You Got Me Singing by Leonard Cohen

Album: Popular Problems (2014)

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Popular Problems brings Cohen's near-apocalyptic vision outlined on "The Future" rudely into the present. "When I said: 'I've seen the future, brother, it is murder,' unfortunately, I think that vision has been realized," he told The Daily Telegraph.

However, this final uplifting track finds him in more optimistic mood as he croons, "The bulletin is: 'You got me singing even though the world is gone. You got me thinking I'd like to carry on.'" During a press conference at the Canadian High Commission, someone suggested this was evidence of hidden optimism. "Yeah, I'm a closet optimist," Cohen dryly responded.

Comments: 2

Andy Ward from UkFor me, this feels like it is sung by a man who knows his time is up and that the (natural) end of life beckons… and as there is nothing any of us can do about our own demise, the best thing to do is sing/laugh in the face of death.
A suitable ending to a fabulous album.
Lily WilsonI interpret it as someone who's met someone so good, so beautiful to be around that they can't help but sing, despite being a bystander in the worlds decent by climate change, war, famine, fascists. The words 'You got me singing
Ever since the river died' and 'Even though the world is gone' have to elude to what we're doing to our planet, what we've already lost and also that desperate beautiful hope you can find in another's heart

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