Any Leonard Cohen fans here?

[El Gordo]

?

[Seafront Plodder]

I just don't get him.

Music to slash your wrists to IMO.

[El Gordo]

I've been a fan since my early teens. I've never found his music depressing in the least. Just the opposite. He probes the dark side, it's true, but I don't mind exploring it with him. He's one of the great modern poets, and discovering him in my early teens was one of those enormous concrete blocks that drop from the sky and force you to change your path for ever.

Anyway SP, you won't have been in the queue for tickets this morning I suppose then?

I'm delighted to have been able to grab a couple of tickets for his gig in Manchester in June.

Another life-long ambition I can cross off.

[Sweder]

I'm with the plodder on this one.
I suspect Dylanistas are generally more likely to enjoy Cohen.
No doubt he's a poet. 'Musician' would be stretching it

[Antonio247]

I like his way of singing. I used to listen to him long time ago. He´s very different from most singers and although his songs may be too repetitive in the themes and the cadence a bit slow, I find it relaxing to listen to him.

Thanks for reminding us this good poet and singer, E.G.

[Seafront Plodder]

Anyway SP, you won't have been in the queue for tickets this morning I suppose then?

I understand The Samaritans are placing staff on every exit. :RFLMAO:

[glaconman]

I think happy music becomes very tiresome very quickly. I mean it's ok for 10 minutes whilst you're washing-up or driving to work.

But if you're going to listen to music for longer periods you need people who can reflect on life and produce stuff that resonates with the human condition.

[El Gordo]

I think happy music becomes very tiresome very quickly. I mean it's ok for 10 minutes whilst you're washing-up or driving to work.

But if you're going to listen to music for longer periods you need people who can reflect on life and produce stuff that resonates with the human condition.

Thank you GM, you are so right.

Music is a pulverisingly personal thing. No one is is going to switch their 'taste' on the basis of a post on an internet forum. But here's 5 minutes of video of Cohen singing The Stranger Song which absolutely 'reflects on life and..... resonates with the human condition...'

We must all feel free to hate this sort of song -- be my guest. But when I first heard it in the early 70s, I suddenly understood that music was much more than rock 'n' roll and dancing and grinning at your neighbours over a barbecued sausage.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/sea...song_music

This is poetry, but that's a tough word to chew on. I was never intimidated by it. Some people are.

I felt the opposite -- for me, discovering this was an utter liberation. Far from being depressing, it suddenly filled me with hope.

Ah, but maybe you had to be there....


(As a minor aside, I remembered while listening to this again after so long that there's a line in it -- [INDENT]But while he talks his dreams to sleep
you notice there's a highway
that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder

[/INDENT]that won John Peel's competition for "best ever line in a song")


Another footnote: Julie Felix, who introduces the song... She bought me a pint in the back room of a pub in Wakefield a few years ago (1996?), when she was back doing the folk circuit. She's still lovely, if somewhat older and wrinklier. Lovely lady, and still has a fine set of lungs.

[Sweder]

But if you're going to listen to music for longer periods you need people who can reflect on life and produce stuff that resonates with the human condition.

I couldn't agree more GM. I'm all for jigging around the kitchen in the a.m. to a bit of Kylie's Wow! but, nice as that is (and it's better if you can play the accompanying video in your head) it's unlikely to feed the soul.

Like the Fat One says music is as likely to divide us as it is to bring us together. I for example readily admit to being a fan of Bruce Springsteen. It's not his ear for a catchy tune that draws my admiration, rather his ability to convey the harsh realities of working life with a sincerity and honesty that few before or since have managed. I'm aware that The Boss is far from everyone's cup of PG and have to accept that, as with Cohen and Dylan, if you don't get his stuff then you just don't get it. Many have pointed out the paradox of a man earning squillions through singing about destitution in the crippled American industrial heartland. The difference - again for me - is that Springsteen supports his insight with powerful songwriting and enduring melodies.

My Mum would argue that Richard Burton reading from the back of a Cornflake packet would do it for her. Each to his - or her - own. I guess my point would be that you don't have to be wrist-slittingly dull to get your message accross, neither need you be lobotomistically poptastic.

My enduring love for Motorhead - not exactly purveyers of the finger-clicking, toe-tapping popular ditty - stems from thier eageress to embrace down-to-earth issues, a no-nonsense approach to basic - yet vital - subject matter such as drug abuse, alcoholism and loose women, all delivered with humour and relentless pace. I feel much the same way about ZZ Top. Their music won't change the world, it's not always the best to wake up to and one might say you'll be unlikely to ponder any message for too long, but it will usually put a smile on your face.

Pink Floyd, with their cerebral meanderings and political insight coupled with fearless indulgence and ground-breaking experimentation can, when the mood is right, carry me off to another world. I've have quasi-religious moments with that lot on more than one occasion. There again I know people who would willingly pluck out their own eyes rather than sit through ten minutes of Dark Side Of The Moon.

There's no right or wrong, only opinion.
Where it all starts to get ugly is when over-zealous disciples start trying to convert the masses. Worse still, when faced with resistance from the philistines they decry all unbelievers and declare theirs the One True God.

Hmm, perhaps I've taken this a bit far
Must put on some Talking Heads

[El Gordo]

I came back to this thread to delete my last post, hoping it had gone unread, and resolving to stop using internet messageboards after a few beers, but to my dismay, find that Sweder has passed through.

It's hard to disagree with anything you said, and apart from Motorhead and ZZ Top, bands I simply missed out on, rather than dislike, even find my taste overlaps with yours. And your mum's -- Burton reading Under Milk Wood is one of the stars of the recording firmament.

I'm over-reacting to the great SP's dismissive comment. I should have grinned and borne it, raised my eyes to the ceiling and smirked affectionately.

The key thing for me is variety, and trying to appreciate the riches of all music. One of the few musical types that leaves me cold is rap, which I just don't get at all.

I have an iTunes playlist called 'Working from home' which consists of gregorian chant, religious choral music and medieval carols. Elsewhere you'll find Hendrix, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Franz Ferdinand, and then there's the folky stuff -- Dylan, Cohen, Joni, Kate Rusby et al. M's CD collection has helped me to slowly unpick the lock of modern jazz, and when we go out to see a band it's likely to be in this category.

There's almost nothing I can't like -- perhaps blandness and the recycling of someone else's style are the worst things -- and even stuff I can't enjoy on its own terms, I can find of interest. Which is probably why I bristled a bit at SP's remark.

For anyone interested in hearing a wide variety of music, much of which you'd never ordinarily come across, try listening to Late Junction on R3. It's on late every night, and available online for a week or so afterwards. They play a mixture of everything.

I'll shut up now.

[Sweder]

If it's any consolation I was carrying a formidable bellyfull of Hurley's finest when I stumbled upon my laptop last night :o
I'm just thankful that I lost the ability to type coherently before I alienated just about everyone here.

Definitely need a breathalizer attachment for this thing
Off for a sub-zero, snow-bound plod to clear my head and sweat out some poison.

[El Gordo]

Ah, Montreal?

Birthplace of Leonard Cohen, thus bringing the thread to a nice circular... conclusion?

You'll miss Almeria vs Barca this evening.

[marathondan]

One of the few musical types that leaves me cold is rap, which I just don't get at all.

Have you listened to* The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free? A beautiful piece of work, IMHO. Musically, I guess it wouldn't be categorised as rap, but if rap means a vocal style then to me, rap it is.

If you're talking about the more common, aggressive forms of rap (which I believe would come under the umbrella of hip-hop, but I'm no expert) then to me it's just another high-energy musical form addressing the issues of youth. For those of us for whom heavy rock etc fulfilled that role, there's probably no room in our brains to appreciate a whole other genre doing the same thing.

----------------
* definitely to be listened to rather than heard

[Sweder]

Good post MD. I'm with El Gordo on the general rap/ hip-hop t'ing; I really don't get what appears to be a series of large men wrapped in chains pointing their fingers at me and shouting Yo Yo Yo.

But of course it's the current generations' Punk, or Metal, or Prog Rock; we're not supposed to get it and that's the point. If my Mum had tapped her toe to Down In The Sewer or London Lady no doubt I'd have sought solace in Pat Boone or old Bay City Rollers numbers (that would have taught her to be down with the kids).

There was a superb BBC4 program (series?) about New York music rising through the last thirty years. It featured Lou Reed/ Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Talking Heads . . . and the birth of rap. That gave at least an insight into the why and the how. Debbie Harry, growing up in that hotbed of urban creativity, introduced rap to the mainstream with her 'Man From Mars/ eating Cars' section in Rapture. 'Fab Five Freddie', 'name-checked' in that piece, also featured heavily in the documentary, being generally considered the Daddy of modern rap.

The genre still needs a 'C' prefix IMHO, but agree that Mr Skinner offered something new with his style - and has done rather well with it too, so what do we know?

[El Gordo]

Have you listened to* The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free? A beautiful piece of work, IMHO. Musically, I guess it wouldn't be categorised as rap, but if rap means a vocal style then to me, rap it is.

If you're talking about the more common, aggressive forms of rap (which I believe would come under the umbrella of hip-hop, but I'm no expert) then to me it's just another high-energy musical form addressing the issues of youth. For those of us for whom heavy rock etc fulfilled that role, there's probably no room in our brains to appreciate a whole other genre doing the same thing.

----------------
* definitely to be listened to rather than heard

I have heard the Streets, yes, and liked what I heard. Only caught them in small chunks on Jonathan Ross and Jools Holland though, so I'll aim to listen again. Thanks -- and I can see why it could be categorised as a flavour of rap. Yes, I was thinking more about the hip-hop side of rap. I don't dismiss or disparage it but no amount of cranial probing has managed to get my head round it. A bit like opera. I've tried but failed on that one too.

[glaconman]

Gil Scott Heron might give you a small toe-hold. He's alot of things, but you can hear how his poetry is sometimes delivered in a rap stylee.

[stillwaddler]

I have only got to hear a few bars of "Suzanne" and I am transported back to being 18 and truly/madly/deeply in love with quite the wrong bloke, sadly "That's No Way to Say Goodbye" was very soon the order of the day - sigh :o

[El Gordo]

I have only got to hear a few bars of "Suzanne" and I am transported back to being 18 and truly/madly/deeply in love with quite the wrong bloke, sadly "That's No Way to Say Goodbye" was very soon the order of the day - sigh :o

That's a bit more like it....