In 1973, Leonard Cohen announced he was done with music for good. The same year, in October, war broke out in Israel.
The Yom Kippur War would become the bloodiest in Israel’s young history—and Cohen was there to witness it. As the war broke out, he left his home on the Greek island of Hydra to fly into the warzone.
Leonard Cohen never said much about why he went to the front. What we know is that in the months that followed, he would write “Who By Fire.” Five decades later, on Spotify and in synagogue, you can still hear the echoes of this trip.
So what was it that happened in the desert in October of 1973 between this depressed musician and these too young soldiers going off to battle? How did it remake Leonard Cohen? How did it transform those who heard him play? And how did the war transform Israel itself?
Just listened to this episode, it choked me up more than once.
What a beautiful story!
As a big Cohen fan, I'm grateful for this snapshot into his life (and all the musical interjections). And the insight into the psyche—then and now—of the people of Israel was illuminating.
I just wanted to let you know that I loved this episode. It was just a perfect balance of story, art, history and questions about who we are as a people and how we cannot ever get to solutions as long as we only live in myth. But at the same time the beauty of the myth is the hope that is embedded in it, so the middle way is how do we hope for the ideal and deal with the reality at the same time in a way that each informs the other. Which I guess is a life question in general. Amazing story, thanks for bringing it.