I so enjoyed Heather Hampson reading from the International Treasure that is Leonard Cohen that I thought it might be worth commiting to memory some of his favourite songs for my By Heart quest.
You would think, having listened to these songs for two decades, I’d already have by-hearted a fair few, but it would appear that I am one of those people who takes in the aggregate of a song, with only the odd line sinking into the memory bank[1].
How many of Leonard Cohen’s songs truly stand up as poems? Is this because his lugubrious delivery so indelibly pigments the words that one can never recite them again without feeling locked into his rhythms and melody, fettered as it were in the Tower of Song (do-dumb-dumb-dumb/da-doo-dumb-dumb)?
Or did Cohen’s lyrical poems become more watered down and less linguistically adventurous as he transformed into a songwriter? Even the great ‘Anthem‘, with that oft-quoted line about the “crack in everything /That’s how the light gets in” reads off the page a tad light and doggereled at times:
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away …
This is not the case with Queen Victoria - a cracking poem (but an extremely leaden song).
So what Cohen songs work well as poem for you? Suggestions welcome.
[Heather's novel, The Vanity Game can be purchased for the price of a cuppa from here, and bought in song-form for the cost of an overpriced Skinny Latte on the album Live Songs.]
- This is a more affirmative way of saying that I have the memory of a Leonard Shelby.↵
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un-lovely, I thought to myself, “Well, that’s not a wrong thing to say! She wasn’t very attractive in ‘that’ way, was she?” I could be wrong! I’ll be looking up images now… a very interesting piece :D
Loveliness is very much in the eye of the beholder, ET. Attractiveness in “that” way (and every other way) similarly, no?
Thanks for listening & commentating.
I wonder how you found us? I only ask because I notice that you have a .ca web address.
I have this quaint notion that any podcast that goes up online about Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, KD Lang, or Neil Young is almost instantly listened to by 1/4 of Canada (the baby boomers). If only it were thus…
Take This Waltz works for me, in spite of the aye, aye…line
But then I am just a huge Cohen fan and perhaps it’s just a different kind of poetry - the poetry made of words and music.
Yes, I agree Avril. What a wonder that song. Particularly when Jennifer Warnes comes in near the end and joins him from out of the blue. Never fails to break my heart at that moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pXtXr_pJVI