I am sure that I don’t have to tell you how much I love You Want it Darker!! You would already know that, wouldn't you? I have listened to it over and over in the past 2 days, and each time, the last song comes too quickly. And yes, B4, there is no way I could stay dry eyed while listening to it. It is amazing to me that he made this album at all, but it is most wonderful that he made it so well…
Some thoughts on it…..
The opening of the title track You Want it Darker was chilling and comforting all at once. The music itself makes it one of my favorites, and then the ominous tone of the verse made it good fun. He doesn’t sound afraid of G*d, and I love that. Another favorite part was what sounds like a cantor towards the end, or at least it reminded me of the cantor that undertook the officiating of my conversion. It also made me smile when he says, “I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim” because just last week, I heard an exchange between a young lifeguard at our small community pool and a group of young boys along those same lines. The boys were roughhousing at the pool’s edge. Nearby were signs clearly forbidding pushing others in, diving, etc. Obviously trying to be friendly with the younger boys when he meant to reprimand them, the lifeguard told them to at least stand closer to the pool if they were going to be pushing. The boys looked at each other dumbfounded and then back to the lifeguard, and one of them said, “You mean it’s okay for us to push each other in?” It cracked me up.
Like you B4, I loved Treaty, especially the line “I do not care who takes this bloody hill”. I am wondering who or what is he asking for a treaty with? So many of the songs on this album seem that they could be strictly religious, but then again… maybe not (shrug).
On the Level is a favorite for lots of reasons. I like how he says, “You smiled at me like I was young, it took my breath away.” And of course “when I turned my back on the devil, I turned my back on the angel too” is perfect. I like to imagine he wrote it for some of my lost loves, as surely they must feel the same
(ha-ha) Seriously though, this one goes deeper than that for me and reminds me of just regret in general and how we sometimes feel about our life decisionsLeaving the Table is so obviously a goodbye that it’s hard to hear. So for now, I am just trying to take it at face value. I don't want to wake up screaming “No!” in the middle of the night.
I can’t profess to really know who he wrote If I Didn’t Have Your Love for, but it certainly seems like it was for all of you who have been his loyal fans and who really ‘get’ him. If not, then maybe for his children or even G*d, but I think he always appreciated knowing that his music and his words and his poetry all really meant something to so many people. If it is for you, I know you appreciate it as much as he appreciated you.
I love the strings in Traveling Light which seems a song of regret but also acceptance. And I love how he really growls out “I used to play one mean guitar” the second time around.
I told my husband that I feel It Seemed the Better Way is an anti-Christianity song or anti-something song, but maybe that's just me. Whatever he was trying to get at, I love the way he did it. (“Lift this glass of blood…”) and that mournful violin.
I also really loved the tempo in Steer Your Way, how it comes at first between the verses and then just builds. And the message? I would really like to figure that out some day, but for now, I am glad that it made me finally look up what Mia Culpa means. It was always one of those phrases that I didn't give any mind to, but this time I did.
Again I feel that I have been too late in finally 'discovering' Leonard, and I wish so much that I had heard this album before he left, like you all did. I have wished the same with every album.... I feel like I have let him down and especially let myself down by losing all of the time that I could have been listening to him and learning from him. And I didn't even know it.
Dear Mr. Cohen,
Again, I am sorry it took me so long to find you. I have been afraid to listen to your last album. You have been so very alive to me through this whole journey that I have never wanted it to end. I was worried that when it did, then you really would be gone after all, just like they say you are. But you are no more gone now than you ever were, and it was always too late for me to beg you to stay anyways.
I didn’t really need to worry after all though, did I? You have left so much of yourself here that my journey really can never be over, and like the guardian angel in that prayer from my childhood, you will “….ever this day be at my side… to light, to guard, to rule, to guide...”.
Thank you for leaving behind so much to light the way.
Love,
Vickie
