Coen's a kind of cagy character, and he doesn't like to discuss his process. So you can never really find leonard coen being very transparent about what triggered a certain work of art. I think he wants his work to stand alone. He wants his poems to exist independently of whatever experience, you know, triggered them. And i respect that,. But as a journalist, of course, that's what i'm looking for: some kind of eto factual explanation or superfactual background to the that that is produced by this great poet and great singer.
In October 1973, an unhappy Leonard Cohen was listening to the radio on his Greek island home when he heard that Israel was at war. He headed to Tel Aviv, exchanging a personal and creative crisis for a national one. Absent a plan and even a guitar, Cohen wound up serenading Israeli soldiers at the front. Journalist Matti Friedman talks about his book Who by Fire with EconTalk host Russ Roberts and explains how a songwriter and a nation were transformed in the crucible of war.