"Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man"

Quote of the day:
“If you can look out your window and see neighbors with lower incomes, you’ll be happier. People are very keen to move into the elite neighborhoods. They don’t realize that they won’t be as happy as they expect. That’s the curse of being human.”
--Andrew Oswald, economics professor at Warwick University in England

As program director of my college radio station I got on-the-job training in what kind of music to play at different times of day. In the morning we had to be especially careful. One thing we wouldn’t play was depressing music.

Leonard Cohen fit very neatly into that category. When one is struggling to wake up in time for an eight o’clock class after a very late night, one is not motivated by hearing someone sing about the ever-present blackening abyss of lonely tortured souls.

I got interested in Cohen when I saw Robert Altman’s excellent “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” which very effectively used his music. Not only did I buy a copy of “Songs of Leonard Cohen” for myself, I also bought one for the teacher’s assistant of my newspaper editing class. He said he had really liked the movie, and I figured I needed to bribe him because I had blown the last layout.

“Songs of Leonard Cohen” remains one of my favorite albums ever. I gradually came to appreciate that Cohen’s music was not so much “depressing” as searching and poignant.

He is an extraordinary poet and songwriter. In the film “Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man,” Bono says that Cohen is a very rare talent, and I agree with that.

The film is excellent, and you’ll enjoy it whether or not you know Cohen’s work. It brings together a current interview with Cohen (who’s now 74) with current performances of his songs by Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Linda Thompson, Beth Orton and others.

The performances are very good in their own right. Hearing them juxtaposed with Cohen’s reflections on his creative life and world view is compelling indeed. I found myself further and further involved the longer I watched.

If you rent the DVD, be sure to watch the special features. There is a stunning performance by Teddy Thompson.