Leonard Cohen is Dead

[RiverNotch]

Leonard Cohen is dead, died age 82. I've only listened to a handful of songs, plus two albums (Various Positions, I'm Your Man; loved them both), but I do have almost all of his albums in store -- I guess I'm gonna have to quicken the pace. God rest his soul.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37946654

[Wjames]

Cohen is one of my favourite songwriters. 

That era has almost all of my favourite songwriters, and a lot of them are going to die soon, I suppose.

I like his first four studio albums most: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room, Songs of Love and Hate, and New Skin for the Old Ceremony.

He might be the greatest Canadian songwriter of all time.

[shemthepenman]

'Songs From A Room' is a perfect album. . . and let's not forget, he was a poet first. 82 though. . . that's a good go round the block.

[QDeathstar]

Well, it was bound to happen...

[RiverNotch]

I don't think he'll ever stop. Not in the way poseurs like Michael Jackson don't, releasing albums post-mortuum -- his audience just happens to be heavenlier. I guess I'll restart my planned long-listen with the album that contains "Chelsea Hotel #2", one of the songs I got properly exposed to as something distinctly his outside of the aforementioned albums, then work my way from there (Songs from a Room perfection, you say?). Thanks for the shared grief -- yes, even he knows this has been a long time coming, but it has been a long, long week, and some of his songs (what range!) seem more timely than ever: mark of a great artist, surely. Maybe not greatest, but only because I so far don't have anyone to compare him with -- in fact, I'd rather not compare, it feels unnecessary (and I loved Stan Rogers first).

[shemthepenman]

yes, i mean, perfection entirely subjectively, of course. i think there are a few perfect albums out there [even though that kind of negates the concept of a perfect album, in a way], and this for me is definitely one of them. there isn't a single song on there i would skip. sign of near perfection in my book. i don't even think there is a Dylan album i could say that about [em. . . maybe. . . highway 61 revisited].
anyway, it's the big three Dylan, Cohen, and Waits. to be honest, i think the only "current" popular artist out there carrying on the tradition is Nick Cave. in my humble opinion, of course.

and i want "was bound to happen" on my tombstone.

[just mercedes]

^ Totally agree about Nick Cave

[rayheinrich]

Listened to that man all my life.

Religion, love, sex... he mixed all three into every damned song.

As far as my temperament goes, he's my lifetime favorite.
Maybe because he was such an excellent poet (and novelist for that matter).
(And yes, every bit the equal of Dylan and Waits.)

A poem of his:


            For Anne

    With Annie gone
    Whose eyes to compare
    With the morning sun?

    Not that I did compare,
    But I do compare
    Now that she's gone.

                - - -



(and that's how I feel about him)

[RiverNotch]

Another Stranger Song


Did Leonard Cohen weep, when he heard
what happened here -- what happened there --

the man's so Zen
I don't think he went to heaven.
I don't think he needed God
when he cried out Hallelujah
on nine/eleven --
he cried out of posterity.

It's the Chelsea Hotel
he missed, when the bell
tolled for him, when he sank
deep into Abraham's bosom --

--

[NobodyNothing]

A beautiful man.  Can't add much to what's been said.

It's Leonard's thread, but I'll add Lou Reed to the list of truly unique and soulful songwriters that we recently lost. Bowie too. Kind of painful. That sad passage of time thing.

Death...the great equalizer. It's the one place where no one's any more and nobody's any less than anyone else forevermore.