Leonard Cohen

Recently I found this video, which shows Leonard Cohen in London in 2008 (not 2009, as the video says).  They play great versions of “In My Secret Life” and “Who by Fire”, two of my biggest Cohen favourites.  Cohen has this ability to make music “delicate”:

 

My biggest Cohen favourite is his version of “The Partisan”, a song about the French Resistance in World War II.  The song was written in London in 1943 by the Russian Anna Betoulinsky (melody) and the French Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (lyrics).  The American Hy Zaret wrote the English version of the lyrics:

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.
I have changed my name so often,
I've lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.

The lyrics and the music give the same feeling - a combination of deep sorrow and hard determination, shown e.g. in the lines “There were three of us this morning - I'm the only one this evening - but I must go on”.  It’s also an amazingly beautiful song, notice e.g. the female singers after almost two minutes: