6 ms·

It 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-so

• Tomte 10y ago
  Bob Dylan is mentioned a lot in the article.
• hobochili 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. He's written two novels, several volumes of poetry, and, of course, has made his own irreplaceable poetic contributions to American songwriting.
  • rbadaro 10y ago
    He would definitely deserve it. But he's Canadian so his contributions would more correctly be classified as going towards Canadian songwriting.
    • hobochili 10y ago
      Haha... 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 ago
        I'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 ago
          I'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 ago
            That'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 ago
          I'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 ago
      Last time I checked Canada was in the Americas but I get your point.
      • Kluny 10y ago
        I 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 ago
  One 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 ago
    This 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.