BOB DYLAN IS A GREATER SONGSTER THAN LEONARD COHEN

Antonio · Post by **Antonio** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:26 pm

Dear lizzy, alma matrix is a strange hybrid used by Léo Ferré in a book called, precisely, "Alma Matrix"; I think it's a poetic construction: the matrix wich has "alma" (soul); but in its definition it may has some other meanings or suggestions, for me it is "the matrix of soul", or something like this...

greetings

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:44 pm

Oh, that's wonderful, Antonio... thank you so much!! Such a great term!!!

< *and NOW I must leave* >

Love,
Lizzy

Antonio · Post by **Antonio** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:35 am

Mr Kush, this version is even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ole7-bR_ ... ed&search=

Shake hands, without resentment

woody · Post by **woody** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:33 am

imo Bob has composed many more great songs -music, plus lyrics - than Len. Idiot Wind, Desolation Row, Visions of Johanna, are examples of Bob's more than 600 back catalogue. IMO Lenny is in a different league. Bob gets an A Plus. lenny receives an A or B plus.

in regard to the initial question. as somebody who endeavours daily and struggles greatly to do something artistic in my spare time i cant see it's of any worth comparing the two. there both leaps and bounds ahead of all other competition. there like the two sides of the coin. cohen- poet, meticulous craftsman. dylan- scatter-gun technique, man of great lines.
there complete opposites to me and as so fill me with hope. they go about there business in a very different way- as detailed in Leonard's recollection of meeting dylan (hallelujah took several years/ i an i five minutes)

dylan has an extraordinary output and clearly tires of working too long on one thing, the overall whole can often suffer but he's always capable of great lines. leonard is the opposite, each line it seems picked and greatly considered.

i would like to know what leonard thinks of the recent dylans albums. i find them sadly derivative but still occasionally infused with great moments.

does anybody else see a comparison between their late 80's early 90's periods. dylans Oh Mercy album and Leonards I'm Your Man/ Future.
Brooding works. Apocalyptic for warnings, touched with humour. nailing humanity to the floor.
Also style similarities like the 'list' songs' Poltical World/ Everything Is Broken/ - I'm Your Man/ Everybody Knows.

simonmoorehead · Post by **simonmoorehead** » Mon May 07, 2007 11:58 pm

rocksoff wrote:imo Bob has composed many more great songs -music, plus lyrics - than Len. Idiot Wind, Desolation Row, Visions of Johanna, are examples of Bob's more than 600 back catalogue. IMO Lenny is in a different league. Bob gets an A Plus. lenny receives an A or B plus.

Never mind the Bollocks - I think is the appropriate expression

Mark A. Murphy · Post by **Mark A. Murphy** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:52 am

Both are master song-writers, geniuses in their own rights. Both started writing great material remarkably early. But to my knowledge, Dylan has not written any great novels. Leonard has two of them (that we know of) to his name. For The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers alone, Cohen deserves inclusion into the western literary canon. There should also be a place for Dylan, but for his song-writing above all else.

One thing, I think, is certain: no one else comes close to Leonard or Bob in the song-writing hall of fame. They are in a class of their own. Who cares which one has written the most songs? One great song is enough to ensure immortality, if it is truly great. Who decides?

Does anyone know whether Leonard has ever written any more novels, does he intend to? Will he write an autiobiography?

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Fri May 11, 2007 6:55 am

Well, there is Kris Kristofferson.... an estimated 450 covers recorded as long as 20 years ago. Dunno what the count is now. Many seem to know his songs but not necessarily that he wrote them. Here's a bit of The Pilgrim:

he's a poet (he's a liar)
he's a prophet (he's a dreamer)
he's a pilgrim
and a preacher
and a problem
when he's stoned
he's a walkin' contradiction
partly truth and partly fiction
takin' every wrong direction
on his lonely way back home

Born With, you can probably come up with a better one. And this is for you....

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

mat james · Post by **mat james** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:37 am

One thing, I think, is certain: no one else comes close to Leonard or Bob in the song-writing hall of fame

Mark Murphy.

Big call!

Leonard suggests in his song "The Tower of Song" that Hank Williams is a greater songwriter than him-self (Leonard).

Matj

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Fri May 11, 2007 11:50 am

Hi Mark,

I suggest you new, 2006 edition of Ira Nadel's "Various Positions: a Life of Leonard Cohen". You'll learn there that Favouite Game was second version of the novel titled "Beauty at Close Quarters", and that first novel LC wrote was "Ballet of Leppers". That's four novels; two published. Plus many other insighst and stories, including how he wrote Beautiful Losers on Hydra, while living with Marianne, etc. It's very good book:-) New 2006 edition (Canadian, US edition is coming this Summer) has new afterword, which tells about post-2000 happenings. (The original was written in 1997.) It's only authorised biography, aproved by Leonard.

PS. Leonard thinks he's a minor poet. He will first say that Bob is greater than him. But the fact is that Bob covered his (Leonard's) song, nedver vice versa

BOB DYLAN IS A GREATER SONGSTER THAN LEONARD COHEN

Re: BOB DYLAN IS A GREATER SONGSTER THAN LEONARD COHEN

Dylan v's Cohen

KK