November 11, 2016

"This is a vocabulary that I grew up with... This Biblical landscape is very familiar to me..."

"... and it’s natural that I use those landmarks as references."

18 comments:

rhhardin said...

I'm worried about Anna.
Yes, Mother. I'm here. It's me, Nina. What worries you about Anna?
I remember the moment you all began. Not your births, your conceptions. I knew you were conceived the very moment your father... ...you know, what do you call it?
- Ejaculated?
- Not ejaculated. The other word they use for it now.
- Came.
- Yes, came!
- Thank you, nurse. It's so biblical. Abraham came. Moses came. I knew the very moment you were conceived.

- Music from Another Room (1998)

traditionalguy said...

Well said. But then he is of the Levitical Priesthood lineage, as are the Professor's talented sons.

I fear that scriptural revelation landscape may be better known in China than in the USA among the young.

harrogate said...

Lightweight religion is my favorite kind.

Great song, too.

robother said...

A spiritual landscape linking one to others, as well as glimpses into a greater mind lurking in our own consciousness. The essence of the real old time religion from the hunter-gatherers on down.

gadfly said...

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Part of the common American culture was knowing the King James Bible with its beautiful pre-Victorian English passages. One could learn a lot about the world and language just from having a Compleat Shakespeare and a copy of the Bible. The best storytelling ever done in two works. It's unfortunate that the concepts and imagery that informs every area of arts, the rich pageantry of humankind within the Bible is unknown to so many now. Popular culture is infused completely with concepts and terms derived from the Word and yet so many are ignorant and cannot connect lyrics and speeches and terms and concepts to the source material.

"Hallelujah" could not be written and performed today. Since the 1960s we have lost that common thread that language had connecting us to the past to the best selling book of all time. If anyone in po-culture mentions that Book now it is as an epithet or criticism of "religion" or to cite it as (amazingly) a source code for "hatred."

Sad. RIP Leonard Cohen and RIP language like he used so beautifully.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I hope one of those links is to the Peter Buckley version. It's my favorite.

traditionalguy said...

Practice Tip: the real test of Christian sincerity is having a love for scripture or not. The ones who let the Ruach Hako'desh dwell inside them also love to read His collected writings. Us Gentile Christians have to work at it, but it comes naturally to most Jews whether they like it or not.

Smilin' Jack said...

Cohen was so much more deserving of the Nobel than Dylan. But then, Britney Spears is more deserving of the Nobel than Dylan.

Anthony said...

I admit I really only know of a couple of his songs. Buckley's Hallelujah is one of my favorites and one aim of learning guitar is to play it with some facility (along with Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren). So, not my bag except for that one, but Requiescat In Pace, brother.

Etienne said...
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William said...

He was eloquent and articulate even in expressing his confusion about spiritual matters. He seems honest and unpretentious. His music comes from a deep well....You don't get the sense that Lena Dunham has access to that deep pool of wisdom.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is so good that it sounds like he was able to completely internalize it, to the point that when he sung it, the song merged with the performer and became inseparable from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnxmkOAj88

Bad Lieutenant said...

gadfly said...
Hallelujah!


gadfly said...
There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in



I was going to say, You missed two changes to slag Trump, but I guess we could leave it alone this one time.

rhhardin said...

People who haven't had KJV bible readings at the start of school days can't conjugate old-timey verbs.

h said...

Don't forget Cohen's Story of Isaac.

And a reason to go to church with your children is that if you don't they won't understand so many important cultural references.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y36zbbuX7w

wildswan said...

The trouble is that cultural religion like that of Leonard Cohen only lasts one generation. Then the children ask: why this book (the Bible, the Koran, the Communist Manifesto) over any other? And there is no answer. Then the children look for a book they do believe. The search is absolutely certain to happen. Only the results of the quest are unpredictable. The Millennials are either cultural believers or questers. I don't really know which is in the majority or where they will end up except I am certain it will not be in the place the Boomers like Leonard Cohen found.

Etienne said...
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