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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