“More than many great singer-songwriters of his generation (Dylan excepted), Cohen makes no bones about reaching for the heavy literary hitters for inspiration. Lorca gave him the spooky, beautifully sinister Take This Waltz - although Cohen’s free translation of the Spanish arguably makes a more unsettlingly powerful poem than the original - “a forest of dried pigeons” (Lorca) becomes “there’s a tree where the doves go to die” (Cohen); “take this waltz with its closed mouth” (Lorca) turns to “take this waltz with the clamp on its jaw” (Cohen).”
“On the road, we take 10 brave men and women, forgo sleep and nutrition, disregard any and all safety precautions and barrel our way through the country playing rock and roll. It’s not a pretty job…. but at least it doesn’t pay well. We take three times as much gear as any smart traveling rock band, spend twice as much time getting ready for shows, and take nine times as long loading out. But what we lack in blazing speed and efficiency, we make up with sassy good looks and raging beauty.”
