Leonard Cohen

Musical Musings: Influences, discussions, playlists, suggestions for new music, anything else of note (pun intended!)
Leonard Cohen is one of our major influences. Jordana had some thoughts about his latest album, and we'd love to hear yours as well! 

Album title: Old Ideas

by Jordana Greenberg

   I started listening to Leonard Cohen when I was 10. I had been on a seemingly endless Bob Dylan bender, and was enthused about prophetic visions of society, bizarre dreams, and the promise of freedom I would no doubt feel once I grew up and began my own musical journey/civil rights crusade across America. My mom suggested I listen to Leonard Cohen, and she said it in this dreamy, almost sultry, and thoroughly confusing voice. I remember saying that I hadn’t heard of him, and I was sure that no one could ever speak to me the way Bob did, but I’d give him a try. I listened to So Long, Marianne, and Famous Blue Raincoat and I totally did not get it. I was not even close to a point in my life where I could identify with the longing, or the loneliness, or the reverence for ordinary life. I put Leonard away and returned to Bob. 

   Five years later I was in my first year of University, struggling with being a fifteen year old away from home, navigating a world of self-proclaimed adults, alcohol worship and classical music politics. I was overwhelmed, and spent a great deal of time listening to music. Somewhere in between Elvis and 70’s prog rock, I stumbled on a live recording of ‘The Stranger Song’ by Leonard Cohen. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and suddenly I was listening to everything he had ever recorded. The music was desperate, incredibly dark, but then joyful, seductive, and funny. Cohen communicates love, fear, anger, hope, and desire, but what I have not found in any of his music, is hate. He can seem - and make you feel - utterly resigned, frustrated, and even insane, but there is no hatred. 

    His newest album, ‘Old Ideas’ has many of the emotional qualities that I love about his music. I made a mistake, however, when I first heard it: I listened to the album with a group of people. It wasn’t until later when I put it on repeat for several hours by myself that the songs truly began to speak to me. I was driving, and the opening lines of the album made me feel like I was getting a new look into a slightly changed, older and more amused Leonard. He says:

I love to speak with Leonard

He’s a sportsman and a shepherd

He’s a lazy bastard living in a suit

But he does say what I tell him

Even though it isn’t welcome

He just doesn't have the freedom to refuse

   As a songwriter, I find these lyrics truly glorious. Though most of us don’t have the ability to express ourselves with the grace of Leonard Cohen, I have experienced the sensation of writing to or through another part of myself. The songwriter self is quite different from the performer self, and Cohen says it with magical simplicity. It also sets an intimate tone for the rest of the album, as though this is the Leonard that we’ve only glimpsed before- as though decades, albums, and probably thousands of performances later he’s decided to shed the performer self and communicate only as songwriter. This is further demonstrated to me in the song “Anyhow.”

I've used up all my chances 

And you'll never take me back 

But there ain't no harm in asking 

Could you cut me one more slack 

Now I'm naked and I'm filthy 

And there's sweat upon my brow 

And both of us are guilty 

Anyhow 

   It comes from the perspective of someone who has seen a lot of outcomes, and stripped them down to the few that truly matter. Ultimately, forgiveness can be granted even when it’s undeserved. 

   I’m going to go listen the album again now, because new lines jump out at me each time, and then I spend a few days mulling them over. I’m so grateful that Leonard Cohen recorded this new album, because I’ve been dying to know what he’s been thinking about lately. Just make sure you listen to it the way Cohen should be experienced: Alone.