Having had an unpleasant encounter
with our medical system, I am now home to enjoy what remains of a day off.
My family doctor retired. This means
when I have a routine medical question for a doctor I have to go sit in a
clinic waiting room with a motley mix of sick people and hypochondriacs. Two
hours into what I was told was a one hour wait, and two patients after I was
told there was only one patient in front of me, my patience for being a patient
(which is never high) had evaporated. I left. At least I had a good book to
keep me company.
Disc 895 is….The Future
Artist: Leonard
Cohen
Year of Release: 1992
What’s up with the Cover? I don’t mind the theme of this
logo – I like hummingbirds, hearts and handcuffs as much as the next guy – but
seeing it always makes me feel a little regret. I saw this tour back in the day
and didn’t buy a t-shirt from the merch table, and seeing the album cover
always makes me wish I had.
How I Came To Know It: I owned “I’m Your Man” and
“Various Positions” on tape at this time and loved them both, so when a new
Cohen album came out, I bought it immediately on the exciting new format of CD!
How It Stacks Up: I have 12 of Cohen’s studio albums and 1 live
record. Of the 12 studio albums “The Future” is way up at fourth best, which is
some pretty rarified company.
Ratings: 4 stars
In 1992
the 58 year old Cohen was dating 33 year old movie star Rebecca de Mornay.
Whatever vitality he managed to siphon out of rocking that cradle definitely
makes it onto “The Future,” which is infused with large helpings of raw energy
and restless romanticism.
This
album has received a ton of playtime over the years: a combination of me really
loving it, and only owning a handful of CDs at the time. I could probably quote
the whole thing line for line as it played. Of course I don’t do that, as I am
not a total douchebag.
I’ve
probably given this album too much play, because all my intimate knowledge of it
somewhat deadens the impact it used to have on me.
This is
a damned shame, because this is a great record. It is hopeful and apocalyptic
in equal measure, with a groovy jazz backbeat feeling that never falls into the
muddy note-frenzy mania of true jazz. Cohen records often have bad production,
but not “the Future” which is rich and deep like Cohen’s gravelly voice, but sparse
enough so every word has room to sink in.
The
opening (and title) track is Cohen’s commentary on the future. Cohen sees the lack
of our traditional Western notions of right and wrong in the wake of the Cold
War, and seems to simultaneously despair and revel in the results. It is a
great opening salvo on a record that is exploring where we are going as a
society, and how Cohen reflects that examination back on himself as a man.
The
album’s radio single (or what passes for a radio single from a poet like Cohen)
is “Closing Time.” This song is the
perfect snapshot of the end of a night at the club, when the lights come with all
that ramped up drunken, sexualized energy still lingering in the air. In 1992 I
was single and doing a lot of clubbing and this song really captures the
experience. Years later it is a pleasant reminder of what it all felt like: the
booze-soaked carpet, the half-committed, half-dismissive smile of the woman
across from you, and the bouncers, slowly herding the lot of you closer and
closer to the door.
Mid-way
through the album “Democracy” is the
companion piece to the title track’s opening challenge, with Cohen expressing a
complex mix of accusation, optimism and maybe just a little fatigue with the
whole thing. Cohen is one of the world’s great poets, and I could quote the
whole song, but for the sake of brevity here are a couple of my favourite
selections. First Cohen’s romantic notion of American democracy:
“It’s coming to America first,
The cradle of the best and of the
worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the
spiritual thirst.”
And a
reminder that sometimes you just need to put the placard down and spend a quiet
night in:
“I’m sentimental, if you know
what I mean
I love the country but I can’t
stand the scene
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless
little screen.”
And the
whole of it set to the beat of drums more at home during a military march than
a pop song, reminding us that democracy has always been a struggle, and that’s
what helps make it great.
Cohen
even takes his turn at a couple of covers. He does “Be For Real,”a Frederick Knight song recorded by Marlena Shaw in
1976. Shaw’s version (which you can hear here) is pretty sweet, but at 58
Cohen still manages to out-sexy her. That “Be
For Real” can hold up to the amazing poetry in other tracks on “The Future”
is a testament to both its strength as a song and Cohen’s delivery.
Cohen
also covers Irving Berlin’s “Always”
and while it is OK, it drags on too long. At eight minutes, and full of
background sounds of people drinking and mingling, it fails on the production
side as well. If “Closing Time” is
what a happening club sounds like at the end of the night, then “Always” is what that same club sounds
like forty years later when the upholstery is all stained and only the local booze
donkeys frequent the place.
The
album ends with an instrumental, “Tacoma
Trailer” and at his live shows Cohen will still plunk this thing out on a
little stand up organ. It is a beautiful mood piece that showcases Cohen’s
talents as a songwriter, even when he isn’t relying on his incredible talent as
a poet.
Over the
years the song that has always stuck with me the most is “Anthem,” a song about hope and hanging in there. Its chorus holds
what I think is the album’s main message, and a great piece of advice that I’ll
leave you with, since Cohen’s words will always fare better than my own:
“Ring the bells that still can
ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in
everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
No comments:
Post a Comment