I think Cohen plays off lots of different tensions, not the least
of which is performing the same songs for 20 years. When he was down here
a few years ago I initially got rightiously indignant at what he
had done to "Bird on a Wire", which had got to the point of starting
off "Like a little birdy on a wire" sung off the beat. Then I decided
that it was his song, and made more sense if you listened to both
versions at once, like he must be doing.


Another tension that's always fascinated me is the Christian imagery
esp. in the early stuff, coming from a Jewish background. Wanting to
be a rock superstar while knowing all that stuff is crap. Growing
up Jewish and English speaking in a French speaking Catholic province
of the superpower next door. (America sure looks strange from a
distance -- I left in 1970 and have been watching from Australia
since.) Playing off one's musical expectations with drum machines,
bum-bum-bums, the really funny/neat/appropriate one finger keyboard
line in "The Tower of Song", replacing the standard pop sexual
inuendos (sp.?) with the real thing (pun intended), etc., etc. Maybe
part of the problem that some people seem to have with the early
stuff is that what he's playing off, working with, is extinct--
or close to it. By this I mean all the folk music scene of the late
1960s. Back then, country music wasn't respectible at all, and lots
of people were still having trouble coming to grips with Bob Dylan
going electric.


I think that all these sorts of tensions gives the music a depth
and a power that pop music isn't supose to have...