I'd always liked Leonard as a semi-heritage act but the two shows I caught on his comeback tour were among the best I've ever seen. He's Mrs Benjm's favourite artist ever. I don't know whether to wake her and tell her or wait until morning.
I saw him in Bratislaava in 2009, and it was the best show I've ever seen and the best I will ever see. He came back the following year, but I opted out of that so as not to dilute the memories. The reception the first concert had got meant they doubled the ticket-prices as well.
To try to name best songs is to do many other songs an injustice. I do love Night Comes On for the poetry (though its lyrics would appear to be pro-Israel), and Dress Rehearsal Rag, a candidate for darkest popular song ever written.
I saw him at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1985. I went only because of a girl; even though I liked the songs of his that I knew, I expected to be bored. It turned out to be one of the best gigs I've seen. Cohen had an ability to communicate with a crowd of a couple of thousands as if we were sitting in a small café.
Beyond 'Hallelujah' (which, overplayedness aside, is obviously magnificent) I wasn't aware of knowing any of his songs, but I was always aware of his influence, and I've just had the pleasure of spending the last couple of hours listening to a memorial playlist on Spotify. I'm already wishing I'd got to know him sooner.
Also had the surprising revelation that 'Frijolero' by Mexican rock band Molotov is essentially to the tune of 'Dance Me To The End Of Love'.
Bought his latest album earlier in the week - he's always been in the background, but I was working on a market last week and the PA played "You Want It Darker" and I just stopped and listened for four minutes, before clicking on iTunes to buy. That man wrote the purest poetry.
Ugh. I now have to try and guess when my mum will find out and phone her shortly afterwards, I think Bob Dylan is the only musician she loves more than LC.
Parochial concerns aside, he was a great songwriter and recording artist. 'Dress Rehearsal Rag' is probably my favourite.
I'm about 95% sure I spent a couple of hours speaking to him on a flight a few years ago. As in, I talked to this very polite, old musician who sat next to me on the plane (mostly about decent record shops in Manhattan), but it wasn't until we getting off and his PA and publicity people came up I realised that it was someone famous. And that he looked just Leonard Cohen.
But it was too late to ask him then, of course. So, annoyingly, I can't say for certain, but I just really hope it was the great man.
I first listened to him in 1990. I was staying at a friend's brother's flat in Paris and stayed in while they went to dinner at a friend's. He had tons of LC tapes, so I popped one in. I'm Your Man was the first thing I bought. What a cool guy all around. I still remember watching PET's funeral; Leonard Cohen...Jimmy Carter...Fidel Castro...Liona Boyd all sitting within arm's reach of each other.
Years ago I came across this wonderful photo of LC and PET deep in conversation as they emerged from a restaurant in — I think — Montréal. It must have been taken around 1967 at the height of Trudeaumania. They were surrounded by young women who kept their distance, but even in a picture you practically smell the pheromones. Both men appeared utterly oblivious. Man was I envious.
This country is still quite small. When a major artist dies everybody knows, everybody grieves.
Recollections, memorials, anecdotes filled the weekend newspapers. Yesterday CBC radio devoted it’s morning to requests for Cohen songs and poems. It’s been a moving, necessary and cathartic couple of days. It hammered cracks in the wall to wall Trump coverage to provide a shining example of a particular life honestly lived. As several people have said, it also reminded us that art is where we go in times of dismay, fear and anger. Everyone has at least one LC song to soothe their spirit, for me Democracy, The Future, and Dance Me To The End of Love have been on constant shuffle in my head. They all fit so well, it’s almost as if he planned to leave us this week, because he knew we’d need these exact songs right now.
So long Leonard. Dance me through the panic ‘til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
And dance me to the end of love
Please dance me to the end of love
Nick Broomfield's 'Marianne and Leonard' is a very raw and personal film on Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen. Cohen comes across as very empathetic, quite feminine (which women loved) but also hedonistic to the point where it caused a lot of damage to people he loved. There aren't many artists who generated light, love and darkness in equal measure but I think he's one.
Musically his melodies seem quite similar (almost every song in the doc up to the mid-70s sounded like 'Suzanne' to me) but the lyrics are mesmerizing and he was perhaps a poet who happened to become a singer because those were the times.
Marianne seems to have been damaged by her relationship with him, and her son certainly was. Theae don't cancel his greatness as a writer.
Beautiful Losers was pretty much a must read in the late 60s. It might have been the first time I came across him, but I knew bunch of Canadians my age which probably had something to do with it too.
I saw the Marianne doc listed on Prime but forgot about it until Satchmo posted above. I watched it late last week and enjoyed it. I agree that some of his songs from the earlier days sound a lot a like. For me, the songs I like best do seem to be a bit different in terms of melody. His vocal range is limited, which is fine, so the voice isn't going to change. But some level of change with the melody helps.
What I noticed is how you can tell it's a Cohen song even when the first time you hear it, it's as a cover, as in the case of Roberta Flack performing 'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye' above.
I loved Leonard’s music for 30 years or so. So many great, great songs. I was Extremely fortunate enough to see him live a couple of times. His Humble demeanor and His rapport with his audience was fantastic. A great poet and not afraid to take the mick out of himself, eg, Chelsea Hotel, “you told me again, you preferred handsome me, but for me you would make an exception” and Tower of Song “I was born like this, I had no choice,I was born with the gift of a golden voice” and from the same song “I ache in the places where I use to play”.
so many to choose from but my favourite 5 Leonard songs would probably be If It Be Your Will, So Long Marianne, Take This Waltz, Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, The Traitor.
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