier Mory. Contact webmaster