Songfacts®:

• Clocking in at 72 seconds, "The Goal" is a short, somber, spoken-word piece about the infirmities of old age. It starts off with the frail Leonard Cohen stuck at home due to ill health.
  
  I can't leave my house
  Or answer the phone
  
  He continues with the poignant self-observation about his frailties of old age, before ending on a note of trusted optimism.
  
  No one to follow
  And nothing to teach
  Except that the goal
  Falls short of the reach
• Engineer and musician Michael Chaves told Uncut magazine the song came about after Leonard Cohen said to him, "You guys aren't going to have enough songs for a record. Michael, Michael press record."
  
  Chaves added that he has the recording of Cohen turning pages in his poetry book, "and he says 'page 153, The Goal.' And he just started reading."
• At first Cohen is accompanied by a sole piano played by Patrick Leonard before being joined by Javier Mas' Spanish guitar. Leonard, who is best known for co-writing many of Madonna's late '80s hits, co-wrote and co-produced much of Cohen's previous three albums. This was his sole contribution to Thanks for the Dance.