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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 2:44:45 GMT
I just received word that Leonard Cohen died.
Age 82, cause unknown.
I am still in deep sadness and sorrow to express more at this time.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 3:23:21 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 11, 2016 3:43:38 GMT
A tower of talent and intelligence. His dignity and incredible musical contribution will never be forgotten.
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Post by bjd on Nov 11, 2016 6:49:22 GMT
When I was in high school, I had a part time job at the local library. At that time, Cohen was known as a poet and there were books by him in the library. So not only a "musical" contribution to culture but also a literary one.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 11, 2016 7:53:52 GMT
Leonard Cohen said in his last interview that "(he) was ready to die." I guess it was time to go.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 11, 2016 12:21:38 GMT
You beat me to Leonard. I also knew him as a poet when I was very young, probably not even pubescent, before his first album even came out. (Yes, of course I was a bookish kid, and a boho). He wrote a couple of novels as well, mixing historical-philosophical musings and wild sex, straight and gay, which I barely understood at 13 or so... (the sex, not the history). His early poems also expressed a Russian-Pale Jewish sensibity in what was then a profoundly Catholic (and priest-ridden) city. Bixa might have read Juan Gelman whose Buenos Aires poems sometimes had similar echoes, though they were more "social". Bixa and Don Cuevas might be familiar with Gelman as he lived in Mexico City in his later years, as it was one of his places of exile during the dictatorship and he found late love there.
I have met Cohen but can't say I "knew" him - I think most people here who are at all involved in literature, music or art have met him.
Cohen is deeply loved by francophone Québécois as well as anglophones and others. Unlike Mordechai Richler, he never expressed resentment towards the national and social aspirations of the Québécois - or the Indigenous peoples. He wasn't an activist, but had a deep sensitivity to "what's going on". There is a war between the rich and the poor, a war between the man and the woman. There is a war between those who say there is a war, and those who say there isn't.
The ecosocialist and indépendantiste sculptor and painter Armand Vaillancourt, not as well known as Cohen outside Québec, though he has major works in San Francisco and elsewhere, was one of his close friends. His wife at the time was Suzanne Verdal, the Suzanne of the song, which is an ode to Montréal. Perhaps strangely in those wild times, the love of Suzanne and Leonard was chaste and courtly. She was a dancer... she's not doing well these days, a bit more than "half-crazy" and no longer able to dance or teach dance...
Flags throughout the city are half-mast today; I imagine that there will be a public ceremony. People gathered in the little Parc du Portugal where his little house was located some sang - and drank wine - all hight - I confess I was too cold - I did drink some wine and listen to songs I listened to decades ago when I was a kid - by Cohen, sung also by Pauline Julien, his rendering of Anna Marly's Chanson du partisan...
And his recent, stark song "Almost like the blues"
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Post by Kimby on Nov 11, 2016 12:27:12 GMT
My personal favorite
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 12:35:17 GMT
I had a friend called Suzanne and I will let you imagine which song she preferred.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 11, 2016 12:59:53 GMT
Québecoise passionara Pauline Julien sang the first French version:
There are a lot of Québécoise boomers named Suzanne, and of course Suzanne Verdal is a bit older than the boomers.
The late Alain Bashung did a different version later on:
And a rendering by the great Nina Simone:
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 16:32:26 GMT
Thank you for that commentary Lagatta and for the songs. My husband and I sat up late listening to his music and toasting him.
How very fitting that the flags are at half mast.
I have several of his books. He never did receive the acclaim as a writer that he deserved. Having read two biographies of him, he expressed much dismay at this and was often very discouraged.
Having seen him perform here in NOLA a few years ago was likely one of the highlights of my music loving history. His presence on the stage was enormous and he seemed to delight in all that surrounded him which came through loud and clear in his performance. He ended the concert with one of my many favorites," Closing Time". Ever so fitting a song for NOLAees.
He brought the house down...
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Post by lagatta on Nov 11, 2016 19:01:59 GMT
The spontaneous memorial to Leonard Cohen outside his small greystone duplex, Parc du Portugal, Plateau Mont-Royal District, Montréal (photo by Le Devoir photographer Jacques Nadeau)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2016 15:04:05 GMT
Leon Russell dies at age 74. He came to New Orleans and performed often. He was known to be a very generous musician, sharing the stage with others. RIP Leon.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 13, 2016 16:12:31 GMT
Good grief ~ another shock! Thanks for posting, as I hadn't seen this news.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2016 3:57:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 18:44:47 GMT
RIP, legendary blues and jazz pianist Mose Allison, age 89.
He was one of my husbands's favorite musicians and I was introduced to his music 35 or so years ago.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2016 15:12:27 GMT
Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, dead at age 69
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Post by Kimby on Dec 8, 2016 16:39:49 GMT
ELP was the sound track to my college years. RIP Greg Lake.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2016 3:54:11 GMT
The death of George Michael was a bit of a surprise, but the radion stations had a field day playing "Last Christmas."
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Post by whatagain on Dec 26, 2016 10:37:39 GMT
Aids ? I remember the song from Wham that won Eurovision before he started solo. Wake me up before you go. Last Xmas makes me switch channels.
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Post by amboseli on Dec 26, 2016 11:26:51 GMT
Careless whisper ... his first solo single, 1984. Love(d) that song. RIP George Michael.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2016 21:37:00 GMT
Pierre Barouh has died at age 82. Non French people will probably not recognise the name but you will almost certainly recognise his signature song from the movie A Man and a Woman.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2017 20:43:57 GMT
Goodbye Al Jarreau.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2017 23:01:59 GMT
Chuck Berry, age 90. Words fail.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2017 23:06:23 GMT
I heard that about an hour ago. While everybody knows that he was a musical legend, I suspect that the first reaction of a lot of people is going to be "I didn't know he was still alive."
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2017 23:13:08 GMT
Agreed yes. He was such a powerful influence upon so many musicians, the whole" British Wave", the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks et al have declared how inspired they were by him.
I had no idea he was still alive.
A true legend to be sure.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 18, 2017 23:42:43 GMT
No indeed! I well knew he was alive AND was set to release a new album this year. GIANT influence on the popular music of the last sixty-two years. (he recorded Maybelline in 1955)
Whether you're a fan or not, you have to admire his stamina:
Berry lived in Ladue, Missouri, approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of St. Louis.[62] He regularly performed one Wednesday each month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar located in the Delmar Loop neighborhood of St. Louis, from 1996 to 2014. Berry announced on his 90th birthday that his first new studio album since Rock It in 1979, entitled Chuck, would be released in 2017. His first new record in 38 years, it features his children, Charles Berry Jr. and Ingrid, on guitar and harmonica, with songs "covering the spectrum from hard-driving rockers to soulful thought-provoking time capsules of a life's work" and dedicated to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry.
The above is from the Chuck Berry Wikipedia entry which at this moment carries a disclaimer as to accuracy because of the high level of traffic on the page. That's a lotta fans over a lotta years!
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Post by whatagain on Mar 19, 2017 12:12:17 GMT
I cannot hum one of his songs. Not a single one. How come ?
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2017 12:37:53 GMT
Chuck Berry's songs were not hummable, Whatagain. You have to bounce around and sing.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 19, 2017 13:45:06 GMT
Don't know if this link will work, but here's a song I can attest to its sing-along-ability. I remember a whole bar full of people singing lustily along with the jukebox circa 1973 in a Wisconsin tavern:
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 10:07:57 GMT
Whatagain, one of his first hits was later taken over by Johnny Hallyday as "Johnny Reviens" in France. Surely you have heard it.
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