WRIR DJ pays tribute to Leonard Cohen presents:

WRIR DJ pays tribute to Leonard Cohen

By L.J., a WRIR volunteer and DJ

While on tour in 2008, a then-73-year-old Leonard Cohen included a recitation of his poem “A Thousand Kisses Deep” in his set list. If I were to demonstrate Leonard Cohen’s spirit to the uninitiated, the starting point would be a video of this recitation at a London show from that tour. With mournful ambient synthesizers as a backdrop, savoring each word, Cohen starts: “You came to me this morning and you handled me like meat… You’d have to be a man to know how good that feels…” He closes his eyes, tilts his head back and draws loosely clenched fists close to his face as he continues. It looks as though he is reliving the small intimate morning that inspired the poem. Just by watching the video, I’m having a quiet shared moment with Leonard Cohen. If it’s just theater, it’s good theater.

In that performance, Cohen is charming, both intelligent and wise, and self-effacing. The poem, like so many Cohen works, is about a woman. Not women in general, but about a particular experience with a particular woman. Like most Cohen works, the imagery in the poem is full of religious themes, gallows humor and pathetic fallacy. Cohen had been gladly playing the role of ‘wise mystic in a fedora’ for a long time and in that moment, it seemed perfected.

When I heard that Cohen had passed away, I re-watched the video. Then I sent it out to friends who were mourning his loss. For me, it was the second time this year that I had been celebrating a revered artist’s triumphant new album only to have that artist die several days afterward. In this regard, 2016 will end much as it started: with a brilliant final salvo from an artist I cherish.

Publications eulogizing Cohen reduce his career to a few bullet points: the impossible amount of artists who have covered “Suzanne,” the ubiquity of “Hallelujah” in singing competitions, his beginnings in the 60’s folk scene, his late-in-life artistic resurgence, and a mention of the varied and esteemed artists who have praised him. While this suffices to explain the furthest reaches of his importance, it is a far more difficult task to capture the depth of his importance.

L.J. is a volunteer at WRIR 97.3 FM, often guest hosting the program Cause and Effect and substituting for other WRIR DJs. He recently joined the board of the Virginia Center for Public Press, the nonprofit that oversees WRIR 97.3 FM.

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[email protected]    November 18th, 2016

Posted In: Music Shows