Leonard Cohen was born old. In his thirties he wrote from a vantage point which felt like that of a man twice his age. As he grew older, he got downright apocalyptic. The future, as he so famously wrote, is murder, and the past, well, … Continue reading A Street
Watch Leonard Cohen’s very first television appearance. Note the absence of shrieking teenage fans. Cohen’s droning vocal style and dense lyrics precluded him from being invited to a lot TOTP-type TV programmes, even when he had become well-known. Not that he was clamoring for that … Continue reading The Stranger Song
As I’ve increasingly noted, Leonard Cohen’s writing is filled with religious references, some very vague and some common. However, Cohen is not given to interpreting ideas literal-mindedly, and a nearly-conventional narrative song like this one is an anomaly in his work. Anyone who has a … Continue reading The Story of Isaac
After a lifetime of listening to Leonard Cohen, I still don’t know what all of his songs are about. When I was younger, I didn’t realize that many of his songs were about sex, despite some being fairly explicit. That part now is easy to … Continue reading Stories of the Street
Leonard Cohen knew that he didn’t have very much time left when he was recording his final album, and he did what he had always done. He peered into the nebulous window of the human soul, and he found the eternal conflict of our better … Continue reading Steer Your Way
Just as there have been books written about Leonard Cohen’s best known song, there are movies being made about his best known love. Cohen had the archetypal artist-and-muse relationship with a real person named Marianne, a relationship we see as so anachronistic and exotic that … Continue reading So Long, Marianne
Leonard Cohen lays out his philosophy for life, and it’s just what you would expect. He’s a downtempo kind of a guy. When I hear this, I hear it as a decades-too-late reply to Marlene Dietrich, who crooned “A guy who takes his time, I … Continue reading Slow
The Sisters of Mercy are a Roman Catholic women’s religious congregation (as per their website) and we all know there’s nothing sexier than a lady who’s renounced worldly things in the service of God. We know that because ‘naughty nuns’ is one of the world’s … Continue reading Sisters of Mercy
What a bleak record. I haven’t listened to New Skin For the Old Ceremony is several years, and it’s never been one of Leonard Cohen’s records that I think to reach for. Though you wouldn’t call Cohen a sunshiny guy on the best of days, … Continue reading A Singer Must Die
Leonard Cohen can give anyone a run for their money when in comes to portentous narrative ballads, except that his narratives don’t tell stories as such. Cohen really doesn’t get enough credit for his use of surreal imagery; so much of his writing evokes the … Continue reading Sing Another Song, Boys
