Leonard Cohen’s Secret Gospel of Gravity

One of my favorite books I’ve read this past year is Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw Angels Fall by Christophe Lebold. Billed as a biography, it’s actually more of a theopoetical travelogue (if there is such a thing), albeit one packed with uproarious one-liners and jaw-dropping spiritual asides. Reading it feels a bit like living inside one of Cohen’s hallowed compositions.

This is true in all aspects but one: the lightning pace of Lebold’s insights contradicts that of the songwriter-poet’s own work, which often “arrived” over the course of years. It took, for instance, a full decade for “Hallelujah” to be completed.

Lebold, a French critic and scholar, dubs Cohen “the prophet of gravity” at the outset, due to the poet’s abiding preoccupation with how and why we fall, from what heights, and along what trajectories. Here’s a brief selection from the Prologue:

Genius, they say, is the ability to see things exactly as they are, and the public has recognized Leonard Cohen’s vision for what it is: absolute realism. Our hearts are irretrievably broken, our thirst for love cannot be quenched, and our lives are filled with undetectable falls that only saints, holy losers, and angels can see. That’s reality itself, verifiable by all. Paradoxically, there’s something uplifting about this and even good news here: Cohen’s secret gospel of gravity.

His work restores to us the precious things that the dominant culture of infotainment and feel-good psychology had denied: our broken hearts and the true weight of our lives. It’s an act of empowerment and emancipation: Cohen frees us from the false dreams of perfect lives and from the chore of having to pretend we are not broken. A first significant step towards a lighter, freer life. 

Along his comings and goings, Cohen indeed enjoyed the privilege of being the protagonist of four simultaneous novels and all Jewish heroes at once. Like Abraham, he traveled the world and tried to be at home everywhere — that was the first novel: Leonard’s wanderings. Like King David, he sang psalms to heaven and burnt for all women — the novel of desire and irrepressible attractions. Like Jonas, he engaged in a game of hide-and-seek with his Creator but was never closer to Him than when he thought himself perfectly hidden — the (sometimes comical) novel of Leonard’s spiritual quest. And like Jacob, he struggled with an angel (the black angel of melancholy) hoping not to win but to be blessed in the morning, wounded but not vanquished — the epic novel of Leonard’s struggle with darkness.

As far as the content of Cohen’s “secret gospel,” Lebold boils it down to the following paragraph, the resonance of which is, to these ears, simply off the charts:

Cohen’s poetic theology of love […] rests on just a handful of principles. The first is a simple truth and the foundational axiom in Cohen’s metaphysics: we are all broken. The heart’s function is to break and, until it does, it “cooks and sizzles like shish kebab in our breast.” Love — that’s Cohen’s second axiom — is therefore no fortuitous accident but our true condition, and therefore without remedy (ergo: there ain’t no cure of love). The third principle — famously featured in “Anthem” — is that light gets into our lives only through cracks and that our broken hearts are therefore vehicles of grace. In other words, only losers are beautiful. And that’s pretty much it.

Just tell me where to sign and I will.

Lastly, a few words about the medium being employed and its abreactive possibilities:

The whole of Leonard Cohen’s songwriting career rests on that fundamental belief: songs are spiritual weapons that break open our hearts but also immaterial talismans that we carry with us everywhere we go. And sanctuaries where we stand consoled — spaces of deep and true consolation.

It’s clear in the dark flamenco waltzes of the singer’s early career and in the electro songs of wisdom he composed later: songs have healing powers and can accomplish our salvation. At least for four minutes.

On that note, here’s a playlist of LC covers for you.