The worst of Leonard Cohen

I love Leonard Cohen. I always have from when I was a little boy and I would (rarely) hear Suzanne on the car radio to the present day. But I don't love him uncritically.

I was inspired to write about the subject again, for I often wrote about him on my former blog, by this article by Neil McCormick of the Telegraph that purports to list Cohen's albums from best to worst. The ratings are far from crazy and I suspect that most Cohen fans would agree with some of his choices. No one, to take the most obvious example, seriously disputes the claim that Death of a Ladies Man is Cohen's worst album. And pretty much everyone is going to put his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, and I'm Your Man at or near the top.

Not because it's important, it's as trivial but let's get it out of the way, here is the Telegraph list and mine set side by side. (Note the Telegraph ratings were done before the release of Cohen's fourteenth, and almost certainly last album, You Want it Darker.)

That doesn't matter much. Here's what I think does matter.

Cohen writes in a  tradition that stretches back through Petrarch to Saint Augustine. This tradition is therapeutic—it sees the solution to like's most important problems in self understanding that can only be gained through a combination of philosophic examination and prayer. He is not, contrary to what McCormick and, not to pick on him particularly, and may other critics think, particularly interested in politics or ethics. Leonard is unfailing at his worst when he writes about politics or morality. (The two blots on the otherwise brilliant I'm Your Man are the album's political outings "First We Take Manhattan" and "The Jazz Police".)

The worst, cringe-inducing words that Cohen ever wrote is the following stanza from "Lover Lover Lover".

He said, "I locked you in this body,
I meant it as a kind of trial.
You can use it for a weapon,
or to make some woman smile." 

Even Prince, who specialized in this sort of crap, never wrote anything quite that awful. The lyric is utterly narcissistic and all the worse for Cohen presumes to be speaking for God here.

What Cohen does well, and does very well, is to write liturgy. He writes prayers that accompany rites that can, at their best, make you holy.

"Why can't I have "Hallelujah" at my Catholic wedding?" That's a question we get often. People asking for it can see that it's clearly a religious song. Contrary to what you might think, the lyric about the Holy Dove is not blasphemous. The problem with the song is precisely that it is liturgical and you can't bring non-Catholic liturgy into the Catholic wedding rite.

The root of Cohen's great liturgical lyrics and music (and it's not liturgy if it's just words) is a therapeutic understanding of philosophy and prayer. That is where you find the best of Leonard Cohen. That's why, contra Neil McCormack I group Dear Heather and Ten New Songs with Cohen's best.