We're all used to people asking for Cohen songs for weddings. Your request made me cry.

During one of his concerts, probably sometime in the seventies, someone from the audience shouted: "your songs are shmaltz, Lenny". LC stopped the performance and answered: "now listen, this may be shmaltz to you, but it's real life to me... If I have disappointed you in any way, I wo...

What about the use of different birds in his songs? "The birds they sing at the break of day" "Like a bird on the wire" "I thought I saw an eagle, but it might have been a vulture" "I can't keep track of each fallen robin" "The dove is never free" &q...

As a citizen of Israel, I Know all about justifications for war. But I have never heard how do you justify muffins.

I like the way LC uses the word "cricket". 1. "Now the crickets are singing" ("night comes on"). 2. "I sing this for the crickets" ("a bunch of lonesome heroes") 3. "The crickets are tearing his heart with their song" ("ballad of the a...

Hi Liz, You really did find the bright side of getting old. I fought in Lebanon as a member of the tank corpse, when there was a war going on there. I've been sent to the occupied teritories many times. The truth is I'm not much of a soldier, but I do know something about war. I may not be much of a...

Hi Liz, I was drafted to the army for three years, when I was 18 - like everyone else here in Israel (actually girls only do two years). Since then I have to pretend being a soldier for a month every year, until I'm 40. Only 8 more years to go! And here are some more lines of love and war (quoted by...

Hi everyone, I Have been relieced yesterday after a two weeks in the Israeli army, and it got me wondering: why do you think LC make a connection between love and war? Is it the opposites that atract each other, or maybe some deeper pain? As for myself, I find no love in war, and hope not to find wa...

Hi Arno, Your words sound true and sad. Not That it's any of my business, but if I were I would try relating to some other song. Perhaps it's time you began to laugh and cry about it all again. Or maybe: "I looked for you and you were gone / So lady, now I'm going too". Because "It lo...

Thanks for the warm welcome, and the spelling corrections.

Every time I fall in love
I tranclate it into poetry.
After a while I realize
That it wasn't really love
And even more sadly -
That it wasn't really poetry.
This is just another proof
That I'm bad at writing songs
But good at telling the truth.

I don't give a dam about the truth.

I've been wondering for a long time what does the phrase "Did you ever go clear" mean.
Any ideas?