Songs from the Tower

Recently, I have been singing and playing many of the Leonard Cohen songs that are in my repertoire.  This has brought home to me how many of the lines/phrases are truly wonderful and memorable.  Unlike many lyrics by other composers, many of Leonard’s are poetry which stand on their own, and which resonate with me, as I know it does with so many other people.  I thought I would share some of my favourite lyrics with you.

I have just been starting to learn to play Tower of Song.  There are a couple of the lyrics which are on my list:

Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day in the Tower of Song

This may not be the best known of Leonard’s lyrics, but it came to mind recently as I was contemplating my stage of life.  Many friends are no longer in my life and my hair is gray – what’s left of it, and I certainly ache in places that I no longer play.  I’m not sure I’m crazy for love thank God and perhaps my rent is overdue in the Tower of Song – where I have spent countless hours of the life.

Another verse for this Tower may surprize those who don’t think a lot of Leonard’s vocal abilities:

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here in the Tower of Song

Yes, Leonard’s singing is an acquired taste – it does grow on you.  On the live performance on his last tour, this verse was met with thunderous approval.  For me his voice is exactly what it should be for his songs.  They go together – hand in glove – a cliché but I don’t know a better description.

Turning to something in a different vein, there is the song Passing Through, which opens with someone watching Jesus on a cross on Calvary:

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do, it's getting late
I've so little time and I'm only passin' through."

Leonard was not, as far as I know, a Christian being Jewish and studying Buddhism for many years.  However, he was able to draw on Christianity as a source for his lyrics as he did for so many sources of inspiration.  For me, this sums up the message of Jesus Christ and the meaning of the cross.  We should talk of love and not hate.  It is what the world needs now – love sweet love, to borrow from a song by a different composer.  We are all only passing through and it is getting late.

The next song, Coming Back to You, says a great deal about the challenges of relationships which many people have experienced:

Maybe I'm still hurting
I can't turn the other cheek
But you know that I still love you
It's just that I can't speak
I looked for you in everyone
And they called me on that too
I lived alone but I was only
Coming back to you

The last song I want to reflect on today, has, undoubtedly the most poignant and wise line of all; Leonard’s song, Anthem:

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

I suspect, without checking with AI, that this is probably the lyric from Leonard that is most quoted.  It says so much about the human condition and the struggle and challenges that people have in becoming more fully human.  These four lines sums it up perfectly.

I could go on delving into the depths of that deep well that Lenord has shared with the world.  I invite you to drink from that well as often as you are willing and able.

Thank you, Leonard, for all your songs from that Tower you inhabited so well.  As he predicted, we are hearing from him long after he has gone to take his place with Hank Wiliams in that Tower of Song. I will give Leonard the last word, as he deserves:

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
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.