Julie Christensen’s Political Anatomy

Among many other musical accomplishments, Julie Christensen has performed as vocalist on two of Leonard Cohen’s tours as well as on his albums. So, it is not surprising to find that she went to him for assistance with songwriting. She recounts this exchange with Leonard:

One of the first songs that came was the one that eventually became the title track [Where the Fireworks Are]. I started writing it a few years back around the time of Independence Day. I asked Leonard Cohen to help me write because he was the only person I knew who could give it the weight that it deserved. But when I told him the opening line, which goes “Between my thighs / Is all my country,” he responded,

I can’t help you there, darling. You got yourself into this one, so you’re on your own.1

One needn’t worry about Ms Christensen’s song; she reports that “… in the end, that [song] just propelled itself forward.”

Credit Due Department: Photo from Stone Cupid

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 May 19, 2007 at 1HeckOfAGuy.com.
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1. From The great leap forward: Julie Christensen takes us to Where the Fireworks Are by Brett Leigh-Dicks (VC Reporter: May 17, 2007), reprinted at Stone Cupid. [↩]