The terrifying Leonard Cohen song that delves into “mystical fascism”
Leonard Cohen is well-known for his lyrical and poetic prowess. The Canadian singer-songwriter grappled with almost every aspect of life through his words. His music was often dominated by heavy themes such as religion, politics, and love, accompanied by the folk sound that defined the 1960s.
One of Cohen’s heaviest lyrical moments, however, came in 1987 with ‘First We Take Manhattan’. In the song, Cohen’s words take on the mindset of an extremist. Having tried to change the system from within, the song’s protagonist appears to have resorted to terror, guided by a birthmark, the heavens, and “the beauty of our weapons”.
It’s a menacing track that Cohen previously suggested delves into “mystical fascism”. During a 1993 interview with Song Talk, he stated: “I felt for sometime that the motivating energy, or the captivating energy, or the engrossing energy available to us today is the energy coming from the extremes. That’s why we have Malcolm X. And somehow it’s only these extremist positions that can compel our attention.”
Cohen was considering his own viewpoint on these extremist positions and found himself having “to resist these extremist positions when I find myself drifting into a mystical fascism in regards to myself”.
He explained the track further in a backstage interview in the late 1980s via Pitchfork, bluntly stating: “It is a terrorist song. I think it’s a response to terrorism. There’s something about terrorism that I’ve always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don’t like it when it’s manifested on the physical plane – I don’t really enjoy the terrorist activities.”
On ‘First We Take Manhattan’, Cohen lent so far into that extremist mindset that he scared producer Roscoe Beck. As he recalled during an interview with Uncut, when Beck first heard the song, he was taken aback by Cohen’s words: “They scared me. The singer’s character seemed mentally unstable, and I wondered what the song was about. Leonard says it’s about someone who’s an outsider, demented and menacing. I had an eerie feeling about it.”
In its lyrics and tone, there certainly is a menacing and eerie quality to ‘First We Take Manhattan’. Over synth-driven, sinister soundscapes and a chorus of female backing vocals, Cohen’s dark voice declares, “Ah, you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win, you know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline”.
It’s a stark contrast from some of Cohen’s biggest hits – the calming, endlessly covered ‘Suzanne’ and the spiritual ‘Hallelujah’. ‘First We Take Manhattan’ pushed his interest in politics and devotion to the extreme, wading into darker, murkier territory.
