Leonard Cohen Returns!

[art by Bill Sienkiewicz]

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I've adored Leonard Cohen's poetry and music ever since I was a teenager in the 1970s. People who say he's depressing, negative or can't sing just don't understand! The man was a genius.

And of course, death can't hold him down. Recently, there have been two big announcements about Canada's beloved bard --

(1) Commemorative Stamps!

As announced in The Globe and Mail last week, "[t]hree new stamps from Canada Post celebrate the late laureate of existential despair, with portraits displaying him in different stages of his life."

The first stamp shows him as a young man in 1967 at the start of his musical career. Leonard Cohen was already a noted poet and novelist in Canada at this point. He is squatting, as if poised to stand and grow upwards to reach his full potential.

The second stamp reproduces a 1988 photograph. Here Leonard Cohen is standing upright, tall and confident. having come into the full power of his musical career as a singer-songwriter. This is the period during which he wrote Hallelujah, for example, which is probably his most famous and most covered song.

The final stamp shows an elderly Leonard Cohen in 2012, whimsically perched at the top of the image, looking upward to heaven. Always a spiritual seeker who wrestled with the Divine, he died in 2016, still grappling.

(2) Posthumous New Album!

At the time of his death, Leonard Cohen left a number of unfinished poems and songs which his son, Adam Cohen (also a singer-songwriter), promised to complete and release for him. This final album, entitled Thanks for the Dance, will be available for purchase in November. One short spoken-word song, The Goal, has just been made available --



Oh, that line -- "the neighbour returns my smile of defeat" -- classic Cohen! The art in the video is Leonard Cohen's work as well -- he often doodled little sketches in the margins of his manuscripts.

This album will be going on my Christmas list for sure this year!

There's a New Supermodel in Town!

At long last, change is happening!

Get out of the way, you "size zero" types!

And vamoose on home, you young plus-sized models too!

Even you, RuPaul -- hit the road!

Because Debra She Who Seeks is on the catwalk now!

That's right! I have a new career as a MODEL. Believe it!

You can check out my latest photo shoot

modeling one of Magic Love Crow's art t-shirts

HERE!

Hee hee hee -- The Revolution begins!

An Unlikely Duet

Lately I've been listening to some old, fave CDs from my collection, such as Elton John's 1993 album Duets. On it, he sings various songs with a wide and sometimes rather improbable assortment of musical partners like Tammy Wynette, Bonnie Raitt and Gladys Knight.

But the most unlikeliest duet of all is with the (now late) great singer-songwriter and ladies' man, Leonard Cohen. Talk about a contrast in style and voices! The two sing a bluesy Ray Charles hit from the 1960s called Born to Lose. Not only does this song choice humorously reinforce Leonard Cohen's (entirely undeserved) reputation as a horribly depressed and depressing singer, it inadvertently provides a delightfully homoerotic subtext to an otherwise innocuous old song.

If you've never heard this before, you're in for a treat! Enjoy!

Hymns Old and New -- Anthem

I've been a huge Leonard Cohen fan since I was a teenager in the early 1970s, so I was very sad to learn of his death last month at 82 years old. Apart from being an amazing Canadian poet-singer-songwriter, his spiritual search and questioning always drew me to his music. He had no illusions about the nature of love, spirituality or the world, yet dedicated his passion and heartbreak to all three.

I consider his song Anthem to be a modern hymn in every sense of the word. It is his profound meditation on the Divine and the human spiritual journey.

The birds, they sing

At the break of day

Start again, I heard them say

Don't dwell on what has passed away

Or what is yet to be.

Yeah, the wars

They will be fought again

The holy dove

She will be caught again

Bought and sold and bought again

The dove is never free.

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.

We asked for signs

The signs were sent:

The birth betrayed

The marriage spent

Yeah, the widowhood of every government

Signs for all to see.

I can't run no more

With that lawless crowd

While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud

But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud

They're gonna hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts

You won't have the sum

You can strike up the march

There is no drum

Every heart, every heart

To love will come

But like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

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

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in.

I love every aspect of these lyrics but two images in particular resonate deep within me. First, the very Jungian concept that it is through our imperfections and repressed selves (our shadows) that wholeness and healing (formerly known as salvation and redemption) are achieved. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. Human perfectability is a harmful lie and there's no point in expecting this or holding anyone to that unrealistic standard. Everyone and everything is flawed by its very nature.

And the second image strikes me to the core as well -- every heart, every heart to love will come, but like a refugee. I think the word "love" as used here is code for "the Divine." This image expresses a great and profound truth about the spiritual journey. People sometimes naively think the spiritual journey is all about hearts, flowers and blissful insights but in reality, it's an arduous, devastating and often perilous experience. By the time you arrive at the end of your search, you are indeed like a refugee -- battered, bruised, a survivor of the immense pain and suffering of life but also so very grateful to be safe at last, at long last, in a new home. The spiritual journey is not for the faint of heart.

Thank you, Leonard Cohen. May you rest in peace, your long journey done.

Personal Revelation # 1

1. I adore Leonard Cohen.

One day when I was about 15, I found a record album called Songs of Love and Hate in our local pharmacy's discount bin. In solidarity with the advancement of Canadian culture [yes, that's how I thought in those days but gimme a break, it was the early 70s], I bought it. My first thought after listening to it was "Geez, this Leonard Cohen guy can't sing worth a shit!" But his song lyrics were very intriguing and I just had to keep listening. Then I started reading his poetry and novels. And I grew to love his music, especially once he got a jazzier sound with more complex instrumentation and percussion, along with fabulous female backup singers to offset his still rather monotonous bass-baritone voice.

As he aged and matured (or perhaps as I aged and matured), I found his music got more spiritual, more political and more humorous. The man's a genius, what can I say? It's beyond me how anyone can think that Leonard Cohen can't sing or that his music is depressing. They're just not listening.