Books and Music

It is late at night and I am listening to Leonard Cohen sing his songs (lots of them). His music and words are wonderful- the concert earlier this year in London was sublime! All those baby boomers singing and clapping. I do not believe I paid much attention to his music until I heard Margaret Attwood describe the song she would leave to her children on BBC R4 program – it was Leonard Cohen ‘Dance me to the end of time’. I have been catching up ever since. Now even the general UK public is fully on the act with his Hallelujah song being first ever Top 1 and 2 song, though his version (best for me) was around 30’s.

Latest comment in the Independent by Howard Jacobson Few can do love and loss like the Old Testament – except Leonard Cohen shows why this poem is almost like a book. After all, it took Leonard Cohen 2 years to write the lyrics for it. In an earlier piece about him after being at his concert along with 50,000 others, Howard Jacobson reminds us that Thanks to Leonard Cohen, I can see the light that slips through the crack by refering to the lyrics of Cohen’s poem “Anthem”

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.