RIP Leonard mate, an old friiend [video=youtube;oiAuXRK3Ogk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiAuXRK3Ogk[/video]
The death of Leonard Cohen has affected me in a surprisingly intense way this morning. I guess it is because it is because his music was the theme to my youth, to the time when the days were long and filled with so much hope for the future. I have not listened to his music as much for a long time, but the hole I feel is for the memories that have for him, and the memories I have for my youth. I saw him at Sheffield City Hall when I was in my early 20s, and his voice was just as bad in real life, but his lyrics were even more intense when sung live. His was the soundtrack to my youth and I will miss him and his Famous Blue Raincoat. RIP Leonard Cohen.
When famous people die, it is the loss of our youth, the times and places to which they take us back, that we mourn. 17, to a girl who taught me there was a hell of a lot more to life than I previously knew. And Leonard Cohen sang.
My loss of youth was when Bowie died. I was a teenager when he was Ziggy. Although his music was not to my taste RIP Leonard Cohen
Never saw him live but in about 1971, me and a mate went on a day trip (working men's club trip I think) to Blackpool. It peed it down and the wind was so strong it nearly blew you over, so we spent the day in the streets away from the sea front. We were too young to go in pubs so we spent a lot of time looking at guitars in music shops and listening to LPs in record shops. I listened to "Songs of Leonard Cohen" and the mood seemed to fit the day perfectly, so I bought it.
So many cover versions of his songs. So many others believing that what a good song needed was a better voice in order to do it justice, in order to take it to a new level. But taking the gravel out of the works had destroyed the meaning of the song's lyrics. And the level that they took the song to had destroyed its meaning and its relevance. And the song had become just another song, just another plastic wrapped commodity, a meaningless five minutes of mush. It was Cohen's voice, his emotions, his problems that gave those songs the depth and the meaning. His death reminds me of my own mortality. It is very depressing. Much more depressing than his songs ever were.
Me and a few mates worked at Butlins, Filey in the summer of 1973 and they had only one record on the PA system (various artists) with only one decent track on it "Life on Mars". They played it over and over and you spent the day waiting for that one to come round. Can't remember any of the other songs on it except Dr Hook "Sylvia's Mother" and The Carpenters "Calling Occupants", mainly because I hated them the most....
Incredible to believe that he only released an album a few weeks ago, at the age of 82. I was introduced to him in the late 60s and it was like changing up a gear from the typical 1960s pop records that were around at that time. Suddenly there were words to listen to, intense poetry sung from the heart. So Long Marianne is one of his best and his former lover of that name also passed away recently. He wrote to her just before she died in a kind of "oh well, it's time for us both to go soon" tone, and how right he was. Yet another name from my lifetime erased. The world is getting narrower......
Probably the best lyricist ever. Anyone who can write a tune and pen a verse like the following is a true genius: Everybody knows that you love me baby Everybody knows that you really do Everybody knows that you've been faithful Ah, give or take a night or two Everybody knows you've been discreet But there were so many people you just had to meet Without your clothes And everybody knows Absolutely wonderful. Another one gone then........
Sorry, but mentions of middle of the roaders like The Carpenters have no place in a thread about Canada's finest singer songwriter
Giving me head, in an unmade bed, While a limousine waits in the street... As much as I love Neil Young, there's only Leonard, Lennon and Townes Van Zandt who come anywhere close to Dylan in that era. And Ray Davies, but he's out there on his own, somewhere....
RIP indeed and a sad loss to the world he wrote some absolute classics Here is my contibution - first heard this one in a Bar in Kaosiung Taiwan . They used to play the whole album regularly -and I spent a lot of time there in the 90's. Actually had to buy the album once I stopped going there as I liked it so much [video=youtube_share;D97OxHZzBeQ]https://youtu.be/D97OxHZzBeQ[/video]