Bird on the Wire

The song [Bird On The Wire] is so important to me. It’s that one verse where I say that I swear by this song, and by all that I have done wrong, I’ll make it all up to thee. In that verse it’s a vow that I’ll try and redeem everything that’s gone wrong. I think I’ve made it too many times now, but I like to keep renewing it. ~Leonard Cohen

A favourite of Cohen fans and of Marianne Ihlen. She was Cohen’s muse for the song and, like all his songs, it sprang from his personal experience. It is a song of redemption. It expands on a theme initially presented in “So Long, Marianne”: the desire of the individual to make their way in the world and the ability to reconcile that desire with a relationship (See “So Long, Marianne”, verse 3).

Cohen wasn’t satisfied with the lyrics of the original Songs From a Room version and altered some of them in verses 2 and 4 in an attempt to make the lyrics clearer. In some performances he also added an additional verse which emphasizes the theme of redemption. Whether or not he was successful is left to the judgement of the listener, but most people are more familiar with the original version of the song, the version which gave rise to its popularity.

In the memorable opening lines of “Bird on the Wire” Cohen focuses our attention on one of the deep, motivating drives in our lives that most people will recognize exists in them to one degree or another: the desire to be free to live our lives the way we would like. A comparison is set up between the author himself and the image of a bird on a wire (free to go where and when it chooses) and a midnight choir (that somewhat amusing chorus of drunken voices making their way home after the bars have closed) with the proviso that these attempts at freedom are modest and meant to satisfy the drive of the individual. This is not a clarion call for all to join the cause nor is it prescriptive in how to go about achieving it. It is simple, gratifying and belonging to no one but ourselves.

Contrast the gist of the opening verse, with its emphasis on ‘freedom’, to the lines of the next verse. It seems like a contradiction. The comparison made is now about restriction, not freedom: “Like a worm on a hook”.  As the verse unfolds the second comparison builds on the first: “Like a knight from an old-fashioned book / I have saved all my ribbons for thee”. Here is a character who places all his achievements in the world at the feet of a lady. Although it is done willingly, it is not within the bounds of freedom. It is submitting to the demands of a courtly love in the case of the knight – he is not free, he is bound by love. The contrast of the first two verses sets up a tension within the lyrics. This is the same tension mentioned in verse 3 of “So Long, Marianne”. The forces of freedom and restriction struggling to find a balance. There are times when the force of restriction outweighs the force for freedom and vice versa and a relationship can suffer with either extreme.

Out of the imbalance of these opposing forces and the inevitable mistakes which are sure to arise, comes an attempt at resolution in the next lines: “If I have been unkind / I hope that you can just let it go by” and further, “If I have been untrue / I hope you know it was never to you”. To overcome the mistakes requires forgiveness if the relationship is to survive. Forgiveness is being asked for but Cohen knows that real forgiveness requires an honest and sincere acknowledgement of the mistakes, or the forgiveness cannot be complete.

And the acknowledgement comes in the next lines. It involves a severe assessment of himself: “Like a baby, stillborn / Like a beast with his horn / I have torn everyone who reached out for me”. Whether in complete innocence like the stillborn baby, or willfully by nature like the beast with his horn, he is the cause of suffering to others – and he knows it. It is the first step on the road to redemption. The next step is a genuine promise to change your ways and do better. Of course, the next lines offer exactly that: “But I swear by this song / By all I have done wrong / I will make it all up to thee”. If redemption is the goal, then this process is the only path forward. This seeking to redeem oneself is done within the context of the relationship, but there is still the pull of the opposing force of freedom and the chance of new mistakes being made. The use of the old, formal ‘thee’ in the second verse in relation to the courtly love of the knight seems appropriate in the circumstances. It reappears at the end of this verse where redemption is the goal and makes the link back to the second verse and the situation of the knight in particular. It seems the goal of the redemption is a return to the condition of the knight.

Cohen recognizes the negative forces he, personally, faces when engaging the world at large. These negative forces are also a threat to the exercise of freedom because, ultimately, they are restrictions in and of themselves. He provides two examples that are significant to him. The first is captured in these lines: “I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch / He said to me, “You must not ask for so much””. In simplest terms he is talking about greed, about the balance between what we need and how much we want to acquire. The second example is in the next two lines: “And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door / She cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?”” It is a clear image that suggests temptation, another restriction of a different sort. The struggle for some sort of balance in these forces will continue – it is a fundamental condition of life. And thus we are brought full circle to the opening verse again. The cycle is not broken, it simply continues on.

……………

A couple of notes before wrapping this up: the alteration to the lyrics in the second and fourth verses mentioned in the introduction to this post are as follows:

Like a worm on a hook
Like a monk bent over the book
It was the shape, the shape of our love twisted me

and

If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can just let it go by
If I, if I have been untrue
It’s just that I thought a lover had to be some kind of liar too

The new verse that was added can be found in the 1988 recording of the San Sebastian broadcast concert:

Ah, don’t cry, don’t, don’t cry no more
It’s over now, baby, it’s over now, don’t cry no more
I say don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry no more
It’s finished now, it’s over, it’s completed, it’s done for, it’s been paid for

This verse follows the “I will make it all up to thee” line and the beggar/pretty woman verse is not sung. This particular performance of “Bird on the Wire” has a much more bluesy feel to it and was part of a concert where Cohen’s performance was noticeably more emotional and included a particularly raw and uncompromising version of the ‘secular’ “Hallelujah”.