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| (My tribute to Leonard Cohen. Click to enlarge) |
As you may know, venerable Canadian singer/songwriter/novelist/poet Leonard Cohen has just released his first new studio album in 8 years. It is called "Old Ideas." I bought it this morning and have had a chance to listen to it over a cup of coffee as the beautiful snow is falling outside here in Ottawa. In something of a departure for this blog up to this point, I just have to share my thoughts with you (and more importantly some of Cohen's new poetry) in this impromptu review of this wonderful album ...
I have been a fan of Leonard's work for many years, having first discovered it in the form of an old Best Of tape (yes - a casette!) back in the mid 1990's. A few years ago, I had the privilege of seeing Leonard perform live in his hometown of Montreal, Canada. That experience was one of the highlights of my time living in that great city! Having explored his back catalogue of recordings as well as his published poems and novels, I feel more certain than ever that he is one of the world's most important artistic voices. A brilliant poet, an earnest spiritual seeker, and a true gentleman ... what more can you ask for?
Perhaps another album from 77 year-old Mr. Cohen? Yes, please, if it's not too much trouble! Apparently it's not since Cohen, fresh off a tour that lasted over two years (!), is said to have completed this album in mere months. As far as first impressions go, I think this may be one of Cohen's strongest collections poetically in two decades.
As the reviewer from Rolling Stone magazine put it, "as time has gone on, Cohen has shorn the ornament from his language to move from the personal to the universal. The lyrics on Old Ideas reach for the stark power of prayers, hymns and religious riddles."
As the reviewer from Rolling Stone magazine put it, "as time has gone on, Cohen has shorn the ornament from his language to move from the personal to the universal. The lyrics on Old Ideas reach for the stark power of prayers, hymns and religious riddles."
They are also incredibly down to earth and visceral. Of course Leonard, 77 years old, is at this stage very aware of death, that human inevitability and final truth which somehow also hints at the greater divine Mystery we are all part of. It's precisely the piercing analysis of his steadfast artist's gaze that I most longed to hear on this album - and Leonard doesn't disappoint. Near the end, as in control of his poetic faculties as ever and not without a touch of humour, he characterizes death in a way that I think will go down in Cohen lore as classic late Cohen for the way it is simultaneously funny and somehow terrifying at the same time. In the song "Banjo," Cohen sees death as a "broken banjo" coming for him, in an image that is both lighthearted and (as I say) somehow terrifying. The poem is just awesome in its simplicity and power. Here then, is Cohen, musing on his mortality in "Banjo:"
There's something that I'm watching
It means a lot to me
It's a broken banjo bobbing
On the dark infested sea
Don't know how it got there
Maybe taken by the wave
Off of someone's shoulder
Or out of someone's grave
It's coming for me darling
No matter where I go
Its duty is to harm me
My duty is to know
There's something that I'm watching
It means a lot to me
It's a broken banjo bobbing
On the dark infested sea…
Joe Levy, the reviewer for Rolling Stone, puts it well.. he has this to say about the song (by the way you can read the full review here):
"His basso profundo cracked by both the frailty and the wisdom of his years, Cohen holds forth on the forces of love and forgiveness, and those of hate and darkness. Which ones will win is a given. What it means is still up for grabs. In an album almost empty of imagery, it stands out when, toward the end, Cohen describes watching "a broken banjo bobbing on the dark, infested sea." It's been carried there by the waves, maybe off of someone's shoulder, maybe out of someone's grave. Some New Orleans horns swell in the distance, neither mournful nor celebratory. Just there. As if to say: life or death. It's up to you. The music goes on."
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| Leonard Cohen "Best Of" - my doorway into the poet's work (image from The Leonard Cohen Files) |
On another track, Cohen weighs in on social and especially religious difference, but as always from the deeply personal spiritual perspective of the suffering heart. "You want to change the way I make love," he sings, "But I want to leave it alone." This is the last track of the album, called "Different Sides." I also love the lines: "The pull of the moon, the thrust of the sun, thus the ocean is crossed/ The waters are blessed while the shadowy guest kindles a light for the lost..." These suggest the inevitability and somewhat mechanical nature of crossing the human mortal plane (by the pull of the moon, the thrust of the sun... it's like we're puppets). This is karma but not without our free will as well. Here are the full lyrics of "Different Sides:"
We find ourselves on different sides
of a line that nobody drew
Though it all may be one in the higher eye
Down here where we live it is two
I to my side call the meek and the mild
You to your side call the Word
By virtue of suffering I claim to have won
You claim to have never been heard
Both of us say there are laws to obey
But frankly I don't like your tone
You want to change the way I make love
But I want to leave it alone
The pull of the moon, the thrust of the sun
Thus the ocean is crossed
The waters are blessed while the shadowy guest
Kindles a light for the lost
Both of us say there are laws to obey….
Down in the valley the famine goes on
The famine up on the hill
I say that you shouldn't, you couldn't, you can't
You say that you must and you will
You want to live where the suffering is
I want to get out of town
C'mon baby, give me a kiss
Stop writing everything down
Both of us say there are laws to obey
But frankly I don't like your tone
You want to change the way I make love
But I want to leave it alone
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| Leonard's new album, "Old Ideas" (image from The Leonard Cohen Files) |
And finally, this last poem is, I think, my favourite of all of them (hard to say since I've only listened to the album twice now... still first impressions). I think this is some of Cohen's best poetry period. It's simply a prayer called "Amen." Throughout his whole life, Leonard has longed for the Divine through his longing for feminine beauty and mortal human love. It has been the constant thread through all of his poems and songs. As Joe Levy puts it,
"When Cohen calls this album Old Ideas, he means not just that these are the thoughts of a septuagenarian, but that he's been turning over these cards for a long while: sex, love, God, and the way the three can be shuffled to relieve the pain of existence. A Jew who disappeared up a mountaintop to ponder Zen Buddhist koans, Cohen has sought rapture anywhere and everywhere he can find it – prayer, LSD, the thighs of a woman – and tried to unite the spiritual and the physical since he first made a sensation with a song about a girl named Suzanne, who touches your perfect body with her mind.
Dylan dreamed he saw St. Augustine. Cohen has walked the earth trying to be St. Augustine."
This song - "Amen" - cleanly and simply encapsulates the twin longing for Divine and Earthly love, with a clarity (I find) that is a feature of 77 year-old Cohen. He's seen it all and doesn't have the energy to mess around. He says to God/Woman directly this time: "Tell me over and over again... that you loved me then. Amen."
I love this one. I'll leave you guys with it. Enjoy!
Tell me again
When I've been to the river
And I've taken the edge off my thirst
Tell me again
We're alone and I'm listening
I'm listening so hard that it hurts
Tell me again
When I'm clean and I'm sober
Tell me again
When I've seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me you want me then…
Amen.
Tell me again
When the victims are singing
And Laws of Remorse are restored
Tell me again
That you know what I'm thinking
But vengeance belongs to the Lord
Tell me again
When I'm clean and I'm sober
Tell me again
When I've seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you loved me then…
Amen.
Tell me again
When the day has been ransomed
And the night has no right to begin
Try me again
When the angels are panting
And scratching at the door to come in
Tell me again
When I'm clean and I'm sober
Tell me again
When I've seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell that you need me then…
Amen.
Tell me again
When the filth of the butcher
Is washed in the blood of the lamb
Tell me again
When the rest of the culture
Has passed through the Eye of the Camp
Tell me again
When I'm clean and I'm sober
Tell me again
When I've seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you love me then...
Amen.
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