Non sarebbe certo questo disco la mia prima scelta a chi mi chiedesse un consiglio su Leonard Cohen: a cinquant’anni di distanza faccio ancora fatica ad apprezzarlo davvero e se dovessi fare una classifica di merito lo metterei tra quelli non-essenziali.
Avevo vent’anni quando lo acquistai alla cieca – tanto avevo amato i suoi primi album, i tre della serie “Songs …” – ma già allora al primo ascolto mi sembrò un disco “faticoso”, come se l’autore avesse lavorato tanto per dimostrare qualcosa che proprio bene non gli era venuto, con dei riferimenti che non riuscivo a cogliere e perfino un titolo che non capivo.
Nella playlist di 11 pezzi di medio livello non c’era traccia di una vera hit, voglio dire uno di quei pezzi apparentemente semplici («Bird On A Wire» tanto per citare) oppure con un ritornello che si facesse notare e ti restasse in testa senza essere banale (tipo quello di «So Long, Marianne» invece di quello qui di «Lover, Lover, Lover»). Giustifico la mia delusione di allora dicendomi che troppo gracile era il mio inglese per riuscire ad avventurarmi - senza l’aiuto di un testo che l’album non mi forniva - nella comprensione di pezzi come «Field Commander Cohen» oppure «Who By Fire» e tutto l’album mi sembrava inconsistente. Oggi le cose si sono assestate e non sono più così severo: non mi sorprendono più la (relativa) robustezza dell’orchestrazione (che allora mi sembrò ridondante) e neppure il rinforzo di background vocals (toccò anche a Bob Dylan). Soprattutto, oggi si trovano facilmente in rete i testi di tutte le canzoni (il sito ufficiale italiano fornisce anche ottime traduzioni) così che diventa più agevole per tutti l’accesso ai pezzi più significativi, quelli già citati e almeno altri due: l’intrigante «Chelsea Hotel #2», dedicato a Janis Joplin, e poi «There Is a War», per me la canzone più bella, con la sua spietata metafora dell’amore come un campo di battaglia, “una guerra tra uomo e donna”.
Per me c’è poco altro da aggiungere, oltre a ricordare la particolarità della sua voce: anche qui a volte dolce e ammaliante, più spesso graffiante ed incisiva, che però non riesce mai a trovare mai quell’enfasi quasi profetica che avevo amato nei suoi primi album, quelli davvero “consigliati”. E poi la copertina, certo non brutta, ma che più che per una propria intrinseca significatività, si distingue in negativo per essere una delle pochissime dove non compare una fotografia del caro Leonard.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Is This What You Wanted (04:17)
You were the promise at dawn, I was the morning after. You were Jesus Christ my Lord, I was the money lender. You were the sensitive woman, I was the very reverend Freud. You were the manual orgasm, I was the dirty little boy. And is this what you wanted to live in a house that is haunted by the ghost of you and me? Is this what you wanted ... You were Marlon Brando, I was Steve McQueen. You were K.Y. Jelly, I was Vaseline. You were the father of modern medicine, I was Mr. Clean. You where the whore and the beast of Babylon, I was Rin Tin Tin. And is this what you wanted ... And is this what you wanted ... You got old and wrinkled, I stayed seventeen. You lusted after so many, I lay here with one. You defied your solitude, I came through alone. You said you could never love me, I undid your gown. And is this what you wanted ... And is this what you wanted ... I mean is this what you wanted ... That's right, is this what you wanted ...
02 Chelsea Hotel #2 (03:07)
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."
And then you got away, didn't you babe...
I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.
03 Lover Lover Lover (03:21)
I asked my father,
I said, "father change my name."
The one I'm using now it's covered up
with fear and filth and cowardice and shame.
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.
He said, "I locked you in this body,
I meant it as a kind of trial.
You can use it for a weapon,
Or to make some woman smile."
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.
"Then let me start again," I cried,
"please let me start again,
I want a face that's fair this time,
I want a spirit that is calm."
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.
"I never turned aside," he said,
"I never walked away.
It was you who built the temple,
it was you who covered up my face."
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.
And may the spirit of this song,
May it rise up pure and free.
May it be a shield for you,
a shield against the enemy.
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
04 Field Commander Cohen (04:01)
Field Commander Cohen, he was our most important spy.
Wounded in the line of duty,
parachuting acid into diplomatic cocktail parties,
urging Fidel Castro to abandon fields and castles.
Leave it all and like a man,
come back to nothing special,
such as waiting rooms and ticket lines,
silver bullet suicides,
and messianic ocean tides,
and racial roller-coaster rides
and other forms of boredom advertised as poetry.
I know you need your sleep now,
I know your life's been hard.
But many men are falling,
where you promised to stand guard.
I never asked but I heard you cast your lot along with the poor.
But then I overheard your prayer,
that you be this and nothing more
than just some grateful faithful woman's favourite singing millionaire,
the patron Saint of envy and the grocer of despair,
working for the Yankee Dollar.
I know you need your sleep now ...
Ah, lover come and lie with me, if my lover is who you are,
and be your sweetest self awhile until I ask for more, my child.
Then let the other selves be ONE, yeah, let them manifest and come
till every taste is on the tongue,
till love is pierced and love is hung,
and every kind of freedom done, then oh,
oh my love, oh my love, oh my love,
oh my love, oh my love, oh my love.
05 Why Don't You Try (03:53)
Why don't you try to do without him?
Why don't you try to live alone?
Do you really need his hands for your passion?
Do you really need his heart for your throne?
Do you need his labour for your baby?
Do you need his beast for the bone?
Do you need to hold a leash to be a lady?
I know you're going to make, make it on your own.
Why don't your try to forget him?
Just open up your dainty little hand.
You know this life is filled with many sweet companions,
many satisfying one-night stands.
Do you want to be the ditch around a tower?
Do you want to be the moonlight in his cave?
Do you want to give your blessing to his power
as he goes whistling past his daddy, past his daddy's grave.
I'd like to take you take you to the ceremony,
well, that is if I remember the way.
You see Jack and Jill they're going to join their misery,
I'm afraid it's time for everyone to pray.
You can see they've finally taken cover,
they're willing, yeah they're willing to obey.
Their vows are difficult, they're for each other,
so let nobody put a loophole, a loophole in their way.
06 There Is a War (03:02)
There is a war between the rich and poor,
A war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
And the ones who say there isn't.
Why don't you come on back to the war
Why don't you come on back to the war
Ah yes I live here with a woman and a child,
The situation makes me kind of nervous.
Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says "I guess you call this love";
I call it room service.
Why don't you come on back to the war
Why don't you come on back to the war
You cannot stand what I've become,
You much prefer that gentleman I was before.
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,
I didn't even know there was a war.
Why don't you come on back to the war
Why don't you come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
There is a war between the rich and poor,
A war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the left and right,
A war between the black and white,
A war between the odd and the even.
Why don't you come on back to this war
Why don't you come on back to the war
Why don't you come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
Come on back to the war
07 A Singer Must Die (03:20)
Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess.
Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes.
Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine,
I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.
And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice,
a singer must die for the lie in his voice.
And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,
you keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty.
Your vision is right, my vision is wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging the air with my song.
Oh, the night it is thick, my defences are hid
in the clothes of a woman I would like to forgive,
in the rings of her silk, in the hinge of her thighs,
where I have to go begging in beauty's disguise.
Oh goodnight, goodnight, my night after night,
my night after night, after night, after night, after night, after night.
I am so afraid that I listen to you,
your sun glassed protectors they do that to you.
It's their ways to detain, their ways to disgrace,
their knee in your balls and their fist in your face.
Yes and long live the state by whoever it's made,
sir, I didn't see nothing, I was just getting home late.
09 Who by Fire (02:35)
And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?
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Altre recensioni
Di emily
Le canzoni di Cohen evocano il silenzio, richiamano verità, cifre esistenziali comuni, sussurrate all’orecchio di chi ascolta.
Non c’è lieto fine nelle liaisons di cui canta Cohen, ma solo la constatazione disincantata, talora rancorosa ed amara, ch’esse sono state e non sono più.
