|
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen |
|
|
|
Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is among the English language's most distinguished and influential songwriters of the twentieth century. His musical career has largely overshadowed his prior work as a poet and novelist, although he has continued to publish poetry sporadically after his breakthrough in the music industry. Musically, Cohen's early songs are based in folk music, both for melodies and instrumentation, but, beginning in the 1970s, his work shows the influence of various types of popular music and cabaret music. Since the 1980s he typically has sung in a deep bass register, with synthesizers and female backing vocals. Cohen's songs are often emotionally heavy and lyrically complex, owing more to the metaphoric word play of poetry than to the conventions of song craft. His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sex, and complex interpersonal relationships. Cohen's music has become very influential on other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand cover versions of his work have been recorded. He is iconic in his native land, having been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and awarded the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. |
Early life
|
|
Cohen was born to a middle-class Jewish family of Polish ancestry in 1934 in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Leonard was nine years old. Like many other Jews named Cohen, Katz, Kagan, etc., his family made a proud claim of descent from the priestly Kohanim: "I had a very Messianic childhood," he told Richard Goldstein in 1967, "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." [1] As a teenager he learned to play the guitar and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided Leonard with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to freely pursue his literary ambitions for some time without risking economic ruin.
Cohen idolized his father and his death threw him into a deep depression. As he grew older he began taking the then legal drug LSD as a treatment. Cohen has said that he believes the drug opened his awareness to the "hypocrisy" and "self-delusion" that are "common traits of humanity," ideas which are prominent themes in his songs. His depression did not lift until the late 1990s. His mother Masha Cohen, from whom he inherited his love for songs and poets, died in 1978.
Development as a poet
In 1951, Cohen enrolled at McGill University, where he was president of the McGill Debating Union and pursued a career as a poet. His first poetry book, Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), was published while he was an undergraduate. The Spice-Box of Earth (1961) made him well-known in poetry circles, especially in his native Canada.
|
|
Cohen applied a strong work ethic to his early and keen literary ambitions. He wrote poetry and fiction through much of the 1960s, and preferred even as a young man to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances. After moving to Hydra, a Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection Flowers for Hitler (1964), and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966). The Favourite Game is an autobiographical bildungsroman about a young man finding his identity in writing. In contrast, Beautiful Losers can be considered as an 'anti-bildungsroman' since it — in an early postmodern fashion — deconstructs the identity of the main characters by combining the sacred and the profane, religion and sexuality in a rich, lyrical language. Reflecting Cohen's Québécois roots, but perhaps unusually for someone from a Jewish background, a secondary plot in Beautiful Losers concerns Tekakwitha, the Roman Catholic Iroquois mystic. Beautiful Losers, greeted initially with shock by Canadian reviewers who berated it for its explicit sexual content, is today considered by many critics to be among the finest literary novels of the 1960s. For a good early survey of Cohen's written work, see Leonard Cohen by Steven Scobie (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978).
Music
In 1967, Cohen relocated to the United States to pursue a career as a folk singer-songwriter. His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins, and after performing at a few folk festivals, Cohen was discovered by John H. Hammond, the same Columbia Records representative who discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
The sound of Cohen's first album Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) was too dark to be a commercial success, but was widely acclaimed by folk music buffs and by Cohen's peers. He became a cult name in the UK, where it spent over a year on the album charts. He followed up with Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the oft-covered "Bird on the Wire"), Songs of Love and Hate (1971), and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cohen toured the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1973, Cohen toured Israel and performed at army bases during the Yom Kippur War. Beginning around 1974, his collaboration with pianist/arranger John Lissauer created a live sound almost universally praised by the critics, but never really captured on record. During his time, Cohen often toured with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer. Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums and recorded an album of Cohen songs in 1987, Famous Blue Raincoat.
In 1977, Cohen released an album called Death of a Ladies' Man (note the plural possessive case; one year later in 1978, Cohen released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, Death of a Lady's Man). The album was produced by Phil Spector, well known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, in which pop music is backed with thick layers of instrumentation— an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty; Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions and Cohen said Spector once threatened him at gunpoint. The end result is often thought gaudy and ostentatious, and Cohen's songwriting on this album is also thought to be some of his weakest.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs. Produced by Cohen himself, and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer), the album included performances by a jazz fusion band, introduced to Cohen by Mitchell, and oriental instruments (oud, Gypsy violin and mandolin). In 2001, Cohen referred to Recent Songs as his best album, releasing the live version of songs from its 1979 tour on record Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979.
In 1984, Cohen released Various Positions, featuring the oft-covered "Hallelujah," but Columbia declined to release the album in the United States, where Cohen's popularity had declined in recent years. (Throughout his career, Cohen's music has sold better in Europe and Canada than in the U.S.—he once satirically expressed how touched he is at the modesty the American company has shown in promoting his records.)
In 1986 he made a guest appearance in an episode of the TV series Miami Vice.
In 1987, Jennifer Warnes' tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S., and the following year he released I'm Your Man, which marked a drastic change in his music. Synthesizers ruled the album, although in a much more subdued manner than on Death of a Ladies' Man, and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humour. It was Cohen's most acclaimed and popular since Songs of Leonard Cohen, and "First We Take Manhattan" and the title song became two of his most popular songs. The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by Sharon Robinson) in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume helped to expose Cohen's music to a younger audience.
He followed with another acclaimed album, The Future, in 1992. The Future is his most political album to date, articulating a politics to urge (more often than not in terms of biblical prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and even hope in the face of prospects ranging from the grim to the dire. Three tracks from the album - "Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" - were featured in the controversial movie Natural Born Killers.
In the title track Cohen prophesies impending political and social collapse, reportedly as his response to the L.A. unrest of 1992: "I've seen the future, brother: It is murder." In "Democracy," Cohen, criticizes America but says he loves it: "I love the country but I can't stand the scene." Further, he describes his own politics as: "I'm neither left or right/I'm just staying home tonight/getting lost in that hopeless little screen."
|
|
Cohen's humility also shines through "Waiting for the Miracle" (co-written with Sharon Robinson), where he lampoons his own severity (along perhaps with his religious austerity and even his instrumentation), singing: "There ain't no entertainment and the judgments are severe/ The maestro says it's Mozart but it sounds like bubble-gum/ When you're waiting for the miracle to come." And in "Closing Time", Cohen gives the dire prophecies of "The Future" as forgiving and humble a reworking as is perhaps imaginable, observing biblical, personal, and political "end times" from the perspective of an old guy being kicked out of a sleazy but jubilant bar. The album also contains "Anthem", where in perhaps the album's best-loved and most-often-quoted passage, he urges perseverance and faith in the face of broken Liberty: "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in."
In 2001, following five years' seclusion as a zen Buddhist monk at the Mount Baldy Zen Center, Cohen returned to music with Ten New Songs, featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. With this album, Cohen shed the relatively extroverted, engaged, and even optimistic outlook of The Future (the sole political track, “The Land of Plenty,” abandoning stern commandment for yearning but helpless prayer) to lament and seek acceptance of varieties of personal loss: the approach of death and the departure of love, romantic and even divine. Ten New Songs' cohesive musical style (perhaps absent from Cohen's albums since Recent Songs) owes much to Robinson’s involvement. Although not Cohen’s bitterest album, it may rank as his most melancholic.
In October 2004, he released Dear Heather, largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current Cohen partner) Anjani Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returns to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, Dear Heather reflects Cohen's own change of mood - he has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributes to the neurological processes of aging. Dear Heather is perhaps his least cohesive, and most experimental and playful album to date, and the stylings of some of the songs (especially the title track) frustrated many fans. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager.
"Blue Alert," an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released on May 23, 2006 to positive reviews. The album is sung by Anjani, who according to one reviewer "sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. . . . though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke."[2] The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar," a poem originally published in The Spice-Box of Earth in 1961.
Recent activity
In 1994, following a tour to promote The Future, Cohen retreated to the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what would become five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name Jikan, meaning 'silent one'. He left Mount Baldy in 1999.
Cohen has been under new management since April 2005. He recently wrote and produced the album Blue Alert for Anjani Thomas. Cohen's new book of poetry and drawings, Book of Longing, was published in May 2006; in March the Toronto publisher offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online, which saw the entire amount sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. on May 13, 2006, Cohen made his first public appearance for thirteen years, at an instore event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3000 people turned up for the event, causing the streets surrounding the bookstore to be closed. He sang two of his earliest and best-known songs: "So Long, Marianne" and "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", accompanied by the Barenaked Ladies and Ron Sexsmith. Also appearing with him was Anjani, the two promoting her new CD, along with his book. Cohen's new album meanwhile is also slated for late 2006, with subsequent touring.
This recent activity has been necessary—Cohen states—because his financial resources, including the publishing rights to his songs, reportedly have been gutted, leading him to file suit against his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, for gross misappropriation of funds. Cohen stated that he has been deprived of over US$5 million placed in a fund for his retirement, leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events have put him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's Maclean's magazine. In March of 2006, Cohen won the civil suit, and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, had completely ignored the suit, and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records. As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the cash [6].
Family life
Cohen has never married. In the 1960s, during his stay at Hydra, Cohen befriended the Scandinavian novelists Axel Jensen and Göran Tunström. Leonard lived there with Axel's wife Marianne Jensen (now: Ihlen) and their son Axel after they broke up. The song "So Long, Marianne" is about her. For a long time it was believed that the character Lorenzo in Jensen's novel Joacim (1961) was based on Cohen, but Axel told him it was influenced by Tunström.
He fathered two children with artist Suzanne Elrod. A son, Adam, was born in 1972 and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet Federico García Lorca, was born in 1974. Adam Cohen began his own career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1990s.
Contrary to popular belief, "Suzanne", one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, rather than Elrod.
Around 1990, Cohen was romantically linked, and by some accounts formally engaged, to actress Rebecca De Mornay. He is now seeing and working with Anjani Thomas.
Themes
Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love and sex, religion, psychological depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so.
Love and sex are common enough themes in popular music; Cohen's background as a novelist and poet brings an uncommon sensibility to these themes. "Suzanne," probably the first Cohen song to gain broad attention, mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc." "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken (in exactly what degree is ambiguous in the song) by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend, to whom he writes, "I guess that I miss you/ I guess I forgive you … Know your enemy is sleeping/ And his woman is free", while "Everybody Knows" deals in part with the harsh reality of AIDS: "… the naked man and woman/ Are just a shining artifact of the past." "Sisters of Mercy" evokes of genuine love (agape more than eros) found in a hotel room encounter with two Edmonton women, whereas "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his Janis Joplin one-night stand rather unsentimentally, and the title of "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" speaks for itself.
Cohen comes from a Jewish background, most o by Fire," whose words and melody echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashanah. Broader Judeo-Christian themes are sounded throughout the album Various Positions: "Hallelujah", which has music as a secondary theme, begins by evoking the biblical king David composing a song that "pleased the Lord"; "Coming Back to you" and "If It Be Your Will" are clearly addressed to a Judeo-Christian God. In his early career as a novelist, Beautiful Losers grappled with the mysticism of the Catholic/Iroquois Katherine Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with Buddhism at least since the 1970s and in 1996 he was ordained a Buddhist monk. However, he still considers himself also a Jew: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."
Having suffered from psychological depression during much of his life (although less so with the onset of old age), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and suicide. The wife of the protagonist of Beautiful Losers commits a gory suicide; "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is about a suicide; suicide is mentioned in the darkly comic one of Us Cannot Be Wrong"; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to kill oneself; a general atmosphere of depression pervades such songs as "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine." A reviewer once remarked tongue-in-cheek that Cohen's albums should be sold with razor blades.
As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah", music itself is the subject of many songs, including "Tower of Song", "A Singer Must Die", and "Jazz Police".
Social justice often shows up as a theme in his work, where he seems, especially in later albums, to expound a leftist politics, albeit with culturally conservative elements. In "Democracy" lamenting "the wars against disorder/ … the sirens night and day/ … the fires of the homeless/ … the ashes of the gay," he concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy: A specifically (and classically) leftist position, as is his practically Chomskyan observation (in "Tower of Song") that "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor/ And there's a mighty judgment coming." In the title track of The Future he recasts this prophecy on a pacifist note: "I've seen the nations rise and fall/ …/ But love's the only engine of survival." In "Anthem," he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ … [are] gonna hear from me." In "The Land of Plenty," he characterizes the United States (if not the opulent West in general) of benightedness: "May the lights in The Land of Plenty/ Shine on the truth some day." And in on That Day," in a sincere and genuine lament for the 9-11 tragedy, he nevertheless, startlingly, raises (and takes an agnostic position on) the question of whether "It's what we deserve/ For sins against God/ For crimes in the world."
War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work which in his earlier songs, as indeed in his early life, he approached ambivalently. In "Field Commander Cohen" he (perhaps metaphorically) imagines himself as a soldier/spy socializing with Fidel Castro in Cuba, where he had actually lived at the height of US–Cuba tensions in 1961—allegedly sporting Che Guevara-style beard and military fatigues. This song was actually written immediately following Cohen's front-line stint with the Israeli air force, the "fighting in Egypt" documented in an (again perhaps metaphorical) passage of "Night Comes on:" In 1973, Cohen, who had traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the 1973 war with Egypt, had instead been assigned to a USO-style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the Sinai Desert, at one of which he both came under fire and reportedly shared cognac with an unlikely self-professed fan, then-General Ariel Sharon. Disillusioned by encounters with captured and wounded enemy troops, and having expressed ambivalence from the start about the causes of the conflict, he eventually left, but not before beginning to write his song "Lover Lover Lover," as he later claimed, "for the soldiers of both sides."
His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser," whether the WWII French resister of Anna Marly and Hy Zaret's The Partisan (which he covered) or the royalist of his own "The Old Revolution," although Cohen's fascination with war is often as metaphor for more explicitly cultural and personal issues, as in New Skin for the Old Ceremony, by this measure his most "militant" album.
Several of Cohen's songs apparently oppose abortion. "Story of Isaac" leaves completely unclear whether those "who build these altars now/ To sacrifice these children" are sacrificing young soldiers, or the unborn, or neither or both. But "Diamonds in the Mine" explicitly and declaims, "The only man of energy/ Yes the revolution's pride/ He trained a hundred women/ Just to kill an unborn child," and in "The Future", Cohen sings sarcastically "Destroy another fetus now/ We don't like children anyhow." Also, Cohen's song "Dance Me to the End of Love" contains the lyric, "Dance me to the children who are asking to be born." Some manner of social conservatism may be a subtext in "Stories of the Street," where "The age of lust is giving birth/ And both the parents ask/ The nurse to tell them fairy tales/ From both sides of the glass," and in songs where Cohen and various women seem to be on either sides of a war: as in "There is a War," and "First We Take Manhattan."
Cohen blends a good deal of pessimism about political/cultural issues with a great deal of humor and (especially in his later work) gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analyses, as his songs are often verbally playful and even cheerful: In "Tower of Song," the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was "… born with the gift/ Of a golden voice"; the generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" nonetheless contains playful lines "You were the whore and the Beast of Babylon/ I was Rin Tin Tin"; in concert, he often plays around with his lyrics (for example, "If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" will become "If you want a Jewish doctor …"); and he will introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem (for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria": "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love").
Some of his songs, such as "Ballad of the Absent Mare" and "Hallelujah" are simply beautiful, and "Democracy" looks at a future as hopeful as that of "The Future" is bleak.
Cohen has also covered such love songs as Irving Berlin's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by Marlena Shaw), chosen in part for their unlikely juxtaposition to his own work.
|
|
Titles and honours
In 1968, Cohen refused Governor General's Award (in category for English language poetry or drama) for Selected Poems 1956–1968.
In 1991, Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
In 1996, he was ordained a Rinzai Buddhist monk.
In 2003, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.
In 2004, Beautiful Losers was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2005. It was selected and originally to be championed by singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright; however, tour commitments meant that Wainwright had to be replaced by singer Molly Johnson.
In 2006, Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Quotations
(Also see the external references section below)
Quotes Attributed to Cohen
only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win 'Vocalist of the Year'."—first words of his speech accepting the Juno Award for Best Male Vocalist in Canada (1992)
"I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin."—from interview with The Daily Telegraph (1993)
"Now, I don't want to give you the impression that I'm a great musicologist, but I'm a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time; you know, people said I only knew three chords when I knew five."—from interview with BBC Radio 1FM (1994)
"I feel that, you know, the enormous luck I've had in being able to make a living, and to never have had to have written one word that I didn't want to write, to be able to have satisfied that dictum I set for myself, which was not to work for pay, but to be paid for my work—just to be able to satisfy those standards that I set for myself has been an enormous privilege."— (same interview with BBC Radio 1FM (1994))
Lyrics
"It's true that all the men you know were dealers / who said they were through with dealing / Every time you gave them shelter / I know that kind of man / It's hard to hold the hand of anyone / who is reaching for the sky just to surrender"—from "The Stranger Song" (1966)
"So the great affair is over/ but whoever would have guessed/ it would leave us all so vacant/ and so deeply unimpressed/ It's like our visit to the moon/ or to that other star/ I guess you go for nothing/ if you really want to go that far"—from "Death of a Ladies' Man" (1977)
"You say I took the name in vain. I don't even know the name. But if I did, well really, what's it to you? / There's a blaze of light in every word; it doesn't matter which you heard: the holy or the broken hallelujah." - from "Hallelujah" (1984)
"Everybody knows that you love me baby/ Everybody knows that you really do/ Everybody knows that you've been faithful/ Ah give or take a night or two/ Everybody knows you've been discreet/ But there were so many people you just had to meet/ without your clothes/ And everybody knows …"—from "Everybody Knows" (1988).
"Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ It's how the light gets in."—from "Anthem" (1992)
"Well, we're drinkin' and we're dancin'/ but there's nothin' really happenin'/ and the place is dead as Heaven on Saturday night." from "Closing Time" (1992)
"I’m stubborn as those garbage bags/ That time cannot decay/ I’m junk but I’m still holding up/ This little wild bouquet/ Democracy is coming to the U.S.A." from "Democracy" (1992)
"And sometimes when the night is slow/ The wretched and the meek/ We gather up our hearts and go/ A Thousand Kisses Deep."—from "A Thousand Kisses Deep" (2001)
"Transparent, weightless, luminous/ Uncovering the two of us/ on that fundamental ground/ Where love's unwilled, unleashed, unbound/ And half the perfect world is found." —from "Half the Perfect World" (2006)
Poetry
"It was only when you walked away I saw you had the perfect ass. Forgive me for not falling in love with your face or your conversation." —from The Energy of Slaves (1972)
"Rust rust rust
in the engines of love and time" —from "Front Lawn" in Flowers for Hitler (1964)
"and you kissed me
shy as though I'd
never been your lover" —from "Song" in The Spice-Box of Earth (1961)
Quotations About Cohen, and Other Media References
"Give me Leonard Cohen afterworld/ So I can sigh eternally" — from "Pennyroyal Tea" by Nirvana (1993)
"I don't want, no I really don't want/ To be John Lennon or Leonard Cohen/ I just want to be my Dad."—from Rufus Wainwright's "Want"
"What if I had to/ Live here without you/ Oh, I don't really want to know/ Where you goin', Lenny Cohen?" — from "l.c." by Adam Again (1995) -- possibly referring to Cohen's 1994 retreat to Mount Baldy Zen Center
"But I was caught, like a fleeting thought/ Stuck inside Leonard Cohen's mind" - from "A Drop In Time" by Mercury Rev (2001).
In the Canadian film Hardcore Logo, a Canadian punk rocker suggests "Faster, Leonard Cohen! Die! Die!" as a possible band name. This also refers to the film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
"Rainy Night House" by Joni Mitchell is her account of her and Cohen's flirtation with romance.
"I tell you who I also think is wonderful is a chap called Leonard Cohen … do you know him?" he comments. "He's remarkable. I mean, the orchestration is fantastic and the words, the lyrics and everything, he's a remarkable man, and has this incredibly sort of laid back gravelly voice, it's terrific stuff I think. I enjoy jazz and things ..." - from a 2006 interview with Prince Charles.
The Jeffrey Lewis song, "The Chelsea hotel oral sex song" makes reference to and is largley based around Cohen's song about the infamous New York hotel.
Works
Albums
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Songs from a Room (1969)
Songs of Love and Hate (1971)
Live Songs (1973)
New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974)
Death of a Ladies' Man (1977)
Recent Songs (1979)
Various Positions (1984)
I'm Your Man (1988)
The Future (1992)
Cohen Live: Leonard Cohen in Concert (1994)
Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 (2001)
Ten New Songs (2001)
Dear Heather (2004)
Blue Alert (2006) (co-writer, producer)
Compilations
The Best of Leonard Cohen (1975) (also known as Greatest Hits)
More Best of Leonard Cohen (1997) (including two new tracks)
The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002), double CD
Books
Let Us Compare Mythologies (poetry) 1956
The Spice-Box of Earth (poetry) 1961
The Favourite Game (novel) 1963
Flowers for Hitler (poetry) 1964
Beautiful Losers (novel) 1966
Parasites of Heaven (poetry) 1966
Selected Poems 1956–1968 (poetry) 1968
The Energy of Slaves (poetry) 1972
Death of a Lady's Man (poetry and prose) 1978
Book of Mercy (prose poetry/psalms) 1984
Stranger Music (selected poems and songs) 1993
Book of Longing (poetry, prose, drawings) 2006
|
|
Soundtracks
Cohen's music has often been used in film soundtracks.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) uses three songs from his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen: "Stranger Song" is McCabe's theme, "Winter Lady" is Mrs. Miller's, and "Sisters of Mercy" is the theme of the prostitutes who work in their establishment. He also composed some incidental music for the movie.
Fata Morgana (1969) also uses songs from Cohen's first album to highlight the themes of post-apocalyptic ruin in the central section of Werner Herzog's desert-set documentary.
Bird on a Wire (1990) uses "Bird on a Wire" sung by The Neville Brothers.
Pump Up the Volume (1990) uses "Everybody Knows" frequently, as well as "If It Be Your Will". A Concrete Blonde cover of "Everybody Knows" is also heard in the film and appears on the CD of the soundtrack.
Natural Born Killers (1994) uses "The Future," "Waiting for the Miracle," and "Anthem," all from the album The Future.
Exotica (movie) (1994) uses "Everybody Knows" from the album I'm Your Man.
When Night Is Falling (1995) uses "Hallelujah."
Basquiat (1996) uses "Hallelujah" performed by John Cale.
Breaking the Waves (1996) uses "Suzanne".
Wonder Boys (2000) uses "Waiting for the Miracle."
Shrek (2001) uses a slightly censored version of John Cale's recording of "Hallelujah." The soundtrack album, however, replaces this with a version by Rufus Wainwright.
The Good Thief (2002), directed by Neil Jordan, features "A Thousand Kisses Deep."
Secretary (2002) uses "I'm Your Man."
The Life of David Gale (2003) uses "The Future."
A Home at the End of the World (2004) uses "Suzanne" from Songs of Leonard Cohen.
Nathalie... (2004), a French movie by Anne Fontaine, uses "Boogie Street."
Lord of War (2005) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley.
St. Ralph (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Gord Downie.
Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley.
Tribute albums
I'm Your Fan, from 1991, features Cohen's songs interpreted by a variety of folk and alternative rock acts, including R.E.M., Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pixies, The Lilac Time and Geoffrey Oryema,
Tower of Song, released in 1995, has a more mainstream pop-rock program that includes Sting, Jann Arden, Willie Nelson and Elton John.
My Kohen, released in 2002 by Vasiliy K, most compositions are mainstream rock in Russian.
At least 32 tribute albums are released worldwide, mostly in non-English languages.
Cover songs
Many of Cohen's songs have been interpreted (and sometimes translated in other languages) by other artists, occasionally receiving more popular attention than Cohen's own, typically minimalistic arrangements. Some of Cohen's most covered songs include:
"Avalanche," covered by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.
"Bird on the Wire," covered (often as "Bird on a Wire") by Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, Fairport Convention, Tim Hardin, k.d. lang, Willie Nelson, The Neville Brothers, Dax Riggs, The Prudes and Our Lady Peace (at Live 8).
"Dance Me To The End Of Love," covered by Madeleine Peyroux.
"Everybody Knows," covered by Concrete Blonde, Don Henley, The Duhks and the Washington Squares.
"Famous Blue Raincoat," covered by Judy Collins, Tori Amos, Joan Baez, Lloyd Cole, Hayden, Dax Riggs, Jennifer Warnes and Jonathan Coulton
"First We Take Manhattan," covered by Joe Cocker, R.E.M., and Jennifer Warnes
"Hallelujah," covered by Jeff Buckley, John Cale, Bono, Allison Crowe, k.d. lang, Bob Dylan, Rufus Wainwright, Elisa, Gavin DeGraw, Arooj Aftab, Kathryn Williams, and Jazz Mandolin Project. Cale's version (slightly edited) was featured in the movie Shrek, but Wainwright's replaced it on the soundtrack album, apparently because Wainwright was signed with Dreamworks SKG at the time and Cale was not. The Shrek theme music was also based on "Hallelujah." In addition, the American TV show Scrubs used parts of Cale's "Hallelujah" (from Fragments of a Rainy Season, not from I'm Your Fan) and it is included on the Scrubs Soundtrack. Cale's version also appears in Julian Schnabel's film "Basquiat", about New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat. The song appears on the Jazz Mandolin Project's album The Deep Forbidden Lake as an instrumental. Buckley's version is featured in the ending scenes of the first season's finale of The O.C., and will also be sung by Imogen Heap in the season three finale in acapella. The Buckley version was also used in the second season premiere of House, and in the closing scene of the season finale of "The West Wing" in May, 2002.
"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," covered by Judy Collins, Roberta Flack, Claudine Longet, and Ian McCulloch
"Joan of Arc," covered by Judy Collins, Allison Crowe, Fabrizio de André, and Jennifer Warnes.
"Seems So Long Ago, Nancy", covered (as "Nancy") by Fabrizio de André and Palaxy Tracks.
"So Long, Marianne," covered by John Cale, Suzanne Vega and Straitjacket Fits.
"Story of Isaac," covered by Roy Buchanan, Judy Collins, and Suzanne Vega
"Suzanne," covered by Graeme Allwright, Judy Collins, Fabrizio de André, Neil Diamond, Fairport Convention, Roberta Flack, Peter Gabriel, Noel Harrison, Geoffrey Oryema, and Nina Simone. R.E.M. recorded a song called "Hope" which they admit was indebted to "Suzanne"; Cohen received co-songwriting credit for the song.
"Tower of Song", covered by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Dax Riggs and Deadboy & the Elephantmen, Marianne Faithfull, Martha Wainwright, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
"Who By Fire", covered by Coil on the album Horse Rotorvator.
"Song of Bernadette", covered by Bette Midler on the album 'Bathhouse Betty' and Anne Murray on the album What a Wonderful World.
"Leonard Cohen's Day Job" by the Austin Lounge Lizards is not a cover per se, but it alludes to and parodies several songs, especially "I'm Your Man" and "Joan of Arc."
As of December 18, 2005, the site www.leonardcohenfiles.com had counted a total of 1,105 published cover versions of Cohen's songs.
Film
A film titled Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man was released in the USA on June 21, 2006. It is a film of the 2005 tribute to Leonard Cohen "Came So Far For Beauty" held at the Sydney Opera House. The film was directed by Lian Lunson, has appearances by Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Antony of Antony and The Johnsons, others and a performance of "Tower of Song" by Cohen and U2.
See also
List of Quebec musicians
Music of Quebec
Culture of Quebec
The Pod
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Leonard Cohen
General sites on Cohen
Official Leonard Cohen Website
The Leonard Cohen Files – the most comprehensive Cohen site on the net; the next international convention will take place in Berlin in August 2006
The Leonard Cohen Forum
The Leonard Cohen Webring
Speaking Cohen; a large archive of interviews and the "master" site for many of the sites about recent specific albums listed below
Diamonds in the Lines (Leonard Cohen In His Own Live Words), includes Cohen's comments on many individual songs
I'm Your Live Man (Leonard Cohen Concerts and Live Recordings Database), dedicated to the research of concerts and public recordings by Cohen
Leonard Cohen Nights Festival, an annual tribute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The site contains both material about Cohen and about the history of the event.
Leonard Cohen Meetup groups
CBC Digital Archives: Leonard Cohen: Canada's Melancholy Bard
|
|
레너드 코헨의 목소리는 바싹 마른 아스팔트 바닥에 담배를 비벼 끄는 것 같이 삭막하고 건조한 느낌이 든다. 혹은 북아일랜드의 히스 덤불이 가득한 언덕에서 겨울바다를 바라보는 스산함으로 다가올 때도 있다. 그러나 그의 이런 스산함, 황량함은 묘하게도 마음에 상처를 남기지 않는다. 나는 마음에 상처가 가득한 사람을 보면 언제나 레너드 코헨을 들으라고 말한다. 그의 목소리엔 묘한 치유력이 있기 때문이다. 그의 목소리는 도시의 폐허, 황량한 숲 한 가운데 뻥 뚫린 공터에서 불어오는 바람 소리같다. 그러나 그의 목소리는 차갑지 않고, 회색빛 하늘을 이고 있는 겨울의 골목 모퉁이에 기대서서 뽑아먹는 자판기 커피만큼이나 따뜻하고 구수하다.
가수라고 하기에는 거칠고, 단조롭게도 들리는 그의 목소리는 비록 가수로서는 단점이라고 할 수 있겠으나 아티스트로서는 전혀 부족하게 느껴지지 않는다. 그의 목소리는 금방이라도 흑백 사진의 한 귀퉁이를 뚫고 들려올 것만 같다. 그는 단조로운 모노톤의 그러면서도 역시 그만이 던져줄 수 있는 묘한 기품과 깊이가 있다. 세상에 음유시인이라는 명칭을 달고 있는 아티스트는 많으나 그는 그냥 명칭 뿐의 음유시인이 아니라 실제로 소설과 시집을 발표한 작가이기도 하다. 그의 작품을 교재로 사용하는 대학도 있다.
레너드 코헨의 노래를 듣노라면 어느새 친구가 자신의 홀어머니와 살던 깊은 골목 작은 셋방집이 떠오른다. 우리는 모두 가난했지만 어떤 이유에서인지 그 녀석의 집에는 턴테이블이 있었고, 우리는 지금은 보기 어려워진 LP레코드판을 사서는 곧장 그 친구네 집으로 달려가곤 했다. 친구의 어머니는 항상 집에 계시지 않았고, 우리는 갓 뜯은 LP 재킷을 저만큼 던져놓고는 너나할 것없이 스피커 앞에 바짝 다가앉았다. 간혹 운좋게 주머니에 몇 푼의 돈이라도 들어 있을 때면 라면 몇 봉지로 허기를 달래곤 했다. 우리는 모두다 궁기들린 가난한 청소년들이었지만 레너드 코헨의 노래를 듣는 동안만큼은 가난하지 않았다. 이 때 내가 가장 사랑한 노래는 <낸시>였다. 텅빈 방 안에 앉은 여자가 낸시일지, 아니면 수잔일지를 놓고 우리는 내기를 벌였고, 당시엔 금지곡이었던
도시에서 불어오는 한 줄기 바람
|
|
캐나다 태생의 시인 겸 소설가였던 레너드 코헨은 60년대에 나타난 가장 개성있는 시적인 가수였다. 그의 약하고 단조로운 음성과 빈약한 가락은 음악적 호소력에 제한적인 요소로 작용하였음에도 불구하고, 또 그의 시어가 실제로 황량하고 굳어져 있으며, 때로는 침울한 것으로 묘사되었음에도 불구하고 그러한 약점을 보상하듯이 그의 노랫말은 그 곳에 내재된 밀도있는 휴머니티를 통해서 궁극적으로는 성공을 거두었다. 1934년 9월 21일, 캐나다 몬트리얼에서 출생하여 성장한 레너드 코헨은 맥길 대학과 컬럼비아 대학에서 영문학을 전공하였고, 1955년에는 그의 첫 시집을 출판하였다. 60년대를 통해 그는 많은 시집들을 발표하였을 뿐만 아니라 『The Favorite Game』과 『Beautiful Losers』라는 두 권의 소설도 출판하였다. 이제는 대학의 교재가 된 그의 두 번째 작품은 1966년에 출판된 것인데, 10년이 채 못되어서 30만부 이상 팔렸었다.
어려서부터 클래식 음악을 배운 레오나드 코헨은 15세 때부터 자신의 기타 반주로 노래를 부르기 시작했으며, 성년이 되기 전까지 창고 극장을 무대로 한 벅스킨 보이즈라는 댄스 그룹과 함께 연주를 하였다.
Leonard Cohen - Nancy
코헨의 세 여인, Suzanne, Nancy 그리고
|
|
그는 1964년 경부터 작곡을 시작하였는데 인기를 얻지 못하고 있었으나, 주디 콜린즈가 코헨의 가장 낭만적인 작품 중의 하나인
|
|
한 해가 지난 후, 코헨은 북미주와 유럽 순회 공연을 성공적으로 마쳤고, 『Songs From a Room』이란 앨범을 출반하였는데, 그 중에는 자주 출반이 되었던 그의 고전곡인
결국 코헨은 1974년에 재등장하여 신곡들로 구성된 앨범, 『New Skin for the Old Ceremony』를 출반하였고, 1975년에는 다시 순회공연을 하였다. 그 후에 워너 브라더즈 레코드사로 이적한 그는 비범한 작고자이며 제작자인 필 스펙터와 제휴하여 1977년에 『Death of a Ladies' Man』이란 앨범을 발표하였으나 사람들을 실망시켰다. 이 앨범은 우선 제니퍼 원스(Jennifer Warnes)의 하모니가 돋보인
"Songs of Leonard Cohan" (68.1) / "Songs from a Room" (69.4) / "Songs of Love and Hate" (71.4) / "Live Songs" (73. 5) / "New Skin for the Old Ceremony" (74.10) / "Best of Leonard Cohan" (76.4) / "Death of a Ladies' Man" (77.11) / "Recent Songs" (79.10)
(싱글)
Suzanne(68.1) / Bird on the Wire (69.4) / Avalanche (71.5) / Seems so Long Ago, Nancy (73.4)
참고사이트 & 참고 도서
『록의 시대 - 저항과 실험의 카타르시스』/ 알랭 디스테르 지음/ 성기완 옮김/ 시공 디스커버리 038/1996년
- 서울대 출신 시인이자 음악컬럼니스트, 그 자신이 인디밴드를 결성하여 활동하고 있는 성기완이 프랑스의 록음악 전문 칼럼니스트인 알랭 디스테르의 책을 번역하여 옮긴 것이다. 책의 중간중간에 우리로서는 다소 생소한 프랑스 록음악과 록그룹에 대한 이야기가 사족처럼 끼어든다는 사실을 제외하곤 풍족한 사진 자료와 함께 우리들로서는 쉽게 접하기 어려웠던 록음악의 역사를 읽어볼 수 있다.
『록 음악의 아홉가지 갈래들』/ 신현준 지음/ 문학과 지성사/ 1997년
- 록 음악은 그 하위 장르가 많기로 유명한 음악 장르이기도 하다. 앞의『록의 시대 - 저항과 실험의 카타르시스』의 경우가 록음악사에 관한 책이라면 이 책은 록 음악의 장르에 대한 책이다. 블루스로부터 펑크 음악까지 록 음악의 다양한 장르를 두루 섭렵하고 있다.
『팝아티스트 대사전』/ 세광음악사출판국 지음/ 세광음악출판사/ 1985년
- 최신 팝아티스트는 아니지만 예전부터 활동해 온 많은 팝아티스트들에 대해서 그들의 작품 활동과 앨범들을 소개하고 있다.
1979년에 이르러 코헨은 『Recent Songs』를 녹음하였는데 이 앨범은 컬럼비아 레코드사에서 출반되었다. 한편 1985년에는 신서사이저가 가미된 9집 『Various Positions』를 발표하며,
1991년 겨울엔 R.E.M., Jean-Louis Murat, Bill Pritchard, John Cale, Nick Cave 등 그의 추종자들이 모여 헌정앨범 『I'm Your Fan』을 발표하는데, 레너드 코헨의 히트곡들을 새로운 감각으로 재해석하여 신세대에게까지 그의 이름을 알리는데 일익을 하였다. 그로부터 일년 뒤 레너드 코헨은 이전과는 다른, 사회성이 짙은 가사를 담은 앨범 『The Future』를 발표하는데, 이 앨범은 더욱 풍부해진 사운드와 다이나믹한 리듬감의 변화 등으로 코헨의 음악경력에 있어서나 인기에 있어 그를 정상의 자리에 끌어 올리게 된다. 자유와 민주화를 기리는 미래에 대한 그의 소망이 담긴 작품으로 평가받은 이 앨범을 통해
Poetic Rock
|
|
포크에서 발전된 1960년대의 록음악들은 가사들은 그 뿌리에서 크게 벗어나지 않는 깊이 있는 주제와 이미지, 시적인 표현들을 여전히 지니고 있었는데, 미국의 대학에서 학문으로까지 다루어지고 있는 밥 딜런의 가사들이 그 대표적인 예이고, 로큰롤을 하던 비틀즈도 이러한 가사적 변화를 보이기도 했다. 존 레넌의 싱어 송라이터 적인 작업들이 그 일례로 들 수 있다. 시적인 표현으로 나타나는 이러한 요소들은 그 깊이와 이미지의 차이는 있지만 조니 미첼, 닐 영, 제임스 테일러, 랜디 뉴먼, 폴 사이먼, 캣 스티븐스, 레너드 코헨 등의 작업에서 발견된다. 이 중 레너드 코헨은 1968년에 싱어 송라이터로 등장하기 전에는 이미 인정받는 소설가이자 시인이기도 했다. 이후 이런 포에틱 록은 수잔 베가, 트레이시 채프먼 등 여성 싱어송 라이터들에게 이어지고 있다.
'Favorite Music' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Appalachian Spring (0) | 2013.05.02 |
|---|---|
| Sing (0) | 2013.04.26 |
| Another Brick In The Wall (0) | 2013.04.25 |
| Woongsan/Yesterday (0) | 2013.04.25 |
| The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 (0) | 2013.04.25 |