A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes, everybody knows.”
- From the Leonard Cohen song, Everybody Knows
A commentator on CBC once compared Leonard Cohen’s singing voice to – and I paraphrase – the engine of an old truck trying to turn over on a cold, winter, Montreal morning.
Leonard Cohen is still our man
No matter how acquired a taste is Cohen’s voice. From his first 1967 debut album, featuring such mesmerizing tracks as Suzanne, Sisters of Mercy and So Long, Marianne, to this day, Leonard Cohen has remained one of Canada’s most unlikely artistic gifts to the world.
So on this September 21st, 2014 – he day he turns 80, and just one day before the release of Popular Problems, his 13th album or CD or whatever you want to call it, is being released across North America in a wake of reviews by Rolling Stone and other major pop culture publications that it is another fine addition to his musical library, let’s wish this man (who once sang ‘I’m Your Man’, a healthy and peaceful birthday
Once, a long time ago, I read that a young Leonard Cohen sat down with his elder mentor and friend, Canadian poet Irving Layton, to talk to him about where he wanted to go with his –then-fledgling talents as a poet, writer and singer. Layton reported responded to him by saying; ‘Leonard, are you sure you are doing the wrong thing.’
Fortunately for us, Leonard Cohen has been doing the wrong thing for the better part of 50 years, and here is hoping he has the strength and will, into his 80s, to keep it up.
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