Leonard Cohen- music to commit suicide by?
Well yes and no. The drone of his voice can suggest world weariness and his voice is certainly not pleasant except by rough standards. There are better cover versions it is true.
So what is for me so compelling? His lyricism. I think the song ‘take this Longing’ a good example. The woman in the song does not love him, at least in his mind. He makes himself sound like one in a production line
‘many men have loved the bells
You keep them chained to the ring’
Certainly the accent is on the body and its results, a measure of love.
‘ so let me judge this love affair
By the stain on the bed on which I have slept’
He says he’ll wear laurel leaves, the poet crowned in the confusion of love, the gap between need and satisfaction.
So is it music to commit suicide by? Only if we deny the body…the body must be accommodated. Even in melancholy there is light, seeing the other side of its coin. Perhaps we should learn to rejoice in his message and all our impulses. Perhaps the poet-lyricist is there to alert us to that perception…
