I Remember You Well
Leonard in the 1970s
Leonard in the 1970s
 "...I've tried to lay out my chart as carefully as I can. I have come through something. I don't want to boast about it. I don't even want to talk about it... I don't pretend to be a guide... But there are moments when I am the instrument for certain kinds of information. " -- Rolling Stone, February 4, 1971 |
 Photograph by Arnaud Maggs Maclean's, June 1972 |
 Photograph by Arnaud Maggs Maclean's, June 1972 |
"...I've always seen song and
poetry as the evidence of the life rather than the life itself. The picture of life is straight and if
you really are experiencing things then this work is the evidence of that experience." -- Rock magazine, January 3, 1972 |
"Who By Fire"-- "That song derives very directly from a Hebrew prayer that is sung on the...evening of the Day of the Atonement... 'Who by fire, who by sword, who by water?' According to the tradition, the Book of Life is opened and in it is inscribed all those who will live and all those who will die for the following year. And in that prayer is catalogued all the various ways in which you can quit this veil of tears... But of course, the conclusion of the song, as I write it, is somewhat different: 'Who shall I say is calling?' Well, that is what makes the song into a prayer for me in my terms, which is who is it or what is it that determines who will live and who will die?" -- The Song of Leonard Cohen, a documentary by Harry Rasky, 1979, from Diamonds in the Lines: Leonard Cohen in his own live words |
 Photograph by Pictorial Press Story of Pop, 1974/75 |
  Rolling Stone, February 9, 1978 |
"The Guests"-- "...[T]he soul comes into the world. There is some notion the soul has that there is a feast, that there is a festival, that there is a banquet. It strives to experience the hospitality of the world. It doesn't achieve it. It feels lonely, this is everybody's experience. It feels lost. It stumbles around on the outskirts of the party. If the striving is deep enough or if the grace of the host is turned towards the seeking guest, then suddenly the inner door flies open and he finds himself or the soul finds himself at that banquet table. Although no one knows where the night is going, no one knows why the wine is flowing, no one actually understand the mechanics of this grace except that we experience it from time to time." -- The Song of Leonard Cohen, a documentary by Harry Rasky, 1979, from Diamonds in the Lines: Leonard Cohen in his own live words |