- Dance Me to the End of Love
-
"Dance Me to the End of Love" is a 1984 song by Leonard Cohen. It was first performed by Cohen, on his 1984 album Various Positions. It has since been recorded by various artists, and has been described as "trembling on the brink of becoming a standard".[1]
In an interview, Cohen said of the song:
“ 'Dance Me to the End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet[2] was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity. ” In 1996, Welcome Books released a book called Dance Me to the End of Love, as part of its "Art & Poetry" series; the book featured the lyrics of the song alongside paintings by Henri Matisse.
Other versions
"Dance Me to the End of Love" Single by Madeleine Peyroux from the album Careless Love Released 2005 Recorded 2004 Genre Jazz Length 3:54 Label Rounder Writer(s) Leonard Cohen Producer Larry Klein Madeleine Peyroux singles chronology "Don't Wait Too Long
(2004)"Dance Me to the End of Love"
(2005)"I'm All Right"
(2006)- Madeleine Peyroux and the Klezmer Conservatory Band - A cover of "Dance Me to the End of Love" appears on Peyroux's second solo album, Careless Love. It was released as the second single for the album and has been a part of her concert set-list since then.
- Kate Gibson - Mostly in English but partly in French (on the soundtrack to the 1995 movie Strange Days)
- Thalia Zedek on her album Been Here and Gone.
- The Dresden Dolls have performed the song live
- Giannis Parios in Greek, under the name MONO AGAPI (Only love)
- Fret and Fiddle on their album Jalousie
- Jorge Drexler on his album Cara B
- Misstress Barbara on her album I'm No Human
- Tsufit on her album Under the Mediterranean Sky
- Mark Seymour in the Australian television drama, Crashburn.
- The Civil Wars on their album Barton Hollow
Trivia
- "Dance Me to the End of Love" performed by Madeleine Peyroux and the Klezmer Conservatory Band is included in The Saboteur soundtrack
This track was covered by The Civil Wars on their free album download Live at Eddie's Attic. ( Not on Barton Hollow)
References
- ^ DANCE ME TO THE END OF LOVE, Mark Steyn, 2009
- ^ [1] Music of the Ghettos and Camps, A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, USF.edu
Categories:- 1984 songs
- Leonard Cohen songs
- Songs written by Leonard Cohen
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
