Michael Cohen Songwriter

Michael CohenMichael CohenSongwriter

Songwriter

Michael has been composing songs for longer than he cares to admit. Since the late 80's , he has been performing with Liz Sumner, first in a group called Lip Service, more recently with Fuzzy Logic. Since both groups feature two women lead singers, he has written much of his material to be sung from a woman's point of view. Click here to read some reviews from the first Fuzzy Logic CD.

In September 2003 Fuzzy Logic debuted a new musical

MOON FEVER

written by Michael Cohen, and directed by Gina Chase.

Some Sample Lyrics

(click on title to go to lyrics)

No Matter What People Say The trials of a woman who loves a (much younger) man
Carnival The dark, steamy side of Mardi Gras, or maybe it's just a game
Everything's A ConspiracyFUCT- The Final Unified Conspiracy Theory
Ezekiel's Wheel A lyrical paeon to alien abduction
Love and Romance Game Gilbert and Sullivan on the modern relationship
My Secret Place Everybody should have one, if only in the mind
Like Magic A housewife's ponders life's magical possibilities
Sleep Little Gypsy A lullabye
Let's Be Beat A finger-popping excursion back to the village
Perfect Hollywood Romance Sometimes life is like a movie, somtimes like a tabloid
Calling All Bars A loving woman's dilemma
Vampire Loving someone for their dark side
Doing the Best I Can An anthem for the Recovery Movement
I Wish I Knew Meditations on the inconstancy of love
Uncle Walt A tribute to Mr. Disney

No Matter What People Say
copyright 1995 Michael Cohen

1) Let people tease so let them taunt
We'll still do anything we want
Though we're not quite the norm, we'll weather the storm some way
I have been lonely and lovelorn
Since before you're even born
Now that you are post-natal, I'm robbing the cradle today
No matter what people say

What difference does a few years make
Just candles on some birthday cake
So let's live it up on spring break
And I won't run for cover
When they think I'm your mother

2) The things they say behind my back, say I'm a pedophiliac
Though I'm nearly senescent and you're adolescent, okay
I'm glad I felt the beauty of, this yuppy meets her puppy love
Though we're scoffed and guffawed, like Harold and Maude we'll stay
No matter what people say

What difference does a few years make
Just candles on some birthday cake
Who cares if your ID is fake
I won't be broken hearted
Every time you get carded

3) The reason they won't let us be, I'm sure it's only jealousy
So keep fanning the ember, from May to December to May
No matter what people say, no matter what people say
No matter what , what difference does a few years make?

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CARNIVAL

1) It's Carnival and the fallen are dancing
Dressed in their festival bones
You see the Queen of the Damned with a smile so entrancing
Satan is her chaperone

2) It's Carnival and the alleys are steaming
Hot as the deep pits of hell
You hear a sound from your lips
Is it laughing or screaming
In such a place who can tell

(chorus)
But it's all just a game, who can blame them
If they go quite insane once a year
Let your passions enflame, don't restrain them
Never try to explain it 'cause here

3) It's Carnival and it's crawling with danger
Even your soul's in disguise
You look in the mirror and you see there a stranger
And she has death in her eyes

4) It's Carnival and all pleasure is poison
And pain is it's own reward
You know that boys can be girls and girls can be boys when
The future and past is ignored

5) It's Carnival and the pall bearer's grinning
His coffin he pounds like a drum
You know the dead are all drunk and the saints are all sinning
Baptised in whiskey and rum

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Everything's A Conspiracy
copyright 1993 Michael Cohen

Lately it appears to me, everything's a conspiracy

1) The Illuminati led by John Gotti
Sent out David Berkowitz, a lacky of the Jesuits
Who are just another institution run by Reds and Rosicrucians
To carry out the obscene plan hatched by Alan Greenspan
Working for the CIA whose mastermind was James Earl Ray
But they are all just patsys for some neo-Nazis
Allied with the Knights Templar led by the daughter of the Czar
The brains behind the Vatican, boy you can sure say that again

Oh what a tangled web we weave
Who should we trust, who do we believe
When everyone else is out to decieve
Hiding the tricks they've got up their sleeve
Yes lately it appears to me, everything's a conspiracy

2) The Elders of Zion relentlessly spy on
The mulahs of the Taliban and their dupes the Ku Klux Klan
But buried 'neath the Grassy Knoll the secret of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Expose those politicians in the Tri-Lateral Commission
Who are I am certain controlled by Haliburton
Brainwashing our nation with smut and flouridation
Giving out their orders to those so-called reporters
Who manipulate the evening news to cover up and to confuse
So no matter who we do elect, they're servants of some secret sect

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Ezekiel's Wheel
copyright 1990 Michael Cohen

Keep your eye on that bright firmament, look out for that falling star
Knowing that your stay on Earth's not permanent
Still you'd rather stay where you are
Are those moonbeams tickling your window, do you hear the wind in the trees
If this was a game you'd play on your Nintendo
You'd shoot down all those little ET's
You are alone, and the great unknown slithers like a snake in the field
I bet you wish that you were only dreaming
But your dreams were never this unreal, it's Ezekiel's Wheel

Lookout there's a signpost up ahead, is this just another nightmare
Maybe you should try to hide beneath the bed
Maybe they won't look for you there
Lookout it's another midnight mystery rapping at your chamber door
It feels like you've just run the course of human history
Your heart couldn't pound any more
You are alone, and the great unknown opens like the Seventh Seal
I bet you wish that you were only dreaming
But your dreams are never this unreal, it's Ezekiel's Wheel

You're lying on the table, you'd move but you're not able
They contemplate your navel with their owlish eyes a-gleaming

Lookout is it you that's screaming, "please let's make a deal"
I bet you wish that you were only dreaming
But your dreams are never this unreal
It's Ezekiel's Wheel, it's Ezekiel's Wheel
It's Ezekiel's Wheel, it's Ezekiel's Wheel

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Love and Romance Game
copyright 1988 Michael Cohen with Elizabeth A. Sumner

1) Once I was the victim of the widely approved dictum
That the heart should rule the mind
Love is caring, love is giving, love is sharing and forgiving,
Never mind that love is blind
But after taking chances on innumerable romances
That have ended up the same
No more sobbing no more pining, I am finally resigning
From the love and romance game

2) Now I won't be jealous when I see those handsome fellas
Pickin up on other dames
I won't fly into a tizzy when I see some dumb and dizzy blonde
Who's got no sense of shame
Cuddle up and almost lie on the same guy I've got my eye on
Then proceed to kiss and sigh [sigh]
Now that's the very sort of scene
That makes someone's aorta seem to shrivel up and die

3) Now I won't be troubled by those men who are the double
Of those men who trouble me
For I've always been attracted to the guys who've always acted
Like the guys I shouldn't see
I suppose it's self-defeating to be endlessly repeating my behavior,
That's common sense
Their resemblance to my father really wasn't worth the bother,
It was just coincidence

4) Now I won't be anxious, feeling like my heart just sank,
Just like it did those other times
As I nervously awaited, all made up with breath so bated,
For the sound of front door chimes [bing bong]
Was he fashionably late, or did he have another date,
Or did he crash on his way here
I'd never really know what made him never really show
But then he never really did appear

5) Now I won't be taking pills for sleeping, pills for waking,
Pills to get me through the day
Now I won't rely on cigarettes and getting high
On every drug that comes my way
I won't have to be resorting to the popping, shooting, snorting
To obliterate the past
Running in a vicious circle hoping vainly the next jerk'll
Work out better than the last

Back to Song Title List

My Secret Place

1) There is a place that you'll never find and
I know the way but I'll never tell
Am I being selfish or unkind if
I want to keep it all to myself
A little piece of the Garden of Eden
before Eve and Adams' fall from grace
I know that I can find all I need in my secreplace

2) Is it over the next hill, just past the next town
Just 'round the corner of your eye?
Is it the fork in the road that you never went down
The piece of the map that has been torn away?
When I go there I always know there
I'll be lost to time and space
Just the other side of somewhere it's my secret place

Sometimes I wish I could linger there forever
Content as a cat napping in the sun
But my ties to the world are too strong to sever
And there is too much work to be done

3) So please never ask me for directions,
I'll never say if it's far or near
It's not that this place needs my protection
It's just that you can't get there from here
When there are no more songs for this singer
When I'm finally in the earth's embrace
I hope a part of me will still linger in my secret place

Back to Song Title List

Like Magic
Copyright 1992 Michael Cohen

1) Maybe I should wash the dishes
Maybe if you make a wish they'll disappear, like magic
Life is all too ordinary
Everything you do's so very dull and drear, it's tragic
A clue, I haven't a clue, what I should be, what I should do?

2) Maybe I should read the tarot
Can it be your mind's too narrow to be shown the Tantra
Through a timeless world of bliss, flow
Where you'll surely learn there is no phrase like "om", my mantra
The way, I must find the way , who do I call, Who do I pay?

If I were ever inclined to read my past lives, would I only find
A line of average housewives, or menial slaves
Cleaning out castles, cleaning out caves

3) I'll be just like Casteneda
Then you'll never be afraid a things unknown, lost knowledge
Eat a button of peyote
Talking with a wise coyote or a crow, beats college
A path, I must find a path , where I won't need to know too much math

If I could open my mind and use my third eye, that's always been blind
I'd find out which stocks to buy, which ones will grow
When they are put into, my portfolio

4) If I had a Guardian Angel
Certainly he'd help me change a lot of things, keep growing
He would take my life in hand and
He would look like Michael Landon would with wings, and glowing
A course, I must chart a course, where I can be at one with The Force

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Sleep Little Gypsy
copyright 1990 Michael Cohen

1) Sleep little gypsy
I hope your dreams are of me
The sky is like velvet
The moon is a pearl on the sea
And I am no stranger
To nights dreamy danger
When frightened by shadows
There's no need to weep
So sleep little gypsy
Just sleep sleep

2) Sleep little gypsy
Your weary day is now done
Let darkness enfold you
You'll rise in the glow of the sun
And fear not the sorrows
That may come tomorrow
The waters we're crossing
Are never too deep
So sleep little gypsy
Just sleep sleep

3) Sleep little gypsy
It won't be long 'til the dawn
The night is a carpet
Your magical thoughts can fly on
The wind's there to guide you
The clouds there to hide you
And I am beside you
You'll be in our keep
So sleep little gypsy
Just sleep sleep sleep

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Let's Be Beat
copyright 1999 Michael Cohen

Let's be beat
Let's be-bop down that crazy street
Wear black all day from our beret
Down to our sandalled feet

Let's be beat
Let's show that cool's not obsolete
We'll masquerade behind our shades
Dig on each cat we meet

Let's make it down to the village
If you will a jumpin' bongo beat
will wreck your brain, drive you insane
He's playing crazy, cool and dizzy
Wonder is he from the Congo
Out of his gone mind
Or on Cloud 9

Let's be beat
Let's show that wild's more fun than neat
Like smoke some tea, dig poetry
In a dark basement retreat

Let's be beat
Let's congregate with the hip elite
Hey daddy-o at my pad you know
We can groove on something sweet

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Perfect Hollywood Romance

1) I met him on the freeway
When my car broke down he stopped and offered his assistance
He was handsome in a roguish way
He was from out of town, not afraid to go the distance
When the tow truck came he took me out for coffee
When he spoke my name, my heart just skipped a beat
Could this be my big chance
To find a perfect Hollywood romance

2) He told me he was working
For the FBI, tracking down a serial killer
How intriguing, with danger lurking
I remarked I read the occasional crime thriller
So we ended up walking on the beach at sunset
Where he interrupted our laughter with a kiss
Charmed right of my pants
By my first perfect Hollywood romance

The next few days whirled by
In a cinematic montage of romantic scenes
A love struck girl and guy
Exactly like a classic film of David Lean's
The one thing lacking was
No one could see us up there on the silver screen, or on video

3) It turned out he was really
Just an unemployed insurance salesman from the midwest
He had run off from his family
And came to L.A. to escape a charge of incest
When we said goodby, as they led him off to prison
I told him that I had nothing to regret
Despite the circumstance
He was my almost perfect Hollywood romance

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Another dinner getting cold in the oven
It's meat and potatos made with plenty of lovin'
And I'm pacing 'round just wondrin' when he's gonna get home
Another night wasted slaving in the kitchen
I'm eating by myself thinking 'bout my competition
'Til I get so mad I pick up the telephone

chorus:

And I'm callin' all bars have you seen that no good, cheap hood
Beer drinking man of mine
Calling all bars, if you've seen him send him on back to me
I'm wilting on the vine
He's smokin' cigars and playing poker with the boys
And leaving me here alone
Calling all bars until all hours of the morning
When he comes staggering home

I'm a saint with the patience of a sinner
But I'm the kind of girl without a mean bone in her
So I hold back and I hold all my feelings in
I don't fly off in exasperated rages
I let my fingers walk down those Yellow Pages
'Til I finally reach the place where he has been

Boys will be boys I never learn my lesson
You turn your back they're always out there messin'
Around 'cause messin' around is their favorite sport
I can't join 'em and I don't know how to lick 'em
When it comes to losers I sure know how to pick 'em
So I will just rely on my last resort

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You wake up with the sunset
Your lips are stained with scarlet
I ache with icy fear, and yet it seems so right
Have I found love at long last
My heart is cut like broken glass
I'll die unless the pain will pass by morning light

chorus:
Your tears are only water, your breath is hot with hunger
Your touch is like the wind upon the snow
Will it heal me or consume me I don't know
I love your angel's face, but even more
I love your devil's soul

The darkness suits your spider's touch
The shadows hide a bit too much
The starkness of the scene is such a tempting sight
This time it's really ecstasy
It seems like you will die with me
Your crime is that you can not see beyond the night

You wake up with the sunset
Your lips are stained with scarlet

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I'm doing the best I can so please show some forebearance
I'm only an also-ran with alcoholic parents
I don't expect more than neglect that is my lifelong tendency
I wouldn't mind if I could find a little co-dependancy
My ambitions are not so grand
And I'm doing the best I can

I'm doing the best I can with what courage I can muster
My castles are made of sand my bravery only bluster
But I contend I can transcend my natural limitations
And if not, at least I've got a talent for imitations
I'm out of the frying pan
and I'm doing the best I can

I'm doing the best I can under adverswe circumstances
I'm taking my life in hand and taking little chances
The books I read say don't conceed and you'll attain each pinacle
But nagging doubts all loudly shout that I should remain cynical
I'm pursuing a long range plan
And I'm doing the best I can

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I thought I knew you, 'till I saw the moonlight in your hair
He stood close to you, you didn't know that I was there
I wish I knew the rules that people play by
I wish I knew how to get by day by day
I wish I knew how to make a lover stay by faithfully
What I wouldn't do
For some old fashioned heart and soul monogamy

Have I been foolish, have I been walking half-asleep?
I started coolish, now I am in it way too deep
I wish I knew the physics of emotion
I wish I knew the chemistry of what makes feelings flow
I wish I knew why desire and devotion fade mysteriously
What I wouldn't do
For some old fashioned have and hold monogamy

One lover, forever, that would be some endeavor
Trying to live like love birds in a gilded cage
A few years of loving, a few tears on leaving
That's the best we hope for in this day and age

Well, that's the story, well, that's the way it always goes
Please don't feel sorry, I came out smelling like a rose
I wish I knew why it gets so complicated
I wish I knew why I'm left here at the starting gate
I wish I knew why it seems that I am fated to live fancy free
What I wouldn't do
For some old fashioned good as gold monogamy

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I was quite young when I heard the news
T'was the day my childhood died
I was in the school gym, tying my shoes
and I hung my head and cried

1) We cannot fly, we cannot fly, our shadows weigh us down
We're waiting for our prince but "sigh" but he's nowhere to be found
And when we wish upon a star, it always is in vain
With times as bad as times now are , it's time to call his name
He's not dead my children, he'll hear our prayers, amen
The world will be a fantasy
When Uncle Walt comes waltzing back again

2) We whistle while we work but still, the time drags by all day
We build our dreams of brick until the world blows them away
Our streets are full of tramps and yet real ladies are quite rare
When things look grim as grim can get we raise our voice in prayer
He's not dead my children, he's only frozen
The world will be a fantasy
When Uncle Walt comes waltzing back again

3) Like a little boy made of wood, who's swallowed by a whale
We try our best to be truthful and good, but it seems most times we fail
When all of our Tomorrowlands seem never meant to be
When life's not going as we planned let us join the jamboree
He's not dead my children, so sing no requiem
The world will be a fantasy
When Uncle Walt comes waltzing back again