Happens to the Heart - song and video released

[Heather1969]

Hi Gerhard

Leonard does indeed say

I got my shit together

And

Meeting Christ AND reading Marx

Hope that helps

Heather

[jarkko]

LEONARD COHEN’S “HAPPENS TO THE HEART” DEBUTS TODAY
COLLABORATION WITH NOWNESS ANNOUNCED FOR A VIBRANT VIDEO INTERPRETATION OF COHEN’S MASTERFUL LYRICS
‘Thanks For The Dance’ Available November 22, 2019

After the album's initial taste of "The Goal", "Happens To The Heart" is the first official single from the remarkable new album Thanks For The Dance, an unexpected harvest of new songs from the master, Leonard Cohen. An elegant continuation of his work, Thanks For The Dance was produced by his son Adam Cohen, and engineered and mixed by Michael Chaves.

"Happens To The Heart" features long-time collaborator Javier Mas, who flew from Barcelona to LA to capture the artist’s spirit on Leonard’s own guitar; the Berlin-based stargaze orchestra; famed producer Daniel Lanois on piano; and Zac Rae from Death Cab For Cutie on felt piano. Listen here.

Leonard Cohen is one of the most enduring cultural icons in modern history. His music, writing and art continues to inspire and influence audiences around the world. In celebration of the release of Thanks For The Dance, Nowness has collaborated with Adam Cohen, to commission new moving-image works from a global roster of filmmakers and visual artists selected from the Nowness universe. Thanks for the Dance: Artistic Responses to Leonard Cohen, offers a distinct video representation of the music that inspires and accompanies it, an interpretation of Cohen’s life and lyrics that is deeply personal to each filmmaker involved.

Directed and conceived by Daniel Askill, “Happens To The Heart” extends Cohen’s storytelling and explores the core thematics of his poetic lyrics. Askill, known for artistic creations using film, photographs, video installation and sculpture in his work, has directed short films, commercials, fashion films and music videos (Sia, Placebo, Phoenix). Here Askill takes the viewer on a mysterious path, following a figure as he walks, reflects and resolves, to a moment of mindful peace.

"The idea came quickly and effortlessly on my first listening to the music…. I wanted to make something that spoke to Leonard’s years as a Zen Monk. A quiet symbolic visual narrative that would chart the letting go of ego and the trappings of fame... and the transition into something pure and transcendent…"
- Daniel Askil

Thanks to Dan Scanlan for the link to this promotional video introduction

[jarkko]

https://kexp.org/read/2019/10/24/leonar ... ens-heart/

It's been three years since we lost Leonard Cohen, but his music lives on through his son, Adam. Father and son had worked together on the 2016 album You Want It Darker, and at his father's request, Adam fleshed out some leftover sketches of songs with the help of Beck, Feist, Damien Rice, The National’s Bryce Dessner, and more. The results appear on the forthcoming full-length Thanks For The Dance, out November 22nd via Columbia/Legacy.

“In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us,” said Adam in a press release. “What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. ‘Leonard lives’! they say, one after the other.”

Today, they share the single “Happens to the Heart” via a video directed by Daniel Askill. “I wanted to make something that spoke to Leonard’s years as a zen monk,” Askill said in a statement. “This film is a quiet, symbolic narrative that charts the letting go of ego and the trappings of fame.”

[B4real]

Hi Gerhard

Leonard does indeed say

I got my shit together

And

Meeting Christ AND reading Marx

Hope that helps

Heather

Just to take it a bit further below are comparison lines -

SONG -
I got my shit together
Meeting Christ and reading Marx

POEM - original and in The Flame
I was funding my depression
Meeting Jesus reading Marx

.... and my favourite lines from this song and the poem are:
It failed my little fire
But it's bright the dying spark ....

EDIT:
Now you’ve started me off with thinking about the different lines here and you all know how much I love discovering them

Besides those mentioned above and including the ones that Rachel has kindly already provided, here are some more that my eyes and ears have found. I haven’t included the odd added or subtracted word that doesn’t change the context of the line; I've just included each sung line and its equivalent poem line.

SONG
I was friendly with the guards
After all I knew the chart
Me, I’ve broken every window
I care but very little
Just a filthy beggar guessing
It was just some old convention
Like the horse before the cart
I had no trouble betting
On the flood against the ark
You see, I know about the ending

POEM
I was friendly with the guard
You could say I wrote the chart
I've opened every window
Just say Uncle, (& You give in and) then it's simple
Just a filthy beggar blessing
The slaves were there already
The singers chained and charred
Now the arc of justice bending
And the injured soon to march
I lost my (& I got this) job defending

Just for the record, as you probably know there are still some lines written in the poem and not sung in the song also two verse orders are reversed.

I’ve listened to this song quite a few times now and musically it’s such a peculiar feeling to hear Javier’s familiar touch on Leonard’s even more familiar guitar sound. It’s really quite poignant ....

[The Brucester]

{comments withdrawn at this time}

[MarieM]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/arts ... 8sTkhi54fA

The New York Times

The Playlist: Frank Ocean’s Pillow Talk, and 12 More New Songs
Hear tracks by Leonard Cohen, the Bad Plus, Selena Gomez and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Caryn Ganz and Giovanni Russonello
Oct. 25, 2019

Leonard Cohen, ‘Happens to the Heart’

Leonard Cohen left behind unfinished songs when he died in 2016, and his son and producer, Adam Cohen, has completed them for an album, “Thanks for the Dance,” which will be released Nov. 22. A version of “Happens to the Heart” was published in the 2018 book “The Flame,” but Cohen was still improving it when he recorded this performance. The music is gorgeously realized; Cohen intones his lyrics with clear implications of melody, and the track fleshes them out with an orchestra, an acoustic guitar hinting at flamenco and a melancholy piano line. “Happens to the Heart” sounds like vintage Cohen: somber and sly, invoking the spiritual alongside the mundane, making paradoxes profound.

Now the angel’s got a fiddle
The devil’s got a harp
Every soul is like a minnow
Every mind is like a shark
Me, I’ve broken every window
But the house, the house is dark
I care, but very little
What happens to the heart.

PARELES

I think they like it!

[WiTS]

I guess the lyric version is much older than the poem.

In a Sep 14, 2014 article of Rolling Stone:

How do you know when a song’s working?
You can pretty well tell. We play it for select people, like my daughter – there’s a few people who aren’t afraid to tell you that it isn’t working. We had another song on the album, which was called “Happens to the Heart,” which will be on the next album. It’s a very good lyric, a very good tune, but we didn’t nail it. So we didn’t put each other on about it – not for more than a week or two. “You know, this song really doesn’t make it.” “Thank God you said that, Pat, because I can’t stand it.”

Seems that the 2019 new single is based on the recording around the production of Popular Problems.

The poem Happens to the Heart which is crafted and finished, was signed on June 24, 2016.

That's why the line 'I got my shit together' is heard in this new single. To me, the lyric version of Happen to the Heart is unfinished. However, it is surely fascinating to listen to/read any Leonard's works.

If I remember correctly, the only 'shit' was in the Blackening Pages version Book of Longing (The sorrows are real / as froth on the wave / as shit on the beach / the city's disgrace) and was dropped when physically published. And shit got the same treat when HTTH officially published.

[peter danielsen]

Wonderful song, music and lyric
Not sure if I like the video. It seems to sugest some peaceful ending, which sort of contradict the lyrics
Peter

[lazariuk]

Wonderful song, music and lyric
Not sure if I like the video. It seems to sugest some peaceful ending, which sort of contradict the lyrics
Peter

I saw the movie Joker last week. It was not a funny movie.
I saw a review of “what happens to the heart”
The reviewer said it showed Leonard’s great humour. It is not a funny song.
I am going to tell that reviewer he might want to consider a different job. I hear they are looking for people to test mushrooms to see what kind can only be eaten once.

[B4real]

I guess the lyric version is much older than the poem.

In a Sep 14, 2014 article of Rolling Stone:

WiTS, That does make sense and you probably know that two of the poem lines vary even though both versions (The Files and The Flame) have the same date on them. It does make you wonder what was written when

And thanks for the reminder about that interview
I do recall reading it when was first released and I think there’s another one somewhere saying something similar about Happens To The Heart. Here LC says that both the lyric and the tune were very good, so I wonder how/why they didn’t “nail it." Maybe the tune didn’t compliment the lyrics or vice versa – individually they were both very good but didn’t sync with each other then. It would be good to know the process how that Popular Problem was finally solved to arrive at this moment in time.

[WiTS]

WiTS, That does make sense and you probably know that two of the poem lines vary even though both versions (The Files and The Flame) have the same date on them. It does make you wonder what was written when

Yes, Beverly, this really gives me a puzzle.

I've double checked the Files version and The Flame version, they are totally same with same signature date. Thank goodness, they are the same version and I only need to compare Lyric version and Digital/Physical Published version.

And thanks for the reminder about that interview
I do recall reading it when was first released and I think there’s another one somewhere saying something similar about Happens To The Heart. Here LC says that both the lyric and the tune were very good, so I wonder how/why they didn’t “nail it." Maybe the tune didn’t compliment the lyrics or vice versa – individually they were both very good but didn’t sync with each other then. It would be good to know the process how that Popular Problem was finally solved to arrive at this moment in time.

This might be helpful/Insightful?
Inside Track: Leonard Cohen 'Slow' on SOUND ON SOUND

Weilin

[B4real]

Hi Weilin,
Thanks for thinking of me but I did read that info about Slow when it first came out and again yesterday as well when I was looking for more specific info on Happens To The Heart

And most interesting is that The Files do now in fact show exactly the same words as The Flame – it would appear that it has been updated quite recently When I first saw this poem on 26 August 2016 and also not so very long ago, those two lines I’ve mentioned above with the (& words in brackets) were originally listed there, hence the reason for my thoughts and words about them. Maybe I shouldn't have noticed the differences - sorry if it's caused any confusion!

Btw- In that first 2014 interview you posted, LC also mentions that there was one particular song he’d like to finish before he dies. He says it’s a lovely melody that he’s been trying for a good 15 years to find the accompanying suitable words. With the benefit of hindsight, I reckon that should read nearly double those years and he was referring to Treaty about which you could most definitely say that “nail it” applies here! And how could he possibly leave out that wonderful melody String/ Reprise Treaty! Ah, perfection does take time and circumstance to be realised!

[WiTS]

Btw- In that first 2014 interview you posted, LC also mentions that there was one particular song he’d like to finish before he dies. He says it’s a lovely melody that he’s been trying for a good 15 years to find the accompanying suitable words. With the benefit of hindsight, I reckon that should read nearly double those years and he was referring to Treaty about which you could most definitely say that “nail it” applies here! And how could he possibly leave out that wonderful melody String/ Reprise Treaty! Ah, perfection does take time and circumstance to be realised!

Oh, Treaty, LOVE the song very much. It is indeed a "nail it" song.
I've been expecting for the album which mostly inspired by Treaty (Patrick Leonard mentioned in some interview). Hope that Thanks for the Dance is the album.

[lazariuk]

Because we know what happens to the heart

CREE

sākihitowin
kicawāsimisak
nicawāsimisak
nicawāsimis
kisākihitin
kisākihitināwāw


ENGLISH

Love
Your Children
My Children
My Child
I Love
I Love Them All

I had an emoji translation but it didn’t work here

[peter danielsen]

The lines about the "begger" seems to be about Roshi

Then I studied with this beggar
He was filthy, he was scarred
By the claws of many women
He had failed to disregard
No fable here no lesson
No singing meadowlark
Just a filthy beggar guessing
What happens to the heart

Peter