Re: leonard cohen

[Hayyim Feldman <hf...>]

On Thu, 19 Aug 1999, Robert Cohen wrote:

>Dear Hayyim:  I, for one, would welcome that list of 
>Jewish-related/Jewish-interest Leonard Cohen songs (and poetry?) that you 
>offered a little while back, if and when you feel up to it--Robert Cohen

The length of the list depends on how explicit one wants their Jewish
references to be.  Like when there was a brief conversation on the list
between one person who hears lots of Peter Himmelman's songs as being
imbued with Yiddishkeit, and another person who didn't hear that at all. I
fall into the former camp; I often look for subtle Jewish allusions from
Jewish artists whose work is not identifiedly Jewish.  I may be the only
person I know who thinks of Gershwin's "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" as a
Jewish song.  Re L. Cohen, I'll list inclusively, by album (omitting the
compilations with no new songs), and mark the songs that seem to me most
clearly Jewish.  One caveat:  LC also sometimes uses Christian language
and imagery, and occasionally the twain shall meet. 


SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN, 1968

"Teachers"


SONGS FROM A ROOM, 1969:

"Story of Isaac" (J)
"The Partisan", by Anna Marly/Hy Zaret
   (not explicitly Jewish; a song of the French anti-Nazi resistance) 
"The Butcher"
"You Know Who I Am" (J)


SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE, 1971

"Last Year's Man"
"Sing Another Song, Boys" (cf. The Merchant of Venice)


LIVE SONGS, 1973

"Please Don't Pass Me By (A Disgrace)"


NEW SKIN FOR THE OLD CEREMONY, 1973

"Is This What You Wanted"
"Lover, Lover, Lover" (J)
"Field Commander Cohen"
"There Is A War"
"A Singer Must Die" (a la Kafka)
"Who By Fire" (J)


DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN, 1977

(Nothing Jewish.)


RECENT SONGS, 1979

"The Window"
"Un Canadien Errant/The Lost Canadian", by Antoine Gerin-Lajoie
   (not Jewish, but a song of exile/galus)
"Ballad of the Absent Mare"


-> VARIOUS POSITIONS, 1985 <-

"Dance Me to the End of Love"
"The Law"
"The Night Comes On" (J)
"Hallelujah" (J)
"The Captain" (J)
"Heart With No Companion"
"If It Be Your Will" (J)


NIGHT MAGIC, 1985

(Since this is a musical, I 
won't single out specific songs.)


I'M YOUR MAN, 1988

"First We Take Manhattan" (J)
"Everybody Knows"


THE FUTURE, 1992

"The Future" (J)
"Waiting for the Miracle", with Sharon Robinson
"Anthem" (J)


COHEN LIVE, 1994

"Hallelujah" (different version, less Jewish)


MORE BEST OF LEONARD COHEN, 1997

"The Great Event" (eschatological)


???, 2000? (forthcoming)

"A Thousand Kisses Deep" 
(an older version is in SPRING '96, a documentary video)



And two that he never recorded but were covered by others (there are
other songs like this, but I haven't heard them):


Buffy Sainte-Marie, ILLUMINATIONS, 1970

"God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" (J)


Jennifer Warnes, FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT, 1986 (all L. Cohen songs)

"Song of Bernadette" (co-written by J. Warnes)



He's written too much poetry for me to catalog in the same way.  But when
I can get to it I'll at least describe in general what there is. 
Meanwhile, I'll close for now with a new, unpublished one.

-Hayyim



                NOT A JEW


                Anyone who says

                I'm not a Jew

                is not a Jew

                I'm very sorry

                but this is final


                    so says:
                    Eliezar, son of Nissan,
                    priest of Israel;
                    a.k.a
                    Nightingale of the Sinai,
                    Yom Kippur 1973;
                    a.k.a
                    Jikan the Unconvincing,
                    zen monk;
                    a.k.a
                    Leonard Cohen,
                    Certified Food Worker,
                    San Bernadino County,
                    CA;
                    a.k.a
                    The Founder,
                    Order of the Unified
                    Heart;
                    a.k.a
                    The Best Dressed Man in
                    Montreal
                    (local newspaper) 



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