The one songwriter Leonard Cohen said was “one hundred floors above me”
The mammoth cultural impact of Leonard Cohen isn’t reserved for his song ‘Hallelujah’. The songwriter is regarded as one of the most gifted lyricists of his era and could rightly be seen as having no equal when it comes to the art of putting poetic thoughts into pop music. His array of tunes, ranging from the deeply joyful to the scar tissue of sorrow, has provided a wealth of comfort to millions of fans.
Across a selection of incredible tracks, Chen has constantly reaffirmed his position as one of the finest, most beguiling minds of the 20th century and beyond. Cohen was a poet and novelist before finally releasing his debut album in 1967 at the ripe old age of 33, after being inspired by catching a glimpse of a couple having sex. It’s a moment of unique inspiration that typifies the writer as both a keen observer and a delicate poet.
From then on, the singer-songwriter would traverse the pitfalls of the music industry and keep creating his art right up until his death, even releasing one posthumous studio album that showed he was always at the top of his game. Above all else, Cohen respected his craft, and his intolerance for mediocrity was sensational, meaning not many of his fifteen studio albums are bad records. However, Cohen was not afraid to acknowledge those around him who he deemed to be far greater than himself.
One man was Bob Dylan, whom Cohen would routinely label a master of his craft, a feeling reciprocated by Dylan, who said: “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines—they give a celestial character and melodic lift to every one of his songs.”
Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits and Roy Orbison can also attest to have the medal of honour that comes with Cohen’s respect of their work. And while he has often praised those artists in various ways — with covers, solemn handshakes or wild adulation — he has never mentioned them by name in a song, unlike one musician. It might, therefore, be considered that Cohen regarded Hank Williams as perhaps the greatest songwriter of all.
As part of Cohen’s great epic ‘‘Tower of Song’ as part of I’m Your Man he paid tribute to Williams, the iconic country singer who he found greatly inspiring. He sang, “I said to Hank Williams, ‘How lonely does it get?’/ Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet/ But I hear him coughing all night long/ Oh, a hundred floors above me/ In the Tower of Song.”
It could have been interpreted that Cohen suggested Williams was heavenly and the tower represented one’s passage through mortality. However, Cohen soon corrected that notion and laid bare just how much he loved the artist. “When I wrote about Hank Williams ‘a hundred floors above me in the tower of song,’ I’m not trying to present some kind of inverse modesty. I know where Hank Williams stands in the history of popular song… I feel myself a very minor writer,” he told BBC Radio One.
It’s hard to fathom Leonard Cohen as a “minor” source of any art. However, his humility in the face of greatness is what made him the accessible and personable figure of poetry he became. There can be no doubt that for aspiring writers, Cohen is certainly near the penthouse floor of their own personal towers.
