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I Stepped Into an Avalanche
Music, Leonard Cohen, and Me
Sometime during the night, my daughter posted this snippet of Stevie Nicks’ song “Avalanche:”
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
Now I’m getting older, too.”
Landslide, Stevie Nicks
My ADD-addled mind has always associated music with events in my life, and this morning was no different. After all, a landslide isn’t much different from an avalanche; indeed, an avalanche is a kind of landslide, isn’t it?
“Well, I stepped into an avalanche,
It covered up my soul;
When I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
You must learn, learn to serve me well.”
Avalanche, Leonard Cohen
San Antonio, Texas. 1967
Noel Harrison on the transistor radio. (Yes, I really am that old.) He’s singing about a girl named Susanne. First chance I got I went out and bought the 45. I played it over and over again, promising myself that if I ever had a daughter I would name her Susanne.
