78 Things To Celebrate About Leonard Cohen On His 78th Birthday: #21-30

Like ages of weightless snow
on tiny oceans filled with light
her eyelids enclose deeply
a shade tree of birthday candles

From “Now of Sleeping” by Leonard Cohen (The Spice Box of Earth)

Ten More Things About Leonard Cohen

On Leonard Cohen’s 78th birthday, 21 September 2012, I began a list of, coincidentally enough, “78 Things To Celebrate About Leonard Cohen,” the Updated, New & Improved version of Tim de Lisle’s classic Who Held A Gun To Leonard Cohen’s Head? aka Hallelujah: 70 Things About Leonard Cohen At 70.¹

Today’s post is the third sublisting, comprising item’s #21-30. (To present this material in a manageable format, the 78 entries have been divided into several posts, each of which contains no more than 10 items.) All posts in this series can be accessed through 78 Things To Celebrate About Leonard Cohen On His 78th Birthday: The Summary Page.

21. The way he wears his hat

The fedora Leonard Cohen placed in his chair while he gave his remarkable Prince Of Asturias Award speech

For photo credits and still more Leonard Cohen fedoras, see

22. The way he wears his other hats

For photo credits and still more Leonard Cohen hats, see

23. And, of course, the way his smile just beams

24. Leonard Cohen’s unique self-marketing techniques

Cohen’s own contribution to the marketing of his work have produced little solid benefit beyond protecting him from any charges of hucksterism. He famously suggested, for example, that his record company package his albums with razor blades as a bonus for potential buyers drawn to his despondency-enhancing music² – a strategy unlikely to produce repeat business.

When the payola scandals hit the music industry, Cohen sent this note to the CBS personnel assigned to promote “Ain’t No Cure For Love:”

I don’t really know how to do this, but I hear you’ll be working my record, so here’s two dollars.³

And a year ago, when an interviewer asked him to comment on the August 13, 2011 opening of an exhibition of his art at a gallery in Oslo, Leonard Cohen replied

I am grateful to my friends in Oslo for the opportunity to showcase my doodles. I hope no one will feel obligated to buy anything.

25. Leonard Cohen – There’s An App For That

Incredibly, the original 2004 article, Who Held A Gun To Leonard Cohen’s Head?, did not even mention the Leonard Cohen app. The author, Tim de Lisle, might, one suspects, attempt to mount a defense for this omission based on the fact that the first iPhone was not available until more than two years after his piece was published, ⁴ but, hey, there’s no room for excuses in high stakes celebrity journalism.

In any case, a dandy Leonard Cohen app for iPhones and other IOS-based implements is now available.⁵

26. The reason Leonard Cohen got into poetry

Jools Holland: And then what got you into poetry?

Leonard Cohen: Well, I don’t know. I thought that was the way to kind of win women’s hearts.

Jools Holland: Did it work?

Leonard Cohen: Yes it did.⁶

27. The two reasons Leonard Cohen gave for making “I’m Your Man” with Lian Lunson

Answer #1 – From Drawn To Complex Characters by Michael Sragow:⁷

His [Cohen's] respect for Lunson’s [Willie] Nelson documentary – and, Cohen has said, his response to “the kind of radiant presence Lian presents” – persuaded him to participate in the film. [emphasis mine]

Answer #2 – From Idol Chatter column by Brantley Bardin:⁸

Brantley Bardin: What made you decide to do it [participate in the "I'm Your Man" documentary]?

Leonard Cohen: I was approached by [director] Lian Lunson and she’s very beautiful— [emphasis mine]

28. Leonard Cohen’s two great songs about Janis Joplin and him at the Chelsea Hotel

The original version of “Chelsea Hotel” was performed in concert during the 1972 Tour. “Chelsea Hotel #2″ premiered at the March 23, 1972 Royal Albert Hall (London) show and was released on his 1974 New Skin For The Old Ceremony album.

Chelsea Hotel # 1⁹
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
You were taking so brave and so free
Giving me head on the unmade bed
While the limousines wait in the street

(And) Those were the reasons and that was New York
I was running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
Probably (It) still is for those of us/them left

But You got away, didn’t you baby
You just threw it all to the ground
You got away, they can’t pay you now
For mailing your sweet little song

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
In the winter of sixty-seven
My friends of that year they were all trying to go queer
And me I was just getting even
And me I was just getting even
And me I was just getting even

(And) those were the reasons and that was New York
I was running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
Probably (It) still is for those of us/them left

But you got away, didn’t you baby
You just threw it all to the ground
You got away they can’t pay you now
For making your sweet little sound

Chelsea Hotel # 2¹⁰
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.

Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn’t you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don’t need you,
I need you, I don’t need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, “Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music.”

I don’t mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can’t keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that’s all, I don’t even think of you that often.

To view videos and read discussions of both versions of “Chelsea Hotel,” see Video Of Leonard Cohen’s Elegy For Janis Joplin – Chelsea Hotel #1 and How Often Did Leonard Cohen Think Of Janis Joplin’s Sweet Little Sound? – Chelsea Hotel #1 & 2.

29. Leonard Cohen’s music being used in two movies about strippers

Yep, not one but two movies about strippers, Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and Michael Radford’s Dancing at the Blue Iguana, feature music by Leonard Cohen. More information about both can be found at Women Disrobe While Leonard Cohen Music Plays – Yet, Something Feels Wrong

Exotica

In Atom Egoyan’s Exotica, Mia Kirshner dances to Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows at a Toronto gentleman’s club inhabited by a group of patrons, dancers, and owners who are connected by previous and ongoing relationships. The film, a prize winner at Cannes and the recipient of French and Canadian honors, is a series of mysteries solved by the revelation of more mysteries.

Dancing at the Blue Iguana

In Dancing at the Blue Iguana the San Fernando Valley is home to the titular Blue Iguana, a strip club in which the dancers, played by Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly, Sandra Oh, Charlotte Ayanna, perform to, among other songs, Dance Me to the End of Love.

Its theme, if Stephen Holden of the New York Times, is to be believed, is that the Blue Iguana represents “a microcosm of this sad, lonely world and its lost female souls who cater to male lust.”¹¹

30. Cohen’s canines

July 1935: Leonard Cohen (10 months) and his first dog, Kelef (age unknown). From Various Positions by Ira Nadel. Contributed by Dominique BOILE.

Leonard Cohen On The Dogs He’s Loved:¹²

SL: And your dog?

LC: My dog? Oh, uh, I’m very happy these days because my daughter, who lives in the same house as I do, she has two dogs. And I love dogs and she’s brought two dogs into my life, it’s really wonderful, and I play with them every day and teach them tricks.

SL: What kind of dogs?

LC: Mutts. Just street dogs. She got them from the pound.

SL: Did you have a dog when you were little?

LC: Yes, I had a Scottie, Scottish terrier. His name was, my mother named him, Tovarich, “comrad”. We called him Tinky. And yes, a very – I guess the closest being to me during my childhood. The dog would sleep under my bed and follow me to school, and wait for me. So that was a great sense of companionship.

SL: Because you sometimes write about the dog.

LC: Well I have his picture on my dresser in Los Angeles. We loved that dog. My sister gave me his picture framed as a present.

SL: And what happened when he died?

LC: He died when he was about 13 years old, which is quite old for a dog. And he just asked to go out one night – you know how a dog will just go and stand beside the door? – so we opened the door, it was a winter night, and he walked out, and we never saw him again. And it was very distressing. I put ads in the newspaper, and people would say, “Yes, we have found a Scottie,” and you’d drive 50 miles and it wouldn’t be your Scottie. And we only found him in the springtime when the snow melted, and the smell came from under the neighbour’s porch. He’d just gone outside, and gone under the neighbour’s porch to die. It was some kind of charity to his owners.

Items #31-78 to follow in subsequent posts

All posts in this series can be accessed through
78 Things To Celebrate About Leonard Cohen
On His 78th Birthday: The Summary Page

Those who read this post often viewed these pages next:

_____________________

Who Held A Gun To Leonard Cohen’s Head? by Tim de Lisle. The Guardian, 16 September 2004 [↩]
I Never Discuss My Mistresses Or My Tailors by Nick Paton Walsh. The Observer, October 14, 2001 [↩]
Leonard Cohen Beautiful Loser by Michael Barclay. Exclaim.ca. Feb 2012 [↩]
The first iPhone was announced on January 9, 2007 [↩]
See Review Of The Leonard Cohen iPhone App [↩]
From a June 1993 TV Interview with Jools Holland, Transcribed by Richard Cooper. Found at Speaking Cohen [↩]
Drawn To Complex Characters by Michael Sragow. Sun Movie Critic, Baltimore Sun (June 28, 2006) [↩]
Idol Chatter column by Brantley Bardin in Premiere magazine (June 2006) [↩]
Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel At Midnight by Christof Graf [↩]
Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel At Midnight by Christof Graf [↩]
Hubba Hubba [↩]
From an interview with Stina Lundberg, 2001 [↩]