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Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall
- pseudolus 2y agohttp://archive.today/i4EDT http://archive.today/i4EDT
- indigodaddy 2y agoHere's hoping that some HN users discover Leonard Cohen via this thread! For me it was life changing.. up there with the impact of Glass, Ali Farka Toure, the genre of Flamenco in and of itself, Simon Shaheen, Ennio Morricone, Goran Bregovic, Yann Tiersen, Islands, etc, on me. (although a lot of these aren't really related to each other, just sort of speaking to that "musical impact" on a person)
- Obscurity4340 2y agoWhats the best start or way to go to discover Cohen for a newb?
- nullhole 2y ago"The Best of Leonard Cohen" isn't a bad place. It's from mid-career, so not exhaustive, but most of the songs on it are gems.
- pseudolus 2y agoHere's a Youtube video ("A Guide to Leonard Cohen") that came out right after he died and provides a brief bio and discusses some of his work: https://youtu.be/rLQD_kugBBM https://youtu.be/rLQD_kugBBM
- bitmasher9 2y agoMaybe one of his later in life live performance albums (Live in Dublin or Live in London)would be a good place to start, if you don’t mind spending an hour of audio listening. He’s personable, performs his greatest hits, and feels like a man demonstrating his life’s work.
- beezlewax 2y agoNot the poster you asked but I'd say.. Start at or near the beginning. Later stuff has some gnarly sounding synths and arrangements that might not sound all that palatable to the modern ear (very 80s). For me I first heard him via his album "Songs of Love and Hate". I found it in my dads record collection after a funeral of a close family member. It's still my favourite.
- indigodaddy 2y agoPretty sure I first found out about Cohen (and Pixies!) via Pump Up The Volume (1990). Fantastic movie. I thought the Concrete Blonde Everybody Knows cover was good, but then I dug and found the real thing and was blown away..
- jzb 2y agoFWIW I think they're comparable, but just very different. Johnette Napolitano's voice is fantastic, and she really gets to stretch out on "Everybody Knows". As good as the recorded version is, hearing Concrete Blonde do it live was amazing. I saw them in 1993 in St. Louis and that show is still in my top 10 concerts, ever.
- Supernaut 2y ago> synths and arrangements that might not sound all that palatable to the modern ear Are you referring to I'm Your Man? Because I'd say that it's his single most accessible collection of songs, and that his adoption of modern instrumentation was a genius move. The backing track for "First We Take Manhattan" sounds like New Order!
- xhevahir 2y agoIt's not modern instrumentation. It's a Technics arranger keyboard like the kind you might have heard in an airport smoking lounge. He started using them because they allowed him to build an arrangement without the help of other musicians. They've always sounded chintzy to me but they worked for him because of the cabaret nature of his songs.
- indigodaddy 2y agoHis later tour stuff is great as another commented mentioned, but I'd say maybe give 'I'm Your Man' a whirl (it has Everybody Knows and Take This Waltz). If you don't like it then you probably won't like LC in general (although you maybe could still like Hallelujah as that one has sort of taken over the mainstream consciousness. Definitely a great song, and I'm in the minority probably being that I dislike most of the Hallelujah "covers", preferring the LC original). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Your_Man_(Leonard_Cohen_album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Your_Man_(Leonard_Cohen_... Songs from a Room from 1990 is also pretty great, with one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, The Partisan. His early stuff is a little different, mostly due to his voice being different tonally and being much younger (just his later stuff with the gruff voice comes off kind of different, but stylistically his music has stayed pretty consistent-- he has explored and incorporated world music throughout his career for instance), but you can't go wrong with his first album from 1967, with classics like Suzanne and So Long, Marianne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Leonard_Cohen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Leonard_Cohen
- Ma8ee 2y agoI guess it is just a typo, but Songs from a Room is from 1969. For me his first three albums: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room, and Songs of Love and Hate made a kind of trilogy. I've always loved these ones, while his other albums more grown on me over time.
- indigodaddy 2y agoYou know I thought it was a very early one, but I looked it up on Google and it said 1990 so I just blindly accepted it. Must have been a reference to a reissue perhaps..
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoSuzanne is quintessential young Cohen: written as poetry before he became a singer, put to simple but enjoyable music, personal but relatable in its theme and quite evocative of the 60s. I think the best way to understand Cohen is that he is a legitimate poetry writer who realised early on that his voice and good look could earn him more money as a singer. He is in a lot of way a better Dylan except giving him the Nobel would have been less insulting to Roth.
- mhb 2y agoWho By Fire The little-known story of Leonard Cohen’s concert tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War https://mattifriedman.com/who-by-fire/ https://mattifriedman.com/who-by-fire/
- jzb 2y agoI'd start with The Future (1992), I'm Your Man (1988), and Ten New Songs (2001). Those are, IMO, his most accessible and there's a very good chance you already know a few of those songs and haven't realized you know those songs. (e.g., "Everybody Knows" from I'm Your Man has been in a few movies, as have "The Future", and "Waiting for a Miracle" from The Future.) Note that there's a really stark difference in his voice starting in the mid-80s. His early stuff doesn't sound quite right to me because I equate Leonard Cohen with his voice in the later albums.
- xhevahir 2y agoI started with I'm Your Man and it's probably still my favorite but there are good reasons why his best known work is on the first few albums.
- jzb 2y agoIs it? I guess I have no idea what people perceive as his best-known work, generally. You may well be right - RYM has far more reviews of Songs of Leonard Cohen (and a higher average rating) than I'm Your Man or The Future. I still like those albums more, but I appear to be in the minority on that.
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- rwmj 2y agoThe Best Of Leonard Cohen a classic early collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Leonard_Cohen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Leonard_Cohen But his albums, especially the early ones, are worth getting because of the extraordinary standard of both songwriting and production (by Bob Johnston).
- ghotli 2y agoSuzanne
- keithasaurus 2y agoI learned about Leonard Cohen by watching the movie McCabe and Mrs Miller. Recommended.
- gattilorenz 2y agoI learned about him by reading (but no audio...) and then watching Barney's version. A great songwriter, a great book, a very nice movie.
- indigodaddy 2y agoOn my watchlist!
- marcus0x62 2y agoLive in London is a great representation of how he sounded toward the end of his touring career, and I think it is a great place to start. IMO, there's not a bad track on the album.
- bregma 2y agoFirst you take Manhattan. Then you take Berlin. You want it darker?
- worik 2y agoHis first two albums are a revelation If you can cope with "man and guitar", nothing else It is the songs. Just the songs
- marginalia_nu 2y agoI think either this, or his last two albums. The Hills[1] is just sublime. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FesS3D-7o1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FesS3D-7o1g
- andyjohnson0 2y agoLive in London is a great album to atart with - he was in his seventies, doing a multi-year world tour, and still sounding absolutely at the top of his game. I'm your Man, like some of his other 80s albums, can be a bit synth-heavy - which may be surprising if you've only heard Suzanne. I'd recommend it, although I dislike the final track (Jazz Police). His final album, You Want it Darker is elegiac and sadly lovely. Probably not the place to start though.
- touisteur 2y agoI'm your Man has been rarely covered but someone did a good job of it https://youtu.be/qH06n-5-B70 https://youtu.be/qH06n-5-B70
- karaterobot 2y agoIn my experience, the best way to discover Leonard Cohen's music is while driving back from a high school club convention in 1996, and the cool teacher starts playing New Skin for the Old Ceremony on cassette. And you're like: "this isn't Nirvana, what is it?!" BUT, if you can't swing that, there's a great Best Of album that is 100% bangers. Slow, dark, introspective bangers.
- indigodaddy 2y agoHah, love it.
- mklepaczewski 2y agoI don't know about the best way to discover him, but nobody yet mentioned "Famous blue raincoat" nor "Dance me to the end of love" and I just couldn't let them go unnoticed. "Take this waltz" and "Hallelujah" are also great.
- seemaze 2y agoThose are all wonderful songs and included in the 2002 compilation 'The Essential Leonard Cohen', which incidentally is how I discovered his music.
- marginalia_nu 2y agoI don't think it matters where you start, but start with the expectation that a lot of the music is really more spoken word poetry set to music, the emphasis is on the lyrics and their layered metaphor, and so the music strongly benefits from repeated listening. There's stuff you won't unpack until you've listened to a song dozens of times.
- scrame 2y agojust do the greatest hits, and maybe songs of love and hate.
- coldpie 2y agoThe first thing I listened to from him was his very last album, "You Want it Darker", released less than a month before he passed. I don't know whether it's the best way to start, but I absolutely love the album, and it made a huge impact on me. It's one of the most emotional sets of music I've ever heard. You can hear his voice straining to its limits, he's putting everything he's got into it.
- marginalia_nu 2y agoThe posthumous Thanks for the Dance is a fantastic album as well. If anything, even more emotional than You Want It Darker.
- eliaspro 2y agoI grew up with Leonard's music in the 90s, but it was only after his death that I learned about his non-musical poetry through another favorite of mine - the Swedish group "First Aid Kit". They did an absolutely breathtaking tribute show to honor their idol, where they arranged his music and poetry with a few of their friends: https://youtu.be/of_hZoVvqaM https://youtu.be/of_hZoVvqaM
- 082349872349872 2y agoMy favourite cover of "Hallelujah" is the yiddish one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH1fERC_504 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH1fERC_504
- more_corn 2y agoThere was a recent article about hallelujah. https://subtledigressions.substack.com/p/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-and-a-pulitzer https://subtledigressions.substack.com/p/hallelujah-leonard-...
- myth_drannon 2y agoNope, doesn't work with Yiddish/German language, too abrupt and hard. I would say Hebrew since it flows naturally with the word Hallelujah, but even that...
- qwertox 2y agoI dislike "Hallelujah" and am not aware of other songs from him. There's the line "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld, so I can sigh eternally" in Pennyroyal Tea, which made me not judge him, and then there was Chris Cornell's daughter Toni singing it for her father [0], which was really moving. What am I missing out on? [0] https://youtu.be/w5-M1lwLvDU?t=75 https://youtu.be/w5-M1lwLvDU?t=75
- gmac 2y agoIt’s funny, I quite viscerally hate Cohen’s original Hallelujah, but I first encountered it as sung by Jeff Buckley, and that version I absolutely love. Otherwise I like his first album (Songs of Leonard Cohen) when I’m in the mood for something depressing, but everything else of his I’ve heard just sounds to me like a drunk on a street corner with a Casio keyboard.
- SECProto 2y ago> everything else of his I’ve heard just sounds to me like a drunk on a street corner with a Casio keyboard Though I disagree with the characterization, there's a beauty in it, too
- RankingMember 2y ago> on a street corner with a Casio keyboard Muscling in on Wesley Willis' territory!
- indigodaddy 2y agoI wouldn’t discount exploring further if you disliked Hallelujah, as the song is a bit niche even against LC’s larger library. Find a best of album and give it a go. ‘Everybody Knows’ and many others that you may better regard will certainly be on it.
- jszymborski 2y agoPretty much every track is a hit, but here are some four random personal favourites: - Everybody Knows https://youtu.be/Gxd23UVID7k https://youtu.be/Gxd23UVID7k - First We Take Manhattan https://youtu.be/JTTC_fD598A https://youtu.be/JTTC_fD598A - Famous Blue Raincoat https://youtu.be/ohk3DP5fMCg https://youtu.be/ohk3DP5fMCg - Who By Fire https://youtu.be/ilGahIwQEQ0 https://youtu.be/ilGahIwQEQ0 Obviously too many to list here though, just pick up any album. By virtue of the fact that he was an incredible songwriter, his songs have such wonderful covers. The Tori Amos cover of Famous Blue Raincoat [0] is one of my favourites, and this cover of Who by Fire by PJ Harvey & Tim Phillips gives me chills every time [1] (also the theme for Bad Sisters which is an amazing series). Also, pretty much every Canadian who was an adult in 2010 has an emotional connection to the k.d. lang performance of Hallelujah at the Vancouver olympics [2]. [0] https://youtu.be/PMSbICWbjBw https://youtu.be/PMSbICWbjBw [1] https://youtu.be/PPY_MqCfMqE https://youtu.be/PPY_MqCfMqE [2] https://youtu.be/tcOQSk_cMO0 https://youtu.be/tcOQSk_cMO0
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- mrtksn 2y agoWhen I was backpacking in Germany some many years ago I stumbled upon a concert of him and tried to convince some peers to watch it, IIRC the venue was suitable to hang around and listen to without a ticket, and everybody thought that it was the uncoolest thing ever. I still disagree, Leonard Cohen is amazing. Much cooler than most rocks stars. I would be happy if his song become a thing again.
- lagrange77 2y agoMy mom dragged me to one of his last concerts and i had similar expectations as your peers. Since then he has been my role model in terms of coolness.
- wdr1 2y agoI saw him perform twice in Los Angeles. Despite being over 70, he performed over 3 hours. It was outstanding. Outside of seeing U2 at the Sphere, it was the best live events I've ever attended.
- dylan604 2y agoLeonard Cohen is one of those artists where I tend to much prefer someone else's version of his songs than I do his songs. I wonder how many people were introduced to him in the late 90s from The Soprano's opening theme?
- jachee 2y agoFor me it was Rufus Wainright’s cover of Hallelujah from Shrek. I agree though, that his songwriting is often most-elevated in someone else’s hands.
- fracus 2y agoJeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah is one of if not the best cover song ever period.
- jancsika 2y agoAt least in terms of emotive distance between original and cover, I'd say Joe Cocker's version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" beats it. Cocker's version was so compelling they didn't even bother doing the little flat-VI coda from the original. That's the musical equivalent of going out for a coffee during Final Jeopardy because you're so far ahead.
- jachee 2y agoCheck out Jason Isabel and the 400 Unit’s cover of Metallica’s Sad But True. Even if you’re not a Metallica fan, it’s a fannnnntastic song.
- fipar 2y agoI’m pretty sure it’s John Cale singing in the movie. A quick search tells me Wainright’s version is on the soundtrack. I’m down with some nasty bug now and on antibiotics so I may be completely off, but I stand by it being Cale on the movie.
- boomboomsubban 2y ago
- te_chris 2y agoWhat a writer. We were lucky to share the same planet for a while. 1000 kisses deep, if it be your will, you want it darker, tower of song, ain’t no cure for love, anthem, and on and on. Most songwriters will never write one of those, but he just kept on going. He was our man, our searching, restless, yearning man.
- FpUser 2y agoAbsolutely love the guy. Among the other things have huge collection of his songs on my HD.
- dguest 2y agoThis surprised me: ...the rock era unfolded as ... a series of begats (Elvis begat the Beatles, the Beatles begat Jann Wenner, etc.) involving identity-famished teenagers and their heroes ... Cohen is absent from this narrative for one simple reason: He was the same age as Elvis. I had to look this up: Actually he was a few months older (born in 1934 while Elvis was 1935).
- dennis_jeeves2 2y ago>involving identity-famished teenagers Transposed to HN it would be: The era of software unfolded as a series of frameworks, involving identity-famished nerds and their languages...
- allturtles 2y agoThis seems to overlook the more obvious reason he is absent from that narrative: he was never all that popular. His only top 100 hit, for "Hallelujah", came in 2016, after his death.[0] [0]: https://www.billboard.com/artist/leonard-cohen/ https://www.billboard.com/artist/leonard-cohen/; compare to Elvis https://www.billboard.com/artist/elvis-presley/ https://www.billboard.com/artist/elvis-presley/, Beatles https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-beatles/ https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-beatles/
- vjerancrnjak 2y agoYep, the album Various Positions on which Hallelujah appeared was not even released in the US by Columbia, they released it in Europe instead. I think it was only after Bob Dylan covered Hallelujah ~1988 at one of his live concerts, he was the first to cover it (John Cale did it in 1991), that the song and the album exploded in popularity.
- peutetre 2y agoOr after Jeff Buckley's cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4
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- mannyv 2y ago'Let's sing another song, boys. This one has grown old and bitter.'
- chikenf00t 2y agoI highly recommend Cohen's The Book of Longing. It has carried me over the years through mountains of heartbreak. It was one of the first poetry books that I ever read and introduced me into a whole new realm of literature.
- exabrial 2y agoHe has a secret chord thats quite pleasing.
- bregma 2y agoI once listened to an interview with him in which he was asked if he always wore black. His response was that no, earlier in the day he was wearing grey but it clashed with the rain so he went home and changed.
- algem 2y agoHe’s got some great tracks on the movie Natural Born Killers. I’ve always liked “the future”
- everybodyknows 2y agoCheck out "Everybody Knows" in Exotica. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotica_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotica_(film)
- echelon_musk 2y agoAlso McCabe & Mrs. Miller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCabe_%26_Mrs._Miller#Leonard_Cohen's_songs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCabe_%26_Mrs._Miller#Leonard...
- barrkel 2y agoI named my son after him, and had to rename my cat after he was born - my cat is now Mr Cohen. I did not discover him, though, I grew up to the sound of Suzanne and the rest of the Songs, one of the tapes my mother played fairly regularly when I was little. He, along with Tom Waits, was the soundtrack of my childhood and of course something you grow to appreciate more, not less, with age. I think Suzanne is probably my favorite song of his. It's got one of the most soothing melodies, simple and gently repetitive, undulating, like the river itself. The imagery of Jesus, of the cross as a lonely wooden tower, as a man broken and forsaken, in contrast to a life-affirming personification of nature in Suzanne; the whole river / boat / sailor theme running throughout; it's just very well put together and thematically tight.
- tway_GdBRwW 2y agoOh, man, you had great parents. Hopefully in other aspects as well.
- justusthane 2y agoMy mom used to sing Suzanne to my sister and I when we were little. Probably why it’s one of my favorite songs.
- Marsymars 2y agoI get a bit choked up when I see his mural in Montreal: https://www.mtl.org/en/what-to-do/culture-arts-heritage/leonard-cohen-crescent-street-mural-montreal https://www.mtl.org/en/what-to-do/culture-arts-heritage/leon...
- ziyao_w 2y ago“We are ugly but we have the music.” One of the first things I did in New York was to visit the Chelsea Hotel. All the stories. I’ve always been borderline obsessed with hey that’s no way to say goodbye, so long, Marianne, and later on if it be your will. There are so many other gems I was almost angry when Dylan won a Nobel and not Leonard Cohen. Another musician I enjoy in the same way would be Gainsbourg. Wonder when will the language model overlords understand all of these beauty.
- nervousvarun 2y agoBird on the Wire and Famous Blue Raincoat are for me basically modern hymns. And these aren't even from his "religious" period. Also if you've never seen McCabe and Mrs Miller check it out...a great Altman film that makes really good use of Cohen's songs in the soundtrack.
- pictur 2y agoIt's time to listen to you want it darker.
- jaeh 2y agohis songs have traveled with me my whole life but it took me 30+ years to find my favorite: the future. things are going to slide (slide) in all directions won't be nothing (won't be) nothing you can measure anymore ... i've seen the nations rise and fall, i've heard their stories, heard them all but love's the only engine of survival. ... and all the lousy little poets coming round trying to sound like charlie manson ... give me back the berlin wall give me stalin and st. paul i've seen the future, siblings it is murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzPVKg3wyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzPVKg3wyo the song is from 1992 ... edit: tried to fix the formatting
- marginalia_nu 2y agoAnthem from the same album is also fantastic. This one gets me every time: Every heart To love will come But like a refugee
- harel 2y agoLeonard's voice was a presence in my life since I was a baby as my mum adored him. I am very fortunate to have got to see him three times perform. Each was a mind-blowing experience.
- doe88 2y agoLove this song - The Partisan (le chant des partisans) - WW2 resistance's song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5hOhI4pEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5hOhI4pEE
- neom 2y agoMy fav doc, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, A Way of Life (1994) was Narrated by Leonard Cohen and it's soooo good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg8ikDKL_zs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg8ikDKL_zs
- inglor_cz 2y agoLeonard Cohen was a fantastic poet. Plus, I liked his personality. Totally unpretentious, similar to Johnny Cash. Never got distracted by his fame.
- TacticalCoder 2y ago[flagged]
- d13 2y agoEveryone seems to have forgotten Beautiful Losers, one of the greatest novels ever written: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Losers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Losers Way ahead of its time, both then and now.
- Rediscover 2y agoNo one has mentioned it, the album "I'm Your Fan" is a collection of LC covers by (album order): R.E.M., Ian McCulloch, Pixies, That Petrol Emotion, The Lilac Time, Geoffrey Oryema, James, Jean-Louis Murat, David McComb & Adam Peters, The House of Love, Lloyd Cole, Robert Forster, Peter Astor, Dead Famous People, Bill Pritchard, The Fatima Mansions, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, & John Cale.