Cohen became known to me as an old man singing boring songs on TV. I have listened to his first records from the 60's, and what can I say... The man is not just a musician, he's a poet, novellist and an artist. I'd give him all the credit in the world!
Now he's a monk!
You'll find interviews and articles here at Acoustic Guitar Song Collection
and of course on the homepages above!
1959: Six Montreal Poets (spoken word album) - Folkways
1968: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Columbia
1969: Songs From A Room , Columbia
1971: Songs Of Love And Hate , Columbia
1973: Live Songs , Columbia
1974: New Skin For The Old Ceremony , Columbia
1977: Death Of A Ladies' Man , Columbia
1979: Recent Songs , Columbia
1985: Various Positions, Passport
1988: I'm Your Man , Columbia
1992: The Future , Columbia
1993: Cohen Live , Columbia
+ various collection albums...
By William David Sherman [taken from record Songs of Leonard Cohen, written 1968]
Today's most exciting artists are shaping a revolution which dissolves all fixed forms and pre-established modes of expression. So it comes as no surprise that Leonard Cohen, already important as a poet and novelist, should turn to music as still another focus for his creative energies.
But clamour dulls a fine edge. A few simple facts then, seem the best way of beginning to introduce Leonard Cohen. He is Canadian, a native of Montreal. He has written four books of poetry : Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), The Spice-Box of earth (1961), Flowers for Hitler (1964), and Parasites of Heaven (1966). His first novel, The Favorite Game, was published in 1963. With the publication last year of a second novel, Beautiful Losers, he finally baegan to attract the attention of a wide audience in North America.
"Catherine Tekakwitha, who are you?" one of the narrators of Beautiful Losers asks,
and in the quest to find the reality informing the myth of an Indian saint, Leonard Cohen searches for himself in the evidence of the past. It is a wildly comic novel, but beneath the humour flows a leitmotif of madness, an exploration into the depths of consciousness. Beautiful Losers , is one of the most compelling pieces of contemporary prose fiction, and firmly establishes its author as a uniquely original voice.
Now, with the release of the first album of his songs, Leonard Cohen continues to move in a direction distinctly his own. The lyrics are startling juxtapositions of natural speech with formal metaphor. Pain, loss, fear, guilt, loneliness, are unashamedly admitted; yet there is no trace either of selt-pity or ironic posturing. The only politics are the politics of love. Ultimately, the songs are religous, in the most profound and mystical sense of the word. The intensity is large, the passion authentic.
In an oterwise carual conversation, Leonard Cohen once remarked : "At times I can taste the sweetness of death." Icarus insists that upon his own wings he be borne to destruction. These songs speak to us all. Those with ears will hear.
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