EW celebrates the incredible life and work of one of the finest songwriters of all time.
“And you want to travel with her and you want to travel blind,” Cohen croons.
“And you know that she will trust you/For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.
Credit: Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns via Getty Images
Let’s leave that to the scholars…it’s about three people.”
The story goes that he had invited two stranded female hitchhikers to stay in a hotel room with him.
“We weren’t lovers like that,” he croons.
“And besides, it would still be all right.”
“The song just comes in and states a fact,” Dylan said.
“And after that, anything can happen, and it does, and Leonard allows it to happen.
His tone is far from condescending or mocking.
He is a tough-minded lover who doesn’t recognize the brush-off.
Leonard’s always above it all.“K.O.
(Though, German chanteuse Nico was also said to be an inspiration.
“She wasn’t looking for me.
I think she was looking for Kris Kristofferson,” Cohen once told an audience.
“I was looking for Brigitte Bardot.”
The song also refers to his partner giving him “head on the unmade bed.”
Years later, Cohen expressed regret for outing Joplin in his brutally honest classic.J.F.
For all the turmoil, it’s one of Cohen’s prettiest, and most sparsely arranged pieces.J.F.
“First We Take Manhattan” (1987)
Ready for disco Cohen?
In his most club-ready song, the bard addresses terrorism, both the literal and the psychic kind.
“Tower of Song” (1988)
Consider Leonard Cohen a downer?
In “Tower of Song,” he’s both hilarious and self-deprecating.
At the same time, the music has an erotic sense of succor.
To seal the mood, Cohen featured a string arrangement byBeck’s accomplished father, David Campbell.J.F.
