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"2020" is a reply or postscript to Leonard Cohen's 1992 song "The Future." Written gradually over the four years since Cohen's death, it's a pre-release from "The Devil's Share," an album of eleven original songs that will be released April 21, 2021 by Wolfe Island Records/CRS Europe.

lyrics

2020

We’re in the future, mister, and it’s just as he forecast it
It’s each one for their ego, and our ethics are elastic
We’re living in the next phase and it’s just as he projected
The prophets’ voices fade out and their killers get elected

The new regime condemns you all, the rapists and the rapees
As you pour across our border-wall pretending you’re escapees
The new regime supplies live-stream of its latest retributions
See drone’s-eye bombings, sniper kills, see curbside executions
Assassinations, threats and coups, and ultimate solutions
For refugees, for enemies, for Cubans, Arabs, Roossians

We’ve entered the new epoch and it’s much as he foretold us
It’s Netflix while our neighbour screams and the next one over trolls us
No Christ to spoil the stoning when you’re online being hateful
And if you find a good stone, I’m sure you mean to aim well
And if a small voice whispers Maybe you yourself aren’t blame-free
You’d better holler louder or we’ll nail you to the same tree

I know some say it’s mindless
To speak of simple kindness
But the Future is our present
And nothing less than love can bind us

High time we took our countries back—back to the middle ages
When we caged whatever crossed our lines and threw away the cages
When we pried the babies from the breast, enslaved them or we sold them
We’re in the future and its fads are just as he foretold them

Lies this size quit registering on oldschool lie detectors
We’ve mined your data anyhow and we’ve paid off the collectors
This is the future, sister, and it’s just like his predictions
It’s porn flicks while in quarantine, it’s online crucifixions

I know some say it’s spineless
To speak with simple kindness
But the Future is this present
And we can’t let them define us

A poor man will work for peanuts—that’s advice a guy once gave me
He said it as a priest might, like he figured it might save me
Well, mister you can take your scams and shove them up your assets
We’re sick of how your futures kill in all their modes and facets
We’re in the future, sister, and it’s just as he forecast it
It’s each one for their ego, and our prospects all look drastic
We’re living in the next phase and it’s just as he expected
The singers’ voices die out and the goons get re-elected

We’re in the future, Madam, and it’s just as he foretold us
It’s like we’re Eve and Adam, living in a swampland someone sold us.


(c) 2020 Steven Heighton/Hightone Music (SOCAN/ASCAP)

credits

from The Devil's Share, track released December 8, 2020
Words and music by Steven Heighton
Produced by Hugh Christopher Brown
Vocals and acoustic guitar: Steven Heighton
Piano: Hugh Christopher Brown
Bass: Jason Mercer
Lapsteel: Craig "Rocky" Roberts
Percussion: Teilhard Frost
Backing vocals: Sarah McDermott

Lyrics and music by Steven Heighton. © 2020 Steven Heighton/Hightone Music (SOCAN).

The Devil’s Share released April 2021 by Wolfe Island Records/CRS Europe.

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Steven Heighton Kingston, Ontario

Heighton is the author of 18 books--novels, poetry, stories, and nonfiction. He has published work in Granta, the New York Times, Tin House, London Review of Books, Best American Poetry, and many others. His first album, "The Devil's Share," produced by Hugh Christopher Brown of Wolfe Island Records, will be released April 21, 2021. ... more

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