• Voto:
Questa davvero non è una recensione, ma un tentativo snaturato di celebrare con poche parole un grande artista, perché Leonard Cohen è un intagliatore di bellezze che diventano vere e proprie creature al suo tocco.
Lungo gli entusiasmi degli anni sessanta e settanta, se cosí possiamo definirli, prima che con questo disco venisse stimato come musicista Cohen era gia un apprezzato scrittore e poeta, un vero vagabondo della parola per lettori in guerra con la quotidianità decadente, alla ricerca di quel mondo dolce e crudo, un po' salmastro, dove la sacralità ci regala inibizioni e la morte si spoglia di nero e si veste di bianco.
Incanto.
Ciò che io apprezzo smisuratamente di questo ruvido canadese è l'aver dato vita all'irresistibile connubio tra profondità e semplicità, suggellando questo squarcio di perfezione con l'alone misterioso del malessere interiore.
"Song of Leonard Cohen" è il suo primo disco, il primo dei capolavori che sono seguiti, su tutti "Songs of Love and Hate" e "The Future"; la sua voce leggendaria accompagnata da una chitarra canta poesie (semplicità e profondità): "The Stranger Song" è una visione, "Master Song" è una scultura marmorea insensibile al tempo, "Sisters of Mercy" sembra l'eco in un deserto, "Suzanne" è una preghiera, una canzone d'amore, un sogno, un'imprecazione.
La musica al centro della poesia e la poesia al centro della musica, perchè Leonard Cohen è la via di ambrosia e nettare che mette in comunicazione tutti i poeti e i musicsti tra loro, annientando allergiche insofferenze. Grazie a lui vivono insieme tutti i miei eroi: Jeff Buckley bimbo sta a cavalcioni sul sorriso di Lorca, Neruda è il fratello minore di Cave, che intanto si aggira come un Dorian Gray maledetto e virile, Wilde, nella mia mente ormai un adone, è innamorato di Leonard artigiano esteta del sublime.
Tutto si aliena, immagino i romanzi come storie vere, mi assale la convinzione che Dostoevskij sia una poesia, e vedo schiere di poeti, operai e note che si cambiano identità, e le liste di miliardi di domande non desidera piú alcuna risposta perché il tempo si è finalmente frantumato.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Suzanne (03:48)
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river.
You can hear the boats go by,
You can spend the night beside her.
And you know she's half crazy,
But that's why you want to be there.
And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China.
And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her,
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover.
And you want to travel with her,
And you want to travel blind,
And you know she will trust you,
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
And Jesus was a sailor, when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower.
And when he knew for certain, only drowning men could see him,
He said: "All men will be sailors then, until the sea shall free them."
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open,
Foresaken, almost human,
He sank beneath your wisdom, like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.
Now Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river.
She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters.
And the sun pours down like honey on our Lady of the Harbor.
And she shows you where to look, among the garbage and the flowers.
There are heros in the seaweed,
There are children in the morning,
They are leaning out for love,
They will lean that way forever,
While Suzanne holds the mirror.
And you want to travel with her,
And you want to travel blind,
And you know you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.
03 Winter Lady (02:16)
Trav'ling lady, stay awhile
until the night is over.
I'm just a station on your way,
I know I'm not your lover.
Well I lived with a child of snow
when I was a soldier,
and I fought every man for her
until the nights grew colder.
She used to wear her hair like you
except when she was sleeping,
and then she'd weave it on a loom
of smoke and gold and breathing.
And why are you so quiet now
standing there in the doorway?
You chose your journey long before
you came upon this highway.
Trav'ling lady stay awhile
until the night is over.
I'm just a station on your way,
I know I'm not your lover.
05 Sisters of Mercy (03:32)
Oh the sisters of mercy
they are not departed or gone,
they were waiting for me
when I thought that I just can't go on
And they brought me their comfort
and later they brought me this song
Oh I hope you run into them
you who've been travelling so long
You who must leave everything
that you cannot control
it begins with your family
but soon it comes round to your soul
well, I've been where you're hanging
I think I can see how you're pinned
When you're not feeling holy
your loneliness tells that you've sinned
They lay down beside me
I made my confession to them
they touched both my eyes
and I touched the dew on their hem
If your life is a leaf
that the seasons tear off and condemn
they will bind you with love
that is graceful and green as a stem
When I left they were sleeping
I hope you run into them soon
don't turn on the light
you can read their address by the moon
and you won't make me jealous
if I heard that they sweetened your night
we weren't lovers like that
and besides it would still be all right
06 So Long, Marianne (05:38)
Come over to the window, my little darling,
I'd like to try to read your palm.
I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
before I let you take me home.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
Well you know that I love to live with you,
but you make me forget so very much.
I forget to pray for the angels
and then the angels forget to pray for us.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
We met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
You held on to me like I was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
Your letters they all say that you're beside me now.
Then why do I feel alone?
I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web
is fastening my ankle to a stone.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
For now I need your hidden love.
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious,
I never said that I was brave.
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
Oh, you are really such a pretty one.
I see you've gone and changed your name again.
And just when I climbed this whole mountainside,
to wash my eyelids in the rain!
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
07 Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (02:55)
I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes, many loved before us
I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you,
But now it's come to distances
And both of us must try,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
I'm not looking for another
As I wander in my time,
Walk me to the corner
Our steps will always rhyme,
You know my love goes with you
As your love stays with me,
It's just the way it changes
Like the shoreline and the sea,
But let's not talk of love or chains
And things we can't untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm,
Your hair upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes, many loved before us
I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you
But let's not talk of love or chains
And things we can't untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
09 Teachers (03:01)
I met a woman long ago
her hair the black that black can go,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Soft she answered no.
I met a girl across the sea,
her hair the gold that gold can be,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Yes, but not for thee.
I met a man who lost his mind
in some lost place I had to find,
follow me the wise man said,
but he walked behind.
I walked into a hospital
where none was sick and none was well,
when at night the nurses left
I could not walk at all.
Morning came and then came noon,
dinner time a scalpel blade
lay beside my silver spoon.
Some girls wander by mistake
into the mess that scalpels make.
Are you the teachers of my heart?
We teach old hearts to break.
One morning I woke up alone,
the hospital and the nurses gone.
Have I carved enough my Lord?
Child, you are a bone.
I ate and ate and ate,
no I did not miss a plate, well
How much do these suppers cost?
We’ll take it out in hate.
I spent my hatred everyplace,
on every work on every face,
someone gave me wishes
and I wished for an embrace.
Several girls embraced me, then
I was embraced by men,
Is my passion perfect?
No, do it once again.
I was handsome I was strong,
I knew the words of every song.
Did my singing please you?
No, the words you sang were wrong.
Who is it whom I address,
who takes down what I confess?
Are you the teachers of my heart?
We teach old hearts to rest.
Oh teachers are my lessons done?
I cannot do another one.
They laughed and laughed and said, Well child,
are your lessons done?
are your lessons done?
are your lessons done?
Written by Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music Inc. (BMI).
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Altre recensioni
Di Bardamù
Cohen è il cantante di silenzi e di spazi vuoti. Confessore dei reietti e osservatore di invisibili drammi personali dimenticati dalla storia e dalla politica.
Le ‘vere’ canzoni passano di bocca in bocca senza che nulla le possa fermare. Questa è la natura di una canzone: muoversi incessantemente.
