Please Don’t Pass Me By

(A Disgrace)

I was walking in New York City and I brushed up against

the man in front of me. I felt a cardboard placard on his

back. And when we passed a streetlight,

I could read it, it said “Please don’t pass me by - I am blind,

but you can see

- I’ve been blinded totally - Please don’t pass me by.” I was

walking along 7th

Avenue, when I came to 14th Street I saw on the corner

curious mutilations of the human form; it was a school for

handicapped people. And there were

cripples, and people in wheelchairs and crutches and it

was snowing, and I got this sense that the whole city was

singing this:

Oh please don’t pass me by,

oh please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, but you can see,

yes, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh please don’t pass me by.

And you know as I was walking I thought it was them who

were singing it, I thought it was they who were singing it, I

thought it was the other who was

singing it, I thought it was someone else. But as I moved

along I knew it was me, and that I was singing it to myself.

It went:

Please don’t pass me by,

oh please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, but you can see,

well, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh please don’t pass me by.

Oh please don’t pass me by.

Now I know that you’re sitting there deep in your velvet

seats and you’re

thinking “Uh, he’s up there saying something that he

thinks about, but I’ll

never have to sing that song.” But I promise you friends,

that you’re going to

be singing this song: it may not be tonight, it may not be

tomorrow, but one day you’ll be on your knees and I want

you to know the words when the time comes. Because

you’re going to have to sing it to yourself, or to another, or

to your brother. You’re going to have to learn to sing this

song, it goes:

Please don’t pass me by,

ah you don’t have to sing this .. not for you.

Please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, but you can see,

yes, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh please don’t pass me by.

Well I sing this for the Jews and the Gypsies and the smoke

that they made.

And I sing this for the children of England, their faces so

grave. And I sing

this for a saviour with no one to save. Hey, won’t you be

naked for me? Hey, won’t you be naked for me? It goes:

Please don’t pass me by,

oh please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, but you can see,

yes, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh now, please don’t pass me by.

Now there’s nothing that I tell you that will help you con-

nect the blood tortured night with the day that comes next.

But I want it to hurt you, I want it to end. Oh, won’t you be

naked for me? Oh now:

Please don’t pass me by,

oh please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, but you can see,

but I’ve been blinded totally,

oh, please don’t pass me by.

Well I sing this song for you Blonde Beasts, I sing this

song for you Venuses upon your shells on the foam of the

sea. And I sing this for the freaks and the cripples, and

the hunchback, and the burned, and the burning, and the

maimed, and the broken, and the torn, and all of those that

you talk about at the coffee tables, at the meetings, and the

demonstrations, on the streets, in your music, in my songs.

I mean the real ones that are burning, I mean the real ones

that are burnin

I say, please don’t pass me by,

oh now, please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, yeah but you can see,

ah now, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh no, please don’t pass me by.

I know that you still think that its me. I know that you

think that there’s

somebody else. I know that these words aren’t yours. But I

tell you friends

that one day

You’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down on your knees,

you’re going to get down ..

Oh, please don’t pass me by,

oh, please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, yeah but you can see,

yes, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh, please don’t pass me by.

Well you know I have my songs and I have my poems. I

have my book and I

have the army, and sometimes I have your applause. I

make some money,

but you know what my friends, I’m still out there on the

corner. I’m with the freaks, I’m with the hunted, I’m with

the maimed, yes I’m with the torn, I’m

with the down, I’m with the poor. Come on now ...

Now I want to take away my dignity, yes take my dignity.

My friends, take

my dignity, take my form, take my style, take my honour,

take my courage,

take my time, take my time, .. time .. ‘Cause you know I’m

with you singing

this song. And I wish you would, I wish you would, I wish

you would go home with someone else. Wish you’d go

home with someone else. I wish you’d go home with some-

one else. Don’t be the person that you came with. Oh, don’t

be the person that you came with, Oh don’t be the person

that you came with. Ah, I’m not going to be. I can’t stand

him. I can’t stand who I am. That’s why I’ve got to get

down on my knees. Because I can’t make it by myself. I’m

not by myself anymore because the man I was before he

was a tyrant, he was a slave,

he was in chains, he was broken and then he sang:

Oh, please don’t pass me by,

oh, please don’t pass me by,

for I am blind, yes I am blind, Oh but you can see,

yes, I’ve been blinded totally,

oh, please don’t pass me by.

Well I hope I see you out there on the corner. Yeah I hope

as I go by that I hear you whisper with the breeze. Be-

cause I’m going to leave you now, I’m going to find me

someone new. Find someone new.

And please don’t pass me by.

Recorded in 1970 and included on Live Songs (1973), this is an unusual Cohen song, both in its length and its structure – a simple chorus interspersed with ad-libbed spoken sections. It is essentially a performance piece, the text given here being taken from the live recording, the last occasion on which Cohen performed this song. The chorus is taken straight from a New York beggar’s cardboard placard.