| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm apt to smile when I read the interpretations of some young people in this forum. An affectionate smile, truly, but probably condescending nevertheless. I apologise for that, but really - Leonard Cohen as Nostradamus? - you're definitely reaching there! My tuppenceworth is that it's about something a tad less apocalyptic - it's about Mr. Cohen's personal situation, I think. He's going back out on the road! To New York and to Europe, to sing his new songs. Maybe his lover isn't too keen on the idea, but he's 'one of those' who're heading to the station', ie leaving. Who was it who 'sentenced him to 20 years of boredom'? Perhaps those critics who dismissed him and hurt his career by misleadingly (IMHO) perpetuating the scurrilous idea that he was simply depressing. He's on the comeback trail now, though, just to spite 'em (or 'reward them', ironically speaking), with some good material that will win him new fans and restore his reputation as an artist. There. Never mentioned 9/11 once! |
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| Leonard Cohen – Suzanne Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Thanks for these insights, LeatherApron and dorareever especially! I wonder why the poet interweaves Jesus and this very attractive, but 'half-crazy' woman together in the song (beyond the surface connection of the Montreal setting). It strikes me that he is musing on the imponderables of faith and on attraction. Despite what he says in his interview, there is more than 'just' his physical attraction to Suzanne that apparently puzzles him. He seems at pains to make it clear that Suzanne does not have a 'perfect mind', but *that is 'why you want to be there (as opposed to, or in addition to, her beauty?) - presumably because her behaviour, though hard to grasp, is compelling and intriguing, like the blindness of faith, and ultimately the poet is touched by her mind, whereas it had been the other way around at some earlier time (as in the first stanza). I simply don't know. It's nice to know that the 'tea and oranges' was actually a brand of tea that had pieces of dried orange in it, though. |
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| Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Interesting discussion about a great song! I esp. loved reading hkyne1's long post, as it offered a new dimension to my understanding of the song. I think the real truth is that the song is BOTH 'about drugs' AND 'not about drugs' - paradoxical or impossible as that sounds. My guess is that the imagery may owe something to marijuana-induced states of mind, but to say that, therefore the lyrics are 'about drugs' is much like saying War and Peace is 'about Russia' - ie, not saying very much at all! It's important to realise that Bob Dylan's 'trip' isn't like that of the average joe - such imagery and expressive poetic richness sadly doesn't come to many of us, and the substance of the song is as much about that imagery as anything else - it is an artistic offering, completely separate from any experience that gave rise to its creation. Without doubt there are levels, or layers, of meaning in the words. Poets and lyricists tend to abhor simple, matter-of-fact, single meanings. If they didn't, they'd be journalists, wouldn't they? Can you imagine even 'Walking the Dog' being about taking your pooch for a stroll?! (I suppose there *might be a market for such a song). When anyone proclaims adamantly that it's 'about drugs', it is, therefore, wholly inadequate as an interpretation by itself, and an insult to the talent of the artist. It's *really about a lot of things, some of which have already been discussed, but some that are yet to be discovered by many listeners, old and young. It's about a state of mind, it's about the specific images, it's about the felicitous use of language, it's about the artist's skill, and it's about what it makes us feel and think and see...amongst other things I don't know (at least not yet!) |
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| Leonard Cohen – Tower of Song Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I love this song! I think it's complex, ironic, funny and melancholic all at once, and fascinating! My interpretation of The Tower itself refers to the place he is when he's singing and recording this song (and the rest of the album, I'm Your Man) ie the recording studio. The other lyrics make sense if you imagine he's singing about what he's actually doing at the time. His music recordings are how he 'pays his rent every day'. The '27 angels, from the great beyond' could well refer to the 'angelic' female backing vocals heard on the track (and the whole album). For all I know, they weren't there at the same time as Leonard Cohen, but recorded either later or even earlier, and were therefore 'from the Great Beyond' in an ironic sense. Or Hank Williams, who mysteriously died young (29), and had been wheezing and hiccuping the day of his death but who truly had a golden voice, and who often yodelled in his hits, coughing a 100 floors above (ie, in Heaven, perhaps with a sore throat after all that yodelling!) plays with the idea of the Tower as the entire edifice of the music biz and the artists who make it up. Another layer of meaning is obviously LC thinking of his own mortality. He's getting on - he's got grey hair and has lots of aches and pains, he's thinking about a dead singer/songwriter, hearing angels, perhaps feels that this latest failed love affair might just be the death of him, and what will happen 'long after I'm gone'. He obviously has some love interest going on at the time. It's LC, so it's not going so peachy! But he can say what he likes in his songs, therefore a woman can't 'kill' him - ie, stop him from expressing himself, in his music, as opposed to in the real world. Similarly, this recording, this song, makes it inevitable that she'll hear from him 'long after I'm gone' - whenever she hears the recording and realises it's about her, perhaps even after he's dead and gone. I like to imagine him in the studio, looking out of the window as he's working, and thinking about his latest love that's gone wrong, when he wrote and sung these lyrics. (He mentions doing this - looking from the window - twice in the song). Looked at and interpreted from that perspective, it's an unusual and interesting attempt to give the song immediacy - he's actually singing about what's happening right then, directly to one other person, at the same time musing about his place in the music business and his legacy to the world (another commentator mentions his induction into the Hall of Fame - this alternative interpretation of the Tower as an edifice, as well as the studio - entirely possible that he intended both meanings - that's what clever lyricists do! It never ceases to tickle me. |
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