The Goal (Leonard Cohen)

Quick things before we get into the thick of it all, thank-you if you’ve listened or shared “summer of the motorcycle”. We put out a demo called “everything between” which was the first song I wrote when I started this project. Secondly I’ve started demoing & writing for the next release which I might share here at a later date.

Below is an essay on regrets and this little weird song called The Goal.

Thank-you for listening!

Links:
Buy / Listen to Summer of the Motorcycle on bandcamp
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We’re stuck in summer Toronto traffic when I pointed out the beautiful apartments on King St West to my partner Hannah. “The unit’s in there are really beautiful.”

“I know, Dad almost invested in one of those. It’s one of his biggest regrets.”

I don’t think I have any regrets, perhaps none that involve the purchasing of apartment buildings. Most of mine are small things, like I wish I picked up on someone’s interest in me sooner, or maybe I wish I had applied and taken the thought of Art School seriously. All of my regrets paled in comparison.

Maybe I’m lying to myself. There is perhaps one regret.

In college I rented out a USB microphone and one evening or afternoon inspired by La Disputes amazing EP series “Here, Here” I recorded a song called “The Goal”. It started me with recording pages turning for 2 minutes or so. I uses an old Casio to play a very basic kick drum and then added some chords. I listened back on the headphones and felt like the song needed something, some lyrics. I scoured the shelf’s in my room and came across a book of Leonard Cohen poetry, the poem at hand was called the goal. It resonated enough that I spoke it on top of the music, and put it out on Soundcloud.

The song collected dust on a hard drive for a couple of years. Getting a play here and there.

Around that time, 2013, Cohen was playing Hamilton. I didn’t end up going because I was stressed out about money and thought I was doing the adult thing of saying “no, he’ll be back.” That’s a bold gamble on a man who was rounding out his 70’s.

He passed away 3 years later in November. It stung knowing I won’t be able to hear his music live. I’m sure it would have been a transformative experience. Or at the very least a comforting memory.

Later that month I saw Conor Oberst who played “Passing Through” the song that Cohen played on his album Leonard Cohen: Live Songs.

Somewhere in 2019, I was on the bus looking at instagram stories when someone posted a story with a mysterious album cover that said “thanks for you the dance” and the song title underneath called “The Goal”. The poem I had originally made a song for eventually got its own official Leonard Cohen release, a few years after his death. And even though I did not get to see him live, in some way my constellation prize is I can officially say my version pre-dates his.