Ballads & Blues on MichelGriffin.com

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Anthem play video lyrics
Anthem The birds they sang At the break of day Start again I heard them say Don't dwell on what Has passed away Or what is yet to be The wars they will Be fought again The holy dove Be caught again Bought and sold And bought again The dove is never free CHORUS Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in We asked for signs The signs were sent The birth betrayed The marriage spent The widowhood Of every government Signs for all to see Can't run no more With the lawless crowd While the killers in high places Say their prayers out loud But they've summoned up A thundercloud And they're going to hear from me CHORUS You can add up the parts But you won't have the sum You can strike up the march There is no drum Every heart To love will come But like a refugee CHORUS Copyright © 1992 Leonard Cohen and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada Company
	This exquisite song opens to a gently undulating beat and soars to a dramatic orchestral climax. The revelation that imperfection provides illumination is profound. With Michel 'Coco' Correch on double-bass.
	Album: Dance Me To The End Of Love

To Love Somebody play video lyrics
To Love Somebody There's a light, a certain kind of light That's never shone on me I want my whole life to be, Lived with you, lived with you There's a way, everybody says To each and every thing What good does it bring If I ain't got you, if I ain't got you ... You don't know what it's like Baby you don't know what it's like To love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you And I'm prayin' to see your face again I know my frame of mind You ain't got to be so blind, And I'm blind, so very blind But I'm a man, can't you see that's what I am? I live and I breathe just for you What good does it do If I ain't got you, if I ain't got you Oh baby, you don't know what it's like No you don't know what it's like To love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you Copyright © Robin & Barry Gibb
	The first three tracks were recorded live at Puits de Jour in Lauzerte, SW France by Mathieu Buchholtz in June 2010. I first heard this sung by Nina Simone, and have been singing it ever since.
	Album: Ballads and Blues

Take This Longing play video lyrics
Take This Longing Many men have loved the bells you fastened to the rein, and everyone who wanted you they found what they will always want again. Your beauty lost to you yourself just as it was lost to them. Oh take this longing from my tongue, whatever useless things these hands have done. Let me see your beauty broken down like you would do for one you love. Your body like a searchlight my poverty revealed, I would like to try your charity until you cry, 'Now you must try my greed.' And everything depends upon how near you sleep to me Just take this longing from my tongue all the lonely things my hands have done. Let me see your beauty broken down like you would do for one your love. Hungry as an archway through which the troops have passed, I stand in ruins behind you, with your winter clothes, your broken sandal straps. I love to see you naked over there especially from the back. Oh take this longing from my tongue, all the useless things my hands have done, untie for me your hired blue gown, like you would do for one that you love. You're faithful to the better man, I'm afraid that he left. So let me judge your love affair in this very room where I have sentenced mine to death. I'll even wear these old laurel leaves that he's shaken from his head. Just take this longing from my tongue, all the useless things my hands have done, let me see your beauty broken down, like you would do for one you love. Like you would do for one you love. Copyright © 1974 Leonard Cohen and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada Company
	This is the first song on the album about Nico, the iconic singer with Lou Reed's Velvet Underground in the 60's. A perfect distillation of desire, of unrequited passion. I make no apologies for the throbbing cellos.
	Album: Dance Me To The End Of Love

Imagine play video lyrics
Imagine Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. A-ha you may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us. And the world will be as one. Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. A-ha you may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us. And the world will live as one. Written by John Lennon Copyright © EMI Music Publishing
	A re-imagined approach to Lennon's masterpiece, arranged for guitars, spoken voice and a small choir. Anne-Emmanuelle Marie wrote the text which she recites in the middle of the piece (in French).
	Album: Atlantic Avenue

Bird on the Wire play video lyrics
Bird on the Wire Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free. Like a worm on a hook, like a knight from some old fashioned book I have saved all my ribbons for thee. If I, if I have been unkind, I hope that you can just let it go by. If I, if I have been untrue I hope you know it was never to you. Like a baby, stillborn, like a beast with his horn I have torn everyone who reached out for me. But I swear by this song and by all that I have done wrong I will make it all up to thee. I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, he said to me, 'You must not ask for so much.' And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me, 'Hey, why not ask for more?' Comme l'oiseau sur la branche Comme l'ivrogne dans le choeur de la nuit J’ai cherché ma liberté Copyright © Leonard Cohen & Sony Music
	One of my favourite Cohen songs, arranged for two guitars. I've been playing this for so long, and yet it always moves me.
	Album: Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Who Knows Where the Time Goes ? play video lyrics
Who Knows Where the Time Goes ? Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving; Ah - how can they know it’s time for them to go ? Before the winter fire, we’ll still be dreaming: I do not count the time. Who knows where the time goes ? Who knows where the time goes ? Sad, deserted shore - your fickle friends are leaving; Ah but then you know, it’s time for them to go. But I will still be here - I have no thought of leaving: I do not count the time. Who knows where the time goes ? Who knows where the time goes ? And I'm not alone, while my love is near me; I know it will be so, until it's time to go: So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again - I do not count the time. Who knows where the time goes ? Who knows where the time goes ? Copyright © Sandy Denny
	Sandy Denny's immortal classic is the final song on the album, and is sung as a duet with the delightful Amy 'Sugarbee' Caldwell, whom I've never met. (We collaborated on the song via the 'net). One of the finest songs ever written about the fragility of Love in the face of Time.
	Album: Who Knows Where the Time Goes

One Too Many Mornings ... play video lyrics
One Too Many Mornings ... Down the street the dogs are barking and the day is getting dark. As the night comes in a-fallin’, the dogs’ll lose their bark. An’ the silent night will shatter from the sounds inside my mind, For I’m one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind. From the crossroads of my doorstep, my eyes they start to fade, As I turn my head back to the room, where my love and I have laid. An’ I gaze back to the street, the sidewalk and the sign, And I’m one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind. It’s a restless hungry feeling that don’t mean no one no good, When ev’rything I’m a-sayin’ you can say it just as good. You’re right from your side, I’m right from mine. We’re both just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind. Copyright © 1964, 1966 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992, 1994 by Special Rider Music [Image @ Richard M. Sintchak]
	This is the very first Dylan song I absolutely fell in love with. I still play it in concerts and prefer this simpler fingerpicked treatment to the versions with The Band. This track is included from my Who Knows Where the Time Goes? album.
	Album: Feel My Love

The Rose play lyrics
The Rose Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed It's the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes a chance It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give and the soul afraid of dyin', that never learns to live When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow Lies the seed, that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose. Copyright © Amanda McBroom
	Maybe it was because it was the day before Valentine's Day, but I heard Bette Midler's version of this on the radio as I was putting the album together, and was blown away by it. It seemed only natural to include it on an album which was themed on Love and the passage of Time.
	Album: Who Knows Where the Time Goes

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