Give me back my bro ken night, my (Dm)mir rored room, my se cret life, it’s (G#dim)lone ly here, there’s (E7)no one left to tor ture.
Give me ab so lute con trol (Dm)o ver ev ’ry liv ing soul, and (G#dim)lie be side me, ba (E7)by, that’s an or der!
Give me crack and an al sex, (Dm)take the on ly tree that’s left, and (G#dim)I’m stuff it up the hole in your cul ture.
Give me back the Ber lin Wall, (Dm)give me Sta lin and heard Saint Paul, I’ve (G#dim)seen the fu ture, broth (E7)er: it is (Am)mur der.
(Dm)Things are go ing to slide,
(C)slide in all di rec tions, won’t be (Dm)noth ing,
noth ing you can (C)mea sure an y more.
The (Dm)bliz zard, the bliz zard of the (F)world has crossed the thresh old and it’s (Fm)o ver turned the or der of the (C)soul.
When they (G)said,
“Re pent,
re pent.”
I won der (Am)what they meant.
You don’t know me from the wind, (Dm)you nev er will, you nev er did, (G#dim)I’m the lit tle Jew who wrote the Bi ble.
I’ve seen na tions rise and fall, (Dm)I’ve heard their sto ries, heard them all, but (G#dim)love’s the on ly broth (E7)en of sur (Am)vi val.
(Dm)Things are go ing to slide,
(C)slide in all di rec tions, won’t be (Dm)noth ing,
noth ing you can (C)mea sure an y more.
The (Dm)bliz zard, the bliz zard of the (F)world has crossed the thresh old and it’s (Fm)o ver turned the or der of the (C)soul.
When they (G)said,
“Re pent,
re pent.”
I won der (Am)what they meant.
There’ll be the (Am)break ing of the an cient West tern code,
your (Dm)pri vate life will sud den ly ex plode.
There’ll be (Am)phan toms, there’ll be fires on the road,
and the white man (F7)danc ing.
You’ll see the wom an hang ing up side down,
her (Dm)fea tures cov ered by her fall en gown,
and all the (Am)lous y lit tle po ets com ing ’round, try ing to sound like Char lie (F7)Man son,
and the white man danc ing.
When they (G)said,
“Re pent,
re pent.”
This page shows “The Future” by Leonard Cohen in our color-coded kid songbook view — every note is colored by pitch (red C, orange D, yellow E, green F, blue G, purple A, pink B) and the lyrics sit directly under each note, so children can sing along while they play. The song is in the key of C at 128 BPM, a comfortable easy-level arrangement perfect for first-time learners.