Whats your favourite Leonard Cohen's song?

[Stamatina]

Probably Dance Me To The End Of Love, because I have a whole story behind it. I first heard it and loved at the age of ten, a time when I couldn't even understand it (I couldn't speak English, I'm not a native speaker). After listening to it about fifty times in three days I got bored and looked for something else (how foolish of me). I heard it on the radio just a few months ago (three years later) and remembering what a nice songs it is, I downloaded it and then started looking for more songs of the same artist, out of curiosity and soon enough I had the whole discography. Since January I've been listening almost nothing else but Cohen and I think if it hadn't been for this one song I wouldn't have discovered him.

I do believe it's a masterpiece. The lyrics, the music, the voices, everything is perfect. So many beautiful images crossing my mind everytime I hear it. Simply beautiful.

[LisaLCFan]

Absolutely impossible to pick just one. Sorry, can't be done. Too many gems, they're almost all gems, how could one possibly choose? This question is a form of torture and should be banned!

(I just attempted to do my list of favourites from each album, and while I broke the rules by choosing two from each, I actually feel guilty about the songs I omitted, as if I have committed some kind of serious disservice in that I have slighted them, and they did not deserve to be ignored.)

[Yorkshire Lad]

The majority of posts under this topic quite rightly say that their favourite L C songs change from day to day , week to week etc,etc so the question should be as follows : If you were marooned on a desert island and could only take one recording of a Leonard song which would it be ? Now thats torture !

[Heighway61]

The majority of posts under this topic quite rightly say that their favourite L C songs change from day to day , week to week etc,etc so the question should be as follows : If you were marooned on a desert island and could only take one recording of a Leonard song which would it be ? Now thats torture !

If I absolutely had to choose, it would be So Long, Marianne

[iveta]

mother im frightened the thunder and lightning
ill never get trough this alone
she said ill be with you my shawl wrapped around you my hand on your hair when you go....and the night comes on it veryyy long i wanted the night to go on and on

back at the university, i could listen "the night comes on" over and over again for fifteen or twenty times...my flatmates used to make remarks such as if i am planning to let him lose his mother for twenty second time today i should pay for the prozac

[Lota]

Of course, it always changes, but I would say Marianne is always all right with me. I have loved and loved this song although it is always in head to head competition with Bird On a Wire.
If I am going to that desert island, I am taking one LC CD with me, certainly.

Lota

[ali2009]

ive told you/ its no 1.

[slapperoonie]

Oh my! I'm quite new to all this... I listen to Leonard Cohen every day now on my way home from work in my car, and I seem to get stuck on a different song almost every day and keep repeating it - today it was Bird on a Wire off the Live in London CD (love the arrangement!)... some days it's Famous Blue Raincoat... the Gypsy's Wife is creeping its way into my mind now... some days I manage to listen to a few songs without repeating any.

I'm still learning so much about Leonard's music though - been aware of him for a long time but only in the past year or so have been seriously listening. I remember queuing up for opera tickets all night at Covent Garden in 1991, and the man behind us in the queue said that if we ever got the chance we should go to see Leonard Cohen - well it only took me 18 years to heed his advice!

I look forward to discovering many more favourites along my journey.

[musicmania]

Hallelujah is simply one of the best songs ever written & it has to top my list. So long, Marianne would be second. It has one of the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard & was absolutely amazing live last night at the O2 in Dublin.

[naf nehoC dranoeL]

Even after 20 years I am not able to choose a number 1 recording.
Who by fire , Sister's of mercy, So long Marianne, Night comes on, Take this Waltz,
It changes indeed day by day.

I told my lover to play anything by LC at the day of my funeral.

[Stamatina]

I told my lover to play anything by LC at the day of my funeral.

Ha. I've thought about that, too, LC songs at my funeral. My choices have been "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", "Suzanne", "Bird On The Wire", "Who By Fire", "The Window", "Ballad Of The Absent Mare", "Dance Me To The End Of Love", "By The Rivers Dark", "Dear Heather" and "The Faith".
Not because they fit, but because that's how I want to say "goodbye" to the world.

[MaryB]

My funeral would definitely have to include 'If It Be Your Will' and 'The Faith' - then the whole catalogue into the wake.

[Lilifyre]

There is no way I could pick an absolute favorite. It changes from day to day...sometimes hourly...sometimes it's just what I'm listening to at the time.

Speaking of Leonard Cohen songs for my funeral, however, that too depends on how I happen to go. I tend to have a slightly...or not so slightly...warped sense of humor at times. I think the absolute best way to die would be to be at Yellowstone when THE MEGAQUAKE hits and be listening to "Closing Time" on a huge boom box at full volume.

Now if I should go in a more mundane fashon, like peacefully in my sleep, I would probably want "Who by Fire", "If it Be Your Will", or "Dance me to the End of Love", not necessarily in that order. Nightingale is another that would be nice.

There are only a couple of Leonard's songs that I don't particularly care for. I can't say I dislike them, just they are the ones I like least. In that list probably Avalanche tops the list. It is just too depressing and I love sad songs.

[mr.midnight]

Leonard would have to play live at my funeral since I wasn't VIP enough to score one of his tickets in real life.
Oh, and he'd definitely have to play 'Here it is'. Yeah, I go on about that a lot

[Lilifyre]

After much thought on this topic. And going thru all the LC songs I've heard and love, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my absolute FAVORITE Leonard Cohen song is.....................the one I happen to be listening to at the time I'm asked this question. I mean, how can anyone pick JUST one????