Who (or what) introduced you to Leonard Cohen?

[MaryB]

Johnny,
Thank you for relating your experience. Nice to hear you are teaching your friends to appreciate LC also. Welcome to the forum! Hope we hear more from you.
Best regards,
Mary

[shawomet]

Sometime in 1968, while a junior in college, my best friend at the time bought "The Songs of Leonard Cohen." We listened to it every day. I loved that album very much and soon had my own copy. Then a very strange, and regrettable, thing happened. I lost track of Cohen and did not hear of him again. For 42 years!. Impossible, but true. Then one night in April 2009, I was going through the TV channels and settled on the Boston PBS channel, which was running a fundraiser and broadcasting a concert. An older guy, seemed good. I stayed with it. My wife was in the room also, working on the computer. About a half hour after I had found this concert, she turned toward the TV and said: "Who IS that guy?? He's great!" I answered: "I have no idea who it is, but I'm not changing this station!" Then came a break in the broadcast and the station hosts asked viewers if they were enjoying Leonard Cohen's 2008 London concert. I flipped out! Leonard Cohen!?
The same guy from my youth?! I ordered the DVD the next day and in the weeks that followed immersed myself in all things Cohen, shared his music with friends, etc. Only then did I realize he had been, and is, one of the great songwriters/poets of my lifetime and I had never known it. I am SO grateful to have rediscovered this artist. To my dying day, missing seeing him in live concert will remain a great regret.

[its4inthemorning]

Shawomet,

Your experience is almost identical to ours (if interested, see post of 8/23/10 under "hello, I'm new to the forum" thread).

The only difference is, we were lucky enough to see the PBS fundraiser special a year earlier, at the end of 2009. As a result, were fortunate enough to see LC in Las Vegas in December, 2010.

Do not despair, we might all get another opportunity to see LC on tour next year. Although touring is grueling, I think it is something he and his band really enjoyed, at least to judge from the enthuisiasm that I saw in Las Vegas and see on many of youtube videos here. We are in Pennsylvania, where are you located?

In case you haven't explored this site, definitely check out the 2010 concert tour section, there are many, many excellent videos there. (Wait to do this until you have some spare time, as you may spend many hours viewing!) My favorite video of all is from the Sligo concert, So Long Maryann filmed by Albert. Have fun.

Curt

[shawomet]

Curt,

I'm from Rhode Island. I was kicking myself for not getting to the concert at Madison Square Garden, but then I heard it sold out in minutes anyway, so I would not have lucked out. I'll check out the post you mention, as well as the 2010 concert catagory. This morning I was in physical therapy for a minor injury. People were talking about their favorite performers.
I mentioned that LC was my favorite and the woman on the table next to me said "I don't know him". So I got here email and sent about 15 YouTube videos. She wrote back to say she was hooked on him

Charlie

[Tony Crosbie]

Very simple. I got casette tape from a colleague in work back in the early 70's. I think it was Songs From A Room and my admiration for Leonard and his work has carried on with me through the years. Have been fortunate to see him perform live on two occasions both times in Dublin in 2008 and 2009.

Tony Crosbie

[casp123]

Just over a year a go, I am a fan of Bob Dylan and I was watching a doco on BBC 4. After the doco they showed a concert of Cohen and I started to listen to it, couldnt get enough of it and I brought is albums.

I will be seeing him for the first time in London in June and cant wait

[UrPal]

I think I first heard Leonard Cohen in the late 70s when my younger brother's school friend insisted on playing an album by him on our home stereo. I was mainlining Buzzcocks, Joy Division and other punk and new wave at the time. The friend in question was known to be a fan of Dylan and obviously had recidivist leanings in times when Cohen's folksy acoustic brand of monotheistic miserabilism clearly belonged firmly with the old guard. The friend was an upbeat kind of guy with a matey attitude, so it would have seemed impolite not to humour him and allow the record to wind on. Somehow Cohen's ugly sepia-toned greatest hits album managed to weadle its way into my record collection and gradually revealed itself to be not quite as dull as it may have at first seemed. The rest, as they say.....Strangely, I literally bumped into the same brother's friend thirty odd years later in a different part of the world in the audience at one of Leonard Cohen's first post-millennial UK dates. He was still an upbeat kind of guy.

[Cate]

My introduction was through my grade 10 English teacher. I'm pretty sure the poem was A kite is a victim.

The first time I heard Leonard Cohen sing (age 17) was when my friend found his name on one of her fathers records, Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat. By that time I had already read through a couple of his earlier poetry books as well as Beautiful Losers. I wasn't sure of what I thought of his voice and a bit disturbed that there was any connection between him and my friends father.

[Noise Annoys]

This is a good place for my first post.

When I was 14 or 15 (1987/88), myself and a friend found an interesting looking record in his Dad's collection. It had a black sleeve, with large white block lettering on the front which spelled out 'Leonard Cohen Songs of Love and Hate'. It had been left here by an 'au pair', who had stayed in their house in the mid-70s. We put it on the record player and, well, that was it...

[John Etherington]

Greetings, Noise Annoys!...Was that the transition from Suzi Quatro to Leonard Cohen?