SONG OF THE DAY

“Dance Me To The End Of Love” by Leonard Cohen (Various Positions, Columbia/ Passport Records, 1984). Written by Leonard Cohen.

WHERE I HEARD IT

During an episode in season 6 of Criminal Minds.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– Since 1984, the song has since been recorded by various artists, and has been described as “trembling on the brink of becoming a standard”.

– Although structured as a love song, the song was in fact inspired by the Holocaust. In an interview, Cohen said of the song: “ ‘Dance Me to the End Of Love’ … it’s curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that’s why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.”

– In 1996, Welcome Books released a book called Dance Me to the End of Love, as part of its “Art & Poetry” series; the book featured the lyrics of the song alongside paintings by Henri Matisse.

– A cover of “Dance Me to the End of Love” appears on Peyroux’s second solo album, Careless Love. It was released as the second single for the album and has been a part of her concert set-list since then.

– Kate Gibson recorded the song mostly in English but partly in French for the soundtrack to the 1995 movie Strange Days.

– The Dresden Dolls have performed the song live

– Various Positions, the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, was released in December 1984 (and February 1985).

– It marked not only Cohen’s turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also – after her work on harmonies and background vocals on the previous Recent Songs (1979) – an even greater contribution from Jennifer Warnes, who is credited equally to Cohen as vocalist on all of the tracks.

– After the abandoned 1975 project Songs for Rebecca Cohen again joined forces with producer John Lissauer. However, Cohen’s label Columbia Records refused to release Various Positions in the United States. Walter Yetnikoff, president of the company, called him to his office in New York and said, “Look, Leonard; we know you’re great, but we don’t know if you’re any good”. It was subsequently picked up by the independent label Passport Records. The album was finally included in the catalogue in 1990 when Columbia released the Cohen discography on compact disc.

– A remastered CD was issued in 1995.

– Allmusic calls “Dance Me To The End Of Love” “Serge Gainsbourg-esque” in their review of the album, and it remains one of Cohen’s signature songs.

– Leonard Cohen is credited in the liner notes for the photography of the album cover (it’s a Polaroid shot).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

This video is really haunting, with its direct references to the holocaust and Japanese internment camps in particular.