Pitchfork has reported that new animated video of the Leonard Cohen song “Leaving the Table” premiered at last night’s Polaris Music Prize Gala. The video depicts an animated version of the late Cohen dancing across the Montreal skyline along with a series of images and clips from the singer’s legendary career. Musically speaking, “Leaving the Table,” from Cohen’s final release You Want It Darker is a moody and stripped down ballad, driven by a series of mournful country-style guitar figures and a gravely set of vocals from Cohen.
Lyrically the song seems to foreshadow the singer’s death a few months after its release, relying on a set of lines that speak about morality in no uncertain terms, with the final series of lines proving to be particularly evocative: “I don’t need a reason, For what I became, I’ve got these excuses; They’re tired and lame, I don’t need a pardon, There’s no one left to blame, I’m leaving the table, I’m out of the game.”
Since his tragic passing last November, series of memorials and tributes have come out from the entire music community. A new live album, Sincerely, L. Cohen: A Live Celebration of Leonard Cohen is set to be released on what would have been his 83rd birthday on September 21st which consists of recordings from a tribute concert from earlier this year. A large-scale tribute concert has been announced in Montreal this November. Artists such as Sting, Lana Del Rey, Philip Glass, Feist, Elvis Costello, Damien Rice, the Lumineers’, and k.d. lang will perform at the event which will take place at the Bell Centre. The concert is being organized and curated by the singer’s son, Adam Cohen, who felt it necessary to have a memorial concert for his late father in Montreal, a city that was an inspiration for many of Cohen’s most famous songs and poems.
Also, an art exhibit, entitled A Crack in Everything will run from November 9, 2017, to April 9, 2018, in Montreal. An exclusive cover version of a Cohen song, recorded by the National and Sufjan Stevens along with a series of unannounced guest artists.
Over the course of his 50+ year career as a poet, singer, and composer, Leonard Cohen established himself as one of the most iconic figures in music history, with the singer being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
You can watch the video for “Leaving the Table” in the player below.
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