What is there left to say but "thank you"?
Leonard Norman Cohen (1934-2016)
12 November 2016
24 comments:
Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.
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Last night, we lay down on sunbeds and watched Mrs Moon rise like a tangerine over The Aegean Sea. To capture the beauty of the scene fa... -
Chavs being chavvish. Just the other day, I spotted a male "chav" down by the local Methodist church. He was wearing a Burberrry ... -
So there I was standing in the kitchen of our son's terraced house. Something caught my eye outside in his little urban garden. It was a...
Leonard Cohen was part of my uni days and we would play his music endlessly. Another great bites the dust.
ReplyDeleteI had his first three albums and played them endlessly. I can still remember big chunks of those songs. Like they say - "the soundtrack" of one's life.
DeleteCohen had a major influence on me when I was in my twenties and Suzanne sounds as good now as it did then.
ReplyDeleteI learnt to play and sing "Suzanne" at the age of fifteen and I still remember every word. He showed me what poetry could do when married with simple guitar work. It was revelatory.
DeleteJust been watching Hunt for the Wilderpeople and right in the middle of the film up pops Leonard Cohen singing The Partisan. Coincidence or what.
ReplyDeleteLes Allemands étaient chez moi
DeleteIls me dirent, "résigne toi"
Mais je n'ai pas peur
J'ai repris mon âme
This morning when I learned that Cohen had died, I sent exactly this video to my 25 yr old son, hoping he would want to add this sond to his playlist. Do you know his answer? He wrote me back immediately, this song had been one of the first he ever added. YP, as long as young men like him listen to songs like this, there's hope for a world worth living.
ReplyDeleteYes Kaki. You are so right my friend.
DeleteAnother superstar, gone. This has been a terrible year for celebrity deaths.
ReplyDeleteIn my adolescence, it was almost as if Leonard Cohen's songs were guiding me. I listened to them obsessively between 1968 and 1970 when I saw him perform at The Isle of Wight festival.
DeleteHi have just heard the letter he event,y wrote to an old girlfriend who was dying.....a beautiful beautiful piece of prose
ReplyDeleteIt was his letter to Marianne - the Swedish woman he fell in love with on the Greek island of Hydra in the early sixties. Hence, "So Long Marianne".
DeleteBBC Radio 4 FM interviewed Suzanne in 1998. Here is a transcript of that interview.
ReplyDeleteAlso, everyone should hear k.d. lang sing his "Hallelujah" at least once (or a thousand times) during their life.
Well, that isn't the right link, but you can find it on the page if you Google "Suzanne lyrics" ... sorry.
DeleteNo problem Bob. Thanks for the two helpful hints. I will pursue them later today.
DeleteI agree re k.d. Lang's version of "Hallelujah"...she sings it wonderfully...I played it yesterday when I learned of Cohen's passing.
DeleteLeonard was one of my favorites. His poetry flowed and took you on twists and turns. Closing time for Leonard.
ReplyDeleteClosing time for Leonard. He takes his famous blue raincoat off the back of a chair and leaves the shadowy bar, stepping out into a moonless night - hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
DeleteYes, this is sad news. He was a man of words...and thankfully he shared those words with the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteSome of his imagery, some of his word choices... they were both intimate and groundbreaking. In my teens he played a part in making me the man I became. His songs got into one's bone marrow.
DeleteI concur with your post and all of the comments.
ReplyDeleteVale Leonard.
Alphie
Sing me a song by Leonard Alphie. Which would you choose?
DeleteSo sad. I came to his music late in life in you know what I mean...had always assumed I wouldn't like it..and then of course in recent years I realised what I had been missing out on....such a voice and such a poet...x
ReplyDeleteGlad you found him. Go back and listen to "Songs from a Room" (1969).
Delete