leonardcohenforum.com

Isn't that great Lizzytysh! At least on person will always celebrate your birthday... by celebrating her own

I am a big believer in astrology.. not that this information is neccesery or anything but...
there are at least three Pisces in this forum
Lizzytysh
Magneticcry
me

Witty_Owl....This is the only forum that I have posted on regularly. I have posted very very infrequently on a cabaret singer's yahoo site also for sometime....that is one of the sites that Jurica mentions where weeks can go by without a post, nevertheless it has its own charm.
However, I have sometimes hovered around couple of other forums of high-profile artistes especially lately, and the resemblance is quite stunning. It seems the combination of pop-stardom and modern internet plus a suggestion of intellectualism is a most potent brew for self-delusion. Even the posters seem to be mirror images of their counterparts on the other forums, most convinced that their "man" is the one and only. The majority of posts, even the themes on these sites are pretty much similar in content. Just switch the name of the artist and that of the correspondent. There internet is a great way for people all over the world (or atleast the rich countries where folks are not struggling to survive) to come together but I believe there must be a way to transcend these narrow lanes all of which resemble each other.
As for your query, I have heard extensively only LC, Lightfoot, Dylan from your list. Rarely Neil Young. I would call all of the above 60s singer-songwriter folk-rock. I guess all the names you mentioned are of a certain generation.

I agree with you Kush from experience of my household everyone has their preferred site. Leonard Cohen has been a constant in my life since I was 16 and is the one artist that I truly admire and respect. There are other secondary artist who I also admire but even if Leonard went thru a bad patch or now he is older and is no longer particularly active he has a back catalogue I can dip into at will.

I could not use this site to talk exclusively about LC I don't have that much to say about him as such but I know that the people who are registered on this site share (at least) my love of the man and his work. As I say he has always been a constant in my life and always will be even if he no longer produces work commercially. He has enriched my life with his work he has not changed my life but I am glad I found his work at a young age and I have grown older with him and I still enjoy his work immensely. I do some times questions the "Godlike" status some place on him in my opinion it is a hell of a lot to live up to.

Hi Greta ~ Best friends with the same sign ~ that's great, too . I've also found there to be some amazing things that come from astrological charts and influences. It's very hard to discount, so between doing that and believing in it, I have to go with the latter. When one considers the impact of the moon on the tides, menstrual cycles, births, and madness ~ it's not that difficult to consider long-term impact on the DNA, etc. of the newborn, whose essence and genetic structure are still in their highest and most "malleable"/impactable form. I can't go much further than that in trying to explain the "validity" of astrology.

"Happy Birthday to us......happy birthday to us......happy biiiiiiirrrttthhhhdaaay to uuuuuuuusssssss, haaaappyyy biiiirthday to US! "

~ Lizzytysh

Dear Kush -

I wouldn't call them "Folk Rock" - they simply made their music, and the nuances are the real thing. Critics more prone for labels than for substance invented those those terms to seem cuter than they really were.

Folllowing their lines, Dylan "invented" "Folk Rock", "Country Rock", etc...

I wonder why they didn't pretend LC invented "Poetry Rock"...

I follow the words and the music, and Cohen, Dylan, Van Morrison, Simon, Young are among my favourites... And many others witty mentioned I love too, and many many others...

Now tell me I'm just part of a generation...

Cheers

Tom

Kush and Tom, this attempt to hang a label on any particular artist is fraught with difficulties as we see. Now I do not recomend that such an attempt is valid or that this can define the thrust of any artist in a nutshell. The reason I asked of course is to find some 'genre' labels to use in a web search for forums that are not aligned with any particular artist. I am very much interested in discussions on songwriting and composition and not always with regard to Leonard's work. I think your categorisation is close to the mark Kush but these artists are influenced by all genres. One could just as easily say they are folk/blues/country/pop/poetic/rock, artists. Niel Young for example has released collections of songs over the years that cover almost every realm of poular music.
George, Lizzy and Linmag, what label could you hang on the Warrigal CD?

Cheers, Witty Owl.

Ozzie Rock, of course !

Excellent point on "Poetry Rock," Tom!

Jurica.....I think your ideas are really cool. You originated them...start a thread. I'd be happy to join and LC's lyrics can be an integral part of the process along with others...just so long as we can keep the very ostentatious LC puppylove out. I'd also like to discuss some of Lightfoot songs...another canadian songwriter I used to listen to a lot a few years ago. BTW, it seems you are dipping into Dylan's personal CD collection (Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell). What is your opinion of them...I've never heard them myself.
Other suggestions for threads is pick a topic or subject/object and compare how LC & other songwriters have used that in their songs. Not to say so and so is better or worse...just how they have used an object.
Also, I frequently find specific songs by someone that feel like someone else could have written and have a discussion about that. Like so and so Dylan song could have been written by LC. (e.g., Tim referred to I and I and I suggested Everything is Broken)

Paula....I was crazy about Madonna and her music at 16. I still am !!
Nevertheless, I owe no special allegiance to any single artist. My love of music is too vast and Leonard (or anybody else) is too thin. I can appreciate LC and his music when it is accepted as part of the community of music, not when he is set apart and put on some pedestal by himself. He is not that good...nobody is.

Witty_Owl, Lizzytysh, Tom.....I dislike artificial categorization myself but when you have a 150+ CD collection it becomes necessary. Having an interest in music and history, I logically progressed to musical history and have gone backwards in time since the 80s when I was listening to Springsteen, Madonna etc.
So briefly my collection consists of the following easy classifications (for me atleast).

1.Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston, Paul Robeson.
2.Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra Dean Martin.
3.Domingo, Pavarotti, Lanza, Gigli, Terfel, Kanawa and them opera guys
4.Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton and other country music.
5.Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Tom Russell and them Austin sounds.
6.Sondheim, Weill, Prevert, Hollaender - 20s-30s european cabaret music.
7.Brel, Aznavour, Ferrat - French stuff.
8.Nusrat Fateh, Shafqat Ali, Tagore + some indian/pakistani pop music.
9.Culture, Bob Marley, Burning Spear - reggae
10. Springsteen, Madonna, Suzanne Vega, ABBA.

So Tom, I hope you can understand why I categorize LC, Lightfoot, Dylan into one bracket 60s folk-rock, singer-songwriter.

Ciao Kush,

I am against puppy love too!


Vesuvius

exactly...whatever that means to me....

greta,i like your astrological ideas

lizzytysh,

you ideas are also and always very interesting
for example,i read gretas "missionary work",and to my surprise i found out that it has turned into "health and diseases" topic
which is pretty interesting,because i found a lot of good information from there !!!

Kush wrote:BTW, it seems you are dipping into Dylan's personal CD collection (Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell). What is your opinion of them...I've never heard them myself.

...

8.Nusrat Fateh, Shafqat Ali, Tagore + some indian/pakistani pop music.

First things first.
I have a frien who is a great blues fan, but I never realy liked blues. So i figured, he's so great musicologist and everything, so there's got to be something to this blues.
He gave me a compilation raging from the beginnings in Delta to Memphis and everything.
There was, among others: Your southern can is mine, by Blind Willie McTell, a name I knew from a Dylan song, of course.
I never grew to like electrical blues, the one my friend likes so much, but I can tell you: 'Nobody sings the blues like Blind Willie McTell!'

Was that Rabindarath Tagore, the poet from early 20th century? I've read quite some of his poetry. I'm aware that his songs were ment for singing in original, but I never thought anybody actualy had CDs with it...
How do you listen to it?
Read translations and listening to music?

Magneticry the threads mutate at an alarming speed. You start off a thread on a subject and by the time it has finished it is so totally different you have to look at the title to find out the orignal purpose. But if you read the threads thru there is a gentle progression to the end product and it all seems to fall into place.

what at great thread....
lizzytysh,my dad is a big astrology freak.he emails me charts,diagrams,et al.when i finaly decided to actualy pay attention,it seems quite interesting.

when someone asks me "what kind of music is it?" i just tell 'em listen and decide for yourself.

salut
elazar

Yes, elazar, that's what I've had to rely on a number of times, myself. Seems the fairest way to go, for all concerned, particularly Leonard. Yes, astrology does become very interesting, once you're into the charts, aspects, and influences realm. The daily horoscopes of the newspaper, et al don't really do it justice. I'm not a "What's your sign?" person and I can't begin to describe the traits of particular signs, including some of my own, but I do feel there's some validity in it all.

Thank you for your compliment, magneticcry.