Leonard Cohen - Please Don't Pass Me By (A Disgrace) Lyrics
I was walking in New York City and I brushed up against the man in front ofme. 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 cansee - I've been blinded totally - Please don't pass me by." I was walkingalong 7th Avenue, when I came to 14th Street I saw on the corner curiousmutilations of the human form; it was a school for handicapped people. Andthere 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, Ithought it was they who were singing it, I thought it was the other who wassinging it, I thought it was someone else. But as I moved along I knew it wasme, 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'rethinking "Uh, he's up there saying something that he thinks about, but I'llnever have to sing that song." But I promise you friends, that you're goingto be singing this song: it may not be tonight, it may not be tomorrow, butone day you'll be on your knees and I want you to know the words when thetime comes. Because you're going to have to sing it to yourself, or to
