If you are the dealer
I’m out of the game
…
If thine is the glory
Then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Still a young man at eighty-two, Mr Cohen is much older than that, indeed it is possible that the mysterious dark matter that holds the universe together is simply his spirit. In his early albums (the debut released when he was a spry thirty-two year old) and the novels and poetry that preceded it, the mix of God (in all its forms), love (in all its forms) and politics (in all its forms) was there but over the years the shift has gone from love-politics-God. One of the most striking things about the new album is Mr Cohen’s seeming return to Judaism. The last few albums showed the influence of his Buddhism (ordained he never converted from the religion of his fathers) but this album, from the use of cantor and violins, seems that Mr Cohen is coming back, or deeper into, what was always his true faith
I’ve taken a lot of Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Ritalin, Focalin, … I’ve also studied deeply in the philosophies and religions, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.
But back to the album. As you may expect from a Leonard Cohen album the lyrics are beyond sublime- challenging preconceptions
I heard the snake was baffled by his sin
He shed his scales to find the snake within
But born again is born without a skin
The poison enters into everything
And even holding up his hand and saying, maybe my truths were never true
It sounded like the truth
It seemed the better way
It sounded like the truth
But it’s not the truth today
…
Steer your heart past the Truth
You believed in yesterday
Such as Fundamental Goodness
And the Wisdom of the Way
Yet there is also an element of maybe not only were the truths untrue but also maybe one was failed by God, the image of
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
Strikes one’s core.
However, the album is completely devoid of any kind of bitterness or remorse or even pain. The album is, seemingly, by one who has accepted that one can never know the truth (maybe that is the truth we all seek?)
They’re dancing in the street – it’s Jubilee
We sold ourselves for love but now we’re free
I’m sorry for the ghost I made you be
Only one of us was real – and that was me.
And he even, with his usual brilliant humour, mocks his own revelations
Now I’m living in this temple
Where they tell you what to do
I’m old and I’ve had to settle
On a different point of view
And his own condition
I struggled with some demons
They were middle-class and tame
And indeed he may simply be
I’m just a fool
A dreamer who
Forgot to dream
This is an album written by a person who has gone far beyond the existence of many of us, of many who have been. It would not be absurd to say that maybe Leonard Cohen is one of the great religious teachers of our age and to live in the age of Leonard Cohen who, God willing, will out live all of the human race, is a great privilege
But if it is not to be and Mr Cohen returns to grace then the last words of the album will be a fitting epitaph for a spirit, for a soul who has touched me, for one, so deeply that my inner wine has been returned to the purity of water.
I wish there was a treaty we could sign
It’s over now, the water and the wine
We were broken then, but now we’re borderline
And I wish there was a treaty
I wish there was a treaty
Between your love and mine
‘till next time!
——
Feel free to drop me a line, anytime at
thegreaterfool2016@yahoo.com
thegreaterfool2016 