[blind-democracy] Re: Leonard Cohen

  • From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:40:19 -0400

BTW there are a whole lot of dark humorist types in the music biz whom I find intriguing. There are smart, satirical types with a dark side from John Prine, to Tom Waits, to even Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys whom I enjoy but, for some reason just don't find as utterly depressing as cohen.

I sure can see how the fine voice of Judy Collins could rough out Cohen's rough edge with her wonderful voice alone though ironically, and again subjectively I just found Judy's presentations short of vocal bite fitting the music.

Say, while digressing for a moment only slightly here Michigan has been a cradle of some really inventive music from Motown, to pre-punk like Iggy Popp, to Bob Seger and before that and those times to some Delta/Chicago Blues that all seeped up from the Delta to Michigan in the post 1920's flood and migration ....

And that all lent itself to the British invasion for the Stones and Beatles were all influenced by all of that and, well what goes around comes around.

Think of all the blues classics, let alone R and B refinements that went in to Led Zepplin and other Eric Clapton rand related sounds.

I heard "Robert Johnson's Crossroads on vinyl and in some local dives where I was illegal (being a minor) played by local black artists in Flint before Led Zeppelin and played by local, usually quite drunk black artists here like Dr. Ross in the mid sixties even when I was in the eighth grade.

Oh, man I didn't drink or smoke weed back then and was smuggled in by some rebellious pals. Please don't tell my parents or Sister Thomas Mary?

Still I dug the music.

Oh and I walked out unharmed. We were the cute little white, working class kids and were welcomed at these "blind pigs" if we acted right and didn't break the law. Ironic indeed!

Oh and I mised the Who basic coming out concert here in Flint. I think it was in1966. It was at Atwood Stadium and it is a very famous concert. The Who wasn't even heard of here. They were the under bill for that crass and stupid British Invasion "Herman Hermits". but they brought the house down here with their iconconclastic super rebellious performance including setting guitars on fire! And they created a scandel with driving vehicles in to the pool of the Pick Durant Hotel and other rouwdy real rock performer bullshit which was to say the least acts of "My generation"

I mean "People try to put us down, just because we get around."

Oh, and now regressing more I'm not a big fan of musicals, but Miriam mentioned them. And one in particular she mentioned that did have some impact. It was "South Pacific". I'm not at all musically inclined, but I did play the part of Luther Billus in South Pacific in my Senior class play and later on in a City of Flint production. It did have a message against racism. "You have to be carefully taught."

And it was an important social and artistic statement for its day.

Of course, so were others including Porgy and Bess and "Showboat".

Oh my I do digress....Guess beauty and even meaning is often in the mind of the beholder.




----- Original Message ----- From: "Penny Reeder" <penny.reeder@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 1:45 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Leonard Cohen


I agree. I always need some time to recover after Haleluyah -- but
sometimes hearing it is exactly what I need as well! In the 1970s,
Judy Collins performed lots of his songs, and we listened to them all!
Penny

On 10/19/16, Abby Vincent <aevincent@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

He performed Hallelulia during  opening ceremonies for the Van Coover
Olympics.  It is a beautiful but dark song.  I heard it once at a Good
Friday service.  We all felt such despair that we were compelled to come
back Sunday to see  what happens.



Suzanne, his other famous song about a woman who is either hauntingly
seductive… she touches your body with her mind… or crazy. I can’t imagine
either of these songs as poetry without the music.Abby



Abby



From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Driscoll
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 9:38 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Leonard Cohen



Carl/Miriam:

The following may be of interest to you.

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrTccaz9wZYKJYAEOIPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByYnR1Zmd1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1476880436/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.last.fm%2fmusic%2fLeonard%2bCohen/RK=0/RS=ZOGzDa3mRBF9Hrh6Sp3rG2tnnkA-

www.last.fm/music/Leonar <http://www.last.fm/music/Leonar>

Leonard Cohen (b. 21st September 1934 in Montréal, Quebec) is a Canadian
poet, novelist and musician. His musical career has largely overshadowed his
prior work as a ...



On 10/18/2016 7:34 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:

This is cool.  I am writing while Leonard Kohen is "singing?" in the
background.  Something still draws me to his music.  But then I'm a
true blue Bob Dylan fan, too.
Still and all, give me the Moody Blues over them all.

Carl Jarvis

On 10/18/16, Miriam Vieni  <mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

All you need to do is google what I googled which was
Leonard Cohen's music
And I got a whole bunch of song titles and You Tube links. I'd forgotten
the
names of the songs but Google knew. It's terrifying!

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 8:30 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Leonard Cohen

I don't know that I know that kind of music. The name sounds only vaguely
familiar to me. You might provide a link to the examples you mentioned.


On 10/18/2016 6:35 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:

Any of you guys know of a song writer and performer named Leonard Cohen?
He's about 83 years old and there was a long article about him in the
Audible October 17th edition of The New Yorker  that is on BARD. I
never heard of him, but the article was fascinating so I found some of
his

music

on the web. His big song is Hallelulia.   There's another one, Dance Me
To
Love. It's the stranges stuff I've ever heard. I mean it's poetry sung
to two or three notes by someone who, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't
have a singing voice. But I'm old and my taste in music is very
strange and
speicific: old classical, big band music, romantic ballads, folk
music, country music, old fashioned negro spirituals, (that's what
they're called), almost nothing popular written after Slow Boat To
China. David Remnick, who wrote the article on Leonard Cohen, also has
one on Bob Dillon and his prize for literature. His article is on the
web with links to a number of Dillon's songs on You Tube. I listened
to a few with which I'm unfamiliar. Like Cohen's, they're like
complicated

poetry, except they're a bit more lyrical.

So Bob, Roger, you people who know this kind of music, what are your
thoughts?

Miriam .
















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