Leonard Cohen turns 72 today

[xela]

I had somehow never heard Leonard Cohen until I saw Pump Up the Volume six or seven years ago. I immediately ran out to buy the soundtrack, only to be seriously annoyed to find a different performance on the CD of my favorite song in the movie, "Everybody Knows". Which in the long run I suppose I should be grateful for, because I might never have bought a Leonard Cohen CD if the song I wanted had been on the soundtrack CD.

I'm not sure I want to analyze it too much, but there is something about Cohen's cynical world-weariness that makes me feel very young and glad to be alive.

Happy birthday, Leonard — and many more!

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Well my friends are gone
and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love
but I'm not coming on

I'm just paying my rent every day
in the Tower of Song

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing
all night long

Oh, a hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song

I was born like this,
I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels
from the Great Beyond

They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song....