I’m your man, I’m your fan.
Mel Gibson and Lian Lunson are currently producing a movie on Leonard Cohen and I am excited about it. (Lian Lunson also maintains a blog charting the progress of this film; watch the trailer at apple.com/quicktime)
I never knew Leonard Cohen until I went over to Canada in 1990. My exposure to western music prior to that was probably limited to whatever Casey Kasem presented on his American Top 40 show, and whatever Smash Hits featured for that month, ie. Kylie and Jason and Bananarama.
Then came Leonard Cohen. I remember flicking through MuchMusic (Canada’s MTV) and being totally mesmerized by this man. In his monotonous delivery he was rambling:
Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take manhattan, then we take berlin
That was taken from the song First we take manhattan.
I later found out that he was a well acclaimed Montreal poet and novelist who only started recording music in his mid-30s, despite being born a decade earlier than The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
Being a reclusive and depressive person, Leonard never achieved the status of his contemporaries (ie. Bob Dylan), but nonetheless, influenced a legion of musicians that were to come. Sting, REM, Pixies, Nick Cave, Joan Baez, U2, Jeff Buckley, Joe Cocker and many more have confessed to be his fans and had covered and interpreted his songs.
But there will only be one Cohen. His pessimist’s humour and his haunting melancholic detached voice makes him one of my favourite artiste.
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?
- Bird on the Wire
Here are some MP3s if you want to check him out.
Download First we take manhattan
Download Bird on a wire
Download Everybody knows
Download Famous blue raincoat
