I Don’t Get Leonard Cohen

Witty and pointed, enjoyed, good morning D :-) atb Lena xx

Extremely witty...and I do 'get' what you're saying about Leonard Cohen. He is, unreservedly a brilliant writer but I prefer to hear others, more suited, singing his compositions. As for Bob Dylan, 'I know where you're coming from' . He doesn't have the most appealing of voices, but no one can 'sing' them like him. An interesting poem, which really got me to thinking. Tina

All before my time, but I enjoyed this one nevertheless! I too am very partial to 'The Beatles and the Stones' ;) Magic xxx

With the exception of Lori Anderson and Grace Jones, I like the others; I was at a Dylan concert in Dublin before Christmas and while his voice sounded like gravel being poured down a drain pipe, he still can't do any wrong for me. I went to see Leonard Cohen at the same venue and - for me - he sounds better now than he did, when he started; it really was a super show. I remember them, the first time around and I suppose it is harder to fall out of love after so long. Like the piece D. (but love Dylan more lol) Chris ;)

how can you NOT like Lou Reed????? xx

Excellent poem Mark, and I agree with everything you say with the exception of Grace Jones.... This one passed me by as I've never heard any of this lady's records. Along with the Beatles and Stones I'd put Ray Davies and the Kinks. Steve

Yeah dylan is always a question mark for me. Though I heard his song Isis on a tape of songs my cousin gave me and its quite fantastic (though it makes no f'ing sense)

I'm sort of the opposite to you. It's the Rolling Stones I don't get. I've always thought, by the high standards of 60's rock music, they were quite average. I realize they had a 'Bad Boy' image in the 60's and were contrasted with the more clean cut Beatles and I know they had talent but all the rock musicians and singers in the 60's had talent equal to, if not in some cases greater than, the Rolling Stones. On the bad boy front, I think that Jim Morrison was far cooler than, handsomer than and a superior singer to Mick Jagger. Jim Morrison had an amazing rich baritone voice (like Elvis almost) but Mick Jaggers voice was weak, not to mention he does this awful dance (that he learned from Tina Turner) all the time. The Doors also brought a cinematic or theatrical quality to their songs, very much like The Beatles, that I think the Stones often failed to achieve and thats because The Beatles were immersed in the influence of people like Spike Milligan and The Goons (and had the genius of George Martin to add to their own genius) while Morrison was a filmmaker and you get that sweeping epic cinematic experience listening to The Doors(for example in "Riders on The Storm") I'm with you on Bob Dylan though. He opened the floodgates to all the bad, lazy songwriting that came after him. After Dylan, songs didn't have to make sense. Out went the clever word play of Cole Porter and in came a 'just put down any old word as long as it fits the music and sounds nice' mentality. For better song writing in the Cole Porter tradition; Ray Davies and the Kinks. Have to disagree about Lou Reed though. I think he's a brilliant songwriter but his songs follow the tradition of 'songwriter as storyteller' (thats common in Country and Western and traditional folk music) except that he gave a modern, urban grittiness to it. I think he wanted to be a novelist originally. I'm a big fan of Leonard Cohen; his words (only because they seem like wise proverbs from some inscrutable sage of love) and his voice. I think his voice is far more pleasant to listen to than Dylans; richer and deeper and softer with a kind of knowing quality to it. Also Cohens songs are like gentle lullabies with a dreamy sort of quality. Thats only my opinion though and like you said, its all subjective.