leonardcohenforum.com

Inlifting?

Is that a form of insider trading, but for weightlifters?

KenKurzweil wrote: we should focus on searching for that often elusive "crack". I get renewed strength every time I listen to this beautiful song.
Ken Kurzweil

I too spent some time searching for that often elusive crack. One day the thought came to me that instead of specific cracks that I should consider the big one, the crack in everything. Lo and behold, there it was, right in front of my eyes. It made me laugh.

If there were such a word as inlifting , I would prefer to use it.

Hi Jack ~

Inlifting is a wonderful word which I can relate to in this context. No word was ever a word until someone created it to fit a situation or idea. For me, inlifting is a new word that really works for me to describe the effect of listening to "Hallelujah." For one thing, I feel the song very strongly in currents surging and flowing back and forth between my solar plexus, my heart, and my head. Thanks for the new, very apt word. It's subtle, yet powerful.


~ Lizzy

lizzytysh wrote: Inlifting is a wonderful word which I can relate to in this context. No word was ever a word until someone created it to fit a situation or idea. For me, inlifting is a new word that really works for me to describe the effect of listening to "Hallelujah." For one thing, I feel the song very strongly in currents surging and flowing back and forth between my solar plexus, my heart, and my head. Thanks for the new, very apt word. It's subtle, yet powerful.
~ Lizzy

I'm glad the word inlifting felt right for you.

Was it uplifting for Leonard to be taken down to the river by Suzanne?

I think that Leonard could sing:
"Suzanne takes you in to her place by the river"
Then he could say that it was an inlifting experience.

Just listened to Love Itself.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sigh.

Leonard uplifts me in almost everything he sings but there are phrases which pierce me every time. Here are just a few:

'a garland of freshly cut tears...'
'dance me to the end of love...'
'take this longing from my tongue...'
'they slip between the sentries of the heart...'
'don't you know it all the more enraptures me...?'
'with a child in my arms and a chill in my soul and my heart the shape of a begging bowl...'
'and time itself unwind, O love aren't you tired yet...?
'I remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too...'
'the hyacinth wild on my shoulder...'

And on and on and on...

I don't know if i would say i find it uplifting but i am most moved by "If It be your Will". i have just gotten to the point where i can listen to it and not be moved to tears. I find it a song of acceptance , beauty, and sadness.

Joan of Arc fills me with joy every time. The poetry has such redemptive qualities and is immediately an uplifting song which is not always typical of Leonard. But Joan of Arc manages to find joy through death.

"Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.

i think his most uplifting song is tacoma trailer. i really, really like that song, almost as much as 10 Crack commandments by Notorious B.I.G.

villanelle for our time: "we rise to play a greater part ... men shall know commonwealth again..."

Hi Commonweal,

I especially like the command, authority, inspiration that Leonard Cohen's voice conveys in this piece, particularly in the part you quoted.

I agree. There is a deep calmness to the voice which helps to convey both the authority and the desire of the sentiment. I am relatively new here (...well, new at posting, if not reading...) and I was worried that someone would object that the words are not written by LC and that, accordingly, this should not be claimed among his most uplifting songs. Perhaps it is not coincidental that among his most uplifting songs are words written by others? The reverence and deep respect LC evidently has for these lines comes through with such ease on the recording. For me it is the stand-out track on Dear Heather. I find Villanelle for our Time uplifting because it is one of the relatively few songs in which LC sings about the political. He is so consistently stunning an observer of the fears and longings of the private that the occasions where he ventures into the public realm (...the commonwealth...) stand out. Still the LC line that most often makes me laugh out loud is "Democracy is coming [pause] to the USA". But the song Democracy is far from uplifting, despite its passion, its hope and its humour.

Hi Commonwweal,

Glad you posted. There really is something special about the voice on this piece.
I think I posted somewhere on this forum that hearing it suggests that Leonard
Cohen would do a tremendous job with voicing a collection of poems by others.
For me, "Villanelle" on the CD transcends the "political."

I definitely agree with Anthem, and If It Be Your Will...

I think Sisters of Mercy has a place here too. The line:

"If life is a leaf that seasons tear off and condemn they will bind you love that is graceful and green as stem."

really struck me the first time I heard it. I think the song conveys a great message of hope.

commonweal wrote: Still the LC line that most often makes me laugh out loud is "Democracy is coming [pause] to the USA". But the song Democracy is far from uplifting, despite its passion, its hope and its humour.

What is it about the song that doesn't lift your spirits ?

You wrote "I find Villanelle for our Time uplifting" I assume you know that was written by a constitutional judge from Canada who also had some kind of a dream that one day democracy would come.

Would the song please you more if he wrote that democracy was coming to Scotland first?