The Darkness — by Leonard Cohen from his upcoming new album Old Ideas
For me, Leonard Cohen is an example of someone who produces life-affirming inspiration from behind the cloud of a life blighted by bouts of depression. Good on him. I’ve been listening to his music all summer in my car.
More here: Leonard Cohen tags at The Paepae
– P
Nice to have you back on-line. Yes, he’s a rare soul, isn’t he.
Cheers Graeme. Happy New Year.
Yeah, we all get the blues sometimes, but Leonard Cohen really does seem to me to demonstrate a commitment to turning his angst into something *good*. His work shows an ‘addiction’ to a belief in romantic love and a willingness to sound a clarion call for ‘better’ and, at times, almost in a wild-eyed prophet way, to condemn without denigration. Wish I was half as good. (Or even a little bit.)
– P
I always found Cohen depressing and pretentious – much in the same manner as Frank Zappa and his ilk. Give me Cat Stevens any day.
Cohen seemed to gain a following amongst angsting Christians – the same ones who (sometimes it appeared) deified Dylan. Along with Cohen i thought that Dylan and he lacked any musicality and were much like the beat poets who used to strut their stuff in the little coffee shop by the Embassy theatre in Wellington during the 60’s and 70’s.
If you werent reasonably balanced – both pretenders could tempt some to put a gun to their heads to escape the meaningless whining and caterwauling and evidenced lack of hope in their whining and caterwauling. You need a manual or a set of vicegrips to extract the hope out of their “works”.
Mind you – not much is better if one is believe the music video evidence of today.
No accounting for taste, huh Ivan?
I like ‘im. More and more so.
Check this out: http://www.thepaepae.com/leonard-cohen-remarkable-lif/13293/
cheers – P
You is right about the beat poets. It was Suzy’s café, I think? Do you mean the Majestic theatre … in Willis St?
No not suzies cafe and i think i have the wrong theatre … i think it was called the Embassy? Where they had the premiere of the first LOTR movie. The venue was on the Marjoribanks st side – and slightly near the basement level.
It possibly far predates your youthful visage. Not many (if any) beat poets frequented suzies. A lot of them did however drop into the “wigwam” coffee shop off Featherston Street of an evening. If i recall – Suzies was just down the road from St Johns on the same side – and just past the intersection with Manners St
I’m sure you like cohen Pete. That is taken as an implied fact and of coures – a given. His messaging could possibly be taken as a metaphor for the times. Young ladies dressed like bunny’s passing out the prescription drugs and antidepressants on the silver trays all of course, in slow time. It could be called a “cohen moment”. Whenever i listened to Cohen it always seemed like waiting at a station to catch the next train to an apocalypse happening nearby. But i may be mistaken.
Quite right. LOTR – Embassy as you said.
We can, civilly, of course agree to differ on LC.
I’m personally more interested in your take on this post: http://www.thepaepae.com/?p=21036
– P
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