Hello, I'm new to this forum... (introducing yourselves)

[MaryB]

Hello Willy,

I think many of us here stopped going to concerts a while back also, but once you have seen LC perform live, nothing compares, and you get hooked. His concerts take his words and music to a whole different level. I hope that if he ever tours again, you find a way to get to at least one concert. You will then understand what we are all talking about. That Austin City Limits show started many on the road to LC appreciation

The beauty of this forum is that, like you, many of us became enraptured by his music, yet did not know much about him. Then we found the leonardcohenfiles which led us to this forum. We are all learning from each other and enjoying the heck out of it. There are also other websites linked to this one that have tons of information. If you go to http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com and then click on 'links' on the left side of the page, it will lead you to them. You will be overwhelmed with the amount of info available.

Enjoy your time here and jump in and post anywhere on the forum at anytime. We may not always respond, but we hear you and everyone's comments are always welcome.

Best regards,
Mary

[Willy52240]

Hello Willy,
I think many of us here stopped going to concerts a while back also, but once you have seen LC perform live, nothing compares, and you get hooked. His concerts take his words and music to a whole different level. I hope that if he ever tours again, you find a way to get to at least one concert. You will then understand what we are all talking about. That Austin City Limits show started many on the road to LC appreciation

That is what I've been feeling; like I woke up and had missed the 60's. (Well that didn't happen, but I would have been miffed if I had). What I am seeing is that I, in living kind of in a techno minimalist mode (no TV for instance) I have missed out on a few things. It was really an accident that i happened upon the Austin City Limits show back in ....something like 88. When I saw it again on utube just a matter of a few weeks ago it was just so wonderful. Since then I have been immersing myself in Cohen. I find sadly, that I may have missed a chance to see him play. If even given such a chance though..... it would be an aspiration. In the meanwhile I will wait........ and I have many wonderful shows to visit on "the internet" (praised be Al Gore!!) and those people who posted such great videos on utube. THANK YOU.

The beauty of this forum is that, like you, many of us became enraptured by his music, yet did not know much about him. Then we found the leonardcohenfiles which led us to this forum. We are all learning from each other and enjoying the heck out of it. There are also other websites linked to this one that have tons of information. If you go to http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com and then click on 'links' on the left side of the page, it will lead you to them. You will be overwhelmed with the amount of info available.

Gratzi Mary. I visited the link for a quick look and ........that will keep me busy for a while. : )

Enjoy your time here and jump in and post anywhere on the forum at anytime. We may not always respond, but we hear you and everyone's comments are always welcome.

Best regards,
Mary

Many thanks..... I just felt I should say hello before walking in your house, flopping down in your chair and making myself at home. I feel a little odd having become so obsessed on this subject, watching the many videos, but then I found that when I shared them with another friend they to were so captivated that they sent them on to another in another continent, who were overjoyed, etc.
Maybe it isn't so odd after all.

best wishes......
willy

[lizzytysh]

Hi willy ~

It's not odd at all, a fact which has been our delight, to find that not only have we NOT been all alone all this time, but that others are still discovering and loving Leonard! I was content to remain alone with Leonard, yet still longed for the response being something other than "Who!?!" when I mentioned Leonard Cohen. To find how deeply loved Leonard is literally worldwide is particularly gratifying, especially when I think of how Leonard, himself, is seeing it for himself, in his own lifetime, face-to-face with the throngs of people he's encountered at every stop along his way since going back out on tour. That is what makes me the happiest, seeing how Leonard is getting the concrete feedback on his decision made so long ago to commit his life to excellence in writing.

Keep spreading the word... you are spreading quality in a world that is so in need of it.


~ Lizzy

[Willy52240]

Mary...... I started going through the playlist of albertnoonan today. Holy cow! I already identified many that I had already seen, appreciated; shared. I will spend more time enjoying what I missed, thanks to the excellent records of the concerts. I also wanted to be clear, although I had praised a few recordings i didn't mean to impart one was considered better than another. They are all excellent in many different ways.

Lizzie, thank you again for the welcome and your thoughts. It's great to think of Leonard as being "thanked" by the loving attendance witnessed in the immensely successful tour. It boggles my mind that someone of his age can do concerts which last far in excess of 3 hours. It looks to me as if he is returning that love and the caliber of performance in what I have seen seems to support that they were as written best ever concerts.

I suppose that I may have some hopes of seeing a real concert some day and may have, via this site, a kind of early warning system so as to not lose out on another chance.

Thank you again for the warm welcome.....

Willy

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Willy, I agree. These three years have been as symbiotic, Yin-Yang, and mutually satisfying, affirming, and rewarding as one could possibly hope for or imagine. Leonard has been at his best every step of the way... and his audiences have confirmed that night after night, venue after venue, and year after year, for him. Remembering back to when we used to have to lament on behalf on newcomers here that, unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that Leonard will tour again... and now we can refer them to official and personal reviews, photos galore, YouTubes, articles and commentaries, multiple awards, and new recordings. The list goes on... thank Heaven and the Fates and Leonard and his audiences.


~ Lizzie

[MaryB]

I just felt I should say hello before walking in your house, flopping down in your chair and making myself at home. I feel a little odd having become so obsessed on this subject, willy

You knocked so very politely at our door

'Obssessed'???? We are all obssessed here - welcome to our world of CPD http://1heckofaguy.com/2010/04/06/2009/ ... -disorder/

[Willy52240]

Mary......I have toured that site recently whilst googling.

I saw the compulsive disorder link; pretty funny, pretty apt. My friend who i had sent some links...... after I sent the last one (IIBYW_webb sisters) I promised that I'd stop bombarding his mailbox with utube links.

See? I'm not compulsive; I can stop any time I want.

Willy

[MaryB]

See? I'm not compulsive; I can stop any time I want.

But you're still here. Sounds like CPD to me

[Willy52240]

I don't feel like stopping yet.

Willy

[MaryB]

To quote someone we know, when speaking to his 'angels', "Don't stop, don't stop.".

[its4inthemorning]

Hi Willy,

I am fairly new here too. In college fraternities, the newly-initiated are responsible for "educating" the pledges. I don't purport having any special wisdom about this board, but I would like to welcome you and tell you that there are some pretty amazing people here, Leonard fans to the nth degree.

Like so many here, I had lost touch with Leonard's work after college, and only recently rediscovered him. What so amazed me after my rediscovery was, despite the fact that many of his later songs are very different from his early musical work, they appealed to me as much. This is seldom true with musical artists, usually you see an explosion of talent in the beginning, and then a gradual decline--it's almost like each artist has only so many original musical ideas, and after they are recorded, it's all downhill. Leonard, on the other hand, can continue to create great music year after year. After "Songs of Love and Hate," which is still my favorite album, is when I lost touch with Leonard. But when I obtained his subsequent albums, I was quite astonished to find that I liked them just as much (the only exception being the album involving Phil Spector. which I cannot listen to). If I hadn't rediscovered Leonard, I would never have known about so many great songs--Everybody Knows, First We Take Manhattan, Anthem, I'm Your Man, Dance Me to the End of Love, Take This Waltz, the list goes on.

We all know about Leonard's abilty with words, but I think far too little credit is given him for his music. I am not schooled in music, but I suspect that only a genious could come up with so many tunes or melodies, or whatever we want to call them. In Ira Nadel's biography of Leonard, there are comments by Buffy Sainte-Marie that hit the mark. "His melodies, she wrote, were largely 'unguessable,' while his musical figures repeated themselves so gradually that a casual listener could miss the patterns. Yet he lifted one off 'familiar musical ground. It's like losing track of time,' Sainte-Marie wrote, 'or getting off at Times Square and walking into the Bronx Zoo; you don't know how it happened or who is wrong, but there you are.' His songs seemed to lack 'roots or directions' because of his unusual chord patterns, but once absorbed the became enchanting."

I was lucky enough to find out about this board early enough to be aware of the now-concluded concert tour, which allowed my wife and I to see Leonard in person in December. I hope you get the chance to as well. I for one do not rule out a new tour later this year or in 2011. Why? Because, unless Leonard and the entire group are the best actors in the world, I think they really loved performing these last three years, and will resume performing just because THEY WANT TO. Hope I am not wrong here!

Good luck in catching up with Leonard, I know it will be eye-opening!

Curt

[lizzytysh]

Welcome to the Forum, Curt [and to your wife, wherever she is] ~

I loved this observation of yours:

Like so many here, I had lost touch with Leonard's work after college, and only recently rediscovered him. What so amazed me after my rediscovery was, despite the fact that many of his later songs are very different from his early musical work, they appealed to me as much. This is seldom true with musical artists, usually you see an explosion of talent in the beginning, and then a gradual decline--it's almost like each artist has only so many original musical ideas, and after they are recorded, it's all downhill. Leonard, on the other hand, can continue to create great music year after year. After "Songs of Love and Hate," which is still my favorite album, is when I lost touch with Leonard. But when I obtained his subsequent albums, I was quite astonished to find that I liked them just as much (the only exception being the album involving Phil Spector. which I cannot listen to). If I hadn't rediscovered Leonard, I would never have known about so many great songs--Everybody Knows, First We Take Manhattan, Anthem, I'm Your Man, Dance Me to the End of Love, Take This Waltz, the list goes on.

and for the great quotes you gave of Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Leonard's commitment to quality and to his own standards of what that means has served him well.

I'm glad you and your wife were able to see Leonard live and I hope many more will be able to, as well.

Again, welcome!


~ Lizzy

[Willy52240]

Hi Willy,

I am fairly new here too. In college fraternities, the newly-initiated are responsible for "educating" the pledges. I don't purport having any special wisdom about this board, but I would like to welcome you and tell you that there are some pretty amazing people here, Leonard fans to the nth degree.

I think that pledge is an interesting word, and to some extent accurate. I think to some extent I'm exploring why the music and lyrics have and continue to resonate with me so. We probably all appreciate Cohen in similar ways and also have our own unique connections and interpretations of meanings. It's interesting to see other people's "take" on the man, the music.

Like so many here, I had lost touch with Leonard's work after college, and only recently rediscovered him. What so amazed me after my rediscovery was, despite the fact that many of his later songs are very different from his early musical work, they appealed to me as much. This is seldom true with musical artists, usually you see an explosion of talent in the beginning, and then a gradual decline--it's almost like each artist has only so many original musical ideas, and after they are recorded, it's all downhill. Leonard, on the other hand, can continue to create great music year after year. After "Songs of Love and Hate," which is still my favorite album, is when I lost touch with Leonard. But when I obtained his subsequent albums, I was quite astonished to find that I liked them just as much (the only exception being the album involving Phil Spector. which I cannot listen to). If I hadn't rediscovered Leonard, I would never have known about so many great songs--Everybody Knows, First We Take Manhattan, Anthem, I'm Your Man, Dance Me to the End of Love, Take This Waltz, the list goes on.

I've had Songs of Love and Hate for decades, but it is so dark in many places that .....I was almost in fear for the singer. Looking back on it and trying to characterize it is it reminds me a little bit of an auditory expression, a similar feeling one may get when viewing some of Van Gogh's self portraits. The view is stark and unnerving. It's easier for me now to revisit some of his earlier works knowing that the story had a happy ending, or at least happier than might have been expected.
Take This Waltz if a favorite of mine as well, but I find that I love some more than others. I like the 1988 vintage.
....but you are right; there are so many (both songs and versions)that are excellent!!!

I think that I was afraid that I wouldn't like the new Cohen as much or the newer supporting staff in the same way that I don't seem to prefer most of the covers i hear of his work. I end up feeling like a chauvinist, and guilty for feeling that way. I was afraid that I wouldn't like the most recent work in comparing it to the earlier work, but that has proven to be an unfounded fear.

Why? Because, unless Leonard and the entire group are the best actors in the world, I think they really loved performing these last three years, and will resume performing just because THEY WANT TO. Hope I am not wrong here!

Good luck in catching up with Leonard, I know it will be eye-opening!

Curt

Thank you for that; I love the idea of holding out hope and that there may be yet another tour; and in this case a happy ending for me.

[turnedintogold]

New to the forum, but have been listening to Leonard Cohen ex utero. It's less time than others when tallied up given that I'm twenty five, but it's my whole life. Cohen's music is as constant as the sky for me.

[Leonix]

Hello people,
my english is terrible. I live in South America.
I want to know where to find Text of the songs of Leonard.
If you answer me, Thanks a lot
Leonix