According to Genius, the lyrics to the Future go:
"And now the wheels of Heaven stop, you feel the Devil's riding crop"
Those lyrics make sense and rhyme, but no matter how hard I listen, I just hear "you feel the devils writhe and crawl".
What do you think? Is there any source that can deliver a final judgement on the matter?
Very curious to hear about how he created his work. Lots of obsessive rewrites for his lyrics I’m aware, but the music and chord progressions itself. Was he a sit down and play around type of guy. He obviously knew some theory knowledge with ‘the fourth the fifth, minor fall and major lift’
From Aviva Layton:
>At the time I was working as Literary Director of the Los Angeles Children’s Theatre and we had just installed a fax, as had Leonard. Leonard and I used to fax each other frequently with Leonard asking me if I was “standing by my post” and signing himself as “Field Commander Cohen.” This artwork is based on a “selfie” Polaroid that is housed in the archives of the Leonard Cohen Family Trust. This work was later scanned into Leonard’s Mac computer and became a piece of artwork that appears in his 2006 publication Book of Longing. Leonard sent this to me personally some fourteen years ahead of his decision to include it in Book of Longing.
Not your favourite! Just the one where the lyrics are the best. I’ve thought long about this and I think Avalanche is up there. Fucking full to the brim of lyrics only he could write. Last Years Man too.
Obviously there are songs with great one liner lyrics, but I’m mainly asking for songs that are stunning all the way through.
His gift at the top is a framed photo that hung in our favorite record store and I always commented that I wanted it so much, because I mean, look at him. (He didn't steal it but purchased it off of the shop owner)
I commissioned an Etsy artist for the handwritten sheet music of "Dance Me to the End of Love" (Leonard is important to the story of our first meeting)
Maybe this is corny but I wanted to share. This exchange of gifts is easily the best I've ever experienced.
I remember watching a film many years ago starring Christian Slater called Pump Up The Volume, Leonard Cohen is featured a few times on the soundtrack, once I heard If It Be Your Will I was hooked.
I recently covered one of my favourite Leonard Cohen tunes. He’s always been a towering influence on me (pun intended) Songs from a Room was the soundtrack to my early 20s when I lived in Montreal. His music will always be synonymous with that city to me. A small tribute. 🍷
If anyone was interested to hear, the song can be found anywhere you find your music - artist name is Jdeebird.
Would love to know anyone’s thoughts on the cover 🙏
A few of these songs (Chelsea Hotel, Who by fire, and Is this what you wanted) I’ve known for a while but I decided to give the full album a listen front to back
You can for sure tell he’s getting more experimental than his previous work which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. I’m all for pushing creative boundaries but for him I’ve tended to like the more stripped down and less busy songs. “Take this longing” was one of the best first listens I’ve had of a song in a while and Chelsea Hotel remains one of my favorite songs in the entire folk genre. LMK your thoughts on this album and rating
I played Rooftop on my radio show this morning. If you want to hear it, plus the rest of the show, click here: https://www.mixcloud.com/CIDeMann/six-degrees-of-rockination-11-july-2026/
So, I was helplessly trying to find some lost footage of the BBC In Concert series and ended up learning about this 1968 Leonard’s TV special and also couldn’t find it anywhere - even though there are some indications that this given footage still exists. There’s even an IMDb page for it. Anyone knows anything about this?
