Wandering off topic.

I have to confess to a recent cross-media obsession with Leonard Cohen. I guess the excuse for writing about it here is that I just re-watched the recent concert/tribute film, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, and also the ancient Film Board of Canada documentary from which its early footage is filched. In my enthusiasm for the discovery of an overlooked master, I gave the concert film an *8+*, which on second viewing I would demote to a *7*, as a barely adequate and sometimes annoying approach to a great subject. But in between viewings I made intimate acquaintance with the work of the man himself, and I am blown away. It’s like having a new star in the heavens swing into ken. Who knew? Some did, but not I. I knew Cohen almost exclusively for the songs in McCabe & Mrs. Miller and cover renditions by Judy Collins and her ilk. Little did I know that all these years, he’s been vying with Bob Dylan for the heavyweight songwriting crown -- both of them ecstatic wordsmiths with a divine croak of a voice, masters of many sounds, prophets in motley. (Of course, Dylan has fought many more bouts, lost a few but still a champ, while Cohen has compiled a Joe-Louis like career.) Reviews compiled by Metacritic had led me to purchase his only new cd in the past dozen years, “Ten New Songs,” but a cursory listen then yielded only a drone and it went into a drawer -- until the film revealed that Leonard Cohen is indeed my man. After I’d returned to and absorbed that album deep into my soul and the soundtrack of my life, I got the two-cd set of "The Essential Leonard Cohen," and lately I’ve listen to nothing else. And when I’m not listening, the words are revolving in my mind and revealing new aspects all the time. I just obtained two books of his poetry as well, though I haven’t started to read them yet. As a poet, Cohen is a bit sing-songy, but as a songster he is transcendentally poetic and prophetic. I love the way he plays his well-enunciated, gravel bass off against varied orchestrations and soaring female voices. Either in the guise of ladies’ man or Zen monk, he is attuned to the spirit that moves in the world, and the love that moves the sun and stars. I admire the man immensely, and urge you to make his acquaintance if you have not already.