I bought the first Leonard Cohen Album when it was released in 1969. I still have it. Why wouldn't I? I played it to many people but not a lot were initially interested. And certainly not in Australia when I bought it back with me. Certainly not my cousin Ivan. I bought the album in London when Time Magazine had a short preview of the record which highlighted the lyrics of Suzanne. I subscribed to Time Magazine in the 60's. I quite liked it then. I was immediately transfixed with the lyrics that were quoted in the piece. I read them out loud to my flatmate Ray Milton telling him how impressive they were. But he claimed to be not impressed - what crap - was his comment. He didnt say it in a nasty way - part of his response was to always to oppose whatever I said but in a way that humoured me. But I was so impressed I pressed on - telling him I couldn't believe what he was saying. This was genius I said - it was obvious. What rubbish he repeated. I read out loud - He's touched your perfect body with his mind. How can you not respond to these words I asked? I read the second verse about Jesus being a sailor to him out loud as well. I knew this was exceptionally impressive - he must see this I said. Ray only laughed and stuck to his guns. I wonder what he would say now. Ray was an English Graduate who claimed he specialised in ancient writers and affected he was not impressed with modern poets. Let alone Canadians. A fellow person of the colonies such as I was he pointed out. But this was friendly bombast aimed at me. He was humouring me in my fandom. It was flattering in a way that he would even slightly debate the matter. He couldn't possibly have had an opinion about Leonard Cohen because he couldn't have heard of him before I brought him to his attention. When I moved to London I met and moved in with people so unlike anyone I had known in Australia. I could converse with them in a semi intellectual way even if they disagreed with me. I could claim they were pompous Britishers and they could claim I was a starstruck colonist. Perhaps we were both partly right. I didnt feel I was on their intellectual level but they kind of welcomed me up to their height. This was new to me. I am still star struck about Leonard Cohen who has recently died of spine cancer. He was over 80. But he seemed no age really. I would have liked him to go on forever. I felt close to him. I felt I knew him. He was my type. I would have liked to have been his type. He was so smart. So self assured. So confident. He was always in control. But he was also self afacing. He was a nice person. He was modest as well. But he could tell it as it really is. Without any sugar coating. Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows that the good guys lost. He was an almost complete wordsmith. He extracted stories from the bible and interwove them with stories of his own life. He portrayed what appeared to be very personal events in his own life. He fashioned songs that had historic people involved. He wrote about what appeared to be his private life. He wrote about motives. He wrote about the big issues. Love. Death. Betrayal. Redemption. Forgiveness. Atonement. Ageing. Sorrow. Religion. Confession. Repenting. History. Suicide. Rebellion. Scientology. Relationships. Sexual desire. Obsession. And he got better with age. He continued to write exceptional songs over the years. I would have understood if he had been awarded the Nobel Prize. They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom. For trying to change the system from within. Now I'm coming back to reward them. He remained a modest person and while he labeled himself a poet he himself would have said that in the end he was only a person who wrote songs for the public to listen to. Suzanne is a song about Montreal. When it is analyzed it is simply about Montreal. Suzanne is a peripheral figure within Montreal. Jesus is a figure within Montreal. His statue sits on the waterfront. People more expert than me have pointed out how he at times more or less just repeated verses extracted from the Old Testament. The Book Of Ezekiel often gets a mention. But he also wrote about real life. He could sum up ageing pretty well - as in The Tower of Song. Well my friends are gone and my hair is Grey. I ache in the places where I used to play. This more or less sums me up. I wonder if my friend Ray would still claim Cohens poetry is rubbish. In 1969 I taught my friend Martyn Edwards Hey Thats No Way to Say Goodbye. Chords and all. Initially he was not really impressed but he slowly relented and in the end enjoyed singing it. We still sing it. This was at the musically evenings we used to have at his place in Finchley. This was when life was wonderful. Living in Socialist Britain that is. Vale Leonard Cohen. Your life made a difference. Long may you live on.
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When I am confronted with racism my first reaction is to flee. I want to leave the area. I am plunged into a depression. Growing up in the North East I was aware that everyone was racist. I can say that now with certainty. At least everyone I knew was racist so I was depressed a lot. Because of this I always felt outside society. Who was not racist? Maybe my Uncle Tom? I never heard him express racist epithets. But even he could have been racist. He certainly did not protest when he heard racial epithets being expressed. And while certain things have changed a basic racism still exists and when confronted with it I am shocked. I am sure Aboriginals feel the same. This has hapenned twice in the last week. In the first instance at a public meeting a comment was made about the shortage of Doctors in country towns. This was taken up by a woman who said Moree had lost its Doctor and that her sister had to go to the next town to see a Doctor. There was a replacement Doctor but only Aboriginals could go to this Doctor. White people could not go to this Doctor. He wouldnt see anyone but Aboriginals. Her sister had told her this. I made the comment that I found this hard to believe. Surely this was incorrect. Oh No. Her sister had told her. This was true. White people now have to go to the next town. I said - lets look this up on google. (She was already angry at me for questioning her sister and my comment suggesting we look on google made her even more angry) She stood up to leave. I looked up on google to find there were 4 Doctors in Moree. There was no mention of a Doctor who only treated Aboriginals. Surely if this occurance had occured the tabloids would have jumpted on it. There was a website for an Aboriginal Health Centre but it did not specifiy any Doctor being present. I related out loud the fact that there were 4 Doctors surgeries in Moree but by this time she was more or less at the door. I wanted to say that Moree was one of the towns in the 70's who practised a form of aparthied in that they did not allow aboriginal children to swim in the Council swimming pool with white children and had separate pool times for the two groups. Charles Perkins had organised the Freedom Bus to go to Moree to point out this and other racist anomolies that existed in the town. The Mayor publicly resisted any change and made a very crude statement in defence of his policy and how the Council owned the pool but after 2 days he had to back down and allow aboriginal children to swim with whites. At least when the freedom bus was in town. And when the TV cameras were there. I believe there is no apartheid there now. Probably no one swims in the Council Pool. But I didnt say this. I felt it was innapropriate to say anything like this to the group of people I was with. I felt would have disaproved of me saying anything else - I had said enough. I didnt feel like saying anything anyway because I already felt depressed. The second occurrance was equally depressing. Benalla Council declares an acknowledgement of Aboriginal land at the start of its public ceromonies but the acknowledge is not a simple acknowledgement. It is long and rambling. It has a statement tacked on at the end mentioning other pioneers and their contributuion. It in effect acknowledges Aboriginals but it also pointedly acknowledges whites. By chance I was introduced to a man who I had never met before and in the introduction it was mentioned that he was a former Mayor of Benalla. I took the opportunity to ask why Benalla did not have a simple and straightforward acknowledgement of Aboriginal land. Why did they have to make the statement that related to whites? I told him I didnt think it made sense. He shocked me by stating that he was the man who in effect organised and wrote the acknowledgement. I attempted to question him about it further but he literally back pedalled at this point and said the council had agreed on what was to be said. I then said that I thought what was said was insulting to Aboriginals. He then pointedly looked at me and said forcefully - what is said is what I wanted. We will have to dissagree. He then more or less stormed off. I was struck dumb at his attitude and had no response. I concluded we will have to get the new council to change the acknlowledgement. Because I am convinced the present acknowledgement is both innapropriate and and depressing. What are the chances of my sucess I wonder? Are these occurances racist? Should I be concerned? Should I let it affect me? Am I depressed too easily? |
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