Conference mr1pst::music

    
    Again, I am not good at categorizing, so I will leave the
    "what kind of music" question to the other fans.
    
    I can, however, tell you that he is a poet first and foremost
    and his lyrics tend to overpower the music. I find some of
    his songs very dark and disturbed thus cannot enjoy the
    music accompanying those lyrics even though the music itself can be
    very very pleasant.
    
    His latest album is called The Future and the title track, together
    with "Closing Time" are my favourites.
    
    Ask your friend the name of the album he is looking for. I might be
    able to find it up here since Leonard Cohen is Canadian. He won the
    "best male" Juno award last year.
    
    Cohen's most famous song was "Suzanne takes you down to her place by
    the river". Beautiful song. Another hit was "So long Marianne".
    You can ask Alan Starr about So Long Marianne, he was made to listen to
    it 5 times one after the other by a young lady.
    
    So Long Marianne
    It's time we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again
    
    Lale

    If your in the Bost area - i picked up a couple of his early L.C.
    CD's for 5.99$ apiece at Newbury Comics - on Newbury St of course.
    Excellent compilation CD out recently by various artists covering
    L.C. songs...
    Peter

    Seems like a what-kind-of-music virus has entered this notes file...
    
    Leonard Cohen's two latest albums, I'm Your Man and The Future are
    somewhat different from his previous efforts, by being more noisy.
    (Which doesn't really say much). ;^)
    His voice is God's gift to insomniacs - but seems to be quite
    popular with his female audience. And, as Lale said, the guy's
    a great poet.
    
    IMHO, one of the best albums with Cohen songs is Famous Blue Raincoat 
    by Jennifer Warnes. Not really an L.C. album, but J.W. singing his songs.
    With interesting arrangements. She does an additional Cohen song on
    Rob Wasserman's album Duets.
    
    _Real_ L.C. fans may now also buy an album of Cohen songs translated
    into Norwegian, performed by a selection of Norwegian female artists.
                         
    Henrik
    

    
    Oh, yes, I forgot about the Jennifer Warnes album. My brother
    has it. It is an excellent album. If you like LC songs but hate
    his insomniac voice, get the Jennifer Warnes album. She has
    beautiful voice and beautiful delivery. I love that album.
    Entirely LC songs.
    
    First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
    
    And, Mister, I don't like what you have done to my sister.
    
    Lale
    

Leonard Cohen doesn't have a good singing voice, but he manages to pack more
emotion into a single sung word than many artists can get on an entire
album.  Don't know how he does it.  His new stuff is VERY "dark" - one reviewer
wrote that after listening to the latest LC album that it made one want to
slit one's wrists...

				Steve

    Ever since listening to his first album when it came out around 1969,
    I've found his recordings to be very depressing. Did I say "very"? I
    should have said "extremely". I've always thought that maybe it's just
    me. But I guess not.

    --Ron

    I prefer his poetry - well, some of it.  I have a couple volumes at 
    home.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    Depressing as all hell.
    
    In a good way, though!  Honestly, I really like the music I have by
    him, but he is the king of lonely, depressing, mellow, sad music.  I
    always tell my brother that he'd be the music I expect to be playing
    if someone was committing suicide.
    
    I've heard his new album is quite good, but try his greatest hits to
    get a good feel for his more known stuff.
    
    - Sean

    
    I would not call his style depressing, rather _intense_.
    
    Poul
    

    In an interview in a Norwegian paper today, Leonard Cohen
    is asked what kind of music he listens to:
    
      "I don't listen to music much. But my kids listen to what
      is popular, and I keep updated through them. As for my
      own preferences, I've always liked country music, which
      has strongly inspired my own songs. On the other hand, 
      I'm fascinated by the rappers. No matter if you like the
      styke or not, rap is a distinct means of expression, with
      a clear and concise language,  Between these two extremes,
      you find pop, which is less interesting." 

> I always tell my brother that he'd be the music I expect to be playing
>    if someone was committing suicide.

Funny, I always thought he'd be the music I expect to be playing
INSTEAD of committing suicide.  Suicide is cheerier.

;-)

tim

    I always play "Bad" by U2, when I think about committing suicide.  So
    far, it's proved to be a reasonable alternative.  :-)
    
    Lorna
    

    Speaking of suicide, ever hear Phil Oches?

    I wuz gonna commit suicide, but being from Buffalo I thought that would
    be redundant.
    
    Bill

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. :^)

    Last night, I was making a sampler tape for Jodi and I realized that we
    might have been a little unfair to Leonard Cohen under this note. It
    was once again confirmed that he does sound awful in his last CD (aging
    and all that smoke and alchocol), but he has a very sweet voice on his
    earlier recordings. I love his voice when he is singing Suzanne. Also,
    have you ever tried to humm along to "So Long Marianne", you need to
    manage your breathing real well, which he seems to be good at.
    
    One question: Has anybody figured out the story behind the "Famous Blue
    Raincoat"? I mean, Jane comes with the lock of his hair and he can come
    for Jane or for Leonard, his enemy will be at sleep and his woman will
    be free but thanks to him for taking the trouble out of Jane's eyes,
    which we had thought was there for good and it turns out to be great
    that he had stood up in our way ??????
    
    Lale