Born with the gift of a golden voice

Ah. Glastonbury. Mud, tents and latrines. Oh and more mud. That's what most people think of when the UK's biggest music and cultural festival is mentioned. And with good reason, you get plenty of the above, but you also get some show stopping music too.

Anyone who got to see Leonard Cohen on the Sunday night can consider themselves lucky. The man is only touring because he needs the money - an ex lover having ripped him off to the tune of $5m.

They say the great thing about Cohen, his voice aside, is his lyrics. Wonderfully clever, evocative and effectively poetry set to music.

Well, I don't do lyrics. I just don't hear them. What moves me is melody, a riff, a pounding beat.

This song, which I'd never heard until the great man sang it that Sunday night, marks the first time I 'got' lyrics. Yes, the arrangement is wonderful. It's simple, understated and allows the lyrics to soar, but what fine lyrics they are. Even reading the on the page they take my breath away. I think I should just let them speak for themselves.

"Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all
I'm standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they don't let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song

Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And there's a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the Tower of Song

I see you standing on the other side
I don't know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that we lost
We'll never have to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
There moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the Tower of Song

Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song"