OT: RIP Leonard Cohen

[fiamme red]

I heard that he was very sick, but it was still a shock to me to learn that he's now gone. :(

Final interview: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/leonard-cohen-a-final-interview.

[mbrtool]

I am not able to understand his lyrics, but some of his songs gave me an emotional tug.
Ray

[mbrtool]

sorry for the posting a duplicate; please delete
thanks

[cadence90]

.

[ojingoh]

What a sublime talent.

Read that New Yorker piece a few months ago, knew it wouldn't be long, but here we are.

[cadence90]

One of the greatest. I love his music.

I also must have watched "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" a hundred times over the years, because of the soundtrack.

:(

[Scuzzer]

I'm a huge John Cale fan and his covers of Cohen's songs are some of my favorites of his. RIP Mr. Cohen, you wrote some mighty fine tunes.

[fiamme red]

"Democracy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y.

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

:help:

[goonster]

Go away, 2016. :(

I love this story (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard?all=1) of Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight Festival.

"Cohen, Johnston thought, was nowhere near as tough as Kristofferson, not as determined as Baez, not as well-respected as Collins, and if the three of them were pelted with bottles and booed off stage, what chance did Cohen have? He was 36, nearly a decade older than most of the other performers. With a black T-shirt and a safari jacket, unshaved and unkempt, he looked more like Jim Morrison’s accountant than his peer. He took the stage. It was 2:00 in the morning. His face was blank."

[oliver1850]

I have the 3 LP Isle of Wight album. Will have to dig it out and give the Cohen side a listen - it's been years since I played it.

[moose8]

I just finished listening to his latest album when I saw this. He's an amazing artist. I saw him live and he was so joyful it was wonderful.

[bigman]

Had the pleasure of seeing him at the Barclays in Brooklyn a couple of years ago. He was an amazing performer and was in great shape, he kept on dropping to his knees so often I thought my legs were going to cramp.
Big loss.

[jimcav]

wonder if that inspired the forest gump scene where his story quiets the crowd
Go away, 2016. :(

I love this story (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard?all=1) of Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight Festival.

"Cohen, Johnston thought, was nowhere near as tough as Kristofferson, not as determined as Baez, not as well-respected as Collins, and if the three of them were pelted with bottles and booed off stage, what chance did Cohen have? He was 36, nearly a decade older than most of the other performers. With a black T-shirt and a safari jacket, unshaved and unkempt, he looked more like Jim Morrison’s accountant than his peer. He took the stage. It was 2:00 in the morning. His face was blank."

[ojingoh]

Go away, 2016. :(

I love this story (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard?all=1) of Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight Festival.

"Cohen, Johnston thought, was nowhere near as tough as Kristofferson, not as determined as Baez, not as well-respected as Collins, and if the three of them were pelted with bottles and booed off stage, what chance did Cohen have? He was 36, nearly a decade older than most of the other performers. With a black T-shirt and a safari jacket, unshaved and unkempt, he looked more like Jim Morrison’s accountant than his peer. He took the stage. It was 2:00 in the morning. His face was blank."

Rad, thank you for sharing!

[cadence90]

Go away, 2016. :(

I love this story (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard?all=1) of Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight Festival.

"Cohen, Johnston thought, was nowhere near as tough as Kristofferson, not as determined as Baez, not as well-respected as Collins, and if the three of them were pelted with bottles and booed off stage, what chance did Cohen have? He was 36, nearly a decade older than most of the other performers. With a black T-shirt and a safari jacket, unshaved and unkempt, he looked more like Jim Morrison’s accountant than his peer. He took the stage. It was 2:00 in the morning. His face was blank."

That article is fantastic. Thanks much for posting it!
The story about Nancy; the part about renewal....

At 18, en route to Europe on a ship from Montreal (Russian merchant/passenger, the cheapest way to get to Europe then, before Laker/People Airlines blew up that ship market. I'm sure the hash was better on the ship.), I naively went to a Montreal cafè that LC supposedly used to play in. He wasn't there, of course. Maybe he was already up in Idlewild, with the monks, or in some other new and secret, sacred place.

The first chance I had, I listened to his music again and again. An excellent young classical guitarist, from Seattle, was a berth-mate on the ship, going to Spain to apprentice with some master. He knew a lot of LC songs, and played very well, with a young Canadian woman guitarist/singer who could have been Joni Mitchell's sister. It was fun.

Thanks much, LC. I listened to "Isle of Wight" again tonight. It's as good as ever. Tomorrow "New Skin" and "The Future".

“There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”

[tuscanyswe]

Love Cohen. Always will, thanks!

[fkelly]

thanks too for the link. Here is a quote from it re. Cohen's poetry that struck me:

... Joan Baez was equally baffled. “People say that a song needs to make sense,” she told the filmmaker. “Leonard proves otherwise. It doesn’t necessarily make sense at all, it just comes from so deep inside of him, it somehow touches deep down inside other people. I’m not sure how it works, but I know that it works.” Lerner nodded in agreement as he listened. It reminded him of something he’d once read T.S. Eliot say of Dante—that the genius of poetry was that it communicated before it was understood."