leonard_cohen raze "now i bid you farewell i don't know when i'll be back they're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track but you'll be hearing from me baby long after i'm gone i'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the tower of song" 161110 ... unhinged hallelujah 161111 ... epitome of incomprehensibility You Wanted It Darker. Not yet, but it's gotten darker. (Someone who was able to pursue music and writing together, who worked hard despite setbacks, who didn't let fame make him terrible. A Montreally source of "he came from here" pride, but that's relatively unimportant. The world will miss him.) 161112 ... raze "who by fire" was the first song that got its hooks in me, when i was about thirteen. such interesting words. so different from anything i was used to hearing. compelling music, too. something urgent there. i always liked leonard. always enjoyed how his voice kept getting darker and deeper, until it sounded like you were being sung to by a wry, battered god with a very bleak sense of humour. but i only ever owned a few albums. always meant to get more. the other day at the record store there was a whole whack of them. the new one wasn't there, but i grabbed "songs from a room", "songs of love and hate", "new skin for the old ceremony", and "i'm your man". i always feel guilty getting into someone's work in a more meaningful way after they're gone. fighting with that is the joy of having some new friends to hang out with. it's just that their daddy's a ghost. as it sits right now, if i could only take one little bit with me, it would be "the guests". that chorus. every chorus. so beautiful. 161121 ... ovenbird In the days before Marianne Ihlen’s death from cancer, Leonard Cohen wrote a letter to the woman he still loved who inspired “So Long Marianne” and “Bird on a Wire.” In part, the letter read: “Well Marianne it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine, And you know that I've always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road.” And this, I think, is one of the world's great love letters. Two people come to the end of their lives knowing that love comes down to reaching out to another so you can step into whatever comes next hand in hand. It makes me cry every single time. 260217 what's it to you? who go blather from