Leonard Cohen Has No Equal: My Impressions of a 75-Year-Old Badass

Leonard Cohen Has No Equal: My Impressions of a 75-Year-Old Badass

“Love is not a victory march / It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

“Hallelujah” has never been one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs, but last night as he sang it to an adoring crowd at the Durham Performing Arts Center, it killed me.  So many of his songs did.  Here’s a guy – a poet, songwriter, recluse, zen monk, ladies’ man, 75-year-old badass – offering up pure gold.  He sang every song reverently, as if it was a gift that wasn’t his to give.  Not precious, not serious, just pure and honest, trying his best to tell the truth.  “I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you.”

His songs touch that part of me way deep down that wants to suck the marrow out of life, live to the fullest, whatever you want to call it.  Every other song during the nearly three hours he was on stage had me in tears as I was moved by a recognition of this touching.  But it was also a recognition of and a surrendering to the fact that we’re all essentially flawed.  We aren’t sucking the marrow out of life.  At least I’m not.  But maybe it’s just not possible to live life to the fullest, or not all the time, and maybe that’s alright.  Somehow Cohen was broadcasting the message that it’s the fighting to tell the truth that matters.  The intention to do so.  As he sings in “Bird on The Wire”: “…like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.”  Flawed, maybe.  But also beautiful and real and true.  That line always raises the hairs on the back of my neck and opens the flood gates.  I’ve been in that choir – we all have.

I’d be hard-pressed to find an equal to Leonard Cohen.  Listening to his music all these years has been rewarding enough, but seeing him live was awe-inspiring.  Not in a star-struck kind of way (at least not after the first couple of songs).  He’s a man who has tried to be free and appears to have succeeded.  At 75 years old, it looked like he was having the time of his life on stage.  Whether wearing that beaming smile, or respectfully holding his black fedora over his heart during his bandmates’ solos, or jogging limberly onto the stage to uproarious applause, he was easily one of the most inspiring and badass dudes I’ve ever seen.  That’s all the evidence I need to keep trying to suck that marrow out of life whenever I can.

If you have the means to see him live (it’s f*#$ing expensive), do it!  There may not be another chance after this tour, who knows.  So what if I have to delay the purchase of my next microphone, or eat pb&j instead of the delicious Mint Indian buffet – that was the best money I’ve ever spent.  Thanks, Leonard!!

http://www.leonard-cohen.com/

— Eric