Leonard Cohen Has Died
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“The big change is the proximity to death,” he said. “I am a tidy kind of guy. I like to tie up the strings if I can. If I can’t, also, that’s O.K. But my natural thrust is to finish things that I’ve begun.”
“For some odd reason,” he went on, “I have all my marbles, so far. I have many resources, some cultivated on a personal level, but circumstantial, too: my daughter and her children live downstairs, and my son lives two blocks down the street. So I am extremely blessed. I have an assistant who is devoted and skillful. I have a friend like Bob and another friend or two who make my life very rich. So in a certain sense I’ve never had it better. . . . At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.” [0]
[0] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-m...
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/89715...
The quote that stood out the most for me:
"In a pursuit like rock ’n’ roll, which is entirely devoted to redemption, Cohen’s ideas were not only old but radical. His peers all insisted that salvation was at hand. To go to a Doors concert was to stare at the lithe messiah undressing on stage and believe that it was entirely possible to break on through to the other side. To see Cohen play was to gawk at an aging Jew telling you that life was hard and laced with sorrow but that if we love each other and fuck one another and have the mad courage to laugh even when the sun is clearly setting, we’ll be just all right. To borrow a metaphor from a field never too far from Cohen’s heart, theology, Morrison, Hendrix, Joplin, and the rest were all good Christians, and they set themselves up as the redeemers who had to die for the sins of their fans. Cohen was a Jew, and like Jews he believed that salvation was nothing more than a lot of hard work and a small but sustainable reward."
Back in July he wrote to a dying Marianne Ihlen, "Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine."
Reminded me of my late father having passed away some 18 months ago.
Thanks for that moment. Your link was a gift.
I have cried more tears listening to Leonard Cohen than all the other tears I've cried combined, his music, his words, his poems have always resonated deeply within me. He truly is my favourite artist. We listened to him daily in my dad's house and I grew to find an incredibly amount of peace in his voice. Love the HN community seems to like him as much. rest well sir.
I've always been slow warming up to artists, but that one you linked was perfect for bringing me in....I keep playing it. :)
He may not have been as prolific as Dylan, but he also had pretty much no duds.
I'm thankful to have his work seeing me through this life. Especially so these days.
I went by myself, which is unusual for me when it comes to concerts. He played for 3 hours and needless to say, it was incredible.
During "Suzanne", the room (a hockey arena) was completely dark except for a spotlight shining up from below casting a giant shadow behind him. Combined with such a haunting song it made for one of the most beautiful musical experiences of my life.
Here's a recording of that performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3pcPK4eXHQ
That turned out to be the last time he played here and I'm so thankful to have gotten a chance to hear him play his songs.
Way too many great lines to quote, but these ones comfort me: "But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song"
EDIT: I found a video from a different concert that gives a better idea of what it looked like, though the link above is a better performance imo, + much better audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emgt62vls3o
(also love the single comment, which I ran through google translate: "What is still the magic of this man? I am not a sentimental dragon, but it goes straight to the heart.")
I think that what got me from the concert (which I saw in Chicago) was when he dropped to his knees to sing. What a privilege it was to see such a giant perform.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-makes-it-darker
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12700141
2016 - what a year.
from "Make it Darker"
nb: The word 'Hineni' means 'Here I am' in a spiritual sense, which is what Abraham says and means to God to indicate his readiness when he is called.
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner, take my hand, or
If you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your manDon't mind me, though. I hope I outgrow this at some point.
For years to come you will recall the music's death, the soldier's fall, and your songs salute them both. So: Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
--
The first Cohen song that I ever heard was "Everybody Knows", in Pump Up the Volume.
I feel that many singers just sing the words, and sometimes they're pretty, sometimes sad. It was like raw emotion poured out every time Leonard Cohen opened his mouth.
> While never abandoning Judaism, the Sabbath-observing songwriter attributed Buddhism to curbing the depressive episodes that had always plagued him.
[1] http://www.npr.org/2016/10/21/498810429/leonard-cohen-on-poe...
His songs are dark and poetic and really keep you entranced. I'm glad he released his last effort (Leaving the Table is a great one for the occasion) and seemed totally at peace in his New Yorker feature.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/1...
Which was quickly followed by:
http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/10/leonard-cohen-no-longe...
Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried, in my way, to be freeWasn't a fan of hers until... https://youtu.be/ikdLBQACC74
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but HallelujahNB. It's the version by Cale which became the basis of the later covers by Buckley, Wainwright, etc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzu4LE667VM
Here's a post from couple of days ago which documents the history of Hallelujah - http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/11/11/leonard-...
I was fighting with temptation But I didn't want to win A man like me don't like to see Temptation caving in
I cant be sure, but back in 2008 when he played "Democracy is coming to the USA" he seemed to be delighted that Obama won. IMHO this part of the song is more appropriate for Leonard's last days on earth: "I love the country but I can't stand the scene".
RIP
edit: removed comment about the president elect
They're ambiguous so that helps.
"But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."
RIP, Leonard Cohen
"Ring the bells that still can ring
forget your perfect offering
there is a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in."
-- Anthem
A recent profile that I greatly enjoyed:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-m...
I'd really like to see McGill, our common alma mater, commemorate him in some way.
I dont get why people are so emotional when famous artists die. Posting on facebook and whatnot.. We werent personal friends with them, so it wont affect our lives in any way. Their works are still as available as ever, and still as great as ever. We can still listen to their music every day.
If they died old then they've had a good run to make a good body of great work that can be their direct legacy for hundreds of years. Few people achieve that.
The reason I was in pain was because I was not going to enjoy him anymore. In the end, he was dead already. He could not feel or enjoy anything anymore, so why be sad for him?
So maybe when someone that through art or knowledge or whatever touches people in a certain way, and then that person passes away, it makes people sad because they will not be able to enjoy any new music, any new takes on life, any new works, etc.
Yes, we now have YouTube and digital media so we can keep listening to John Coltrane and Leonard Cohen, but the fact that we won't be able to keep growing up with them makes it painful. Even if they are not your friends, they are people you admire. They are people that will no longer produce any "new wisdom" for you to absorb and savor.
When someone like say, Dennis Ritchie died, we (HN, engineers, <other placeholder>) got sad because there would be no new insights coming from this great mind. He's not going to be able to comment on, say, SpaceX's first trip to Mars or whatever.
So in the end we are the ones deprived of these great minds' wisdom and thus we are the ones that ache and suffer.
That's my take on it at least. Maybe it's not what's actually happening but it kinda make sense to me :)
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-m...
Life is about the search for value, and most often you find that in other people, their ideas, and their lives. Singers and other artists selectively create a public representation of their value-judgments, and people who find those values resonate in them come to love those artists in a very personal way.
Leonard Cohen wasn't as young as some of them, but he was still active. I looked forward to his thoughts and music on many things.
I mentioned in another thread how touching it was that Cohen always addressed his audience as 'friends'. It is a little thing, but he wanted to connect with us personally—he was a poet much more than a performer, I think—and he did, and I feel it as a personal loss even if I was never physically any closer to the man than one seat at one of his concerts.
If you don't feel it, or any loss of anyone famous, personally, then that's totally reasonable; but why try to dismiss others' sense of loss?
And those came on top of the incredibly bitter political situation in the U.S., the Brexit vote and refugee-related strife in the E.U., rising authoritarianism in Russia and China, and a number of high-profile terrorist attacks and some serious natural disasters.
More than a dreadful year, it's also the passing of a generation, of a world. Sometimes I think that we had it too easy and we produced nothing good as a replacement for being somehow spoiled brats.
- The lumps are distributed unevenly. Baby boomers are dying around now, and they created their own culture.
- Celebrity itself only became big roughly (very roughly) as these people came of age and did their great works.
It seems like so many of my favorite musicians and songwriters have passed in the last few years and its a struggle to figure out why. I'm a millenial with a wide taste in music from the early 20th century blues to contemporary EDM but it seems like the musicians whose talent you could just sense with every note and lyric are rapidly disappearing. I should be too young for this kind of cynicism but its an easy trap to fall into when comparing Dylan, Bowie, or Cohen to some song on the pop charts or an artist in the overwhelming field of independent musicians.
It's a sad day but I can't help but marvel at the universe. It is a kind of unique, rare beauty when a life-long artist like Bowie or Cohen close out their final chapter by releasing an album within weeks of their death.
Because people generally die, and your favorite musicans are all several decades older than you, and thus close to the median life expectancy?
Assuming you are not into 2010's teen pop of course.
If one likes pre-war blues, for example, almost all of their favorite musicians would not be around anymore.
>I'm a millenial with a wide taste in music from the early 20th century blues classics to contemporary EDM but it seems like the musicians whose talent you could just sense with every note and lyric are rapidly disappearing.
Well, not many "contemporary EDM" musicians are rapidly disappearing. OTOH, Dylan, Bowie or Cohen were all 65+.
One of my favorites is "Everybody Knows": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxd23UVID7k
You will be missed.
עליו השלום
I always wanted to meet him and now, I'll never have the chance.
R.I.P.
He looks so much like Adam Sandler
Here he looks like...some random but famous actor whose name escapes me:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q8IlTmpaTiQ/Vnq3CrkSOnI/AAAAAAAAxY...
http://static.tvgcdn.net/mediabin/showcards/celebs/s-u/thumb...
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That how the light comes in.
?
Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6wBBrTMEs
So long, Leonard.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/07/so-long-marian...
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
But even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
-- You will be missed but never forgotten.
RIP.
I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song"
One of the greats.
Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld
So I can sigh eternallyA relative of mine did interviews with both Cohen and Marianne Ihlen (the Marianne from his song)[1].
Cohen has a special place in my heart, his humor, darkness, humbleness[2] and poetic aide is for me very inspirational and aspirational and the thought of him make me choose life when I get depressed.
At least he lived the most graceful life. Having only ever known him in the last 20 years, it seems as if he started as an old man, and died young.
Leonard's music had an uncanny sense of timing, both musical and cultural. He referenced the external, political world, indirectly - not through selfishly inward bullshit, like many of his contemporaries, but by sifting it through relationships with others and his relationship to the divine.
As I am writing this, the next article in hackernews is about Peter Thiel and his ascension to whatever office he is seeking in Trump's cabinet. His views on the damage women and minorities have done to Libertarianism (whatever that is), and how democracy is shit are well known, and I will let you judge how Palantir has benefited humanity.
The thing that gets me is his straight faced desire for immortality. Note that he doesn't wish for immortality for someone who is great, he wishes it for himself.
RIP Leonard. You already are immortal.
Cohen said something funny about his time spent meditating at a zen buddhist monastery in the hills. He said of the experience that "on a superficial level it basically gets you to stop whining"..."it makes whining the least appropriate response to suffering".*
* From his last interview, audio here: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/leonard-cohen-...