Early memories late sixties the privilege of sixth form a place to listen to music and competing with Sergeant Pepper's arrived songs of Leonard Cohen and songs from a room.
Lyrics always meant a lot to me - I was, probably still am a person who, cued in, could go through album after album word by word - not singing in a public context because my singing voice is terrible but to myself.- being connected to headphones has passed me by because I can sing to myself -so Leonard Cohen
What amazing - crafted lyrics You could sometimes improve on the Beatles or the Stones or David Bowie just the odd word and a matter of opinion and to be fair they sometimes changed them themselves - but Cohen that sounds wrong we called him Leonard Cohen not Leonard or Cohen this was a person a poet not a commodity or a kid.
And then a gap - I went one way and Cohen another. I listened to those West Coast Americans Grateful Dead , New Riders of the Purple Sage
And then all the things that fill up a life
And Leonard Cohen kept on he even resumed touring
And recently I picked up some of his later (but not necessarily much later) work and now it speaks to me so strongly. It is about love life death getting it right, getting it wrong, religion, being human and maybe a bit superhuman without going on about it. It touches on the messiness of life and of being male and flawed. It is also about Fathers and sons what we do to each other without even thinking about it. And of course it is entertainment.
And really despite my rabbiting on it leaves me speechless. The man is just so good so to the point so apt so expressive so true.
One song sticks out from my "early period" someone constantly playing and singing The Stranger LC drumming into me the idea that the word was not stranger but dealer and that the disappointment was foreshadowed.
In my late period I single out Lover Come Back to Me Lover Later sound Madrid Video
Lyrics always meant a lot to me - I was, probably still am a person who, cued in, could go through album after album word by word - not singing in a public context because my singing voice is terrible but to myself.- being connected to headphones has passed me by because I can sing to myself -so Leonard Cohen
What amazing - crafted lyrics You could sometimes improve on the Beatles or the Stones or David Bowie just the odd word and a matter of opinion and to be fair they sometimes changed them themselves - but Cohen that sounds wrong we called him Leonard Cohen not Leonard or Cohen this was a person a poet not a commodity or a kid.
And then a gap - I went one way and Cohen another. I listened to those West Coast Americans Grateful Dead , New Riders of the Purple Sage
And then all the things that fill up a life
And Leonard Cohen kept on he even resumed touring
And recently I picked up some of his later (but not necessarily much later) work and now it speaks to me so strongly. It is about love life death getting it right, getting it wrong, religion, being human and maybe a bit superhuman without going on about it. It touches on the messiness of life and of being male and flawed. It is also about Fathers and sons what we do to each other without even thinking about it. And of course it is entertainment.
And really despite my rabbiting on it leaves me speechless. The man is just so good so to the point so apt so expressive so true.
One song sticks out from my "early period" someone constantly playing and singing The Stranger LC drumming into me the idea that the word was not stranger but dealer and that the disappointment was foreshadowed.
In my late period I single out Lover Come Back to Me Lover Later sound Madrid Video
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