A Triangle Forgotten: The iconic song Leonard Cohen was “never satisfied” with
Every song written in English is comprised of the exact same words and the same 26 letters. From that, the range of emotions that have been explored within lyrics is enough to flood the hallways of all the world’s museums and galleries. All of human existence, the good and bad parts of it, are encompassed on the pages that musicians have written on.
If you were to sift through those pages in order to work out who had the most significant impact on music through just their words alone, a few names would be highlighted and left to one side. Among them would be the likes of Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar, Patti Smith and, of course, Leonard Cohen. Equal to a poet and songwriter, Cohen has lyrics that have inspired tattoos, wedding vows, and goodbye letters for decades now.
Though all great lyricists have an element of natural talent that plays a part in their success, it wasn’t just an inert attachment with his own lexicon that helped Cohen, but he was also relentless in his pursuit of the right words. He would famously ponder over songs for days, weeks and months, creating first, second and hundredth drafts until he was happy with the finished product. But there was one song with which, despite its popularity, he has never been able to make peace.
The dynamic nature of Cohen’s lyrics and the subsequent connection he establishes with them play a big part in his affinity for poetry. As such, if he cannot feel connected to what he has written, he can never truly be satisfied with it. This happened with the track ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, as he lost the song’s initial muse, very much thumbing it in for a significant portion, losing his connection with the track as a result.
“The problem with that song is that I’ve forgotten the actual triangle,” he said in a BBC Radio interview, “Of course, I always felt that there was an invisible male seducing the woman I was with, now, whether this one was incarnate or merely imaginary, I don’t remember.”
Cohen isn’t someone who makes up a narrative. All his songs, those of love and hate and those in which he stares down on his mortality, come from an authentic place. The result is their beauty. As such, Cohen wasn’t happy with the fact that he was making up emotions after the initial inspiration for this track slipped him.
“It was a song I’ve never been satisfied with,” he said, “It’s not that I’ve resisted an impressionistic approach to songwriting, but I’ve never felt that this one, that I really nailed the lyric.”
‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ continues to be a fan favourite, so it’s interesting to hear that the song is one Cohen never got on board with. It embodies the songwriter’s attitude, as he had a bigger loyalty towards the words he was writing than he did to the success of a song, and that’s what truly makes him one of the greats.
