Many decades ago I met him, and let me add I dined with him. It was at the time he was writing songs for Roberta Flack, who I adored. There’s more to the story but not now. rip
6.
Boudica
God’s getting them out of here before the coming Trump nuclear war. It’s a slow rapture.
Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that’s left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother:
it is murder.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
You don’t know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I’m the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
but love’s the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It’s over, it ain’t going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil’s riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder
Things are going to slide …
There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You’ll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin’
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder
Things are going to slide …
When they said REPENT REPENT …
10.
JPL
RIP I’m saddened and you will be missed.
11.
Mai.naem.mobile
I saw this on Twitter a few hours ago and am wondering who the next two will be.
12.
Felonius Monk
So sad to hear this. Love his music. Always got a smile out of Chelsea Hotel #2 about his tryst with Janis. RIP Mr. Cohen knowing that your music lives on.
13.
chopper
fine, I’ll say it again.
now I’m really depressed.
14.
Rob
It’s Closing Time
Sigh
15.
Drunkenhausfrau
I’ve been saying this all year… perhaps we are really in the Rapture, but heaven only wants our artists.
ETA – Hey Rob upthread, you & me man, two strangers drinking in the same bar, so to speak.
19.
barbecue swinger
@JPL:
Please do tell the rest of the story some time, JPL.
20.
Omnes Omnibus
Rare sincerity: When family members have died, I am always the guy who can deal with everything until everyone else goes to bed and, out of sight, I break down. Better in the morning because people need me. I was getting through this week is a similar way. Numb but functioning. This news broke me. I cued cued up Suzanne, and by the second guitar note, I lost it.
For those interested, kcrw.com will replay an interview with him that happened a month or so ago tomorrow morning. Heard some of it and it was illuminating.
23.
Emma
I have been listening to his music since I found out. I am going to be counting the days until this damn year is over.
@Omnes Omnibus: {{}} virtual hugs. Are you the eldest child? I am like that too. I think we are born with a responsibility gene.
25.
CaseyL
I’m not familiar with his work except for Hallelujah, which I adore and am listening to right now. Have a lot of respect for him as a person and an artist.
RIP, Leonard. You got out while the getting was good.
26.
Cain
Yeah, I agree, this has been a shity year.. this year, I lost my marriage, and my job all within months of each other and electing trump is icing on the cake. I’ve also had a number of deaths, and finally we have the deaths of famed artists.
27.
Cain
Personally, I’m not interested in this year being over that soon.. next year is Trumpland, and I want to be in the warm confines of the Obama land as long as possible.
28.
fuckwit
Speaking of Prince, what just came on a random shuffle is an amazing extended remix of Erotic City. Very likely mixed by The Purple One himself. He was a hell of a DJ, as well as a composer, producer, singer, guitar player, keyboard player, drum programmer, dancer, and entertainer.
And now Cohen too.
29.
Sherparick
Read his interview in Esquire last week. He was very at ease with his passing, his health was gone and he was apparently in considerable pain, but still writing and enjoying being with his family & talking to friends. He seemed pretty happy with the way the song was ending.
30.
AnotherBruce
@Omnes Omnibus: That was me, but I asked God not Satan sincerely not to choose Trump over a Cubs world series win. But did the fucker listen. Fuck no! Don’t blame me, after all God created Satan too.
31.
Amaranthine RBG
The recent New Yorker article on Cohen was fascinating:
ETA: I’m in a funny position in my family – the almost youngest of my mom’s kids, the elder of my father’s. I had the oldest/youngest split going on big time. I cry easily but try to hide it when I think things are going into the shitter and everyone else is freaking out. I’m so numb right now, tho’…it’s almost like, “of course Leonard Cohen decided to check out right now. He’s no fool.”
34.
jk
RIP Leonard. Thanks for the Sisters of Mercy and a lot of other great music.
I just asked Alexa to play Leonard Cohen (The Essential Leonard Cohen is on Prime streaming – that’s mostly what I use Alexa for) and it chose to play this
Who by Fire
And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?
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
He will speak these words of wisdom
Like a sage, a man of vision
Though he knows he’s really nothing
But the brief elaboration of a tube
Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before
Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore
He wants to write a love song
An anthem of forgiving
A manual for living with defeat
A cry above the suffering
A sacrifice recovering
But that isn’t what I need him
To complete
I want him to be certain
That he doesn’t have a burden
That he doesn’t need a vision
That he only has permission
To do my instant bidding
Which is to say what I have told him
To repeat
Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before
Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without this costume
That I wore
Going home
Without the sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before
Going home
Without the burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without this costume
That I wore
I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, Siubhan! I’m a past master at maintaining as you so nicely absorbed from a previous comment of mine (I’m always amazed that anyone actually reads my comments let alone retains them!). So, I’m in the zone, though sorely tested these last few days. He who will not be named by me is our President?!
For shame.
48.
dance around in your bones
@Elizabelle: See my reply to Siubhan at #47……gads, another reader?! I am verklempt ;)
49.
Jacel
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, I recal both Prince and Cohen were cited as “at least we still have them” when Bowie died early this year. Sigh…
50.
petesh
@Omnes Omnibus: Good choice, though I’m going with Everybody Knows.
@Omnes Omnibus: Hola, amigo! I left you a longer prolly embarrassing-to-me post that was chewed up and horked out by my combination weak wireless signal/total browser fail. Oversharing can be a failing…
53.
Suzanne
I was named for “Suzanne”.
God. What a horrible, horrible year.
54.
Aleta
My friend was helped by him in her 20s, says he died Tuesday, had been in pain for a long while. Slow
Such a writer. Dylan a great writer, yet nowhere near Cohen.
I wrote this letter to Leonard Cohen a couple of years ago, and it feels like it might be okay to share the whole thing. I sent it to his manager, who assured me that Leonard would indeed recieve it and read it:
Dear Leonard,
Thank you for your voice – that you have put out far enough into the world to reach me, in times when I needed to hear your voice.
When I was in Grade 13 English (when they still had that) in a very small town in SW Ontario, we were assigned to write a report on any book that we wished. I chose “The Favorite Game”. My teacher (who was also Sunday school teacher) queried as to whether that was an appropriate choice, to which I replied “well, it’s in our library, so yes”.
Your writing, your voice, have touched me sometimes since then – in important moments in my life that were sometimes very deeply fraught and I was near to lost. I am listening to your recording of “Anthem” right now, which is so perfect in its truth.
I came to this urge to write to you because the song “Hallelujah” was beckoning to me tonight (no, I’m not a Christianist), but the music and the lyrics were tickling my subconscious. I had no notion that this was your song, but when I learned that it was, and also heard kd lang’s interpretation, I realized that of course it is. Jewish Buddhist monk with an ear for Christian notes that you can translate into poetry and music – you have and are – a singular gift to this world.
You are kind of an old fellow now, and I just want to thank you for persisting in doing what you still do in the public forum – and it bites, why you still have to do it, and you show so much grace around that – or perhaps you still enjoy it, I don’t know – I am not a performer.
So – before you shuffle off this mortal coil – I want you to know that you have done a few perfect things, and touched me in ways that I did not seek, but that did find me when I was in need, and I doff my cap to your talents, to your journey, and offer to you my deep gratitude. You’ve made my life better.
Fondly,
@seaboogie:
That’s amazing.
I’ll admit, I’ve tried a few times over the years to listen to Mr. Cohen and while the words are grand, the voice just doesn’t work for me. But he was and is a treasure for this world that is for sure. His work will live on to console and impress.
@Ruckus: Timing and resonance cannot be called up on demand – they either happen or they don’t, and each of us are such individually tuned intruments in the great orchestra. Is why when I go to a museum with someone, I’m all like “I’ll meet you back here in an hour…”. Don’t want to share my rhapsody over a work of art to have a companion go “Mmmmm…meh.” Kinda takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t want to do that to anyone else, either.
62.
dance around in your bones
@Ruckus: Aw, shucks! Thanks for the kind words.
Yours always strike me as having a similar ooze of goodness – wise, as well.
For the past couple of years, our synagogue has had a boy soprano from our congregation sing this as part of our Yom Kippur service. Chills. I suspect this was his last year of performing it that way.
64.
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
Exactly. I get why people like him. A lot. A very worthy person and a great, I’m going to say poet but that doesn’t go far enough. I’ve spent a fair time in museums and almost always enjoyed them alone, unless I was showing someone who hadn’t had their eyes opened about what was actually being said. I think my favorite was Rubens house in Antwerp. Or the Guggenheim. Or the Huntington. OK I think I see a problem.
65.
Ruckus
@dance around in your bones:
Aw shucks. Thanks as well. Stay around, we need all the goodness we can muster these days.
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Omnes Omnibus
Okay, Trump, Bowie, Prince, a mediocre Pack, and now Cohen. I hope whatever Cubs fan made the deal with Satan is happy.
chopper
fuck, now I’m really depressed.
SiubhanDuinne
This year. This goddamned bloody stupid cruel year.
2016, you can just fuck right the fuck off. We’re tired of your stupid jokes.
Leonard, RIP and thank you. You gave joy, comfort, and thoughtfulness. You were a treasure.
Smiling Mortician
Fuck. Well, I can’t say he wasn’t warning us.
My favorite.
JPL
Many decades ago I met him, and let me add I dined with him. It was at the time he was writing songs for Roberta Flack, who I adored. There’s more to the story but not now. rip
Boudica
God’s getting them out of here before the coming Trump nuclear war. It’s a slow rapture.
SiubhanDuinne
@Boudica:
You are giving me the creeps.
chopper
let me out of moderation, guys.
Major Major Major Major
THE FUTURE
Leonard Cohen
JPL
RIP I’m saddened and you will be missed.
Mai.naem.mobile
I saw this on Twitter a few hours ago and am wondering who the next two will be.
Felonius Monk
So sad to hear this. Love his music. Always got a smile out of Chelsea Hotel #2 about his tryst with Janis. RIP Mr. Cohen knowing that your music lives on.
chopper
fine, I’ll say it again.
now I’m really depressed.
Rob
It’s Closing Time
Sigh
Drunkenhausfrau
I’ve been saying this all year… perhaps we are really in the Rapture, but heaven only wants our artists.
skerry
This article from last month is wonderful.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mai.naem.mobile: He is the third. Bowie, Prince, Cohen.
James E Powell
Man I can’t even . . .
It’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops.
ETA – Hey Rob upthread, you & me man, two strangers drinking in the same bar, so to speak.
barbecue swinger
@JPL:
Please do tell the rest of the story some time, JPL.
Omnes Omnibus
Rare sincerity: When family members have died, I am always the guy who can deal with everything until everyone else goes to bed and, out of sight, I break down. Better in the morning because people need me. I was getting through this week is a similar way. Numb but functioning. This news broke me. I cued cued up Suzanne, and by the second guitar note, I lost it.
rikyrah
RIP
bluehill
For those interested, kcrw.com will replay an interview with him that happened a month or so ago tomorrow morning. Heard some of it and it was illuminating.
Emma
I have been listening to his music since I found out. I am going to be counting the days until this damn year is over.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: {{}} virtual hugs. Are you the eldest child? I am like that too. I think we are born with a responsibility gene.
CaseyL
I’m not familiar with his work except for Hallelujah, which I adore and am listening to right now. Have a lot of respect for him as a person and an artist.
RIP, Leonard. You got out while the getting was good.
Cain
Yeah, I agree, this has been a shity year.. this year, I lost my marriage, and my job all within months of each other and electing trump is icing on the cake. I’ve also had a number of deaths, and finally we have the deaths of famed artists.
Cain
Personally, I’m not interested in this year being over that soon.. next year is Trumpland, and I want to be in the warm confines of the Obama land as long as possible.
fuckwit
Speaking of Prince, what just came on a random shuffle is an amazing extended remix of Erotic City. Very likely mixed by The Purple One himself. He was a hell of a DJ, as well as a composer, producer, singer, guitar player, keyboard player, drum programmer, dancer, and entertainer.
And now Cohen too.
Sherparick
Read his interview in Esquire last week. He was very at ease with his passing, his health was gone and he was apparently in considerable pain, but still writing and enjoying being with his family & talking to friends. He seemed pretty happy with the way the song was ending.
AnotherBruce
@Omnes Omnibus: That was me, but I asked God not Satan sincerely not to choose Trump over a Cubs world series win. But did the fucker listen. Fuck no! Don’t blame me, after all God created Satan too.
Amaranthine RBG
The recent New Yorker article on Cohen was fascinating:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-makes-it-darker
brendancalling
Lemmy too. Don’t forget Lemmy.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Ouch.
ETA: I’m in a funny position in my family – the almost youngest of my mom’s kids, the elder of my father’s. I had the oldest/youngest split going on big time. I cry easily but try to hide it when I think things are going into the shitter and everyone else is freaking out. I’m so numb right now, tho’…it’s almost like, “of course Leonard Cohen decided to check out right now. He’s no fool.”
jk
RIP Leonard. Thanks for the Sisters of Mercy and a lot of other great music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT9k5NHCdvQ
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Elder. but yes.
Omnes Omnibus
I think that this is the song of the week.
maeve
I just asked Alexa to play Leonard Cohen (The Essential Leonard Cohen is on Prime streaming – that’s mostly what I use Alexa for) and it chose to play this
Who by Fire
And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?
dance around in your bones
I will always love and admire you, Leonard.
Sincerely, a friend.
SiubhanDuinne
@dance around in your bones:
dance, I am so glad to see you! Hope you’re doing well (or at least maintaining, which may be all we can ask for at the moment).
Lizzy L
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Thank you for the songs, dear Leonard. We are so blessed to have known you.
Major Major Major Major
@maeve: Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins performing that together is my favorite version of any of his songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCaD6GAQmjA
Major Major Major Major
GOING HOME
Leonard Cohen
Brachiator
Sad news on top of sad news.
RIP Leonard Cohen
Elizabelle
@dance around in your bones: sad to lose Mr. Cohen, but lovely to have a dance sighting. How you be?
lol chikinburd
I envy him.
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: Hi.
dance around in your bones
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, Siubhan! I’m a past master at maintaining as you so nicely absorbed from a previous comment of mine (I’m always amazed that anyone actually reads my comments let alone retains them!). So, I’m in the zone, though sorely tested these last few days. He who will not be named by me is our President?!
For shame.
dance around in your bones
@Elizabelle: See my reply to Siubhan at #47……gads, another reader?! I am verklempt ;)
Jacel
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, I recal both Prince and Cohen were cited as “at least we still have them” when Bowie died early this year. Sigh…
petesh
@Omnes Omnibus: Good choice, though I’m going with Everybody Knows.
maeve
So playing Leonard Cohan shuffled on Amazon Prime
One of my favorite songs – Alexandra Leaving – so melancholy
then “Democracy in the USA” – damn
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: Hola, amigo! I left you a longer prolly embarrassing-to-me post that was chewed up and horked out by my combination weak wireless signal/total browser fail. Oversharing can be a failing…
Suzanne
I was named for “Suzanne”.
God. What a horrible, horrible year.
Aleta
My friend was helped by him in her 20s, says he died Tuesday, had been in pain for a long while.
Slow
Such a writer. Dylan a great writer, yet nowhere near Cohen.
Aleta
Almost Like the Blues
columbusqueen
2016 can eat a huge bag of dicks at this point.
seaboogie
I wrote this letter to Leonard Cohen a couple of years ago, and it feels like it might be okay to share the whole thing. I sent it to his manager, who assured me that Leonard would indeed recieve it and read it:
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
That’s pretty much me but I’m the youngest.
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
That’s amazing.
I’ll admit, I’ve tried a few times over the years to listen to Mr. Cohen and while the words are grand, the voice just doesn’t work for me. But he was and is a treasure for this world that is for sure. His work will live on to console and impress.
Ruckus
@dance around in your bones:
For some the goodness just oozes out. You seem to be one of those people.
seaboogie
@Ruckus: Timing and resonance cannot be called up on demand – they either happen or they don’t, and each of us are such individually tuned intruments in the great orchestra. Is why when I go to a museum with someone, I’m all like “I’ll meet you back here in an hour…”. Don’t want to share my rhapsody over a work of art to have a companion go “Mmmmm…meh.” Kinda takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t want to do that to anyone else, either.
dance around in your bones
@Ruckus: Aw, shucks! Thanks for the kind words.
Yours always strike me as having a similar ooze of goodness – wise, as well.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@maeve:
For the past couple of years, our synagogue has had a boy soprano from our congregation sing this as part of our Yom Kippur service. Chills. I suspect this was his last year of performing it that way.
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
Exactly. I get why people like him. A lot. A very worthy person and a great, I’m going to say poet but that doesn’t go far enough. I’ve spent a fair time in museums and almost always enjoyed them alone, unless I was showing someone who hadn’t had their eyes opened about what was actually being said. I think my favorite was Rubens house in Antwerp. Or the Guggenheim. Or the Huntington. OK I think I see a problem.
Ruckus
@dance around in your bones:
Aw shucks. Thanks as well. Stay around, we need all the goodness we can muster these days.