Leonard Cohen has gone to the Tower of Song
- Thread starter WHF
- Start date
Ah, terrible news. I never got to see him, but have enjoyed many hours with his albums. True genius and wit. A great, great loss.
It's coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA
--Leonard Cohen, "Democracy."
It's coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA
--Leonard Cohen, "Democracy."
I'm not intimately familiar with Cohen's repertoire, but hearing this news yesterday brought to mind the use of a cover version of "Hallelujah" in The West Wing, in one of the more moving scenes of the series.
I had heard of Leonard Cohen before but what got me hooked was the movie "Pump up the Volume". After watching that movie I went out and bought "I'm Your Man", and that led to "Various Positions" which I was listening to on the walk home from work before I heard of his death.
This is the song that got me hooked on Cohen:
This is the song that got me hooked on Cohen:
Not normally my style, but I love this one.
Lyrically and melodically sublime (and I'm not trying to be poignant):
One of those songwriters with the rare gift of melody. Not all of them have it. But one thing that always puzzled me about him was (and with ALL due respect), the voice.
The first time I heard his original of Hallelujah, I thought, great chorus but the verse melody seemed barely there. Then I heard a cover for the first time in the Shrek movie and I thought, so that's what the verse melody is supposed to be. My respect for the song and it's writer climbed several notches. It took people with better ears than mine to hear the verse melody "around" that tortured (practically) basso profundo of Mr. Cohen's.
Suzanne, though, is an exception. The beauty of that melody cannot be hidden and comes out through Cohen's voice as sweetly as if Nat King Cole was the singer.
Will miss his songwriting genius. RIP.
The first time I heard his original of Hallelujah, I thought, great chorus but the verse melody seemed barely there. Then I heard a cover for the first time in the Shrek movie and I thought, so that's what the verse melody is supposed to be. My respect for the song and it's writer climbed several notches. It took people with better ears than mine to hear the verse melody "around" that tortured (practically) basso profundo of Mr. Cohen's.
Suzanne, though, is an exception. The beauty of that melody cannot be hidden and comes out through Cohen's voice as sweetly as if Nat King Cole was the singer.
Will miss his songwriting genius. RIP.
Love that one. But every time I hear any Cohen song on the radio I find myself saying "this is one of my favourites." It makes me a broken record but I can't help saying it. I'm also continually pointing out covers of his songs to anyone I'm with.
Here's another from the same album, that is one of my favorites:
When I first heard A Thousand Kisses Deep on one of the Sirius channels, I thought "what the hell is Gene Simmons doing?"
He really sounded like Gene to me there.
He really sounded like Gene to me there.
So Long Marianne, it's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
This used to be my favouritse Cohen song, and is from what I consider to be his best album.
I've always liked, amongst other things, its unhurried nature; it's a song that seems to know its own proper pace.
Here's a translation of the original Greek poem from the website of original author C P Cavafy, who was born in Alexandria.
I've always liked, amongst other things, its unhurried nature; it's a song that seems to know its own proper pace.
Here's a translation of the original Greek poem from the website of original author C P Cavafy, who was born in Alexandria.
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