Show Me The Place (2012) – Leonard Cohen

Show me the place where the Word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

Leonard Cohen has crafted some of the finest modern spiritual songs, and today’s featured track, Show Me the Place, stands among the best in this genre. Show Me The Place is from his twelfth studio album Old Ideas released in January 2012. It is Cohen’s highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200, 44 years after the release of his first album. Show Me the Place is the fifth track from this late-career masterpiece to be featured here. Few singer-songwriters can be said to improve with age, but Leonard Cohen is certainly one of them.

Leonard’s music is able to enter the heart and mind, and often against our will by broaching difficult subjects such as ‘suffering’. Show Me the Place makes me feel like he’s humming a prayer directly into my ear, only for me, only to me, his precious secret thoughts and doubts. Help me roll away the stone of temptations / troubles that prevent us from freeing up our spirit to be in unison with God.

Cohen penned the song with Patrick Leonard, who is best known for co-writing many of Madonna’s late ’80s hits. As Cohen told Mojo in 2013, he met the producer when he was making an album with Cohen’s son, singer Adam Cohen:

And I know the work he did with Madonna. I think he’s a seminal figure in modern American music, very brilliant. I was listening to some of his solo piano work, too. I bumped into him with Adam several times, and somehow we got together and these four songs we did together came very quickly…Pat saw the lyric for ‘Going Home‘ and said, ‘This could be a really good song,’ and I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ He said, ‘Can I have a shot at it?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ He came back with the music, I don’t know if it was the next hour or the next day but it was very fast…He is a very unusual man and, I guess, we were both in good form..

[Verse 1]
Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place, I’ve forgotten, I don’t know
Show me the place, for my head is bendin’ low
Show me the place where you want your slave to go

[Verse 2]
Show me the place, help me roll away the stone
Show me the place, I can’t move this thing alone
Show me the place where the word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

[Bridge]
The troubles came, I saved what I could save
A thread of light, a particle, a wave
But there were chains, so I hastened to behave
There were chains, so I loved you like a slave

[Verse 1]
Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place, I’ve forgotten, I don’t know
Show me the place, for my head is bendin’ low
Show me the place where you want your slave to go

[Bridge]
The troubles came, I saved what I could save
A thread of light, a particle, a wave
But there were chains, so I hastened to behave
There were chains, so I loved you like a slave

[Verse 2]
Show me the place, help me roll away the stone
Show me the place, I can’t move this thing alone
Show me the place where the word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

For you music trivia buffs out there Show Me the Place features backing vocals from singer-songwriter Jennifer Warnes, whose biggest hits include two Oscar winning duets: “Up Where We Belong” (with Joe Cocker, from An Officer and a Gentleman) and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (with Bill Medley from Dirty Dancer). In 1971, she met Cohen, and they became lifelong friends. Warnes has toured Europe with Cohen’s band and featured as vocal arranger and guest singer on many of his albums. In 1986 she recorded the album Famous Blue Raincoat, which was made up entirely of Cohen-penned songs.

Bob Dylan, who referred to Cohen as “number one“, cited three songs from “Old Ideas” in his list of favourite Cohen songs: “Going Home“, “Show Me the Place” and “Darkness“.

References:
1. Show Me the Place – Song Facts
2. Fan Thoughts on Show Me the Place – Leonard Cohen Forum
3. Old Ideas – Wikipedia