New Video: Leonard Cohen Recites “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot”

“God is Alive, Magic is Afoot” – The Origins¹

For those unfamiliar with the origins of this prose-poem, the following explanation from Take This Longing From My Tongue by Sean Elder (Salon Jun 15, 1999) is helpful in providing context:

Indeed, his first poetry collection was called “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” and his celebrated second novel, “Beautiful Losers” (1966), told the story of three (or maybe four) lovers who seemed to exist in a world of their own making. The narrator, an amateur anthropologist trying to reconstruct the myth of his life long after the others are gone, is driven and vexed by the memory of his best friend, F. — who, true to his initial, fucks everything that moves: the narrator, the narrator’s wife, the last surviving female members of a Native American tribe the narrator is studying. F. ends up “in a padded cell, his brain rotted from too much dirty sex,” but before he dies he leads the narrator to a revelation, “the sweet burden of my argument”:

God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is afoot. Magic is alive. Alive is afoot. Magic never died. God never sickened. Many poor men lied. Many sick men lied. Magic never weakened. Magic never hid. Magic always ruled. God is afoot. God was ruler though his funeral lengthened. Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled …

In this ecstatic passage (which Buffy St. Marie later recorded as a sort of incantation), Cohen has it both ways — god and shaman, mystic and the pagan — and he didn’t need Timothy Leary to guide him. (Hydra, where he wrote “Beautiful Losers,” was full of pleasure-seeking expatriates then, with visitors that included Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, and Cohen had made the acquaintance of LSD back in New York.) He had his own myths. He didn’t need anyone else’s.

This passage² was itself later published as an illustrated book called “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot.” The blurb for that volume includes this description:

In the middle of the novel comes a short section that begins with the words. ‘God is Alive. Magic is Afoot.’ The 400 or so words that follow are arguably some of the finest Cohen has ever written. In them he has created an inspirational mantra that explores the real meaning of Magic and God.

Leonard Cohen Recites “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot”

My working assumption is that this audio clip originated with the September 1967 Camera Three program on CBS, described in this excerpt from Diamonds in the Mine:

Cohen was featured on this CBS Sunday morning cultural affairs program. From The New York Times (1968): “He sang a few songs, read some poems, and was pictured peering sensitively into several tawdry Broadway store windows. The impression he made was strong enough to elicit the greatest audience response in the show’s fourteen-year history. One viewer berated the network for “letting this cancer loose” on the Sabbath, but most of those who wrote wanted to know more about Cohen. Who was this ambiguous and tortured poet who prowled the urban slag dump proclaiming God is alive. Magic is afoot?”

From a post on the LeonardCohenForum: “The program ran for 30 minutes. One unique thing about the program was that it contained a performance by Cohen of the song God is Alive, Magic is Afoot, which has never appeared on an album or CD. The Camera Three program was very well done — I think it borrowed some footage from Ladies & Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen, but it also contained an interview segment done expressly for Camera Three and some poetry and songs performed by Mr. Cohen. “

The words Leonard Cohen recites in this 1967 performance was a passage from his 1966 novel, “Beautiful Losers.” This passage was itself later published separately as an illustrated book called “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot.”  Buffy Sainte-Marie first released “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot” on her album, Illuminations,  in 1969.

Because Leonard Cohen’s recitation is taken from the “Beautiful Losers” instead of the book, “”God is Alive, Magic is Afoot,” it  includes a final section absent from the Buffy Sainte-Marie version:

Old friend, aren’t you happy? You and Edith alone know how long I’ve waited for this instruction.
–Damn you, Mary Voolnd spits at me.
–What?
–Your hand’s gone limp.

Leonard Cohen – “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot”

Video from DrHGuy

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1. Much of this material was originally posted at Heck Of A Guy as Leonard Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, God, Magic, & Monty Python.  That entry also includes a video of discussion of Buffy St. Mari’s performance of her version of “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot.” [↩]
2. The complete passage follows:

   God is Alive, Magic is Afoot
   Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

   God is alive, magic is afoot
   God is alive, magic is afoot
   God is alive, magic is afoot
   God is afoot, magic is alive
   Alive is afoot, magic never died
   God never sickened
   Many poor men lied
   Many sick men lied
   Magic never weakened
   Magic never hid
   Magic always ruled
   God is afoot, God never died
   God was ruler
   Though his funeral lengthened
   Though his mourners thickened
   Magic never fled
   Though his shrouds were hoisted
   The naked God did live
   Though his words were twisted
   The naked magic thrived
   Though his death was published
   Round and round the world
   The heart did not believe

   Many hurt men wondered
   Many struck men bled
   Magic never faltered
   Magic always lead
   Many stones were rolled
   But God would not lie down
   Many wild men lied
   Many fat men listened
   Though they offered stones
   Magic still was fed
   Though they locked their coffers
   God was always served
   Magic is afoot, God is alive
   Alive is afoot

   Alive is in command
   Many weak men hungered
   Many strong men thrived
   Though they boast of solitude
   God was at their side
   Nor the dreamer in his cell
   Nor the captain on the hill
   Magic is alive
   Though his death was pardoned
   Round and round the world
   The heart would not believe

   Though laws were carved in marble
   They could not shelter men
   Though altars built in parliaments
   They could not order men
   Police arrested magic and magic went with them
   Mmmmm…. for magic loves the hungry
   But magic would not tarry
   It moves from arm to arm
   It would not stay with them
   Magic is afoot
   It cannot come to harm
   It rests in an empty palm
   It spawns in an empty mind
   But magic is no instrument
   Magic is the end
   Many men drove magic
   But magic stayed behind
   Many strong men lied
   They only passed through magic
   And out the other side
   Many weak men lied
   They came to God in secret
   And though they left Him nourished
   They would not tell who healed
   Though mountains danced before them
   They said that God was dead
   Though his shrouds were hoisted
   The naked God did live
   This I mean to whisper to my mind
   This I mean to laugh within my mind
   This I mean my mind to serve
   Til’ service is but magic
   Moving through the world
   And mind itself is magic
   Coursing through the flesh
   And flesh itself is magic
   Dancing on a clock
   And time itself
   The magic length of God [↩]