Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan

Cohen explained himself in a backstage interview at 1988:[4] "I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it's a response to terrorism. There's something about terrorism that I've always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don't like it when it's manifested on the physical plane – I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities – but Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read, I'll give you a paraphrase of it. It was 'well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there', he says. 'But (((our))) terrorists, Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking.'"

Snapshots:

• archive.org

• ghostarchive.org

• archive.ph (click to archive)