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Leonard Cohen

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New member
I've known who he is for years, but never really bothered to listen to his music.

Anyway, I downloaded some of his new stuff tonight and I really like it. It's strange, as my usual taste in music leans more towards hip hop and hard rock.

DMX, Metallica, and...Leonard Cohen(?). :)

Anyone listen to this guy?
 
Great music. Also check out "tower of song" it was a tribute album to cohen has some really good covers on int.
 
I've got "In my Secret Life" on repeat. Lenoard is one mellow dude. :)

smalls, do you have his new album? I think it's called "Ten New Songs" or something....

Lemmie figure out which albums of his I want, and I'll get back to you with a burn list. :)

And now I'm off to bed.
 
k.. i have i'm your man, the best of... and the future (that one's on tape and not with me here).

i'm going to listen to the best of for bed.. soothing
 
Jeff Buckley has a version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" that is TOO beautiful. You hear it once and it stays with you.

Smalls, do you know it? It's really gentle-sounding. Gorgeous lyrics. Sooo beautiful.

Also, there was this movie called _Exotica_ about a strip club. The main stripper's music was "Everybody Knows" off of _I'm Your Man_. SEXY song!!
 
everybody knows is a WICKED song. that's why i bought i'm your man.

when i went to the chelsea hotel i freaked out...

"i remember you well i the chelsea hotel... you were talking so brave and so sweet... giving me head on the unmade bed... while the limousines wait in the street"

i don't know hallelujah though.. :(

i love singing the french part to "the partisan"

"un vieux homme dans un grenier, pour la nuit nous a cache, les allemands l'ont prisent il est mort sans suprise"

not pleasant lyrics but i love the tune.
 
smallmovesal said:


i don't know hallelujah though.. :(


It's so lovely! Get the Jeff Buckley cover version! It's on at least 2 of his CD's (one studio, one live).

I don't speak French (only foreign language is my grandparents' Yiddish:

"I'm gonna plotz--oy vey, you make me meshugene, kiss my tookis, this Godiva chawklit is to die faw, oy vey...."

so what does that lyric that you quoted mean?
 
Leonard

Why am I NOT surprised to see 4 romantic souls talking about Leonard on these boards? Actually I was beginnning to think that the boards were full of philistines!

I have just about all of Leonard's stuff - including his poetry - his life is very interesting as is his philosophy - what a pity that MTV will never never push QUALITY. To me Leonard is the greatest American songwriter alive.

Last Year's Man and Famous Blue Raincoat are two of the greatest compositions ever written. At the moment "Various Positions" never seems to leave my cd player for long. I promise everyone here that if they go out and buy Nick Cave's "Boatmans Call" or "No more shall we part" they will NOT be dissappointed although the latter is a little bit harder to access.
 
Soothing Cohen!?

I can't believe that anyone would think that Cohen's lyrics are soothing - so much of his stuff is about the naked emotional violence of relationships and about the selfish nature of people.
He once said "I believe that everything a man does in his lifetime , he does for love".
 
Count me in. I think I have everything he's recorded and I often use his music in my work. Geez, I was in Starbucks yesterday writing and they were playing "Suzanne."

I agree with Mandinka. Cohen's lyrics are disturbing but the cool thing is the "counterpoint" of his mellow voice with his lyrics' content.
 
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I used to play "Closing time" by Leo Cohen at the end of the night in Clubs. The guy is very cool he used to live near of my house, now he moved I think.
 
ok buksoon...

the translation (from my poor french skills)

an old man in the attic
for the night have us masked (edited to say i think it's likely hidden or something)
the germans have snuffed it out
he died without surprise

if i did a bad translation... someone please fix it.
 
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Here's another Leonard Cohen fan, seen him in concert once (a long time ago).
Mandinka I thought he was a Canadian Jew, not American !.
I'm not saying your wrong, it's just something which is wrote on the back of an old LP I have.
Regards

Bouncer
 
lyrics to "Hallelujah"

Now this is off a Jeff Buckley website, NOT a Leonard Cohen one. It think Buckley alters the words to fit in a "shout-out" to Cohen in the second stanza?? That's not in the original, is it?

Anyway, it's gorgeous:

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrough ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Well, maybe I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
I used to live with Leonard before I knew ya
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
But love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath you drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

And maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
Well it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
 
smallmovesal said:
he has such a beautiful way with words

I don't imagine anyone on this board will actually those read those lyrics except for you, Smalls. (Wait, maybe a few of my Elite friends....?)

But their loss, because it's amazing. And Buckley's voice is the most delicate, lilting thing. So it's ... AARGGH! Beyond words.
 
i'm going to d/l that song

Chelsea Hotel #2

I remember you
well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.



Who By Fire

And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?


and one of my faves....



Famous Blue Raincoat


It's four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.
I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane's awake --

She sends her regards.

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear --

Sincerely, L. Cohen
 
I remember he had a couple songs on the NBK soundtrack. And his music was used on The West Wing last season.

I downloaded some more of his stuff. Damn, this guy is a psycho! Some of the shit he sings about is crazy. :) Great music though....it's almost similar to gangsta' rap in terms of lyrical power.

I wouldn't mind hearing some of his spoken work stuff.
 
Apologia

Bouncer text messaged me to stick my blunder to me. So I tried to bluff with "America is a continent isn't it?" to which he nobly repsonded "Blow it out yer ass!" ..... what would Leonard say?

To remedy this I now provide you with the following tidbits:

Adam Cohen (Leonard's son) who also has a contract with Sony spent a night together with a young Norwegian lady on the Greek island of Hydra - just like his father had done in the fifties who Leonard went on to immortalise in "So Long, Marianne" - he found out shortly afterwards that she was Marianne's daughter.

Upon the publication of "Beautiful Losers" in 1966, the Boston Globe declared, "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen." This will be especially resonant with Bouncer since he will be aware that Joyce's first novel "Portrait of the Artist" is essentially the blueprint for Cohen's "The favourite Game" , I should know (better) since I've read both of them which makes my gaffe even worse.

Of particular interest to board members is "Death of a Ladies Man" - one of the best of Cohen's career. Why? because the title track might well be the theme tune for B.I.T.C.H.S. It started as a collaboration with the very brilliant Phil Spector (who provides vocals!), but ended with Cohen being excluded from the final stages of recording. "It was a catastrophe," he remembers. "Those are all scratch vocals, and Phil mixed it in secret under armed guard. I had to decide whether I was going to hire my own private army and fight it out on Sunset Boulevard, or let it go. I let it go."

...as edited from http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/
 
Mandinka- You weren't refering to me as a romantic were you? LOL

Smalls- The french translation is right on

Buksoon/Small- Thanks for posting the lyrics I really like those songs.


Cheers,
Scotsman
 
Good lord... i've been listening to Leonard for years now. cool to see some othert people appreciate him like i do.


Rich
 
Scotsman

Let's see here....
symptoms -
1. Celt who couldn't give a fuck if he's Irish or Scots (don't tell Bouncer but I think you guys are fuckin great - he's actually a closet Celtic supporter!).
2. Listens to LC.

Pretty open and shut I thought.
 
bump for the leonard cohen fans! :)

and mandinka... that site you used was where i got the lyrics.

my fave thing was when he won a music award in canada and he said, "only in canada would i be given best male vocalist".

:)
 
Re: Scotsman

Mandinka said:
Let's see here....
symptoms -
1. Celt who couldn't give a fuck if he's Irish or Scots (don't tell Bouncer but I think you guys are fuckin great - he's actually a closet Celtic supporter!).
2. Listens to LC.

Pretty open and shut I thought.

Ok you got me. Yeah I do think of myself as a celt instead of Scots or Irish. Hope Bouncer doesn't take offense.
 
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