Davey the Fat Boy wrote:Charlie O. wrote:the masked man wrote:Yet I was a little disturbed when I found that the line about 'the night you planned to go clear' wasn't the poetic image of general escape I imagined but a reference to to Scientology, that dismal fake religion. I felt that devalued the song, that Cohen wanted to give credence to this nonsense.
I hear it as a snarky reference. Even if one buys into Scientology, how does one "plan" to Go Clear on a particular night? It's ridiculous - it's like planning on attaining a state of grace.
I have no idea what Cohen was thinking, but you have to imagine that the poetic quality of those words meant as much to him as their actual mundane meaning.
I could even imaging the whole song being born from the desire to ask “did you ever go clear” in a lyric.
Lennie did dabble in dianetics, as it used to be called, in his early, Montreal years.