Leonard Cohen is down from the mountain

If it's nothing but a bunch of Buddhist prayers, then I have my doubts. Nothing against Buddhist prayers, you understand.

dude there's a whole 'nother board for discussing boring crap like Leonard Cohen albums, remember?

but i get better answers here. i like mutating threads. I want to discuss zen and the spirit here . BTW Lenny is cool.

I hate zen, its a waste of time

yeah i was just fuckin round. I doubt I'd have any serious opinions about a new Leonard Cohen album tho.

lenny's a hoot, gets it on with beccy detunamournay, then heaads up to the mountains, gets sozzled for a revolution of the wheel, says buddhism - woah, everybody knows, and then records another album...I can't wait!

His last alb sounded like Chris Rea. He needs to hook up w/Spector again.

i really like Bird on a wire and So Long MAry Anne

people who suggest the divine candian poet of meloncholy should hook up with the wife beating all glitter ringmaster should be analy sodomzied by barbed penis demons.

Haha! Laughing Len said he wld be v. happy to work w/Spector again, so you have just cursed yr idol. Still, demon cock may be the answer he seeks...

Cohen is how I would like to grow old. But could never be as old as Cohen, even the young Cohen.

Favourite album: 'New Skin For The Old Ceremony'. Favourite song: 'Take This Longing'.

Cohen's 'Ten New Songs' will certainly stir my interest. His lyrics (already online at www.10newsongs.com) are masterful.

I find power in how he views G-d as both mysterious and obvious. His religion and his sex are both immediate and eternal. They come with the waves off Hydra or in the curve of a woman's breast. That it seems all of his debauchery ends up in the white room with the hard wooden bed. How he swings wide between being depraved and being aestiec (sp) . How he expressed the archetypes underneath Judaism , Buddhism , Catholicism and Capitalism. He does not abandon a belief system when he embraces another one. There is this marvelous story about these Rabonovich Jews coming to rescue Cohen from his sanctuary at Mount Baldy. He brings them to his room. He finds Whisky and Crackers. They drink and talk long into the night. At the end they become frequent visitors to Baldy. As well i am reminded of his novel Beautiful losers with that great Cree saint Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. She is at a formal dinner the white factors are holding . She spills a glass of wine . Everyone talks to her, tries to comfort her like you would comfort a child. But the wine does not sop up. She weeps and the wine permeates the linens. No one sees the symbol. That seems to be the essence of Cohen , the politics and tragedy of simple pleasures. The way a "very sweet companion, an angel of compassion , can rub half the world against her thigh. " or that martial introduction to Democracy. As well there is that voice. The resigned sigh, the lone wolf howl, the wilderness keening. He talked recently about the holiness of domestic chores. I expected the lyrics to this album to reflect that . To be severe . But it does not seem to be that way at all. . I thought it would be an album where he put the whiskey on the shelf and said he was an old man , with out much use for woman. But seeing the lyrics, it seems the opposite. The holy man is down from the mountain, He is going from Israel to Babylon to experenice the pleasures of the flesh before he dies. Its like these ancients are returning to their sources and making the most powerful work of their career. Bob Dylan is telling us how much he fears impotence and death. How being virile is so important to him. Merle Haggard is telling the young folk not to be stupid. Imparting his wisdom with bitter chastisement. Johnny Cash sounds lonely . Desperate to break something apart and run. But Cohens album seems to hip and modern and as sexy as ever. Look at that digital cover. ( side note he designs all elements to his CDs and Books , often taking the photographs , as he did in this occasion) They smile slyly and close their eyes blissfully. The Lyrics suggest a resigning but it seems like that has always occurred in his work. His best songs are in the past tense ( I remember you well in the Chelsea hotel or So Long Marianne). These ones deal with true love slipping past the "sentries of the heart" ( Alexandra Leaving ) or finding soberness in a daze of alcohol . Koanic as always. I have only read the lyrics but it seems like he has done it again.

BTW My favourite work is democracy and my favourite album is Field Commander Cohen . I know this is almost a page , sorry :)

"Nobody ever listens to me round here. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record."

Bravo!

And of course the other line from the show -- "We'll be alive and not dead! Like Leonard Cohen!"

Kidding aside, though, Anthony's discussion is the best thing I've ever read about the man -- more to the point, it's the first thing I've read that's actually gotten me interested in listening to more of his stuff. And that counts for something, surely. :-)

Let the record show that I prefer Johnny or Merle or Ryan Adams even.

the songs he played on some french interview show were pretty impressive. his voice has got more of the fundament in it than ever. i doubt the whole thing will stun like new skin for the old ceremony or i'm your man, but we can hope.

momus--you think the lyrics are masterful? i thought they were a bit tired. with some moments of sublimity.

ned i am ahivering with praise. Its a rule that canucks have to convert one american to either atwood or cohen. i am glad i have done my job

Well, better that than Mike Myers or Shatner. ;-)