Posted on 11/11/2016 11:07:23 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Leonard Cohen, who was 82 when he died on Monday, was young once. That can be hard to remember after his years of public, silver-haired eminence: touring arenas while he was in his 70s and playing leisurely three-hour-plus shows that seemed to slow down time itself. He intoned his songs with serene gravity, revealing once again how carefully chiseled every one of his quatrains is. And with every line he shared, implicitly and in his lyrics, there was a humbling knowledge of mortality: one that grows even more significant on Mr. Cohen’s final studio album, “You Want It Darker,” which was released less than a month ago.
In “Who By Fire,” from 1974, one of his many songs that is both a list and an incantation, he itemized causes and sites of death, getting morbid while keeping a hint of puckishness:
Who by fire, who by water, Who in the sunshine, who in the nighttime, Who by high ordeal, who by common trial, Who in your merry, merry month of May, Who by very slow decay.
Mr. Cohen was aware, always, of every option.
In his concerts, Mr. Cohen played the venerable sage, dapper in his suits and precisely angled hats. He was also sly and avuncular, making droll, deadpan comments in his sepulchral voice. He had aged to match the perspective he had brought to his lyrics since the late 1960s: a long view that stretched back to biblical and psychological archetypes and envisioned myth and history — and the mind-twisting economy of Zen koans — far more often than the everyday. Perhaps because he was already in his 30s when he set aside novels and poetry for songwriting, he was a grown-up from the start. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Love his songs/hated his voice.
His most famous creation, of course, is Shrekelluja.
I love Jennifer Warnes’ cover of one of Leonard’s songs with SRV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rZ2CPCYBQ
I was thinking, “Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, yeah I know him.” And so I looked and finally saw “So long Marianne”. Ah yes! That’s Leonard Cohen, to me.”
Rest in peace.
bookmark
Hah! Listened to it, and it segued into Suzanne. That was the one. “He’s touched your perfect body with his mind.” That was it.
I think, Wow, he was still alive all these years? Heh. Not much older than me!
The man was a great songwriter. No one gets out of here alive. RIP.
One of my oldest friends, Bob Metzger, played pedal steel and guitar for LC for many years. He and his wife were very involved in production and recording. I think he’s probably devastated, but he hasn’t answered my email, so I think he’s most likely traveling for the funeral and for a musical performance.
I was asked to sing “HALLELUJAH “ at a funeral last year and would have but, it’s 4.5 minutes long.
Didn’t want to be the center of attention and opted for “You Raise Me Up” which, I cut down to 1 minute.
Amazing songs from this man.
Condolences to family and friends of Leonard Cohen. R.I.P., sir.
love
Mr. Pareles, the author of the NYT piece writes:
“In “Who By Fire,” from 1974, one of his many songs that is both a list and an incantation, he itemized causes and sites of death, getting morbid while keeping a hint of puckishness:
Who by fire, who by water, Who in the sunshine, who in the nighttime, Who by high ordeal, who by common trial, Who in your merry, merry month of May, Who by very slow decay.
Mr. Cohen was aware, always, of every option.”
I am not sure that Mr. Pareles knows that those lines he quotes are nearly verbatim from the Jewish Yom Kippur prayerbook.
And that Hallelujah is from the Psalms of David.
The best quote I heard about Cohen was someone who said “Cohen is the soundtrack of my life.†Cohen taught me to actually listen. I met Cohen a while back. This was when he was at the Buddhist years when he was at a monastery up by Mt. Baldy in eastern LA county. He was down off the mountain and in town at a record store. I had some coffee with him and talked awhile. He was a deep and humane man. His song “Suzanne” has been my favorite pop song for over 50 years. LC, Hope the wheel turns well for you. RIP
A Poet Goes to War
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11943
"And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water"
Now who else would make that connection? And later, in Tower of Song:
"Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play"
Oh my....so do I.
[On his return to the United States after performing for Israeli soldiers in the outposts of Sinai, Cohen would say in an interview, “War is wonderful. They'll never stamp it out. It's one of the few times people can act their best.... There are opportunities to feel things that you simply cannot feel in modern city life.”]
How totally unique and existential.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11943
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