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Смысл некоторых песен проясняется со временем. Такова «Демократия», написанная великим Леонардом Коэном 30 лет назад.

It’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA



This was when the Berlin Wall came down and everyone was saying democracy is coming to the east. And I was like that gloomy fellow who always turns up at a party to ruin the orgy or something.
I said, “I don’t think it’s going to happen that way. I don’t think this is such a good idea. I think a lot of suffering will be the consequence of this wall coming down.”
But then I asked myself, “Where is democracy really coming?” And it was the U.S.A.
But I had verses:
It ain’t coming to us European style:
Concentration camp behind a smile.
It ain’t coming from the east
With its temporary feast
As Count Dracula comes
Strolling down the aisle…
So while everyone was rejoicing, I thought it wasn’t going to be like that, euphoric, the honeymoon.
So it was these world events that occasioned the song. And also the love of America. Because I think the irony of American is transcendent in the song.
It’s not an ironic song. It’s a song of deep intimacy and affirmation of the experiment of democracy in this country. That this is really where the experiment is unfolding. This is really where the races confront one another, where the classes, where the genders, where even the sexual orientations confront one another. This is the real laboratory of democracy.
https://americansongwriter.com/leonard-cohens-discarded-verses/

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