4 ms·

This surprised me: ...the rock era unfolded as ... a series of begats (Elvis begat the Beatles, the Beatles begat Jann Wenner, etc.) involving identity-fam

by dguest 2y ago

This 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 ago
This 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 ago
  Yep, 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 ago
    Or after Jeff Buckley's cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- fitsumbelay 2y ago
  it's safe to say he was always a cult favorite at least since the mid-90s when I first heard of him. Mainstream writers of all sorts (music press among others) have certainly been writing about him for as long, for the same set of reasons he's being written about here

by dguest 2y ago

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 ago

This 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 ago
Yep, 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 ago
  Or after Jeff Buckley's cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
fitsumbelay 2y ago
it's safe to say he was always a cult favorite at least since the mid-90s when I first heard of him. Mainstream writers of all sorts (music press among others) have certainly been writing about him for as long, for the same set of reasons he's being written about here