I don’t have a lot of the music of Leonard Cohen, “Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist.” I have a lot of Leonard Cohen music.
OK, I only have one or two of his albums, on vinyl, and none on CD. He is an acquired taste as a singer, yet I must say that I’ve added his new album, Popular Problems, to my wish list, and not just because he could use the money.
But I have a number of songs written by Cohen and performed by other artists, songs such as Suzanne, Bird on a Wire, Famous Blue Raincoat, Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye, and, of course, Hallelujah. And there are a LOT of covers of Leonard Cohen songs, especially Hallelujah, so many that he’s actually asked people to please stop recording it for a while. Here’s Hallelujah by k.d. lang from 2006.
Judy Collins and Leonard Cohen each had a huge impact on the other’s career. She helped popularize his songs, and has performed enough of them to fill an album, Democracy: Judy Collins sings Leonard Cohen.
Jennifer Warnes’ Famous Blue Raincoat is subtitled The Songs of Leonard Cohen; you’ll hear one of her performances on the Coverville, episode 1046, this week, which also features 18 other Cohen covers. Here are Cohen and Warnes performing Joan of Arc.
Listen to Leonard Cohen ~ Top 16 Most Popular Songs.
I bought a Cohen compilation CD some years ago purely for “Hallelujah”, and when I pressed play and heard his voice for the first time, I thought there was something wrong with my CD player. It sounded like a normal guy on a 45rpm disc played at 33.
Four or five minutes later, I was of the mind that this guy is rather like Louis Armstrong, in the way his voice is completely unique. I love his music, and I need to find this album!
I love Leonard Cohen, but I only own one of his albums: his first, Songs of Leonard Cohen, which is one of my all time favorites by anyone. I was always frustrated that my mother couldn’t get past the rough quality of his voice and hear the wounded beauty in it.
Holy cow KD Lang does an awesome Hallelujah.
It’s sad a beautiful woman stole all his money but… it’s Leonard Cohen, Cuban freedom fighter, sometime Buddhist monk, poet, songwriter. It’s sad but it fits with his story.