UKC

Sad day

I've got The Future and Old Ideas and enjoy listening to both

Which other albums would you recommend getting next?

In reply to kevin stephens:

I'm your man......simply brilliant.

In reply to kevin stephens:

Only one I own is 'greatest hits' from the mid 70s which has a good selection of his earlier records (Suzanne, So long Marianne, the Partisan etc)

In reply to Gone for good:


That would be my first choice as well.

By way of something slightly different, I'd also recommend Jennifer Warnes album of Cohen covers. It's called Famous Blue Raincoat, and it's quite wonderful. She was apparently a close friend of Cohen's and worked with him for many years, so it's a nice twist that he sings backing vocals on some of his own songs in some of these covers

In reply to kevin stephens:

Not an answer to your question, but just to say that I've been working at home today and have listened to "Dance me to the end of love" so many times - I'd never heard it before. So beautiful.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I'd second Greatest Hits and I'm Your Man on top of The Future, or Various Positions. I haven't got You Want It Darker yet but there's a cracking video on Youtube of the title track and no doubt this last album will get a massive Dead Pop Stars boost. Crikey, just seen the entire 2011 11 disc box set is only £23 if you feel like diving right in.

In reply to steveriley:

I've been listening to the live in London album today. Some lovely conversation amongst the singing and although fairly recent he sounds brilliant.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

It's great that you've found it. Sublime.

Mick

In reply to kevin stephens:

Songs of Love and Hate. A timeless classic.

In reply to jonesieboy:
Songs from a Room and Songs of Leonard Cohen are both utterly compelling listening and those are what he started out with. I'm your man is possibly his drollest album although there's lost of humour hidden in all of them. I'm about to start buying my way through the complete works, filling in all the gaps.
Haven't heard it but Popular Problems ( the one before the new one) is getting a lot of respect
Quite quite unique, and he's the one who should have had the Nobel prize (no disrespect to his Bobness)

In reply to colinakmc:

I like Songs from a Room, possibly cos it was the first album of his I bought, but still think its brilliant. Songs of Love & Hate is also classic.

In reply to kevin stephens:
New skin for old ceremony is the best IMHO

In reply to kevin stephens:

I like the live in London

In reply to colinakmc:


I was thinking the same thing (or at least if it was going to go to a musician then I generally prefer Cohen's work)

BBC4 hooked me with the Bird on a Wire film at bedtime last night. Hopefully it'll be on iplayer to have a proper watch ofthis evening

In reply to kevin stephens: In the sixty's I had Songs From a Room, was raw Cohen, but loved it. I think love and Hate is about the same?

Stu

In reply to kevin stephens: Songs from a room.

youtube.com/watch?v=rtkSw9CFZ3E&

In reply to kevin stephens:

When I saw him live a few years ago, it dawned on me how many truly great songs he had written, they went on and on and on. Also they spanned his career.
I couldn't pick a best album (other than a "best of" which isn't really a best album). But another thumbs up for Jennifer Warnes - which also isn't really his best album!

You could buy all the album's we all suggest

In reply to Moley:


Indeed, and some I hadn't even realised were his; I'm planning on listening to this when I have a spare couple of hours to concentrate:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082q88f

In reply to Gone for good:


If I had to pick just two of his songs, they would Everybody Knows and Tower of Song - both from this album. The lyrics are just sheer genius, so full of wit.

In reply to Gone for good:

Been listening to some of the tracks on that album again and remembered that I think lyrically he was at his sharpest, the arrangements now sound a bit dated.

Which has caused me to stumble across this REM version of "First we take manhattan" which I think is just brilliant
youtube.com/watch?v=9xkueNLrAas&

In reply to kevin stephens:

I'm afraid I'm a self-confessed Leonard Cohen fanatic. Current road music in the car:

Popular Problems - every track is a cracker but 'Almost like the blues' is my favourite
Ten New Songs - again every track is great but check out 'That don't make it Junk' with the line 'I fought against the bottle but I had to do it drunk' and 'Boogie Street'
You Want It Darker - his last album bought just before he kicked the bucket. Apparently he was in so much pain that he had to record in sitting in a specially constructed medical chair. Amazingly the album is one of his best.

Whoever said he is too gloomy ? He cheers me up. Feel like I've lost an old friend.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I'm Your Fan, another excellent collection of covers and my introduction to Cohen.

In reply to kevin stephens:

"Songs of Leonard Cohen" is the one.

In reply to Dave Cumberland:

It was for me. In the late 60s and early 70s, I must have listened to it hundreds and hundreds of times. And I knew lots of people who felt the same way about it. One mate, Kenny Greenballs (well, we used to call him that), reckoned he'd played his first copy so many times that the needle wore it away and he had to get another one.

The front cover - Leonard Cohen looked beyond soulful. Everything about that album felt utterly classic.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:

Kenny Greenballs! Sounds like a character from a Patrcia Highsmith novel. I too enjoyed his music in the 60s/early 70s (being of a similar coffin-dodging age to yourself - young UKCers look away now) but enjoyed his renaissance in recent years - driven by necessity after his manager stole his pension money. Many of the recent songs are so urbane and witty (the odd one is an album-filler) and with the backing of excellent musicians and singers such as Sharon Robinson that they are a pleasure in a different way. I would urge anyone unfamiliar with the recent work to try the albums I mentioned in my post above.

In reply to Pekkie:

Pete, I really need to do that. Kind of lost touch with his music over the decades (though adored 'First We Take Manhattan' and 'Dance Me to the End of Love'). But yes, need to treat myself to the later stuff. Seems like he gave/left us an awful lot.

'Catherine Tekakwitha, who are you?'

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:

He was a poet better than Dylan. People called him depressing (Songs of Love and Hate was a bit), but then friends in pub last night said they were going to a Cure concert - now that IS depressing, Same deep water as you, Disintegration? Still good, I like melancholia.
Leonard - salut!
DC

In reply to Dave Cumberland:


I love Cohen, but I can't agree with this. In his best work, I think Dylan creates imagery that has the inexhaustibility characteristic of truly great poets - such as Eliot or Rimbaud - allowing every listener/reader to discover in it something new. Cohen has great insight, wit and a gift for memorable phrase making, but I don't feel he has this same inexhaustibility in such measure. I think the same quality separates Dylan from a couple of other brilliant lyricists I particularly admire, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. But each to their own!

In reply to Andy Clarke:

Well according to this article Cohen is John Donne (not the climber, stupid!) to Dylan's Shakespeare.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/19/leonard-cohen-music-recalls-j...

In reply to Andy Clarke:

Interesting comments. I saw recently the film Hell and High Water, music by Nick Cave - superb music!

In reply to Pekkie:


Rather inconveniently for my argument above, Donne is my favourite English poet, but it's a very interesting and thought-provoking article. And like the man said, Pleasure is none, if not diversified.

In reply to Dave Cumberland:

His latest album, Skeleton Tree, is up there with his best.