Well, that’s it! I have just completed the final read through. It is sitting on my computer ready to send back to the publishers. All the work has been completed.
I am just taking a breath. Reflecting.
As I was reading through the track Puppets stood out. You might have noticed that I am none too fond of the MAGA cult and Trump. Leonard’s song/poem Puppets seem to sum up my sentiments. Too many people throughout history have allowed themselves to become beguiled and used by cynical fascist leaders. I think Trump is one of them – a cynical, self-serving, lying fascist. I thought I’d share that with you.
Hope you like the extract! Let me know your thoughts.
All the best
Opher
‘Puppets’ (Leonard Cohen, Adam Cohen)
In what is arguably the most important track on the album, the old teacher belies the words of the previous track and proves, through a series of 13 rhyming couplets, that he still has plenty to teach us. The ominous blows of the music, coupled with the surging of the choirs, create a dramatic backdrop.
He reminds us that we are all puppets. Someone, or some divine force, pulls our strings. Every fascist tyrant and every charismatic totalitarian leader needs an army of goons to carry out their orders. From the terrible racist horror of the holocaust to Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao’s purges, leaders turn their followers into mindless puppets to carry out their will. But Leonard chooses a larger landscape than this. We are helpless puppets in the face of the forces of nature and the forces of time; even the mightiest is burnt to ashes. But what comes across so strongly to me is that same message that the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller so elegantly expounded in his powerful ‘First they came for the communists….’piece of prose. We cannot do anything about age and the forces of nature, but we can prevent ourselves from being used as puppets by tyrants. As Leonard so explicit says in the lyrics we do not have to turn our backs, shake our heads and take our puppet wives to bed. The future tyrants are at work.
The poem first appeared in 2006’s The Book Of Longing; the words are brought to lifeby Leonard’s clear annunciation, packed with emotion and inflection, coupled with Adam’s sympathetic production. The use of the Shaar Hashomayim choir and Cantus Domus from Berlin adds a very poignant aspect with regard to the Holocaust. The Jewish choir brought a liturgical element and the way that was combined with the German choir reflected a great reconciliation. It also added great drama. As Adam reported in a Guardian interview: ‘Germans and Jews singing together as if in a classical Greek play’.
Leonard Cohen – Puppets (Official Video) – YouTube
