No if you don’t like him just forget about it and don’t bother trying.
Personally I love his stuff but I don’t think it’s very musical it’s just that the early stuff evokes lots of memories.
I think he is the only singer/songwriter I know of that has had someone else record a better version of virtually every song they have recorded.
Sorry, I stand corrected. Burt Bacharach recorded an album of him doing his own songs and although they are interesting for how well he delivers them with a very poor voice, they don’t even vaguely compare to other versions.
Cohen is a much better songwriter than he is a singer. I’ve heard various covers of his songs that I like better than the originals. I do like a lot of his originals – but I’d say that his voice isn’t the most versatile. But I’ve heard similar opinions voiced by others, too – I think he’s generally more well-regarded as a songwriter than as a singer.
I do rather like his original version of “If It Be Your Will” – although Jann Arden’s cover of it is really nice, too. That’s one of my favorites (done by either of them).
That’s like saying Tiger Woods is a better golfer than he is a bird.
Cohen cannot sing, and that’s pretty much the end of it. He’s ghastly, absolutely awful, and pretty much anyone can perform his songs better than he can.
His songs in many cases ARE excellent, so if you’re listening to his recordings of them you just have to accept that you’re listening to a guy singing who can’t sing, and appreciate the songs for what they are. But the best versions in every single case - except maybe “First They Take Manhattan,” which I’ve never heard covered well - are all by other singers.
No harm in that, though, is there? Who CAN sing better than k.d. lang? Nobody, that’s who.
I think they may have had it better back in the old Tin Pan Alley days when there was a stricter division of labor between performers and composers. A lot of slick pap got produced that way, but the lyrics to much of the rock and pop music composed since the 60s can charitably be described as drug-addled, brain-damage swill.
“Oh, I been through the desert on a horse with no name …”
I had a great, acerbic, appropriate post all cued up last night when the Dope took it’s usual shit. At this point now that the discussion has moved on, just chalk me up as another fan of vocalists who think’s songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and Ron Sexsmith should be kept away from microphones at all costs.
I’m trying to think of someone who sings better than k.d. lang, Rick. Aretha? No - no better quality of voice, just more power, and I suspect k.d. can dial it up when she wants to, too. Whitney? She would have been a contender, but since she wrecked her voice, it’s a moot point. Mariah? She has the technical chops, but no touch at all. Christina? Same problem. I’ll have to get back to you on this one.
Jevetta Steele, though she’s (undeservedly) less well-known than lang or any of the others you mentioned. There’s a HUGE untouched popular-music vocal potential in the Gospel field, come to think of it, besides Jevetta. Oleta Adams, for example.
Didn’t Cohen write about three sets of lyrics for “Hallelujah”? Not sure which ones I like best.
I’d rather hear Cohen do his own songs than the sweetest singer in the world. When he actually wrote the best ones, back in the 1960s and '70s, that wouldn’t have been true – his voice was flat and uninteresting. But several decades and 800,000 cigarettes later, he sounds like someone who’s actually lived everything in his lyrics. Criticizing Cohen for not being a “good singer” in the conventional sense is like criticizing Ralph Steadman for not drawing normal-looking humans.
If you want to try just one album, listen to “Cohen Live”.
I can see your point, Baldwin, but I personally listen to singers to hear them do things that I can’t possibly do with my completely average voice. A good singer demonstrating an incredible touch on a song makes the hair on my arms stand up. In other words, I need the talent and the passion - just the passion isn’t enough for me.
Good point about the gospel singers, Jayjay. I can’t comment much on that, because I don’t listen to gospel music. Maybe I should - I love good singers. It’s just the choice of subject that grates on me. I’m just listening to Tears For Fears’ “Women in Chains” featuring Oleta Adams, and she truly does kick ass.
It seems like “Hallelujah” is becoming to cop shows what “I Got You (I Feel Good)” is for wacky, zany comedies – stock music. I think it was the downbeat conclusion of a Without A Trace when I had the “What? ‘Hallelujah’ again?” reaction. I like the song, but I like variety more.
Gonna have to respectfully disagree with you there. His voice does sound like half a mile of unpaved driveway, but it’s the suitable instrument for many of his songs. Don’t think anyone could do a better job of “I’m Your Man” or “First We Take Manhattan”.
Leonard Cohen can bring my groceries in any old day of the week. I don’t care how old he is now. Rowwr!
I do love the Jennifer Warnes’ album, though–known sometimes as Jenny Sings Lenny. There are great vocalists who can’t write, and great songwriters who can’t sing all that well, and when they meet up, it’s heaven. I’ve always loved someone like Linda Ronstadt, who interprets music by others, as much as I love someone like Joni Mitchell who sings her own stuff so well.
No one can sing Tower of Song like Leonard Cohen himself, though, and it’s certainly worth listening to the original versions. You make like someone’s cover better, but have a listen to the original.
I’ll agree with both Finagle and Baldwin - Mr. Cohen has a voice that belongs to someone who things happened to, instead of just someone who can wear tight jeans and gyrate in a music video.
I should perhaps note that my 9th grade English teacher had a long-standing dream that, among all the students she taught, eventually one of them would meet Leonard Cohen and that one day he would walk through the door to her classroom. So if anyone could have him drop a line to Ms. McKay, that’ll be one task off my lifetime list.
Peculiar. I’ve never had a problem with Cohen’s delivery, which appearantly makes me tone deaf. What’s made entire albums of his near-unlistenable for me–I’m Your Man, in particular–is the instrumentation, if you can call it that. It’s probably why Cohen Live is my single favorite disc–it has all the good tunes, with something other than a $50 Casio from Radio Shack for back up…
He really can’t sing worth a damn, but I could have taken Cohen’s voice on “Hallelujah”. It was the backup singers and the arrangement that did me in. And, although Buckley’s version is gorgeous, he was just plain too young to sing the song, and he sounded it.
I do think it’s overplayed nowadays, and that’s a shame. I was particularly shocked (especially given my opinion of Buckley’s version) when I attended my 13-year-old’s music camp concert and it was one of the songs the children sang (lemme tell you, “Remember when I moved in you/And the holy dove was moving too/And every breath we drew is Hallelujah” is quite a lyric coming from the 8- to 13-year-old set).
Interestingly, at dinner tonight kd’s rendition of Hallelujah was played. Either an entertaining coincidence, or one of you just had me over to dinner and needs to out yourself.
My daughters, 4, 5 and 7, have latched on to Hallelujah for some reason. Probably because I sing it. They don’t know many of the verse lyrics, however, they just love to sing “Hallelu-uuuuu-uuuu-ujah.”
Listen to Leonard Cohen sing “Everybody Knows”… it is awesome. Then listen to Concrete Blonde sing it. It is awesome. The two couldn’t sound more different, but they are each their own thing. (I love that song…)
