Book Of Longing (A Song Cycle Based On The Poetry And Images Of Leonard Cohen) [Digipak] - Philip Glass & Leonard Cohen

The Best of Leonard Cohen

Advantages: Cohens influencial greatness, lovely songs
Disadvantages: ...No Hallelujah

a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. TRACK LIST 1. Suzanne 2. Sisters Of Mercy 3. So Long Marianne 4. Bird On The Wire 5. Lady Midnight 6. Partisan 7. Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye 8. Famous Blue Raincoat 9. Last Year's Man 10. Chelsea Hotel No 2 11. Who By Fire 12. Take This Longing The first song on the album "Suzanne", its lyrics were taken from his 1966 book of poetry Parasites of heaven, the poem titled Suzanne takes you down. A few other songs of his debut album were also based on his poetry, because of a lack of material. "Bird on the wire", was written when he lived on the Greek Island Hydra and saw a bird sitting on one of Hydras' recently installed phone wires. It came about when his girlfriend Marianne, helping him to overcome depression passed him his guitar, whereupon ...

jpearson772 03.11.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Greatest Hits - Leonard Cohen

Leonard's Our Man

Advantages: Great songs, production, lyrics
Disadvantages: If you don't like Leonard's voice this won't convert you

We've seen so many times that artists and songwriters who have great success throughout the 60's and the 70's often have a horrendous 80's as they try to keep up with the times. The songwriting becomes bland and the need for synthesisers means that the songs become so electronically ladened that the production becomes the focus over the songs themselves. It fills me with great pleasure to say that in the case of Leonard Cohen and 'I'm Your Man' this is most certainly not the case. It could be argued that prior to this Len was having a creative crisis. The mid 70's and early 80's were just about fair to him but albums were patchy compared to his 60's output and by his own high standards. Just when we thought Len's time was up, he brought us this curious powerhouse. The scene is set with the opening track 'First We Take Manhattan ...

Nixu1980 10.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen

Mid-Period Masterpiece From The Master Poet

Advantages: An undisputed masterpiece from beginning to end
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

After his early folkier albums, Leonard Cohen gradually moved away from being the "new Dylan". His album "Death Of A Ladies Man" was a chaotic experience produced by wall-of-sound legend Phil Spector who was going through a manic phase and at one point pulled a gun on Cohen. Although there are some fine songs on it the overblown production with big band sounds and en-masse female choirs tends to drown out Cohen. It was therefore a matter of some speculation as to what direction the next album would take. Then fate intervened and Cohen's beloved mother Masha died and as Leonard tells us on the sleeve-notes she reminded him of the music she liked, "nice folk-tunes" by which she meant the music of eastern Europe - she was born in what is now the Ukraine. "Recent Songs", released in 1979 is therefore a labour of love, a "thank you" to his ...

JoePoirot 23.06.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Recent Songs - Leonard Cohen