Sometimes knowing the secret behind-the-scenes story makes things much cooler. Sometimes the story just destroys something.
Take, for instance the works of Leonard Cohen. I remember how finding out that Chelsea Hotel was about Janis Joplin made it even better–and it was already a song I quite liked.
On the other hand, take what used to be my favourite Leonard Cohen poem:
Marita
Please find me
I am almost 30.
Ever since my pal Doug first showed me that, it’s been my favourite piece of Cohen poetry. I thought it was the perfect example of poetic brevity: eight words that fully captured so much about men, how they age, and about how we sometimes keep that girl in our heads. When I was in my early 20s I loved the way the poem loomed before me. In my late twenties I was happily married, but I liked how the poem painted me a picture of who I could easily have been. I’m over 30 now, but I liked the way those eight words took me back to the end of my twenties.
Then I read the story that this is what he scrawled “to a woman who rebuffed his come-on with ‘Come back when you’re 30.'” And somehow that story just takes all the magic out of it for me. There’s such a tremendous difference between “You’re the one I thought I would end up with, and I’m getting old” and “Let’s have that one-night stand now that I’m tall enough to get on this ride”. There’s such a difference between that slightly mad girl you lost over the years, and that Mrs. Robinson crush you had one night. Sigh.
Of course that story would make the poem just as incredible for someone else as it was for me before I heard it. That’s part of the power of poetry–that the brevity leaves room for the listener to fill in some of the blanks from his own story, creating the emotional connection to the work. I kind of wish I could unhear the story, though, since it makes the poem something completely different to me.
I’m still down with Lenny, though. He’s The Man. Cheers, Lenny.
(I guess that means either Chelsea Hotel or Everybody Knows moves up to the number one spot. Maybe time to curl up with Stranger Music and search out a challenger.)
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