Thanks For The Dance Archives

Two Words- Leonard Cohen

As a recording artist, for me, there are two words- Leonard Cohen.

I just listened (twice) to Cohen’s beautiful posthumous “Thanks For The Dance”. The album was started while what everyone assumed would be his final album (“You Want It Darker”) was produced, three weeks before his death in 2016. Adam Cohen took his father’s narration of beautiful lyrics and wove it into a masterpiece. Well done!

Setting the Stage

Setting the stage, Leonard Cohen was born in 1934. He grew up in Jewish middle-class Montreal; lost his father at nine years of age. He became immersed in poetry while attending McGill University. “Let Us Compare Mythologies”was his first (of many) book(s) of poetry, published in 1956.

In 1966, Leonard Cohen announced to a Montreal television producer, “I want to write songs. He wrote and recorded his debut album, Leonard Cohen, in 1967. He went on to release fifteen studio and eight live albums in his amazing career.

Songs of Leonard Cohen

The songs of Leonard Cohen were essentially poetry. There was actual communication taking place, instead of meaningless image pimping. His words have all emotions on many levels.

Here are but a few of Leonard Cohen’s masterpieces:

Suzanne
So Long, Marianne
Bird on a Wire
Hallelujah
Famous Blue Raincoat

As I said, there are many, many more great songs in the Leonard Cohen library. Here is a video on the first song on the posthumous “Thanks For The Dance”-“What Happens to the Heart”:

Start Over

At 71, Leonard Cohen was forced to start over. In 2005, he discovered much of his his money taken and song rights sold by his long-time manager. He went back to touring and produced some of his finest work- three studio albums in the last five of his eighty-two years.

My point, simply, is this: Leonard Cohen chose to “die with his boots on”. He created up to (even beyond) his departure from this earth in 2016- a true artist and example for us all.