Spoken Word Version of Thousand Kisses

General discussion about Leonard Cohen's songs and albums
lazariuk
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Post by lazariuk »

lizzytysh wrote:
Were you just being as-a-matter-of-course cautious in your comment? Where did you find this? The only thing I'm curious about has to do with not recalling Jennifer's being credited as a co-writer of it. Was she?
~ Lizzy
Not the final version but a case can be made that it is not the same song.
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lizzytysh
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Post by lizzytysh »

. . . much that was dross about the first song.
Would dross be the right word to use?
:lol: Well, since "dross" is the "Increase Your Vocabulary" word of the day, I guess it could be the right one to use... at least the most timely one, for sure!

However, the "dross" was left behind, in lieu of the finished product... now, having already read your following posting, please make the case for this being a different song... the skeletal structure seems to be there... unless you mean that the changes made were so significant as to be transformative.


~ Lizzy
Manna
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Post by Manna »

I don't know if I should respond or not. I was feeling pretty lousy about all that - my lack of delicacy, so I'm glad to see that you've all been able to bring some levity to my drossy statements.

I guess dross is like garbage - you throw it away before it starts stinking and attracting vermin. Junk you keep because it may come in handy later. I've posted a few poems here, and while I don't think they're dross, they probably qualify as junk. Did I post the one about haggis? I hope not - that one's dross. Leonard? Dross? I've already been spanked, so I think I'll stop with - I'm not qualified to say. Is it alright if I say I never did like JW as much as I like AT?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted: :oops: :oops: :twisted:
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lizzytysh
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Post by lizzytysh »

Hi Manna ~
I don't know if I should respond or not.
Of course you should respond. I'm glad that you're not taking my follow-up comments to Jack in any other way than they're intended, which you said correctly when you used the word levity. My intent here was definitely not to make you feel any lousier than you already did. I could tell from what you wrote, and how you wrote it, and the way you've responded regarding Leonard since, that those postings definitely did NOT make your day. I'm not positive that Jack read our postings there, even though I'm pretty certain that he did. I know he didn't say what he did to cause you to feel badly, either. If anything, I'd guess he was trying to support your position that Leonard has written "dross," yet also duly discarded it.

I don't remember a poem by you about haggis. If you didn't post it, you might want to now... though don't expect me to refer to it as dross or junk, either one.

I've never gotten much of a sense of Jennifer, in the way that I have Anjani. I've seen footage of Jennifer, and at first I didn't care for her covers of Leonard's songs [except for Song of Bernadette which I feel will rip your heart out, no matter who you are... and, perhaps, even moreso because that was Jennifer's name]... until someone described them in a particular way that allowed me to reframe them in my mind's ear, so when I listened again, I was able to hear them differently.

For me, Jennifer's voice never had the depth and substance of Anjani's. With Anjani's voice, I loved it instantly and didn't need to rely on anyone's reframing for me to come to this perception of it. I've also been able to see a number of photos of Anjani that give a feeling of her as a person, and to read things she's written, which definitely go much further than merely seeing footage of her singing [which is pretty much the extent of how I've come to 'know' Jennifer in any sense].


~ Lizzy
lazariuk
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Post by lazariuk »

lizzytysh wrote: I'm not positive that Jack read our postings there, even though I'm pretty certain that he did. I know he didn't say what he did to cause you to feel badly, either. If anything, I'd guess he was trying to support your position that Leonard has written "dross," yet also duly discarded it.
I was trying to support her position while trying to get you to agree that her position was supportable. Just seeing if it could be done. How did I do?
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lizzytysh
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Post by lizzytysh »

:lol: Not bad, Jack, not baaad :lol: ... the major distinction being that the one you've chosen never made it onto a record. You still walked a pretty clean middle 8) .


~ Lizzy
Manna
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Post by Manna »

Lazariuk,
I have sensed wisdom in many of your posts, especially in the BoM lines. You're interesting to me, and that you would gently take up for me means a lot to me.

Thanks.

Lizzy, I don't want to post it the poetry thread because I don't think it qualifies as poetry, but here's the haggis thing:



Get yourself on the outside of this,

is what they say
in Scotland
when they want
you to taste a morsel
of some atrocity
like haggis: mangled
and bloody
pancreas, brain,
pecker, spleen,
and other otherwise
unusable leftovers
of slaughter
all homogenized
and stuffed into the sheep’s
own stomach,
force fed
and boiled.

(I sometimes bite the flag
of skin that separates
from my fingernails
and get myself
on the outside
of autocannibalism.)

I whisper to sheep
through mystical air,
“Eat yourself,
that I may eat you too.”
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lizzytysh
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Post by lizzytysh »

Well, Manna, it seems you mean dross rather literally :shock: :lol: ... except the stuff does end up getting used... the poem itself is delightful!!

I love your inserted verse!
(I sometimes bite the flag
of skin that separates
from my fingernails
and get myself
on the outside
of autocannibalism.)

I do the same thing, but didn't know the proper phrase, nor thought to give it that exactly-named context.

Well, your whole poem is simply very graphic and clever. Thanks for posting it here. I feel it deserves its own thread in the Member's Poetry section, too, though.

I like your whimsical ending. Okay, now, get busy copying-and-pasting :wink: .

Yes, it was very kind of Jack to take up for you in the way he did 8) .


~ Lizzy
lazariuk
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Post by lazariuk »

Manna wrote:Lazariuk,
I have sensed wisdom in many of your posts, especially in the BoM lines. You're interesting to me, and that you would gently take up for me means a lot to me.
You caught my interest as well with what you have written. Maybe some day a subject will present itself that we can engage in together.
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tomsakic
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Post by tomsakic »

Only now I saw this. You're right, Jack, I forgot about it. It's on Jennifer's 1992 album The Hunter. The lyrics are Cohen's, music is Jennifer's, I supose, that's why co-credits. Many lines appear later in Cohen's version[s], and the rhythm (due to rhymes) is similar, in a way, but it's not Cohen's type of composing, more Jennifer's (reminds to other songs on both The Hunter and her great 2001 album The Well). I like it actually, it's nice song. So this is the earliest version we know so far. (In My Secret Life dates at least to 1988, btw, I have two recordings /recitations/ from 1988 tour.)

Lyrics for "Way Down Deep" are published both on my site (Lost Songs) and The Files (Other Songs).
Narghu
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Re: Spoken Word Version of Thousand Kisses

Post by Narghu »

Hi not sure if you are still looking for the spoken word addition in 2021:) But here is my fav version + a dystopian version of Democracy.
A Thousand Kisses Deep ( Spoken Word ):
https://soundcloud.com/narghu/a-thousan ... poken-word

Democracy - Leonard Cohen - Spoken Word Poem:
https://soundcloud.com/narghu/leonard-c ... artandmind

Enjoy!

-Narghu
lazariuk
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Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:38 am
Location: Vancouver

Re: Spoken Word Version of Thousand Kisses

Post by lazariuk »

Narghu wrote: Thu May 13, 2021 6:38 am Hi not sure if you are still looking for the spoken word addition in 2021:) But here is my fav version + a dystopian version of Democracy.
A Thousand Kisses Deep ( Spoken Word ):
https://soundcloud.com/narghu/a-thousan ... poken-word

Democracy - Leonard Cohen - Spoken Word Poem:
https://soundcloud.com/narghu/leonard-c ... artandmind

Enjoy!

-Narghu
Thanks
Everything being said to you is true; Imagine of what it is true.
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