Like a Bird on a Wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
~Leonard Cohen, Bird On A Wire“The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”
― Leonard Cohen“I don’t remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don’t remember
if I’m here alone
or waiting for someone.”
~Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Leonard Norman Cohen |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 September 1934 (age 78) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Genres | Folk, folk rock, rock, pop rock,spoken word, synthpop |
| Occupations | Musician, singer-songwriter,poet, novelist |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano,keyboards, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1956-present |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | Sharon Robinson, Jennifer Warnes |
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters.”
The critic Bruce Eder wrote an assessment of Cohen’s overall career in popular music, writing, “[Cohen is] one of the most fascinating and enigmatic. . .singer/songwriters of the late ’60s. . . [and] has retained an audience across four decades of music-making. . . Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon) [in terms of influence], he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century.”
The Academy of American Poets has commented more broadly on Cohen’s overall career in the arts, including his work as a poet, novelist, and songwriter, stating that “[Cohen’s] successful blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear in Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, published in 1993, which gathered more than two hundred of Cohen’s poems . . .several novel excerpts, and almost sixty song lyrics. . .While it may seem to some that Leonard Cohen departed from the literary in pursuit of the musical, his fans continue to embrace him as a Renaissance man who straddles the elusive artistic borderlines.”
From allmusic.com – Bruce Eder:
One of the most fascinating and enigmatic — if not the most successful — singer/songwriters of the late ’60s, Leonard Cohen has retained an audience across four decades of music-making interrupted by various digressions into personal and creative exploration, all of which have only added to the mystique surrounding him. Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon), he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century, which is all the more remarkable an achievement for someone who didn’t even aspire to a musical career until he was in his thirties.
read more over @ allmusic.com
Bird On A Wire – Live 1972:
Bird on A Wire – Live 2008:
Album of the day – Live In London (2009):
Other September 21: