Chords for Leonard Cohen Interview, 4/28/85 (Part 3)

_ [N] Let me put aside any fears that you may [E] have had about doing it this informally.
[Bb] That was wonderful.
My special guest [F] Leonard Cullen, that song is called
Night Comes [E] On.
The complete, finished, [F] produced version of that can be found on
Leonard's [Gb] very latest album [F] entitled Various Positions and Leonard will be
appearing [Ab] at Carnegie Hall [Bb] on Sunday May 5th.
[Gb] First time in New York [E] in some ten
years we got some more things to talk about.
Now let me find you here [Gb] on the
_ [F] Magic Controls again Leonard.
There's a couple [Gb] of other things I wanted to [Gb] ask
you about. _ _
[Bb] In a collection of your poems which I used to [Eb] use back in my high
school teaching days, I guess it was [G] selected poems 56 to 68, there's a very
short two-line [Gb] poem there [Ab] and I think it was entitled _ Maria?
Yes [N] it was Marita.
[D] _
[C] Please [B] find me, I am almost 30.
Right, [N] right.
That poem struck a chord and has
stayed with me all [Bb] of these years.
[Ab] I wonder [Bb] now as you have passed other
[Gb] milestones in your [Bb] life, the 31 long gone, the 41 in the, [Eb] the 40, not 41, [Bb] you know
[Gb] 40 gone to [Abm] last September [Bb] 5-0.
Can you offer us any perceptions [F] from those
vantage points?
Did [Bb] you approach them with any trepidation?
Did you handle them
wisely and well?
What are your [F] thoughts on that [Eb] particular process of the
[Bb] life cycle?
I was in the [C] Canadian Broadcasting [Bb] Corporation _ [Abm] [A] in Toronto a
few months ago.
I noticed that [N] in the _ _ men's room [Cm] someone had scrawled this
[Bb] graffiti.
It was _
[D] Marita, please find me, I'm [Bbm] almost 50. _ _
[Bb] A sequel, the natural sequel. _
Well certainly there is humor in that.
What else, [Ab] what else, what was the
experience like?
Just another day?
Yeah just another day.
[B] I don't think that
things radically change.
We _
[C] change by imperceptible degrees. _
My friend Irving
Leighton, a great Canadian poet, [B] has a line, the inescapable lousiness of growing old. _ _ _
Oh, but [A] no, I, [Bb] you know, _ I'm still in good shape.
Well it's, that is obvious, but [F] it's
complicated too by the fact that you were [Gb] preserved in a wonderful film.
Again,
that I remember and [G] used in my high school teaching days [F] from the National
Film Board of Canada, [G] entitled Ladies and Gentlemen, [Bbm] Mr.
Leonard Cohen.
_ [Bb] _
Have you
seen the film recently?
Does it still hold up for you?
And what about this
[Fm] whole notion of living in a media age where it is possible [Bbm] to have segments of
our [Ab] life preserved on [Gm] celluloid or [Gb] videotape or [F] pieces of [Bb] vinyl?
I [Eb] think
it's very interesting for one's own family [Bb] and for one's children.
[B] My [Bb] father
was an amateur photographer [A] and he took movies of our, my sister's and my
childhood [Bb] and the whole [Cm] family.
Those are, those [Bb] are very wonderful to be able to
see and to [C] look at.
[Bb] Outside of that, I can't think of any [Ab] deep importance.
Okay.
_ On your
previous [Bb] visit, had it happened, we were going to talk about your most recent
[Gb] book, which is entitled [Gm] Book of Mercy [F] from Villard Books here [Bb] in New York City.
And it is quite obviously, [G] _ _
[Bb] looking [Bbm] for a label for it, it's a prayer [E] book, isn't it?
Yeah, it [Bb] is, [B] they're psalms or prayers.
[Bb] _
Now, has this come out of any _ _ _ _ intense
religious conversion of a specific kind that has [Bbm] occurred in your life in the
last [Bb] number of years?
No, I've never done [Db] anything so violent [B] as to actually
[F] convert to anything.
[B]
But there are times when you find yourself with your [Bb] back
against the wall and silenced.
And the only way you can [B] speak, the only kind of
[N] language you can use is that language of prayer.
This [A] is a question that would
relate as well to your books and [F] your records, [Bb] I suppose, but do they hold up
for you?
Do you go back and read them or [Gm] listen to them?
[Eb] And are you ultimately
[F] pleased or not pleased by what you [Bb] hear or see?
Not just [D] speaking for myself, but
[Cm] when I look at the work [B] of [Cm] any painter or [Bb] singer or writer _ _ who still means
something to me.
I find [A] his early work just as good as his later work.
I think if the
gift is there, it manifests very early.
And reveals different [D] dimensions, probably.
Yes, and I think any [B] singer, really, any writer, really only [A] has one or two songs.
And they're elaborated over and over again and [B] new elements of [Eb] experience find
their way into them.
But [Ab] generally a voice emerges quite [A] early in a [Bb] man's life.
Would [Db] you honor us with a reading from your most recent book?
This is a _ _ small _ _ prayer. _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [B] In the eyes of men, he falls.
And in his [Bb] own eyes, too.
He [B] falls from his high place.
He trips on his [C] achievement.
He falls [Bb] to you.
He falls to know you. _
It is sad, they say.
See his disgrace, say the ones at his heel.
[Dbm] That he falls radiantly [Bb] toward the light to which he falls.
_ [F] They cannot [Bb] see who lifts him as he falls [C] or how his falling [Bb] changes.
[Bm] And he himself bewildered
till his heart [C] cries out to bless the one who holds [Eb] him in his falling. _
[Bb] And in his fall, he
hears his heart [Bb] cry out.
[D] His heart [Bb] explains why he is falling, why he had to fall.
And he gives over
to the fall. _
Blessed are you, clasp of the falling.
He falls [C] into the sky.
He falls into the light.
[Db] None [A] can hurt him as he falls.
[Bb] _ Blessed are you, shield of the falling.
Wrapped in his fall,
_ concealed within his fall.
He finds the place he is [Bb] gathered in [C] while his hair streams back.
[Bb] At his clothes tear in the wind, [B] he is held [Bb] up, comforted.
[B] He enters into the [Bb] place of his fall.
_ [A] Blessed are you, embrace [Bb] of the falling, [Am] foundation of the light, _ master of the human accident. _
Well, [Eb] thank you for sharing that with us.
And I consider it very special to have you
[E] spend this time with us on this Sunday [D] morning.
Thank you very [C] much for inviting us down here.
We'll [Bb] all see you at Carnegie [Fm] Hall on [Gb] Sunday, May 5th.
[Bb] That's one [Eb] week from today.
First time
in a decade.
Don't miss him.
Leonard [F] Cohen on Nick Spagat, WNEW-FM in New