{"id":8333,"date":"2017-02-04T00:10:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T00:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2017-02-04T00:10:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T00:10:53","slug":"leonard-cohen-at-the-masters-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/reviews\/leonard-cohen-at-the-masters-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Cohen at the Master\u2019s feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leonard Cohen took his verse into music and stilled the world with his bleak melancholic. The euphoric \u201cSo Long Marianne\u201d, \u201cSisters Of Mercy\u201d and chilling \u201cWho By Fire\u201d continue to shiver through the lonely strains of a man\u2019s heart. Tim Hardin sang his austere \u201cBird On The Wire\u201d, (about birds on a telegraph wire in Hydra ) while the nineties gave us a superior version of Leonard\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d through the octave gifted Jeff Buckley (son of Tim).<\/p>\n

For those that can\u2019t cry anymore Leonard took the pain and pierced it into our being so we could feel…. Leonard was the poet that caught the tears of Jesus and then washed the world, even more he was the waterbearer kneeling before the messiah as he carried the cross.<\/p>\n

Leonard started out in a messianic Jewish family of Polish ancestry stemming from the highly acclaimed Koanim. Leonard\u2019s first group The Buckskin Boys was a country endevour till the intellect of Mc Gill University pressed his first poetry book. Leonard\u2019s swansong poetry book The Spice -Box Of Earth elevated him into the Canadian circles of poetry acceptance while his sexual Beautiful Losers and sarcastic innuendo Flowers For Hitler shocked Canadian reviewers. Cohen\u2019s passion for Joni Mitchell at Newport in 67 resulted in Joni penning \u201cThe Gallery\u201d and \u201cThat Song of Midway\u201d for Leonard (Clouds) She speaks of Leonard as \u2018You stood out like a Ruby in a Blackman\u2019s Ear\u2019. Leonard\u2019s first live performance broke half way through the brittle \u201cSuzanne\u201dand stage fright sent him running into the wings. Judy led him back on stage and sang the ballad though with him. Leonard\u2019s debut \u201cSuzanne\u201d dedicated not to his artist wife Suzanne Elrod, but to Suzanne Verdaal wife of Quebec sculptor Armand Vaillancourt came to light with Judy Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuzanne\u201d pre-emted Cohen\u2019s\u2019 gothic Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967) backed by ex Floggs Chris Darrow \/ & Kaleidoscope (Suzanne really made tea out of orange peels) The first global illumination of the shadowy Songs of Leonard Cohen was in 1971 when M*A*S*H man Robert Altman use some of the songs for his soundtrack McCabe & Mrs. Miller. More definitively Leonard\u2019s 1969 tour de force poetry songbook Songs From A Room was the peak illumination of poetry passion as it wheeled through the political waters of \u201cThe Partisan\u201d, (French Resistance song by Anna Marly & Emmanuel d\u2019Asier) or the working class tribute \u201cA Bunch Of Lonesome Hero’s.\u201d (back of the cover sat Marianne Jenson on the island of Hydra) Later Leonard would take the refrain of \u201cA Bunch Of Lonesome Hero’s\u201d and pay full tribute to Jenson with \u201cSo Long Marianne\u201d.<\/p>\n

Songs From A Room also conceived the daunting \u201cStory Of Isaac\u201d which blues guitarist Roy Buchanan covered superbly assisted by violinist Charlie Daniels.Leonard clearly saw himself as a leftist rebel with romantic virtues portrayed in the picture of him sporting a Che\u2019 Guevara beard and military weariness. Having lived through the Cuban tensions of 1961 Leonard aligned himself with Fidel Castro plying through \u201cField Of Commander Cohen\u201d, another political sapphire that illuminated his militant New Skin For Old Ceremony (answer to Buckley\u2019s \u201cNo Man Can Find The War\u201d).<\/p>\n

Leonard felt passionately for the struggling partisan allowing another New Skin political Zeitgeist, the rousing \u201cThere Is A War\u201d to open Gary Oldman\u2019s soundtrack The Backwoods. New Skin also unravelled the aching \u201cTake This Longing\u201d, an unsung chalice of anointing oil. Leonard\u2019s obsession with the underdog remained consistent from his ode to \u201cThe Partisan\u201d or his \u201cThe Old Revolution\u201d written from the point of a defeated loyalist.<\/p>\n

The album also conceived Leonard\u2019s #2 \u201cChelsea Hotel\u201d which speaks of late night seance with Janis Joplin. Janis was apparently looking for Kris Kristofferson but didn\u2019t care once wrapped in the loins of Leonard\u2019s lament. Leonard\u2019s Jewish heritage is deeply rooted in the lyrics of \u201cWho By Fire\u201d, a reflection of the Rosh Hashanah liturgical poem written by Unetaneh Tokef in the 11th century. Further Jewish flight into \u201cHallelujah\u201d describes David\u2019s attempt to please the Lord or more accurately sooth King Saul\u2019s demonic oppression. Leonard the true loyalist toured Israel during the Yom Kippur war and often with Jennifer Warnes who restored Leonard\u2019s US popularity with her tribute Famous Blue Raincoat. Jennifer\u2019s stirring rendition of \u201cFirst We Take Manhattan\u201d, an anti-drug attack similar to the addict alleys of “Wir Kinderen Vom Banhof Zoo”, which Bowie enhanced through Christiane F. Jennifer also wades into the meditative strains of a sexual \u201cJoan Of Arc\u201d, a song that strokes the sensual illusions of Martin Scorsese\u2019 The Last Temptation of Christ or Velvet Underground\u2019s Nico.<\/p>\n

The Nico conquest came during Leonard\u2019s Songs Of Love And Hate which Nick Cave is still trying to emulate. Leonard was everywhere sharing a cognac with General Ariel Sharon and summing up his Middle Eastern Sabbatical with \u201cLover Lover Lover\u201d for the wives \/ soldiers of Arab and Jew alike after been demoralised by the dead and wounded. Leonard\u2019s 1984 Various Positions featured the understated \u201cHallelujah\u201d a soaring hymn for Jeff Buckley. Leonard\u2019s 1987 I\u2019m Your Man marked a change in his music as it lauded itself in Nanni Moretti\u2019s film Caro Diaro in 1993 with Moretti himself deciding to ride his Vespa along the streets of Rome to the sound of \u201cI\u2019m Your Man\u201d. The Grunge generation got hooked line and tattoo to Leonard through Natural Born Killers ( \u201cWaiting For The Miracle\u201d) years after its original release. Leonard adopted a Buddhist lifestyle in the ensuing wartorn Arabic years of 2001. In Dec 2008 Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was embarrassingly discovered through American Idol, Jason Castro and now the world discovers Jeff Buckley\u2019s angelic version some 14 years after Jeff released it on his riveting Grace. A few days later, Mr Cohen was inducted into the American \u2018Rock and Roll Hall of Fame\u2019 in recognition of his status -“highest and most influential echelon of songwriters”.<\/p>\n

(Sadly like Carlos Santana it needed a hedonist embrace to enter the secluded door of poetic prognosis)<\/p>\n

Mr Cohen was introduced by his old \u2018Warhol Factory\u2019 associate Lou Reed. January 13, 2008, Leonard Cohen announced a long-anticipated concert tour that froze Glastonbury with it\u2019s intrinsic solace and then reached into the well and retrieved a gospel styled \u201cHallelujah\u201d with Neil Larsen on the soulful Hammond. The London performance reached liquid actualisation on \u201cWho by Fire\u201d with Javier Mas reaching into the realm of a Grecian muse with his Banduria. This was later released on CD\/ DVD bringing tears to members of Pink Floyd in the front row while I sat in distant shadows wondering \u2018Is This What You Wanted\u2019 ?<\/p>\n

Added:<\/b> September 16th 2009
\nReviewer:<\/b> shiloh noone<\/a> | See all reviews<\/a> by shiloh noone
\nCategory:<\/b> Music<\/a>
\nLocation:<\/b> South Africa<\/a>
\nScore:<\/b> \"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"
\nRelated Link:<\/b> Seekers Guide To The Rhythm Of Yesteryear<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leonard Cohen took his verse into music and stilled the world with his bleak melancholic. The euphoric \u201cSo Long Marianne\u201d, \u201cSisters Of Mercy\u201d and chilling \u201cWho By Fire\u201d continue to shiver through the lonely strains of a man\u2019s heart. Tim Hardin sang his austere \u201cBird On The Wire\u201d, (about birds on a telegraph wire in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}