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Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker
- kristofferR 10y agoHow did The New Yorker get such a well timed profile? Did they know in advance that he would win the Nobel Prize?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- gjm11 10y agoIt would be impressive to know that in advance, given that actually it was Bob Dylan who won it. (But perhaps they were tipped off that it would be a singer-songwriter, and they made the wrong guess.)
- Tomte 10y agoBob Dylan is mentioned a lot in the article.
- hobochili 10y agoAs much as I love Bob Dylan, I wouldn't have been upset had Leonard Cohen been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He's written two novels, several volumes of poetry, and, of course, has made his own irreplaceable poetic contributions to American songwriting.
- rbadaro 10y agoHe would definitely deserve it. But he's Canadian so his contributions would more correctly be classified as going towards Canadian songwriting.
- hobochili 10y agoHaha... Valid point. I'd have to explore the intricacies of Canadian songwriting before I could confidently make the assertion, but my feeling is that Cohen's songwriting falls in line with the American tradition.
- nathancahill 10y agoI've explored the intricacies of Canadian songwriting. J Biebs.
- Kluny 10y ago(Biased Canadian) I'd say Cohen is entirely Canadian. He has this very self-deprecating humor that you don't really get from Americans.
- hobochili 10y agoI'll concede that Cohen is a Canadian songwriter. It's interesting to me, though, that he launched his music career in New York.
- dmix 10y agoThat's where all the good record labels and record producers were. All good Canadian musicians/actors/directors go to the US. They largely leave Canada behind without much mention of Canada during their careers besides Drake and to a lesser extent Neil Young being the exception. Leonard's first album had amazing production by american producer John Simon (who also worked with The Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin), probably the best in Cohen's entire career, so he chose well deciding to work out of Columbia's studio in NYC... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Leonard_Cohen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Leonard_Cohen
- kmonsen 10y agoI'm struggling with the use of the word American here, both you and the parent posters. In my opinion all Canadians are just as much Americans as anyone from the USA. Not sure what else you can call someone from USA, so I guess it makes a bit of sense.
- luckydata 10y agoLast time I checked Canada was in the Americas but I get your point.
- Kluny 10y agoI know, but Canadians never call themselves Americans.
- j1vms 10y ago> As much as I love Bob Dylan, I wouldn't have been upset had Leonard Cohen been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. I would not be surprised that one of the lesser reasons Dylan was awarded this year was to open the door to others including Cohen in future years. Not to mention that Dylan's awarding might have the more subtle effect of encouraging contemporary musicians, if they are not already doing so, to commit to more enduring songwriting than otherwise just making a weekly Top 40.
- abuiles 10y agoOne of the episodes of Revisionist History talks about genius and different types of innovation, through the episode they talk about Cohen and how his song Hallelujah was not an overnight success. Cohen worked on it over 5 years to get it to a point where he was comfortable with! Dylan is also mentioned in that episode, since they had some kind of mutual admiration. Apparently Dylan and Cohen meetup at some point and Dylan asked Leonard how long it took him to write Hallelujah and he lied saying "2 years". Then Cohen asked Dylan how long it took him write "I and I" and Dylan said: "oh, like 15 minutes". If you are interested in exploring more, I annotated a bunch of fun facts from that episode https://www.listeningcrowd.com/podcasts/1-revisionist-history/4-hallelujah/ https://www.listeningcrowd.com/podcasts/1-revisionist-histor...
- haraldurt 10y agoThis exchange also included in the linked New Yorker post: >Over the decades, Dylan and Cohen saw each other from time to time. In the early eighties, Cohen went to see Dylan perform in Paris, and the next morning in a café they talked about their latest work. Dylan was especially interested in “Hallelujah.” Even before three hundred other performers made “Hallelujah” famous with their cover versions, long before the song was included on the soundtrack for “Shrek” and as a staple on “American Idol,” Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. He asked Cohen how long it took him to write. > “Two years,” Cohen lied. > Actually, “Hallelujah” had taken him five years. He drafted dozens of verses and then it was years more before he settled on a final version. In several writing sessions, he found himself in his underwear, banging his head against a hotel-room floor. > Cohen told Dylan, “I really like ‘I and I,’ ” a song that appeared on Dylan’s album “Infidels.” “How long did it take you to write that?” > “About fifteen minutes,” Dylan said. > When I asked Cohen about that exchange, he said, “That’s just the way the cards are dealt.” As for Dylan’s comment that Cohen’s songs at the time were “like prayers,” Cohen seemed dismissive of any attempt to plumb the mysteries of creation.
- blowski 10y agoI guess it's a promo piece because of his new album coming out next week.
- DanBC 10y agoNews papers pre-emptively write obituaries for famous older people, so they have a bunch of stuff already researched and written for Cohen.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- chris_wot 10y agoI work for a media company and one day a senior subeditor for one of Australia's preeminent newspapers called to complain that one of his writers had been locked out of Active Directory. When I found out the writer was a permanent staff member who did the obits, I removed the end date from the account and advised the sub that unlike the subjects he wrote about, the obit-writer's account would never expire. I was gratified that I got a guffaw, and we ended the phone call.
- woliveirajr 10y ago> "At eighty-two, the troubadour has another album coming. Like him, it is obsessed with mortality, God-infused, and funny" Think it's because of the album
- timehastoldme 10y agoVery funny.
- napoleoncomplex 10y agoAs others have mentioned, there are a few factors in play. The interview mentions the letter he recently wrote to his dying ex-love, where he said himself "I am not far behind". Connected to that, his single from the new album is more or less an invitation for death to come for him. Those things likely triggered the sense of urgency in some reporters :).
- bryanrasmussen 10y agoSince Cohen started off a poet and he is generally cited as one of the singer-songwriters whose songs are most like poetry. So maybe he's next.
- ericzawo 10y agoLeonard Cohen is absolutely one of the best (Canadian!) artists of the last century. Seriously; if you have the time, do what you can to discover his music. Songs of Leonard Cohen, Various Positions, and of course I'm Your Man are all must listen albums.
- sparkzilla 10y agoThose looking to try Cohen for the first time (or wanting to rediscover him) should listen to Live in London (2009), which IMHO is one of the best live albums ever. Great songs and some witty banter in between. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2p8je2 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2p8je2
- smelterdemon 10y agoMy access point was catching Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 on PBS late one night. I'd recommend it as an intro to his earlier material.
- misiti3780 10y agoDont forget Gord Downie, he could probably win a nobel for is poetry also!
- jeffreygoesto 10y agoIt was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations Reveal themselves, one star at time
- natashabaker 10y agoI'd also recommend checking out his poetry. His earlier stuff especially. This is a good place to start: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2a/8c/98/2a8c980c4c4fe03d4305d02f93117c59.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2a/8c/98/2a8c980c4.... Check out Irving Layton as well (another Canadian poet/professor). Really good stuff, and clearly influenced Leonard Cohen's writing.
- jomamaxx 10y ago
- jontas 10y agoI was fortunate enough to see him live quite a few times during his touring between 2008 and 2012, and I have never seen better live music in my life. In his late 70s he would give a 3+ hour performance full of energy and enthusiasm, it was truly incredible to see.
- jtwaleson 10y agoI've been to four (Oberhausen, Paris, Rotterdam, Amsterdam) and all evenings were fantastic. Highly doubt if I'll ever see a better show. It helped that the crowds were superb too! edit: The other artists in the line-up were top-notch. My favorite part of the non-Cohen sung songs was the Webb Sisters with "Coming Back to You": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzX0Nk3sCJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzX0Nk3sCJE
- dvirsky 10y agoI saw him once in 2009. Indeed maybe the best show I've ever seen. Part of it was due to the fact that I sort of knew I would never get to see him again, and part of it because it was a truly great performance.
- 3chelon 10y agoFirst off, I've always been a huge fan of Cohen. But the opening paragraph made me bristle slightly: "He got by on a three-thousand-dollar grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. This was 1960..." I'm assuming that's Canadian dollars. So he was living abroad doing what he loved, and presumably not breaking much of a sweat. No less than ten years later, in the same country, my parents were struggling to bring up two children on my father's wage which was half that amount - and for a 40-hour week of very dangerous, manual work. Now obviously people aspire to successful, creative careers, and most people don't begrudge them that, especially if they bring a great deal of joy to others. But I notice there is a phenomenon quite common in journalism, esp. regarding artistic figures, a great many of whom were actually born into relatively privileged circumstances, and a number of whom, especially during the sixties, wanted to display their bohemian credentials by living in somewhat spartan conditions. Strangely, however, they can always afford an air fare (decades before budgets airlines), and often inherit a house here or there, and always able to afford recreational drugs. The image of the impoverished poet has long had journalistic appeal, but it is often a lie. They were actually in a very privileged position compared to 99% of people.
- smelterdemon 10y agoI don't see the need to bristle when the rest of that paragraph dispells any notion of an "impoverished poet": "Cohen, whose family was both prominent and cultivated, had an ironical view of himself. He was a bohemian with a cushion whose first purchases in London were an Olivetti typewriter and a blue raincoat at Burberry."
- 3chelon 10y agoThat is a fair point, well made. I guess the bristling got the better of me. And in those days, Burberry was actually an upper-class brand without the downmarket associations it has these days.
- WaxProlix 10y agoBurberry still is in a lot of ways. Chav culture riffs on it have degraded the public image a bit but a Burberry coat probably won't go for less than a couple grand.
- steinsgate 10y agoIf someone told me that there would come a day when two of the first three HN posts will be about Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, I would have dismissed them as high or delusional. Turns out that I would be very wrong.
- bertiewhykovich 10y agowah wah people have interests other than jerking it to TechCrunch
- neom 10y agoAs a Canadian I especially love Leonard Cohen, I think it's wonderful people are learning more about him and his music, I grew up listening to it. If you're into poetry, his poems are mostly his songs, and his songs his poems, so if you don't like his voice (It's an acquired taste much like Hawksley Workman) - I highly recommend reading some of his poetry, it's quite beautiful. :)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pgodzin 10y ago> Dylan went on driving. After a while, he told Cohen that a famous songwriter of the day had told him, “O.K., Bob, you’re Number 1, but I’m Number 2.” > Cohen smiled. “Then Dylan says to me, ‘As far as I’m concerned, Leonard, you’re Number 1. I’m Number Zero.’ Meaning, as I understood it at the time—and I was not ready to dispute it—that his work was beyond measure and my work was pretty good.” Pretty fitting after today's Nobel prize award. Cohen is definitely up there with the greatest songwriters and poets of this generation.
- pazimzadeh 10y agoIs that where Steve Jobs got the idea? I know he was a huge fan of Dylan. http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/apples-employee-no-0-2008-11/?FirstIsWorst http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/appl...
- bjourne 10y agoWhy is this on Hacker News? It is a promotional piece about the new album he's releasing, isn't it?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]