Lina
14-02-2006, 11:10 AM
There’s a place for my kind of music although it can never be mainstream. It is a sanctuary for me and for the people who can use it that way. That’s what I use it for. A sanctuary. Leonard Cohen
My Dad is responsible for a lot of my musical tastes – he gave me a love for Dylan, Jesus Rodriguez and JJ Cale, to name a few. But not Leonard Cohen. As I sat down to write this I remembered that Cohen came from my Mum – this is a woman who’s musical preferences extended to The Eagles, Leo Sayer and (gasp!) Kenny G. I never took to Mums music. Let’s just say that one day Kenny G went missing and Mum didn’t find him again until about ten years later when she moved house. He was stuck behind a cupboard. She promptly dug him out and played him at my sisters wedding along with Savage Garden. Oh yes. Happy days.
I remember when I discovered Leonard Cohen for myself. I was fourteen and I found a tape in the family car called Various Positions and a CD that my Mum had just bought which had a best of collection of Cohen’s music. To say that I took to them like a fish to water is an understatement. I played these two albums constantly, only occasionally interspersed with Abbey Road, which was my other great love at the time. I listened to Cohen so much that my parents became concerned that I was depressed and suicidal (no, just a teenager).
At the time I had absolutely no idea what drew me to Cohen. This wasn’t something that any of my friends listened to. There was something about Cohen that spoke so much more eloquently to my teenage soul then any pop band ever could. To my teenage self he seemed to have an understanding of the pain and angst that I was going through and listening to him was like talking to a councilor. Even though he has a reputation as music you listen to before topping yourself, he had the opposite affect on me.
I now know why my Mum listened to Leonard Cohen. My little brother died of heart disease when I was five and my Mum found solace in a Cohen song called ‘Bird on the Wire’. She also found ‘Bird on the Wire’ comforting when her father died. And this to me is what Cohen is about. For someone who is rather inclined to pop music, my Mum recognized the realness in his lyrics. He strips a song back to it’s bones and bares it all for you to take of it what you will. I listen to Cohen like people in days gone by read poems, for he is a poet.
He is not an artist that appeals to everyone. In fact, I don’t know anyone personally that listens to him. And I would never say that he’s easy listening – he’s more like a 17 course gourmet meal as opposed to what we’re served up with in the music charts, which is more like a handful of sugar. One high and then it’s gone. Cohen is something to take your time over, to digest. His music gets better as you get older.
He’s an interesting character, Cohen. He’s a poet, a recording artist and a novelist, he has been ordained a Zen Monk and was lovers with Janis Joplin for a time (he wrote a song about her called ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ which contains the lyrics “..then clenching your fist for the one’s like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said well never mind. We are ugly but we have the music..”)
If I was to recommend an album to listen to for a first timer I would recommend the best of called Golden Highlights which contains a really great collection of his work. Recommended songs (not just from Highlights) would include: Teachers, Dance Me to the End of Love, Love Calls You By Your Name, Avalanche, Suzanne, Hallelujah, and The Future.
My Dad is responsible for a lot of my musical tastes – he gave me a love for Dylan, Jesus Rodriguez and JJ Cale, to name a few. But not Leonard Cohen. As I sat down to write this I remembered that Cohen came from my Mum – this is a woman who’s musical preferences extended to The Eagles, Leo Sayer and (gasp!) Kenny G. I never took to Mums music. Let’s just say that one day Kenny G went missing and Mum didn’t find him again until about ten years later when she moved house. He was stuck behind a cupboard. She promptly dug him out and played him at my sisters wedding along with Savage Garden. Oh yes. Happy days.
I remember when I discovered Leonard Cohen for myself. I was fourteen and I found a tape in the family car called Various Positions and a CD that my Mum had just bought which had a best of collection of Cohen’s music. To say that I took to them like a fish to water is an understatement. I played these two albums constantly, only occasionally interspersed with Abbey Road, which was my other great love at the time. I listened to Cohen so much that my parents became concerned that I was depressed and suicidal (no, just a teenager).
At the time I had absolutely no idea what drew me to Cohen. This wasn’t something that any of my friends listened to. There was something about Cohen that spoke so much more eloquently to my teenage soul then any pop band ever could. To my teenage self he seemed to have an understanding of the pain and angst that I was going through and listening to him was like talking to a councilor. Even though he has a reputation as music you listen to before topping yourself, he had the opposite affect on me.
I now know why my Mum listened to Leonard Cohen. My little brother died of heart disease when I was five and my Mum found solace in a Cohen song called ‘Bird on the Wire’. She also found ‘Bird on the Wire’ comforting when her father died. And this to me is what Cohen is about. For someone who is rather inclined to pop music, my Mum recognized the realness in his lyrics. He strips a song back to it’s bones and bares it all for you to take of it what you will. I listen to Cohen like people in days gone by read poems, for he is a poet.
He is not an artist that appeals to everyone. In fact, I don’t know anyone personally that listens to him. And I would never say that he’s easy listening – he’s more like a 17 course gourmet meal as opposed to what we’re served up with in the music charts, which is more like a handful of sugar. One high and then it’s gone. Cohen is something to take your time over, to digest. His music gets better as you get older.
He’s an interesting character, Cohen. He’s a poet, a recording artist and a novelist, he has been ordained a Zen Monk and was lovers with Janis Joplin for a time (he wrote a song about her called ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ which contains the lyrics “..then clenching your fist for the one’s like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said well never mind. We are ugly but we have the music..”)
If I was to recommend an album to listen to for a first timer I would recommend the best of called Golden Highlights which contains a really great collection of his work. Recommended songs (not just from Highlights) would include: Teachers, Dance Me to the End of Love, Love Calls You By Your Name, Avalanche, Suzanne, Hallelujah, and The Future.