I love this song! I think it's complex, ironic, funny and melancholic all at once, and fascinating!
My interpretation of The Tower itself refers to the place he is when he's singing and recording this song (and the rest of the album, I'm Your Man) ie the recording studio. The other lyrics make sense if you imagine he's singing about what he's actually doing at the time. His music recordings are how he 'pays his rent every day'.
The '27 angels, from the great beyond' could well refer to the 'angelic' female backing vocals heard on the track (and the whole album). For all I know, they weren't there at the same time as Leonard Cohen, but recorded either later or even earlier, and were therefore 'from the Great Beyond' in an ironic sense.
Or Hank Williams, who mysteriously died young (29), and had been wheezing and hiccuping the day of his death but who truly had a golden voice, and who often yodelled in his hits, coughing a 100 floors above (ie, in Heaven, perhaps with a sore throat after all that yodelling!) plays with the idea of the Tower as the entire edifice of the music biz and the artists who make it up.
Another layer of meaning is obviously LC thinking of his own mortality. He's getting on - he's got grey hair and has lots of aches and pains, he's thinking about a dead singer/songwriter, hearing angels, perhaps feels that this latest failed love affair might just be the death of him, and what will happen 'long after I'm gone'.
He obviously has some love interest going on at the time. It's LC, so it's not going so peachy! But he can say what he likes in his songs, therefore a woman can't 'kill' him - ie, stop him from expressing himself, in his music, as opposed to in the real world.
Similarly, this recording, this song, makes it inevitable that she'll hear from him 'long after I'm gone' - whenever she hears the recording and realises it's about her, perhaps even after he's dead and gone.
I like to imagine him in the studio, looking out of the window as he's working, and thinking about his latest love that's gone wrong, when he wrote and sung these lyrics. (He mentions doing this - looking from the window - twice in the song).
Looked at and interpreted from that perspective, it's an unusual and interesting attempt to give the song immediacy - he's actually singing about what's happening right then, directly to one other person, at the same time musing about his place in the music business and his legacy to the world (another commentator mentions his induction into the Hall of Fame - this alternative interpretation of the Tower as an edifice, as well as the studio - entirely possible that he intended both meanings - that's what clever lyricists do!
This evening is the first time I've truly listened to this song and I found myself listening to it over and over and over again. I totally agree with your interpretation of the song and yes - it is complex and, not only fascinating, but hauntingly beautiful as many of his songs are!
This evening is the first time I've truly listened to this song and I found myself listening to it over and over and over again. I totally agree with your interpretation of the song and yes - it is complex and, not only fascinating, but hauntingly beautiful as many of his songs are!
I love this song! I think it's complex, ironic, funny and melancholic all at once, and fascinating!
My interpretation of The Tower itself refers to the place he is when he's singing and recording this song (and the rest of the album, I'm Your Man) ie the recording studio. The other lyrics make sense if you imagine he's singing about what he's actually doing at the time. His music recordings are how he 'pays his rent every day'.
The '27 angels, from the great beyond' could well refer to the 'angelic' female backing vocals heard on the track (and the whole album). For all I know, they weren't there at the same time as Leonard Cohen, but recorded either later or even earlier, and were therefore 'from the Great Beyond' in an ironic sense.
Or Hank Williams, who mysteriously died young (29), and had been wheezing and hiccuping the day of his death but who truly had a golden voice, and who often yodelled in his hits, coughing a 100 floors above (ie, in Heaven, perhaps with a sore throat after all that yodelling!) plays with the idea of the Tower as the entire edifice of the music biz and the artists who make it up.
Another layer of meaning is obviously LC thinking of his own mortality. He's getting on - he's got grey hair and has lots of aches and pains, he's thinking about a dead singer/songwriter, hearing angels, perhaps feels that this latest failed love affair might just be the death of him, and what will happen 'long after I'm gone'.
He obviously has some love interest going on at the time. It's LC, so it's not going so peachy! But he can say what he likes in his songs, therefore a woman can't 'kill' him - ie, stop him from expressing himself, in his music, as opposed to in the real world.
Similarly, this recording, this song, makes it inevitable that she'll hear from him 'long after I'm gone' - whenever she hears the recording and realises it's about her, perhaps even after he's dead and gone.
I like to imagine him in the studio, looking out of the window as he's working, and thinking about his latest love that's gone wrong, when he wrote and sung these lyrics. (He mentions doing this - looking from the window - twice in the song).
Looked at and interpreted from that perspective, it's an unusual and interesting attempt to give the song immediacy - he's actually singing about what's happening right then, directly to one other person, at the same time musing about his place in the music business and his legacy to the world (another commentator mentions his induction into the Hall of Fame - this alternative interpretation of the Tower as an edifice, as well as the studio - entirely possible that he intended both meanings - that's what clever lyricists do!
It never ceases to tickle me.
This evening is the first time I've truly listened to this song and I found myself listening to it over and over and over again. I totally agree with your interpretation of the song and yes - it is complex and, not only fascinating, but hauntingly beautiful as many of his songs are!
This evening is the first time I've truly listened to this song and I found myself listening to it over and over and over again. I totally agree with your interpretation of the song and yes - it is complex and, not only fascinating, but hauntingly beautiful as many of his songs are!