RIP Leonard Cohen

[The Bluestocking]

The legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has passed away at age 82:

Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet. Cohen's haunting bass voice, nylon-stringed guitar patterns and Greek-chorus backing vocals shaped evocative songs that dealt with love and hate, sex and spirituality, war and peace, ecstasy and depression. He was also the rare artist of his generation to enjoy artistic success into his Eighties, releasing his final album, You Want It Darker, earlier this year.

More here: Leonard Cohen Dead at 82

 

[Droflet]

Sad news, but he had a good run. I was a big fan of Cohen was well as all the others mentioned above. They don't make music like that anymore. The songs of my generation.

 

[REBerg]

Leonard Cohen's soundtrack was the best part of McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Sad news indeed. I discovered his music as a teenager through my dad, who has some Cohen albums on vinyl which I duly borrowed. The music and lyrics resonated with me and I stilll listen to Cohen now, a good number of years later.

 

[Vladd67]

He's gone to the Tower of Song

 

[Gonk the Insane]

For those who feel the need to hear something by Cohen:
Now Playing...
Or for an alternate version by Jeff Buckley:
Suddenly the Songs Sound Shiny and New - The Cover Thread

 

[farntfar]

Just before Marianne Ihlen, the subject of his song So Long Marianne, died earlier this year, he wrote to her saying "I'm just behind you".
It would seem he knew.
I have loved his songs and poetry for over 4 decades and will miss him greatly.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

RIP, Mr. Cohen. We'll celebrate a Cohen Listening Party today in our home.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Ah, the man with the famous blue raincoat has left. Truly one of the greats, and one of the biggest influences on underground music. He will be missed but long remembered.

 

[The Bluestocking]

I grew up with my dad playing FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT (written by Leonard, performed by Jennifer Warnes) on his hi-fi in the background on Saturday afternoons.

It feels like a small piece of my childhood has left the building.

 

[Allegra]

Very sad news. I heard of Leonard Cohen some 10 years ago and instantly hooked by his dark lyrics and deep voice, even bought his poem collection and a novel he wrote in Greece. He was hugely popular in Europe. A true poet. RIP.

:

There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the left and right,
a war between the black and white,
a war between the odd and the even.

Why don't you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden,
why don't you come on back to the war, let's all get even,
why don't you come on back to the war, can't you hear me speaking?

 

[Gonk the Insane]

We'll celebrate a Cohen Listening Party today in our home.

Funnily enough, the good ole BBC are doing their own celebration of Leonard Cohen this weekend. There's info and radio shows available to play online here: BBC - In Loving Memory...

And on Sunday, 6Music's Tom Robinson will be doing a Cohen-themed Now Playing episode, which will likely feature Cohen songs performed by him alongside cover versions and other related tunes. It airs Sunday on 6Music at 6pm, and is usually available on iPlayer a few hours later. They are taking suggestions. More info here: BBC Radio 6 Music - Now Playing @6Music, #Cohen6Music - what should be on the ultimate Leonard Cohen playlist?

 

[pambaddeley]

Sad to see the great man go. What a dreadful year this has been.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I was listening to his new album when I heard.

 

[Allegra]

Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker :

"In late July this year, Cohen received an e-mail from Jan Christian Mollestad, a close friend of Marianne’s, saying that she was suffering from cancer. In their last communication, Marianne had told Cohen that she had sold her beach house to help insure that Axel would be taken care of, but she never mentioned that she was sick. Now, it appeared, she had only a few days left. Cohen wrote back immediately:

Well Marianne, it’s come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine. And you know that I’ve always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don’t need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road.

Two days later, Cohen got an e-mail from Norway:

Dear Leonard

Marianne slept slowly out of this life yesterday evening. Totally at ease, surrounded by close friends.

Your letter came when she still could talk and laugh in full consciousness. When we read it aloud, she smiled as only Marianne can. She lifted her hand, when you said you were right behind, close enough to reach her.

It gave her deep peace of mind that you knew her condition. And your blessing for the journey gave her extra strength. . . . In her last hour I held her hand and hummed “Bird on the Wire,” while she was breathing so lightly. And when we left the room, after her soul had flown out of the window for new adventures, we kissed her head and whispered your everlasting words.

So long, Marianne . . . "

I just found out on wiki when he wrote his famous Dance Me to the End of Love it was death camp with 'burning violin' flashing in his mind:

Although structured as a love song, "Dance Me to the End Of Love" was in fact inspired by the Holocaust. In an interview, Cohen said of the song:

“ 'Dance Me to the End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet[2] was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical musicwhile their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity."

 

[Vince W]

No words for this loss. RIP.