I was relistening to First We Take Manhattan, enjoying the way Leonard Cohen lays bare the mind that believes to terrorize is a solving problem method, “thank you for those items that you sent me, the monkey and the plywood violin, I practised every night, now I’m ready, First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin”. It is one of ten records we study in class. Two each from last five decades. The young Nepalese man who found I’m Your Man without merit, is a nice memory. He regretted choosing it but later changed his mind. This happens a lot as does the opposite. Sometimes one assumes greatness from an artist and yet upon further study it sometimes proves totally hollow. His initial reaction stemmed from disliking Cohen’s voice but later the words got to him. I attended the Juno awards one time when in Blue Rodeo and Kim Mitchell was announcing the nominees for male vocalist of the year. He made fun of Leonard Cohen’s inclusion. How hilarious that Cohen was nominated for best singer he laughed. I saw Max Webster when I was sixteen. My friends thought him awesome but he didn’t speak to me. On that Juno night he sort of confirmed my early opinion. Some of my students believe Cohen is addressing conspiracies. Some say he chooses Manhattan because there is a large Jewish population in New York. I ask what does that mean in terms of the lyrics? They say you know. I say I don’t know. They say a lot of Jews. I say so why does that make you think this Jewish artist is singing “first we take Manhattan then we take Berlin?” What are you saying it means? They say Jews again like I’m slow. I shrug like they have not yet made sense. So then I ask why Berlin? They say they don’t know yet for sure, they only figured out the first part. Do you think you could be wrong and he’s talking about something else? For instance the inner thoughts of a mind that does not necessarily display coherence? No they reply. Definitely not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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