Leonard Cohen

[Sue]

Suzanne. Famous Blue Raincoat. Story of Isaac.

R.I.P.

[rendelharris]

Alexandra Leaving, Heart With No Companion, Joan of Arc.

God this year sucks.

[intexasatthe moment]

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows that the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That's how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking

Everybody knows that the captain lied

Everybody got this broken feeling

Like their father or their dog just died

I reckon Trump's victory was the final straw for him .

[Mick Mac]

When the children were younger we used to sing Marianne in the car together. They've progressed to One Direction and Niall Horan now.

[TE44]

Marianne died earlier this year, he sent this email to her.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/07/so-long-marianne-leonard-cohen-writes-to-muse-just-before-her-death

So sad and beautiful.

[rendelharris]

Great quote my sister just sent me: "Of all the responses to Trump's election, Cohen's was the best." I think the black humour of that would have tickled him.

[intexasatthe moment]

My brother ,who always has to correct me has pointed out that Leonard died on the 7th and was spared the disaster of the American presidential election .

[Lollipop]

I am sure Leonard knew what was about to happen and decided it was time to go.....

[uncleglen]

what about his book- Beautiful Losers....He was Canadian so he could have just moved if he wanted to

[intexasatthe moment]

Of course ,penny drops ! Thank you Lollipop .

Obvious now who these lines were addressing in his last album

If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame

If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame

[civilservant]

hey that's no way to say goodbye... or maybe it was

[camberwell70]

Ring the Bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

Goodnight Leonard Cohen RIP

[Otta]

Suzanne, and (over covered as it may be) Hallelujah. And it's only covered so much because it's a great song.

[Sue]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Suzanne, and (over covered as it may be)

> Hallelujah. And it's only covered so much because

> it's a great song.

I don't like his version of it, though!

The only one I've heard that I like is Rufus Wainwright's. And I don't like anything else I've heard by Rufus Wainwright.

Weird.

[Otta]

Fair enough. I don't like the Rufus Wainwright version. I love the Jeff Buckley version, but the gospel feel of Cohen's original is wonderful (IMO).

[rendelharris]

Second the Buckley - first heard it in Without a Trace (I don't have my finger quite on the pulse) and after my absolute delight in realising a Cohen song was being used thought "I've got to have this..." Reckon his and Len's versions just about tie.

Random anecdote - Len once said to Dylan "Hey, I love Desolation Row, how long did it take you to write that?" Dylan, "Uh, 'bout twenny minutes. That Hallelujah, that's a great song too. How long did that take you?" Cohen: "Oh, about eight years..."

And another one I only heard today - Cohen and Dylan were in a car and Cohen said, "Bob, you're number one, no question, I just hope I'm number two." Dylan: "No man, you're number one. I'm number zero."

While I'm rambling (obviously the great man is much on all our minds today) I thought one of his last public pronouncements summed up his grace, wit and good humour: asked what he thought of Bob getting the Nobel prize, he replied, "To me it's like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the tallest mountain."

[rendelharris]

Oh and one more, sorry - Nina Simone's cover of Suzanne, wonderful.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back

They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track

But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone

I'll be speaking to you sweetly

From a window in the Tower of Song

[rendelharris]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be

> back

> They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the

> track

> But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm

> gone

> I'll be speaking to you sweetly

> From a window in the Tower of Song

One of my favourites, especially when he growls in those nicotine and whisky soaked tones, "I was born like this/I had no choice/I was born with the gift of a golden voice." All those who think he was just a prophet of doom overlook the fact that he had a brilliant self-deprecating sense of humour.

[Otta]

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Random anecdote - Len once said to Dylan "Hey, I

> love Desolation Row, how long did it take you to

> write that?" Dylan, "Uh, 'bout twenny minutes.

> That Hallelujah, that's a great song too. How

> long did that take you?" Cohen: "Oh, about eight

> years..."

I remember him telling that one on Radio 4 some years ago (definitely before 2009, because I remember listening to it in an old flat I left in 2009).

[Otta]

And here it is (it was 2007)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fymcr

[rendelharris]

Thanks for posting this - wonderful. So honest, so clever...really enjoyed hearing it.