Leonard Cohen

Chong

Great Poet of our time whom of which inspired so many people.

pwd

I was wondering when you'd suggest this.
Wasn't it your thread on him before that led to this forum being created?
and yes.

Chong

Damn straight my friend i kinda screwed up wit the poll, but the can be fixed l8r by Papa Smut. This man is most certainly a legend.

Eve e

Yes.genius.

Talliesin

Obviously, but where's the poll?

SatanInside

I do not agree with your peoples views on this man. He was a fake, the great prostethic artist who created music so bad, it became of a cult status. Whenever i hear old leonard I just want to catch a sharp object and slash my wrists 30 times over, then slice off my ears so I don't have to bear the pain that is his music. Genius my ass......Try checking out Morrissey...a true legend who doesn't go overboard with the whole nihilist thing. Or along the lines of contemporary artist lines why not try sampling something by the incredibly talented Nana Mouskouri.

cormie

Mr. Cohen is amazing. The best artist I have ever come across in my time (20 years old).

I don't know why so many people view him as a "slash your wrist" artist. His music is beautiful.

Take one of his better known songs, Suzanne as an example.

Suzanne takes you down to her place newer the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she’s half crazy
But that’s why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from china
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you’ve always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

And jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said ’all men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them’
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you’ll trust him
For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now suzanne takes you hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From salvation army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For she’s touched your perfect body with her mind.

I think he is too good to have a forum actually. You should keep Cohen in your heart, not on a forum

SatanInside

Yeah, I'll feed Suzanne some oranges and tea alright.I'll ram the oranges down her throat then crack the tea pot off her skull. God damn Leonard. Would he ever just smile and stop singing like he's choking on a cock?

cormie

He has no choice.. he was born with the gift of a golden voice.

He smiles, his music makes me smile. It takes me to another world. Listen to "one of us cannot be wrong" you'd probably think it's the most depressing song ever. I think it's again, beautiful. It shows the power and emotions possible to feel for somebody.

SatanInside

Like the power you feel for a beautiful woman in a nightclub and you just want to take her home and nibble at the waistline of her panties as she laughs in excitment and you both end up having wild passion for two days straight???? I'm sorry...but you would really need to be on drugs to think leonard Cohen makes beautiful music. he probably gets up every morning and cries into his bowl of cereal because one of the rice krispies popped.....

cormie

You just don't get it. You're not a romantic I take it?

So what is good music then?

Leonard Cohen: Great lyrics, great voice, great band. Great Music really!

What have you actually heard of his material? What age are you?

SatanInside

I am old enough to know what equates to good music and what does not. Good music needs passion, real passion. Leonard cohen just sounds empty and drained, as if he's singing the songs just because somebody has put a sheet of lyrics in front of him. I have heard a lot of his material (too forgetable to remember the names) and I must say that even at night, when i usually like to wind down with some music, he still bored the life out of me. You want a true songwriter in the vein of Leonard Cohen try Tom Waits....the man is a genius.

Believe me I like to listen to music that is away from the mainstream, (Cure, Smiths to name to two) but Leonard just doesn't float my boat. I understand you appreciate his music and I suppose I am wrong for dismissing your views. Every one to their own opinion, and my opinion is: he's bland.

cormie

Haha, that's actually really funny...
For who am I listening to right this minute? Tom Waits..

Leonard Cohen not passionate? He spills his heart into his songs.

I wouldn't care if Cohen was mainstream, I'd still feel the same. It's not that I only like to listen to non mainstream music, I just like what I believe to be good music.

Cohen is not for everyone, I agree. But there may come a time you appreciate his music, maybe not.

Well we can agree on Tom Waits for now anyway. I still think Cohen, although very different and more suitable to my taste, is probably one of the greatest ever.

SatanInside

True. Tom Waits...he's a legend. Why didn't Willem D start a forum for Tom Waits huh??? And who is Willem D anyway? I've seen his name scattered all over boards.ie. But besides that cormie, I would encourage you to have a listen to The Smiths if not for the sheer genius of Morrissey himself. e.g

"Now I know how Joan of Arc felt, as the flames rose to her roman nose and her walkman started to melt".

"She said "eh I know you and you cannot sing" and i said "thats nothing you should hear me play piano"

"driving in your car, I never ever want to go home, because its not my home its their home and I'm welcome no more"

cormie

Ok.. funny again, did you know Leonard Cohen has a song called Joan of Arc or is that another weird coincidence?

Now the flames they followed joan of arc
As she came riding through the dark;
No moon to keep her armour bright,
No man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, I’m tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
A wedding dress or something white
To wear upon my swollen appetite.

Well, I’m glad to hear you talk this way,
You know I’ve watched you riding every day
And something in me yearns to win
Such a cold and lonesome heroine.
And who are you? she sternly spoke
To the one beneath the smoke.
Why, I’m fire, he replied,
And I love your solitude, I love your pride.

Then fire, make your body cold,
I’m going to give you mine to hold,
Saying this she climbed inside
To be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of joan of arc,
And high above the wedding guests
He hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of joan of arc,
And then she clearly understood
If he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
But must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

You should hear the duet with the two characters. Beautiful!

Nice to see an argument not debase itself into personal attacks.

Poll Posted

cormie

I voted no.

Don't ask me why, I don't fully know :rolleyes: Maybe I just don't like to associate him with technology? Who knows.

cormie

cormie wrote:

I voted no.

Don't ask me why, I don't fully know :rolleyes: Maybe I just don't like to associate him with technology? Who knows.

You're weird

pretty-in-pink

I like Cohen, Dylan, The Eagles, Garth Brooks, most of them infact.
They are all brilliant poets, with Cohen and Dylan fighting for top-spot. Dylan can't sing, but the man sure can write

pwd

personally, I find morrissey and the cure bland and whingey, and leonard cohen extremely positive.
He actually tears the piss out of the very self-indulgent whininess you are so casually accuse him of; on Songs of Love and Hate for instance.
He is not at all fake. That is bizarre. I think The Cure and Morrissey are rather contrived myself. So is Tom Waits in certain ways, although I rate him very highly as an artist.
Cohen's talent lies in his ability to surrender so totally to beauty and love, and to express tremendously fragile beauty and joy with such simplicity and grace. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do?
And you just dismiss it as whininess - and then listen to Morrissey of all people. Who actually is a whinger.
Have you ever seen Cohen interviewed? I did once. He practically radiated joy, while charming the knickers off the lady interviewing him.
You r blind.

cormie

Have a look at the following interviews, all 3 interviews are by women who look like they are falling in love with him as they interview him (it's in the eyes)

Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3


Cohen is very real. In the height of his fame, he chose to live in a tiny visually run down apartment. He only had the essentials. He knew his neighbours names, one neighbour climbs over to his balcony with a coffee while kids run around naked and eat their lunch in the garden below.

If you ever come across "The Song of Leonard Cohen" Documentary, be sure to watch it!!

funky penguin

Papa Smut wrote:

Poll Posted

We can do that?!?!!?




(or is it PapaPower?)

Half-Bicycle

Cohen is a beautiful writer and a unique vocal talent. Morrissey peaked with The Smiths and disappeared up his own bottom shortly after. The Cure were Joy Division plagiarists but I still liked them and Waits is an innovator, no doubt. I think I prefer his early stuff than the later but at least he continues to push boundaries...

cormie

Half-Bicycle wrote:

I think I prefer his early stuff than the later but at least he continues to push boundaries...

Is that Waits or Cohen you're talking about?

Half-Bicycle

cormie wrote:

Is that Waits or Cohen you're talking about?

Hmmm. Both, now that you mention it.

funky penguin

funky penguin wrote:

We can do that?!?!!?




(or is it PapaPower?)

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa Power!!!

*Now, back on topic please


Celebrity deathmatch with Cohen and Waits?


Waits would kick Leonard Cohens' Mangy butt and stuff a piano (drunk of course) down Leonards neck

pwd

ah but Hulk hogan would kick lumps out of them both.
and he shouts hulk rules i think and tears up his t-shirt and beats up andre the giant.

SatanInside

Ha ha ha ha. Leonard cohen would start to cry about how pointless all the fighting is before tom waits recites a few verses of "Whats he building in there?" before smashing the utter daylights out of cohen!

funky penguin

pwd wrote:

ah but Hulk hogan would kick lumps out of them both.
and he shouts hulk rules i think and tears up his t-shirt and beats up andre the giant.

Is that before or after we laugh at his flabby man breasts?

cormie

"and though I wear a uniform, I was not born to fight"

Half-Bicycle

How did this thread degenerate into a celebrity death match? :rolleyes:




Anyway, LC would charm the knickers off TW and thus a potentially ugly confrontation would become a thing of beauty.

SatanInside

What about a celebrity deathmatch between Morrissey and Leonard Cohen? Bets on Morrisey would wipe the floor with LCs mangy ass!!!!

Half-Bicycle

What is this obsession with LC's mangy bottom? Two posters have mentioned it so far...

Half-Bicycle

Half-Bicycle wrote:

How did this thread degenerate into a celebrity death match? :rolleyes:




Anyway, LC would charm the knickers off TW and thus a potentially ugly confrontation would become a thing of beauty.

I think that was my fault


/slinks off to corner for more scheming..

Duckjob

Leonard Cohen is a genius. I've never got people thinking he's depressing. Some of his most pessimistic lines are so darkly humorous you can almost hear him winking as he sings them. Personally, I find his music great to chill out to.

Don't know why anyone would compare Leonard to Morrisey. Much as I like and respect the Smiths, I can't relate very much anymore to Morissey's eternal adolescent whining. Maybe I'm just getting old

cormie

I don't think anyone really compares to Leonard Cohen actually. If you know of anyone who remotely does, please let me know:) And by relate, I mean similar.. in allot of ways..