- published: 01 Mar 2009
- views: 97382
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Roslyn Elementary School. His mother, Marsha Klinitsky, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Westmount High School, beginning in 1948 where he was involved with the Student Council and studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Although he initially played a regular acoustic guitar as a teenager, he soon switched to playing a classical guitar after meeting a young Spanish flamenco guitar player who taught him "a few chords and some flamenco."
Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.
Keywords: 1890s, 1900s, 19th-century, african-american, american-indian, ampersand-in-title, anti-western, banjo, bar, bar-keeper
John McCabe: If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass so much, follow me?
Constance Miller: Look, Mr. McCabe, I'm a whore!
Constance Miller: It's not so bad. You might even like it! You did just fine with Bart.::Ida: But with him I had to. It was my duty.
John McCabe: You boys gotta make up your minds if you want to get your cookies. Cause if you want to get your cookies, I've got girls up here that'll do more tricks than a goddamn monkey on a hundred yards of grapevine.
John McCabe: Well, you'll have to forgive me, my kitchen ain't in operation yet, but I could take you up to the restaurant up there if you're hungry enough.::Constance Miller: I'm hungry enough I could eat a bloody horse.::John McCabe: Well, at Sheehan's place you probably will.::Constance Miller: Ah, the frontier wit, I see.
John McCabe: All you've cost me so far is money and pain...::John McCabe: Pain, pain, pain...
John McCabe: I got poetry in me!
John McCabe: Hey pard, you know how to square a circle? Shove a four-by-four up a mule's ass.
John McCabe: You ain't shittin' me, is you?
John McCabe: I feel sorry for 'em, I do!
The shadow of your smile when you are gone
Will color all my dreams and light the dawn
Look into my eyes my love and see
All the lovely things you are to me
Our wistful little star was far too high
A tear drop kissed your lips and so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joy that love can bring
I will be remembering