[Leonard Cohen's son Adam] assembled a number of star musicians including Spanish guitarist Javier Mas, Daniel Lanois and Jennifer Warnes -- one of Cohen's collaborators and many flames -- to compose sparse but warm instrumentals to accompany Cohen's rich baritone timbre. The likes of artists Beck, Feist and Damien Rice also lent their talents to the new album....
"It was nothing, it was business / But it left an ugly mark / So I've come here to revisit / What happens to the heart," Cohen intones on the opening track "Happens to the Heart."...The album title is "Thanks for the Dance."
Also let me recommend this episode of "Fresh Air" from Friday, with Adam Cohen talking to Terry Gross about the new album. Adam is interesting in himself — modest and withholding. Terry, meanwhile, was effusively in love with Leonard, so it was an unusual encounter. Funny, actually.
ALSO:
Posts
26 comments:
OK, Boomer.
Last week called. They want their catch phrase back.
I had no idea who Leonard Cohen was until I started reading the Althouse blog. Thanks Ann!
I pretty much did not care much for Leonard Cohen through most of my life. Mostly, as it turned out, because I didn't give him a real listen. I always loved his songs as a soundtrack to the great Robert Altman movie, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller". But aside from that handful of songs, nothing really grabbed me. The truth is I was not listening.
Over the last few years I started listening to him more. As he was leaving, I was listening. And, frankly, he is one of those brilliant poet/songwriters who produced a huge volume of work, yet I somehow missed it listening to such notables as Humble Pie and Jethro Tull back in the day. His music is good, his lyrics are great. And some of his songs (think: "Hallelujah") will live on forever.
Or you can just play Suzanne over and over and over...all day like my roommate did in the fall of '75. And it was my album he'd glommed onto so I'd already heard it a lot.
My impression is that Leonard Cohen wrote songs in order to get laid and then wrote songs about having gotten laid. I did love the soundtrack to McCabe and Mrs. Miller though.
There is a lot of poetry in the Bible, Cohen knew where it was and how to use it.
"My impression is that Leonard Cohen wrote songs in order to get laid and then wrote songs about having gotten laid.”
So you are saying he was a musician then. There is a lot more to Cohen than that. But the later stuff, when his voice was all but gone, I found hard to take, even though I have always been a huge fan. I also was introduced to him by the movie McCabe and Mrs Miller. I guess he found a second audience from Shreck.
I thought Anthony Bourdain was his son
Pretty good article on how hallelujah came to be written. I had not realized that he wrote about 80 verses to it
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516/
I have a cassette of Jennifer Warnes singing cohens greatest hits which is fantastic.
John Henry
He didn't have such a great voice, but, as the baritone wavered, it expressed the fragility of life and its passing pleasures better than a more constant tenor......His voice, his style, his lyrics, his music had the unity of tragedy, but his actual life was reasonably sun dappled and happy.....At the other end of the spectrum there's Fred Astaire. He didn't have a great voice either, but his style and deft moves fit the froth on those cheerful Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern songs.....I know Leonard Cohen lived as a Buddhist monk for a few years, but his songs always seemed to express more a yearning for God than a belief in God. Well, maybe now he knows for sure.
I used to like him, but then he became "the abusive Buddhist" and, now, I don't care what he thinks about anything.
I actually got personally acquainted with Cohen and had a few very pleasant conversations with him. He was a really nice guy. When I mentioned he was known as the "king of erotic despair," he laughed.
I had no idea who Leonard Cohen was until I started reading the Althouse blog.
I still have little clue about him.
"My impression is that Leonard Cohen wrote songs in order to get laid and then wrote songs about having gotten laid."
That's a perfect formula for a songwriter, and it's closer to the meaning of life that what 99.99% of songwriters come up with.
"He didn't have such a great voice..."
He had a great voice but he was not that good at singing, and that disconnect — great voice but minimal singing talent — is what makes it so compelling. It's more like talking, and it's very intimate. With the words that he came up with, whatever is bad about him ends up being part of the good.
You know all his intellectual property was ripped off. He was robbed blind. That's why he went back out into the world on tour, his son said (on "Fresh Air") and that's why we have this new material. He was paralyzed and propped up in a "hospital chair" when he recorded this new work shortly before he died.
From Wikipedia: "Sylvie Simmons explains in her 2012 biography of Cohen that Kelley Lynch, Cohen's longtime manager, "took care of Leonard's business affairs ... [and was] not simply his manager but a close friend, almost part of the family." Simmons notes that in late 2004, Cohen's daughter Lorca began to suspect Lynch of financial impropriety, and when Cohen checked his bank accounts, he noticed that he had unknowingly paid a credit card bill of Lynch's for $75,000 and also found that most of the money in his accounts was gone (including money from his retirement accounts and charitable trust funds). Cohen discovered that this had begun as early as 1996 when Lynch started selling Cohen's music publishing rights despite the fact that Cohen had no financial incentive to do so at the time. In October 2005, Cohen sued Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated over US$5 million from Cohen's retirement fund leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events placed him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's Maclean's magazine.In March 2006, Cohen won a civil suit and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch ignored the suit and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records.] As a result, it was widely reported that Cohen might never be able to collect the awarded amount."
Ann Althouse said...
"That's a perfect formula for a songwriter, and it's closer to the meaning of life that what 99.99% of songwriters come up with."
True. And then there's these guys.
Look, you gotta be a real asshole to have your manager rip you off. They'll crawl over glass for their artists. That's how you get the job. if it was his agent, maybe, but I suspect Cohen did something to Lynch to drive her mad. Being an abusive Buddhist means we'll probably never know what it was, since Buddhism renders everything dust in the wind.
"That's a perfect formula for a songwriter, and it's closer to the meaning of life that what 99.99% of songwriters come up with."
Hallelujah, that.
I am Laslo.
Crack: Your newage hate is noted. There are a ton of new folks here who don't know your backstory. Is any part of The Macho Response saved? I fucking miss that blog Gotta link? Thanks
I never listen to Fresh Air if I can avoid it. I simply despise Terry Gross. She is the epitome of the worst in the liberal persona.
"Like you invited the Holy Ghost of Music into the room"
Love that description of Cohen.
I had been a fan of Cohen's since I was about 14 or 15. I went through a period where I didn't think about him during college and grad school, but picked him up again after seeing Natural Born Killers which prominently featured the song "The Future". Never failed to buy his albums again.
I prefer "Famous Blue Raincoat" by J. Coulton.
I always thought those dark tones came from the contemplation of death, the transience of love, and the distance of God. Lofty thoughts worthy of a poet. But I guess having your manager run away with all your royalties and savings would give you an equally dark outlook on the human condition.....Cohen looks like the kind of guy who has spent his life contemplating his future death. He probably took it in stride, this bit about a manager with a fraudulent heart must have blindsided him. All his friends look so pure and sensitive. That kind of thing has happened to many female singers-- Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Ruth Etting, and many others. So far as I know, he's the only male performer that this has happened to..... Maybe they can make a soapsy biopic starring Werner Herzog about his brave struggle to find God, love, and an honest manager.
I remembered his rendition of hallelujah from the west wing, I think they also used in watchmen,
Post a Comment