Tuesday, July 12, 2016

_____________________ Leonard Cohen - Anthem _____________________


It is an old cliche to say that if you can remember the 1960s / 70s you weren't there. I will swim against and contradict this stream of thought and state that I was there and that I remember Leonard Cohen very well indeed.

Tonight on Prime TVs'  'Prime Rocks' series  Leonard Cohen was featured; and back flooded the songs and the memories. All those years ago I thought his songs were dark, brooding and somewhat foreboding. His was a voice from the depths of the human condition.

Forty odd years on I feel the voice of his work as paradoxical. Often he seems like a prophet, sage or shaman come down from the mountain to speak of what he has seen - yet at other times his songs speak of someone sharing and illuminating our common humanity; peeling the weeping layers of an existential onion of sorts; digging deeper, searching to find the way. He is a true fellow pilgrim. His musical lantern still shines its light, and I give thanks.


"Anthem"

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in. 

That's how the light gets in.

2 comments:

Ben said...

Just by coincidence, recently I saw on television his performance in the Olympia Hall in Paris of September 2012. I was impressed by his presence and his capability to give every song a special bearing. Loved the performance.
I had to know his songs because every girl I was in love with in the 1960 s and 1970 s loved him. 

Alden Smith said...

Ben, I like the minimalist musicality of his songs. His deep sombre voice carries his poetry without the distractions of harmony, counterpoint, soaring violins or any of the other musical fabric which would be used to great enhancing effect in a different context. A solitary voice and his haunting words - very evocative and effective.