Rocktober Day Seven: Tower of Song

I've been thinking about old age a lot lately and this song sums up a lot of my thoughts and feelings. The words hurt my heart but they also give me strength to look ahead and get a mental grip on what the future has in store for all of us. I think this song talks about our bodies giving up but our emotions and desires hanging in there, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

This song also talks about the legacy we leave and I have to admit to a tiny bit of jealousy that Mr Cohen's intellectual legacy is so very vast and mine is zilch [how do I even dare write such a sentence?!]. As a writer (of sorts) I have fostered tiny ambitions of touching people with my words and when I hear songs like this I can only kneel at the feet of a master and not dare raise my eyes.

I think Leonard Cohen is a songwriting genius. He's not the best singer in the world but his words are second to none. I prefer the Martha Wainwright version of this song from the I'm Your Man CD and DVD and from the Came So Far From Beauty concerts. The way she sings it gives the song a different perspective; a young woman singing an old man's song.

I have spent some time grappling with what I can say about this song, but the feelings lay in the pit of my stomach and don't easily form into sensible words. I hope the lyrics give you some idea but if you take a moment to listen to Martha's gorgeous version you may feel a little of what I do when I hear this song.

Tower of Song (Martha Wainwright's version at The Basement, YouTube clip)

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,
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.

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
- I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all.
I'm standing by the window where the light is strong.
They don't let a woman kill you not in the tower of song.

Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure:
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor,
and there's a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong.
You see, you hear these funny voices in the tower of song.

I see you standing on the other side.
I don't know how the river got so wide.
I loved you, I loved you way back when -
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed,
but I feel so close to everything that we lost-
We'll never, we’ll never have to lose it again.

So I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back.
They’re moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track.
But you'll be hearing from me, baby, long after I'm gone.
I'll be speaking to you sweetly from my window in the tower of song.

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.

Definition of poignant

Dance Me To The End Of Love

If you don't feel your heart squeezing when you watch and listen to this beautiful song with the even more beautiful clip then you are even more of a stone hearted sociopath than I am.

So so so moving.

I think it had something to do with Obama's recent inauguration that Democracy [is coming... to the USA] was such a standout song at Leonard Cohen's concert on Sunday night. There was such a vibe about the song and throughout the crowd.

There is something about Obama which encourages hope, even in a dried up old cynic like me. Hope is wonderful but when it comes from politicians it is also pointless. It will only lead to tears and bitter disappointment.

I so want to hope that something better [define and discuss] is possible but I just know it's only a matter of time before he is caught selling arms to Iran or in bed with a Brazillian transvestite prostitute and a goat.

Last night I sat at the feet of Mr Leonard Cohen. Yes, that's right. FRONT ROW. CENTRE.

(That's him, right there in front of me. The elderly gent with his hat and his gentle smile and his beautiful words.)

In the immortal words of one C. Bing, OH. MY. GOD.

I don't think I have the words to really describe what the evening was like. Superb. Magical. Amazing. All good words but so inadequate.

The great man did a lot of skipping, surpisingly more than I would have expected from a man his age. His voice has also improved so much since his younger days, for which I am truly thankful.

We took Will with us (as my dad, who was meant to be coming, couldn't go - long story). Will knows many Leonard Cohen songs (doesn't every 9 year old?) as I so often listen to the I'm Your Man CD in the car (and it's also on his MP3 player, which used to be mine). So it was rather sweet to see my gorgeous big boy, eyes glued to the great man, singing along to Everybody Knows and If It Be Your Will (which I think he thinks is about him).

Paul Kelly (the singer, not the great ex-Swans player) was the main support act and he was brief but wonderful. Sadly he didn't do [Have You Ever Seen] Sydney from a 747 [at night] which would be my favourite song of his. He was simply on the stage with his rather hunky son Dan Kelly and it was quite a special little acoustic set.

However, the extra, super douper bonus of the evening were The Triffids as the first support act. As we were waiting to take our seats - in the FRONT ROW. CENTRE - they did Wide Open Road. Holy shit that's a fabulous song. I didn't even know they were going to be playing so it was a wonderful surprise. For me it was like knowing you were about to pick up your brand new convertible, white leather seats and all, and then getting to the showroom and having it driven out for you by Robbie Williams. In the nude. That's how good it was.

I was a very happy little camper on Wednesday morning.

Almost by accident I ended up with four front row seats for Leonard Cohen playing at Centennial Vineyards, Bowral on 1 February 2009.

I may prefer his songwriting to his singing but the man is a friggin' legend. I can't believe I will actually get to see him perform live. Lucky lucky me!

[It's funny that just a few days before Big Jay and I had a discussion about going to less concerts in order to spend less money - our annual concert bill is HUUUUGGGEEE!!!. Then I go and buy four tickets to LC at $300 a pop and blow myself right out of the water. Let's just hope the Chili Peppers don't tour in 2009!]

Look... I know... you're all over it. But it is my blog so indulge me, please. I promise this obsession is nearing it's natural ending.

How about this for fabulous song writing. I love these lyrics:

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

From "Everybody Knows".

And from my new favourite song off I'm Your Man, "The Future":

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture

Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
stuff it up the hole
in your culture

Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant.

Sung by Teddy Thompson it is pure musical ecstasy.

(Have ordered TT's solo CDs from the US, since I love his voice so much I'm looking forward to hearing what he can do without Leonard Cohen's magical lyrics.)

As you may be able to tell I am ever so slightly obsessed with Leonard Cohen and my I'm Your Man CD right now. I have to play it constantly and it causes me a great deal of pain and joy and heartache and reminds me that I'm a living, breathing, feeling human and not just a work-wife-mummy-bot.

Approaching 40 (which may be the new 30 but it sure doesn't feel that way from where I'm standing) this line from Tower of Song is particularly meaningful "I ache in the places where I used to play".

I am in such awe of Leonard Cohen (and other songwriters who I admire such as Nick Cave, Antony) because in a few simple words they can so eloquently describe the human condition, make us cry, smile, feel. What I wouldn't do to have that talent.

And because I can't stop myself and because this song keeps calling me back over and over until I feel my heart may explode I'll leave you with the lyrics from Tonight Will Be Fine.

Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past.
We swore to each other then that our love would surely last.
You kept right on loving, I went on a fast,
now I am too thin and your love is too vast.

But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.

I choose the rooms that I live in with care,
the windows are small and the walls almost bare,
there's only one bed and there's only one prayer;
I listen all night for your step on the stair.

But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.

Oh sometimes I see her undressing for me,
she's the soft naked lady love meant her to be
and she's moving her body so brave and so free.
If I've got to remember that's a fine memory.

And I know from her eyes
and I know from her smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.