Posted on 11/02/2019 9:17:10 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
Just heard it on the radio. This time it was Bob Segar's version. Both are leftists but it's a powerful song, one that can be quite captivating. The one problem line is where Cohen writes he isn't left or right. He is wrong. But then even a righty can get into it. Please post it if you can
Taking off till Monday. Enjoy the weekend folks.
First time I listened to the song, the message I got was that Cohen wasn’t exclusively attacking the right, and somehow completely sparing the left. He rarely (if ever) did anything so simplistic, as lot of his work tended to have a great deal more nuance than that.
Keep in mind that he also did the song “The Future” on that same album, and it is quite a scorching attack against what he saw as a lot of societal excesses, including the ubiquitous and easy availability of abortion: “Destroy another fetus now, we don’t like children anyhow, I’ve seen the future baby, it is murder!”
Thanks Kriggel. Laura Hollis at Townhall wrote a pretty scathing article about him back in July. He pretty much used his girlfriend in ways reminiscent of the Kennedys and the Clinton’s. He is still honored just like the rest of the notable cads out there. It’s another subject but powerful words make a woman want to be used and take their pants off. We can’t compete with that. Trump could all the way until he ran for POTUS.
In his later years LC was most certainly a conservative. There are two documentaries where they visit LC at home and he has Rush on the radio. He had enough of the liberal BS.
I used to work for a female boss, who is, to this day, blushingly proud of the fact that she temporarily ditched her husband, and had a brief affair with Cohen, when she was cruising through the Greek islands back in the Mid Seventies.
Yes, Cohen was notorious for using women as toys (which was a big reason that he never married, and his (confirmed) son was illegitimate), but, like you said, that is a different argument altogether.
LOL! He's right on the money!
I know very little about Leonard Cohen other than he was a well known songwriter and performer for decades.
The one thing I do know about him is that he wrote the song
“Suzanne”, back in 1967. It’s a lovely song from someone who understood how to make simple music speak for you through octave, pitch and dissonance.
Judy Collins did a great job of covering it, long before her voice went flat. No disrespect to Ms Collins, but that’s often how it now sounds.
Sussane was about his long tome Norwegin girlfriend who paid his bills and promptly dumped her saying she was bad for hi. Something to that effect.
It was written on or before 1992, the year the album Future in which the song appeared, came out.
A very “American” song using a dark past to bring hope for a better future in the USA, narrated/sung by a Canadian poet, who captures the essence of this country’s continuous struggle with his unmatched lyrics.
The song was written over 3 years, and per Leonard Cohen: There are about 5 or 8 notebooks filled with verses for “Democracy”.
Maybe he was like Bob Dylan: too hard to pin down politically. Bohemian-artistic, but not moving in step with his more political leftist peers. In the song, you can see him mixing up liberal-progressive talk with apolitical, apocalyptic, otherworldly stuff. If I remember correctly, he spent much time in Buddhist monastery, so it’s likely he was detached from a lot of the usual this-worldly preoccupations.
Give me Mickey Newbury’s American Trilogy!
Democracy, Democratic Republic, where the votes of 250,000,000 sinners results in . . . .
Perhaps having his manager bilk him out of millions of dollars, forcing Cohen out of retirement to go back to concert performances, may have had an influence on his political change.
Looking at the lyrics, does not convince me that Cohen is longing for a fair and balanced resurrection in the USA.
People play "Hallelujah" at Christmas time, not realizing that the song is not intended as a Christmas hymn(I love the song, but give it a thumbs down at Christmas time).
This is an artist that, like Bob Dylan, covers very well. What I mean by that is other performers can take his songs and put completely different spins on them. In fact, I have a playlist of nothing but Leonard Cohen covers that is creeping up on 250 tracks.
Of course, the originals are quite good too.
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder.
He was born Jewish, converted to Buddhism, but his lyrics are full of Christian imagery, respectful not mocking.
I have that album and it's one of my favorites. He was a brilliant song writer that made you want to listen to the lyrics and the message rather than just the songs......
As for "Democracy",
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
He loves the U.S. and knows what it means to the rest of the free world.
I found this on the internet and it sums it up perfectly:
At a time when the US is in more danger of foundering than ever before, Cohen’s words are the perfect anthem for these times: Sail on, sail on / oh mighty ship of State, we’re dreading this voyage, not knowing if we’ll we make it to the shores of need / past the reefs of greed / through the squalls of hate.
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