Leonard Cohen, Connecting
February 4, 2012 at 8:47 AM | Posted in Connections, Music | 3 CommentsTags: Jon Pareles, Leonard Cohen, NY Times
Old Ideas (his new album)
In a recent column by Jon Pareles in the New York Times, Final Reckonings, A Tuneful Fedora And Forgiveness, we get this from the great Leonard Cohen:
“And for some financial reasons I was forced to go back on the road to repair the fortunes of my family and myself. And this was a most fortunate happenstance because I was able to connect, for one thing, with living musicians. I was working at home with just keyboards and my own guitar. Suddenly I was dealing with living musicians and then with living audiences and, yes, it did have a great effect. And I think it warmed some part of my heart that had taken on a chill.”
My copy of Old Ideas should arrive any day now.
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The wonderful thing about Leonard is that he was before Dylan. His writing shows an independence of Bob that is refreshing in a heart warming way. So many others, including myself, have Dylan as a sacred template. I think that is exceedingly good. Lyric writers could do worse. But I also think that it is very good that Leonard operates differently.
I remember Leonard’s first album, and “Beautiful Losers”, a novel, along with an excellent collection of poems. My copy of the poems was dogeared.Thankfully, I still have the album and the book. I do not have the poems, but these days there is a remedy.
Keep up the thoughtful work Thomas.
Comment by Vermeer Brown— February 18, 2012 #
What a great note — thanks for reading and writing. Interesting that you say that Leonard came before Dylan: his is older but recorded after Bob was long on the shelves. That first album was a revelation and I still have mine as well. I got it when it came out and it was like the Doors first album or Music from Big Pink — it came down from Mars.
Do you know the album Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes? Great.
Comment by tommackey— February 18, 2012 #
The Spice Box of Earth (1961) was a powerful collection of poems, written over a few years. By virtue of the timing of that work, Leonard is one of the few folks out there eligible to not be influenced by Bob. And by virtue of his singular voice, I believe him capable of it.
Comment by Vermeer Brown— February 19, 2012 #