Dance me to Leonard Cohen
I reacquainted myself with the music of singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen recently, as a result of this post by The Anchoress. It links, not to the lugubrious Cohen himself, but to a YouTube video of John Cales singing Cohen’s much-covered “Hallelujah.” Then there was this rejoinder by Siggy, which originally linked to a version of Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love.”
Don’t bother looking for the latter. Unfortunately, it’s been taken off YouTube due to copyright difficulties. It featured Cohen standing in front of a sceen showing couples’ wedding pictures from long ago, and then those very same couples, elderly and nearly unrecognizable as themselves but still dancing together slowly as he sang the haunting, beautiful tune. Some of the older couples were actually just a single person and an empty chair where the other would have been sitting, if still alive.
I challenge anyone with a heart to have watched that thing and remain dry-eyed.
The two links started me on a YouTube jaunt. You know how it goes—you watch one video, click on related ones, they lead you to others, and suddenly a couple of hours have passed and you don’t know how it happened. That’s how I ended up re-evalutating Cohen, that sad-eyed chanteur of my youth.
Back in the 60s he was vaguely popular, mostly as the creator of “Suzanne,” covered by Judy Collins. I was avant-garde enough to own his record “Songs of Leonard Cohen” when it first came out, so I’m sure I saw that photo of him on the cover (follow the link), but I can’t say I remembered it. Who was interested? He was so old, after all—well over thirty! Since MTV and music videos had not been born, all I had to go on was the sound.
I wasn’t much of a fan of Cohen’s sound. Yes, many of his songs were pretty good—but sooooo slooooow. And that voice—strange, slightly nasal, a featureless toneless drone. Good for insomniacs and not much else. Anyone and everyone sounded better singing his songs than he did.
And then I didn’t hear or think of Cohen again, till those posts and that YouTube search. And I discovered something odd—the guy’s amazing.
He’s still got that monotonous voice. But it’s morphed into something different and even stranger—low, lower, lowest. Watching the video clips from different decades and eras, I could see the man change and age, but not in the usual ways.
Most of us get heavier; Cohen remains elegantly thin. Most of us have a face that gets puffier. His merely gets craggier, with only slightly deeper fault lines—and they started out pretty deep already. Not a hair on his head has been lost; it’s just gone gray, now that he’s in his early seventies (yep, he’s still a lot older than I am). Or maybe he’s finally stopped dyeing it.
Early on, Cohen was totally deadpan in his delivery. He never smiled. His mournful air combined with that voice and the slow delivery had a hypnotic effect; here was a man who knew the value of stillness.
In recent years, though, a slow smile curves his mouth every now and then, and even reaches a bit into his eyes. His Wiki biography says he’s suffered from depression all his life, but it has lifted in his older years. Cohen’s “lifted,” however, is most people’s “been down so long it looks like up to me.”
One of the reasons Cohen might be feeling happier lately is that, despite his advanced age, he’s got himself quite a girlfriend.
I think if I’d seen Cohen in performance earlier, or a video of him, I would have understood better what all the fuss was about. The word “hypnotic” seems to have been coined for the sole purpose of describing him. He doesn’t just sing; he weaves a spell, and strange as his delivery and stage presence is, it works.
He’s a poet, as well—a real one. In fact, he was a prize-winning poet before he became a songwriter. His lyrics are especially complex and evocative, and can bear many repeatings. The melodies, likewise. Many of them feature a vaguely Eastern European Jewish flavor. His themes vary, but the vagaries of love—especially love lost—is a favorite, and one look into his eyes tells you he knows whereof he sings.
Cohen is a famous and renowned womanizer. Almost all of his live performances through the 80s to the present follow a certain formula: backup instruments such as the violin, slow and catchy rhythms and melodies, and two female singers, one blond and one dark. The women seem mesmerized as well; they sing almost as in a trance, swaying slowly as though floating underwater. Cohen appears linked to them in some way; he often gazes into the eyes of one or the other as he sings. Some almost-palpable electricity seems to be arcing gently between them, and then rippling out to the audience like a force-field.
Cohen’s songs are frequently covered, and many people prefer those more tuneful versions to the idiosynchratic Cohen-groan. But I guess you could say I’m not one of them; I’ve become a Cohen fan after all these years.
[Note: Want to see (and hear) the aging process, right before your eyes (and ears)? Here’s the young higher-voiced Cohen. Then, the dreamy, deepening middle years. And finally, the not-sadder and wiser croak of the old guy.]
[ADDENDUM: I’m happy to report to anyone who still might be reading this that I’ve found the “Dance Me To the End of Love” video that I described above.]
Neo, your description of the video of “Dancing To The End Of Love” reminds me of my favorite part of the film “When Harry Met Sally”–the vignettes of the “couples” describing how they met and came together. Priceless. As for Cohen, I’m with you–almost anyone and everyone can do his songs better, but then again, he’s like Dylan: some of his songs are fit to be sung only by him.
There was a marvelous tribute album called Tower of Song, which I think came out some dozen years ago, which I immediately snapped up, curious about various songs, but mostly, curious of how disparate musicians and vocalists like Willie Nelson, The Chieftains, Aaron Neville and Tori Amos (to name a few) handled Cohen, and being young and not familiar with Cohen’s presence in a performance found the tribute album to be wonderful. Bono’s cover of Hallelujah in particular still echoes in my memory, though the album long has since passed from my possession. As I aged, the originals grew in my mind, hearing how Cohen handled his lyrics. It is as they say an acquired taste. But once acquired it can be marvelous.
Whether you love or loathe Leonard, you must hear “Leonard Cohen’s Day Job” from the Austin Lounge Lizards album Employee of the Month
These guys really make me laugh – and think…
“The word “hypnotic” seems to have been coined just to describe him. He doesn’t just sing; he weaves a spell, and strange as his delivery and stage presence is, it works.”
Yep. Kinda like Harry Chapin.
I adore Leonard Cohen.
Your post is a perfect homage.
Cohen was off my 48-year-old radar until about 5 years ago. Saw McCabe and Mrs Miller, and fine movie that is, but who was that singer? What was that song?
Cut to a few years later. I and some of my friends have been known to frequent the grayer areas of the Net. I must have received 8 versions of Hallelujah. Fav is the one by Buckley. Played now and again on Radio Paradise, also.
Kinda like this song, too much:
youtube.comKinda like that song too, Alear — here’s
the video. With the two women, and the slow smile at the end.
The only songwriter/poet in the same league as Cohen is that other old guy, Dylan.
I tried to like Leonard Cohen, I really did, even bought an album. But you know what? He SOUNDED SO DEPRESSED that even a depressed teenager like me couldn’t listen for very long. And I wondered, Is he just acting this way to get laid? What did I know.
therapydoc: Well, if what I’ve read is correct, if that was his motivation, it most assuredly worked.
As I said, the key is to watch his videos, especially the ones from the 80s on.
And, perhaps, to be a woman.
This is my favorite. Wistful, mournful imagery:
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I had never paid much attention to Leonard Cohen, but “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” was always one of my favorite movies, and I did like his songs on the soundtrack.
Sometime in the early 90’s, when “The Future” was released, I happened to read a review of it in my local newspaper. The article mentioned that he was embarking on his first tour in however many years, so I went and bought a ticket. The concert was excellent, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to see him live.
As for the claims that anybody can sing his–or Dylan’s–songs better than they can: Nope. Not by a long shot. I’m not buying it.
I can only speak for myself. If I ever wanted to commit suicide, I’d by a Leonard Cohen CD
Nice post. I rediscovered Cohen I guess in the mid-90’s on the album “The Future” (which is where I found the song quoted above–CLOSING TIME). The whole album was good! My thumbnail observations are 1) He hasn’t lost a bit of artistic juice, in fact has gained a lot of depth and mature passion 2) The really depressed side may have lifted, but what I’d say is that a lot of the masochistic morose-ness is just gone, and not least 3) better musical production values help a LOT, album-wise.
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I have always loved Leonard Cohen, but when I bought ten new songs, in the nineties (I think. The last few years are a blur) I found myself listening to it over and over again, not as a background to work or reading, but for itself. It has the … feel of aged port sipped slowly. Sweet and biting and with the sense of accumulated years. Since then I’ve bought The Future and Dear Heather (the last of which has the song On That Day which never fails to reduce me to blubbering tears.)
The funny thing is, as much as I liked the earlier Leonard Cohen his later ones are so much better that the earlier ones feel unfinished and brash to me. Like he was only on his way to where he is now and not “complete.”
May we all improve with age, likewise.
I’ve liked him since I was in High School in the mid-70s.
I still can’t walk past Clinton St. without thinking of “Famous Blue Raincoat.”
What I have to say, I’ve said here.
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/006549.php
This is a moving post that reflects my own feelings about Leonard Cohen’s music. Fans might be interested to know that Cohen’s first three albums will be reissued on April 24, 2007 with remastered songs, fresh liner notes, and some previously unreleased tracks. I posted a few details about the reissues at Cohen and Anjani Reissues. I’m also a fan of his girlfriend (AKA Anjani) and posted a review of “Blue Alert,” her album of Cohen material, at Music Recommendation That Will Make You Want To Kiss Me
Wow! It’s great to see this Cohen resurgence in blogland.
I’m an aspiring songwriter in my 20s living in San Francisco (I’m also conservative, BTW) and in the last year or so Cohen has joined Dylan as one of my primary inspirations. There is such a focused universality in their work, and a mature dignity that is so beyond the childish nonsense of most other, otherwise talented, artists.
Paul: You’re a conservative in your twenties? What the hell is a guy like you doing in Frisco?
I’ve been a Cohen fan since the ’60s, and have never stopped listening to him. His lyrics still come to mind unprompted and still fascinate. My kids all like him, even my 14-year old daughter.
I play Cohen over Dylan. From Master Song:
Then I think you’re playing far too rough
for a lady who’s been to the moon;
I’ve lain by this window long enough
to get used to an empty room.
And your love is some dust in an old man’s cuff
who is tapping his foot to a tune,
and your thighs are a ruin, you want too much,
let’s say you came back some time too soon.
Steve Rosenbach: if you want a true suicide song, check out “Gloomy Sunday” — there’s even a movie about it.
An interesting Cohen song, which I believe dates from the 1980s, is “The Captain.” Opening lines:
The captain called me to his bed
And fumbled for my hand
“Take these silver bars,” he said
“I’m giving you command”
The song also includes the lines:
“I know that you have suffered, lad
But suffer this awhile:
Whatever makes a soldier sad
Will make a killer smile”
I don’t pretend to know exactly what Cohen meant by this song, but I always think of the lines above when leftists express their dislike of those who use force in a rational and legitimate fashion (“soldiers”) while at the same time applauding terrorists who pursue orgiastic violence (“killers”).
Been a Cohen fan since my teen years.
His first live album is the best.
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This line, “He was so old, after all–well over thirty! Since MTV and music videos had not been born, all I had to go on was the sound,” made me remember being told that it was the movie “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” which featured Leonard Cohen’s songs, so worked into the story being told that it gave rise to the idea of music videos.
I don’t know if that was true, but I remember the movie (barely) and it was, in much of, like that.
Sorry about the fast typing job above…seems I skipped over some words… Oh well, you know what I meant.
I just wanted to post the link to the video that you mentioned with the couples dancing. It was still working for me 5 mins ago…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdZ-rRnUkg&NR=1
Can’t say I’m the most sentimental person around, but it almost broke me up.
One amazing man,alot of talent,even with age he’s grasped God so vividly,yet still without knowing His name and all He stills a poise of wisdom many fail to grasp and Bob Dylan is like Leonard Cohen in so many ways,but they differ quite a bit I guess.All songwriters do me I am one,yet Cohen I would like to write more like or have a little bit of Cohen style in my writing.If I would have to spell Leonard in one word it’s Humble.
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