I remember Cat Stevens coming into my house in Montreal, which is about twice the size of this [hotel] room, and looking at my record player, which is just a little record player. And I could see just for a moment, this look cross his face, ‘What is this?,’ you know? I’m not trying to make a virtue of my own kind of life, but people do get amused when they see my particular style of life. ‘Cause it hasn’t really changed much since I left home.
Leonard Cohen
Quotation excerpted from Romance at the Broncoburger by Rob Mackie (New Musical Express: April 5, 1975). Photo of Leonard Cohen’s Montreal home by Lilian Graziani.
I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted July 20, 2015.
I think simplicity is the key to a happy life. Alas, this realization has only now dawned on me as I enter my “Autumn Years,” when many of the wants and needs of my lifetime seem so silly. However, I have to concede that it is only a life lived that can usually produce this epiphany when one looks back through the decades. Not that I regret the life I have lived, as it has made me who I am today and I am quite pleased with the “me” which has resulted!
Indeed!
Simplicity is sometimes a condition not purposefully sought. Simplicity often occurs simply because it works. I find in LC’s lyrics that simple phrases, curiously worked, exude great beauty. Maybe the secret to great outcomes?
A 13 year sojourn living in Greece, imprinted the love of “ simplicity “ in my living conditions. I knew I was never going to live there permanently so it made sense not to “clutter” one’s surroundings, nor acquire too many things that would need to be shipped elsewhere at a later date.
“He Is Not impressed”. I think that’s an unfair description of Cat Steven’s reaction. Leonard called it “amused”. That’s very different. Let’s go with that.