When Leonard Cohen compared his music to Tom Waits’: “So much better than mine”
Leonard Cohen was a poet before he was a songwriter, and as a result, every track he ever released is laced with lyrics that he has pondered over time and time again. Buried within the spaces of his songs are the very foundations of the human psyche, as Cohen was capable of putting together songs that touched upon every variation of emotion that people are capable of.
Few songwriters could rival Cohen, as his lyricism often speaks for itself. When you read some of his poems and really submerge yourself in his lyrics, you begin to understand how complex he was as a songwriter and have respect for the undying love that he put into his craft.
Often, his obsession with his work became unhealthy. For instance, when Cohen lived on the Greek Island of Hydra, he was working relentlessly and taking copious amounts of LSD. Sylvie Simmons once recalled how Cohen had spent his days and the state he ended up in. “Leonard sat in his room in his house on the hill in Hydra, writing furiously,” she said, “He was driven by an overpowering sense of urgency. He had the feeling, he said, of time running out.” Cohen ended up in the hospital after finishing his work on Beautiful Losers.
This wasn’t the only time he was obsessed with his work. On his album Popular Problems, Cohen finally released the song ‘Born In Chains’, which he had been working on for four years prior. Despite it only making its live debut in 2010, Cohen admitted, “That’s been kicking around for 40 years.”
When discussing the song and why it took him so long to finish writing it, Cohen admitted that his constantly shifting opinions on religion and philosophy were a big part of it. “I’ve rewritten the lyric many times to accommodate the changes in my theological position,” he said, “Which is very insecure.”
Because of his devotion to his craft, very few people are considered better songwriters than Cohen. However, Cohen was always very humble and was happy to put other writers on a pedestal ahead of himself. One of these artists, who he said was an immeasurable talent and better at writing songs than him, was Tom Waits.
There are some similarities between Waits and Cohen. Waits emerged in the ‘70s after Cohen had already established himself as a big name in the world of songwriting. They both had distinctive assets, such as their unique voices and exceptional lyrical ability. Subsequently, they were often paired against one another, but this didn’t result in a rivalry. Instead, both of them were fans of one another, so much so that Cohen once wrote a poem called ‘Dream Brighton’ in admiration of Waits.
“Tom Waits singing—I hear him / I’m in a theatre—I’ve given a show to a large audience / My show went well—I can’t see him—I’m in my dressing room / But I can hear him,” he wrote, “His music begin—it is so beautiful and original and sophisticated—so much better than mine—some mélange of harshness and sweetness.”
