Leonard Cohen to be Inducted Into Songwriter's Hall of Fame

[sturgess66]

They are just not interested in having it televised anymore. You have to have Songwriters Hall of Fame membership in order to be able to buy tickets to attend the ceremony. Only those who voted, their guests, the inductees and their guests get to attend, and obviously the people who run the Song Hall. I didn't have $1000.00 to pay to become a voting member, but now I don't need it. I won't be attending. The ceremony does actually get videotaped every year by professionals, just as a recorded history, but it does not get televised every year. Media people are there. The inductees are interviewed when they walk in on the red carpet and when they walk out, and you will get to see those interviews on the Song Halls website and somehow, some of them end up on Youtube, courtesy of the people from the media videotaping I guess. I don't know if Leonard will want to be asked questions at the ceremony. He declined answering any questions from the media when he was being photographed with his trophy backstage at the Rock Hall induction ceremony.

Well - I am tenaciously back here again with questions. Who is "they" - that are not interested in having it televised anymore? Would that be the SHOF people - or is that NBC who is not interested in broadcasting the event (Bravo is NBC)? And is it SHOF who hire professionals to videotape it? And why are those videotapes not made more readily available to the public to see? (I have scoured the SHOF website). It is hard to fathom why the SHOF people would not want the ceremonies to be televised. It does seem to be a big NYC event - and certainly the inductees are high profile in the entertainment industry. Some rhetorical questions - but some not and probably I should direct these questions to Ms. April Anderson. But it really is annoying - especially given all the "stuff" that is made available on the television that I do not want to see.

In any event, once again, congratulations to Leonard Cohen. That Leonard is being honored and attending will only make the event this year all the more notable and prestigious. I hope he has a pleasant trip and enjoyable visit in New York City. And I hope that somewhere, we get to see some video of Leonard Cohen at this event, and people who honor him! I'm sure we will at least have Getty images -

http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Searc ... ork%20City

[Roy]

"They" are the Songwriters Hall of Fame people who don't want it televised. I don't know who records the ceremony. Associated Press?

You can watch interviews with past inductees at past ceremonies here:

http://songhall.org/video/members

Here are the YouTube results

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... type=&aq=f

Unlike the Rock Hall ceremony, for the Song Hall we will get a group picture of all the inductees together. So you will get to see a picture of Leonard Cohen standing with Jackie DeShannon, David Foster, Johnny Mandel and Earth, Wind & Fire. I'm surprised David Foster has never produced a Leonard Cohen album. I wonder if David Foster is even a fan of Leonard Cohen.

You can see photos from last year's ceremony directly on the Song Hall's site

http://www.songhall.org/news/entry/793

[Quasand]

Oh Goody! Leonard Cohen and David Foster in the same year!

[Joe Way]

Congratulations to Leonard and thank you to those who have posted links to the Songwriter's Hall of Fame site. It is such a diverse collection of individuals ranging from Woody Guthrie & Huddie Ledbetter to Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin. Events and ceremonies of this nature do help us to step back a little bit from the area of personal taste to appreciate the commonalities that link these broad categories together. I grew up as a big fan of the Kingston Trio and I'll never forget watching a Grammy's ceremony many years later where an '80's "hair" band was being honored (I'm sorry I don't remember who it was) and during their acceptance speech, they thanked Dave Guard who was a founding member of the trio who left the group but continued to work in the music industry. It was shocking to me at the time as I never would have associated the two entities together.

It was also interesting reading about the "Moon River" award given to Andy Williams last year and how in his acceptance speech, he spoke of how the song was performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" but Williams sang the song at the Academy Awards ceremony and he immediately "owned" it. He speaks of how important the song is to the career of the singer. It reminds me of how Leonard's songs have helped advance the careers of notable people such as Judy Collins and Jeff Buckley. It also reminds me of the line from Yeats "How can we tell the dancer from the dance?"

Joe

[rosered51]

It's about time.

[Roy]

LINK TO THE OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE FROM THE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCING THE 2010 INDUCTEES

http://www.songhall.org/news/entry/947

[KjeXXXer]

Leonard's induction is great news.

Justin Timberlake covering Hallelujah is NOT.

[Roy]

The Songwriters Hall of Fame has special awards called the Towering Song and the Towering Performance.
http://songwritershalloffame.org/ceremony/awards/C3006
http://songwritershalloffame.org/ceremony/awards/C3008

Imagine if Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song got these 2 special awards along with his induction. Highly unlikely!

ABOUT THE AWARD
The Towering Performance
Lorem ipsum description

PAST RECIPIENTS
2009 Andy Williams
2005 Bill Medley

ABOUT THE AWARD
The Towering Song Award honors outstanding songs by writers who may not have an extensive catalog of hits and who have not been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Examples include "As Time Goes By," "The Christmas Song," "Fly Me To The Moon" and "Happy Birthday."

PAST RECIPIENTS
2009 Moon River
2008 Take Me Out to the Ball Game
2006 When the Saints Go Marching In
2005 You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
2004 What the World Needs Now is Love
2003 “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”
2002 “You’re A Grand Old Flag”
2001 “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”
2000 “You Are My Sunshine”
2000 “All Of Me”
1999 “Fly Me To The Moon”
1998 “The Christmas Song”
1997 “How High The Moon”
1996 “Happy Birthday To You”
1995 “As Time Goes By”

[sturgess66]

I would say not too likely - because he is being inducted into the SHOF - although the names of both those categories sound good! As for an extensive catalog - he definitely has a beyond-extensive catalog - and as for catalog of hits - well I think he does (of course, for me they are all hits). He is definitely not a one-hit wonder.

ABOUT THE AWARD
The Towering Song Award honors outstanding songs by writers who may not have an extensive catalog of hits and who have not been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Examples include "As Time Goes By," "The Christmas Song," "Fly Me To The Moon" and "Happy Birthday."

[Roy]

According to Billboard Magazine, Phil Collins, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, will be receiving the Johnny Mercer Award this year at the Song Hall induction ceremony. He will be attending the ceremony in June. Genesis is being inducted into the Rock Hall in 13 days!

The Johnny Mercer Award goes to a writer or writers already inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and judged by the Nominating Committee as having established a history of outstanding creative works. At one time, this Award went only to lyricists, but it has since been expanded to include composers. Occasionally, the Mercer Award will go to a collaborative team such as Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick; Burt Bacharach and Hal David; and Marilyn and Alan Bergman.

[Roy]

Oh dear, our Yankovic/Roy may be disappointed in not having been the one to introduce this GREAT news here! He must be offline somewhere for it to have gotten in before he could do it himself. Such a faithful follower and promoter of Leonard's eventual getting of every award available and possible!

Well not every award, just Halls of Fames, Walks of Fames, and Government Honors and Orders, all with bios. I made no mention of the 2 Grammys that Leonard has won on the Halls of Fame site, because those were just regular awards, not inductions. A Grammy for Herbie Hancock's Joni Mitchell tribute album and the lifetime achievement Grammy. The Grammy Hall of Fame only inducts certain songs by certain artists and not the artists themselves for their whole body of work. So I would not include that induction on the Halls of Fame site either if any of Leonard's songs ever get inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The Grammy Hall of Fame

http://www.grammy.org/Recording_Academy ... l_Of_Fame/

3 more to go: The Kennedy Center Honors, The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame. Maybe a Pulitzer, a Nobel, and Knighthood too! They come with bios as well.

[Roy]

EMAIL FROM JIM DEVLAN

roy - i see 3 errors:
debut album in 1967 is 'Songs of Leonard Cohen', no 'The'.
i don't think they've reached 2000+ covers yet - tho' pretty close!
'Bird on the wire' is the SONG, 'Bird on a wire' is the 1972 tour doc. directed by Tony Palmer.
Jim

Over 2,000 covers of Cohen’s songs have been recorded by artists such as R.E.M., Bob Dylan, Elton John, Judy Collins, Willie Nelson and most recently, Justin Timberlake’s rendition of “Hallelujah” that appeared on Cohen’s 1984 Various Positions album.

Before he released a single song, Cohen sold the highly successful “Suzanne” to Judy Collins which later was included on his debut album, The Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1967 along with “Sisters of Mercy,” and “So Long, Marianne.”

Not phrased correctly. I obviously will have these fixed and posted properly on the HALLS OF FAME site.