| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I arrived at the same basic interpretation, in a different way. For me the key was thinking about those two targets: Manhattan and Berlin. Why those two? It makes the most sense, if they can somehow be seen as iconic twins. In which way could they be seen as twins? It is rather obvious: They were the two foremost centres of radical artistic innovation back in the 1980s. So for the artist, they were twin citadels to conquer. They do not really pair well in any other sense. If the idea was to attack political power centres, it would be Washington, rather than Manhattan. And it would certainly not be Berlin back in the 1980s. If the idea was anti-capitalist, Manhattan would make sense, but the pairing would be with London, not Berlin. If it was something about Holocaust, as some suggest, Berlin would make sense, but Manhattan would seem an odd target. So for me, these lyrics are about the artists drive for conquest inside the world of human creativity. Re-reading the lyrics from this perspective immediately allowed several dots to join. The detailed interpretation by crazypoet filled in the rest of the picture for me. What then about Cohen's own statement that this is about "terrorism"? Well, see whom he mentions as his preeminent terrorists: Jesus, Marx, Einstein. This is about the terror of radical creativity, not bombs. Cohen would be right in the sense that e.g. Einstein's dissolution of space and time stroke terror much more deeply in human minds, than any number of misguided bomb-men can do. The same could be said for shocks arising from 20th century innovations in art and music, which again and again made large numbers of people feel deeply disturbed. From Denmark 10 points go to Norway ... |
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