The Leonard Cohen song that was “the pinnacle of his deep understanding”
Leonard Cohen stands among the most revered lyricists, with his genius initially expressed through poetry and novels before branching into music during the late 1960s. Merging philosophical depth with emotional resonance, Cohen’s lyrical tapestry, set against gentle folk melodies, solidified his status as an adored singer-songwriter of his time.
His words traversed profound themes – love, spirituality, and grief – often tinged with darkness yet perpetually sincere and eloquent. Cohen’s lyrical mastery sparked countless interpretations and covers by artists across generations. Jeff Buckley notably rejuvenated ‘Hallelujah’, while Nina Simone, Julia Jacklin, and Nick Cave are also among those who’ve reimagined Cohen’s timeless works.
During the 1990s, Cohen was dating actor and film producer Rebecca de Mornay. “When I met Rebecca [De Mornay],” Leonard Cohen said in 1998, “All kinds of thoughts came into my mind, as how could they not when faced with a woman of such beauty?”
Cohen and De Mornay crossed paths in approximately 1987 and were subsequently spotted together at multiple Hollywood events by 1992. During this period, De Mornay’s prominence grew while Cohen experienced a resurgence in critical acclaim and public recognition. Their relationship even led to an engagement at one point.
When writing for his ninth studio album, The Future, Cohen encountered something akin to writer’s block with the track that would eventually become known as ‘Anthem’. According to De Mornay, he had been toying with the song for a couple of years before she helped him to produce the track. She recalled: “Leonard was at my house, and I had a synthesizer. He was off in a room, playing a song that I’d heard him play over and over for a couple of years, that he just wasn’t sure what to do with.”
Adding: “I went in and said, ‘That’s it! Exactly like that!’ I think he’d moved the lyrics around, because they’d never had that effect on me before. I said, ‘It’s universal, I’m telling you, like ‘Silent Night’, or ‘Auld Lang Syne’, so why don’t we bring in a gospel choir?’ And he turned and looked at me very strangely. And he said, ‘I want you to produce this song.”
This was notably featured on the soundtrack of Oliver Stone’s 1994 movie, Natural Born Killers, alongside two other tracks by Cohen: ‘Waiting for the Miracle’ and ‘The Future’. Although Cohen often provided a density to his songs that warranted multiple interpretations, De Mornay once explained her take: “To me, ‘Anthem’ was the pinnacle of his deep understanding of human defeat,” she said. “I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd, while the killers say their prayers out loud… And they’ve summoned up a thundercloud, and they’re going to hear from me.”
She added: “That ‘I’ – that’s the soul of Leonard Cohen. He doesn’t suffer fools. He’s deeply kind and generous-spirited, but he’s not a sweet little monk.”
