Rachel,holydove wrote:Hear, hear!! Thank you for that, Avi. I'm too tired (from being up 2 nights in a row buying tickets) to go into any detailed analysis right now, but I just want to mention this: Leonard Cohen has written & sung about death/mortality from day one of his artistic career. The fact that he is still singing/writing about it doesn't indicate anything about how close or far away from it he is; like Avi said, Mr. Cohen does seem to still have a rather super-human supply of energy, more than most people who are decades younger than him, so I would agree that we are likely to have a long way to go before any "farewells" are called for. There are many people who, like Leonard Cohen, start contemplating immortality/death at a very young age (& it is a very pervasive theme in Zen/Buddhist teachings).brightnow wrote:Reminder: while we are all mortal, Mr. Cohen is (as far as we know) in good health and will (hopefully) live for many more happy and creative years. Let's hold the eulogies and farewells and just enjoy the work.
I have found that with this new album he gives a a completely different perspective of mortality. So many times we see posts where fans have said that his music and words have 'brought them to tears' or have made them 'cry'. I think they were looking at it from a spiritual point of view. I have enjoed every moment of LC's concerts, but, I have never been brought to tears until I saw him perform 'Born In Chains' in Sligo.
This whole album (which has become my favorite) is so infused with a sense of mortality that it becomes overwhelming. As we all become older, this sense of mortality becomes a fact of life and one finds that it becomes pervasive. It becomes the main theme in how to live - 'Life's too short', 'Time is Precious'.
With this new album, and with Andrew's friends' interpretation and everyone else's, this album becomes even moreso an affirmation of the mortality of life. LC's music in words in this album give me a sense of peace because it seems that he has come to terms with the fact that we are all headed in the same direction and you know what?...'We've done our best', We've lived life according to our terms and that's okay' and 'Bring it on' because we have done what we've had to to and we are okay with it'.
Kindest regards,
Mary