Anyone else on here like Leonard Cohen?
I think his music is really an aquired taste. Those 80s synth keyboards sound so dated and even 'cheap' now, but actually, I think they're perfect. They lock those recordings to their era like harpsichords lock Bach to his era, and so they should.
He's one of those artists that I'm glad I kept giving chances to, until I finally 'got it'. Cheers Jeff Buckley. I almost never listen to Jeff Buckley now, brilliant as he is. But I will keep coming back to Leonard Cohen as long as I live. I remember listening to 'The Partisan', the first time that I was in a place to actually take it in properly and Listen. What a glorious and heartbreaking moment that was.
I started this thread for examples of his lyrics that people here might find interesting or beautiful. I didn't want to use a general lyrics thread because I'm too old with too specific tastes for that. I checked out one thread, found the first post's lyrics melodramatic, banal, and tasteless, and noped out. No offence, I'm old, that's how it goes.
---
From 'Stories of the Street':
You are locked into your suffering,
And your pleasures are the seal
---
I think anyone who has wanted to kill themselves but has hung on for one more this, one more that, will understand this lyric. 'Pleasures' I at first took to mean base things, like sex, food, etc. But really, the lyric can also mean higher things if stretched just a little; time with family, for instance, has put this lyric in my mind recently.
It's possible that he didn't have suicide in mind, although it's mentioned elsewhere in the song. It's possible he wanted to talk about how pleasures cause pain in themselves. Love of food can bring health problems. Drugs can bring problems. Sex too. Almost everything good carries at least the seed of something bad. I don't know.
Anyway, tune in next week for more 'unnecessary deconstruction of old man music'
I think his music is really an aquired taste. Those 80s synth keyboards sound so dated and even 'cheap' now, but actually, I think they're perfect. They lock those recordings to their era like harpsichords lock Bach to his era, and so they should.
He's one of those artists that I'm glad I kept giving chances to, until I finally 'got it'. Cheers Jeff Buckley. I almost never listen to Jeff Buckley now, brilliant as he is. But I will keep coming back to Leonard Cohen as long as I live. I remember listening to 'The Partisan', the first time that I was in a place to actually take it in properly and Listen. What a glorious and heartbreaking moment that was.
I started this thread for examples of his lyrics that people here might find interesting or beautiful. I didn't want to use a general lyrics thread because I'm too old with too specific tastes for that. I checked out one thread, found the first post's lyrics melodramatic, banal, and tasteless, and noped out. No offence, I'm old, that's how it goes.
---
From 'Stories of the Street':
You are locked into your suffering,
And your pleasures are the seal
---
I think anyone who has wanted to kill themselves but has hung on for one more this, one more that, will understand this lyric. 'Pleasures' I at first took to mean base things, like sex, food, etc. But really, the lyric can also mean higher things if stretched just a little; time with family, for instance, has put this lyric in my mind recently.
It's possible that he didn't have suicide in mind, although it's mentioned elsewhere in the song. It's possible he wanted to talk about how pleasures cause pain in themselves. Love of food can bring health problems. Drugs can bring problems. Sex too. Almost everything good carries at least the seed of something bad. I don't know.
Anyway, tune in next week for more 'unnecessary deconstruction of old man music'
