When did you first hear of L. C. ?

[Paula]

Hi John - I am so pleased you posted that. That is the same album I first heard him on but I couldn't remember the name of it. Taj Mahal was on it as well. It was one of the strangest albums I ever bought there was no immediate connection with any of the artists it just seemed a mish-mash of songs thrown together. It cost me 7s 6d and it was the start of my love of Cohen's work. You have made my day I can now look on the net to see if it is still in existence somewhere.

Found it


Columbia SPR-22

This Columbia sampler includes tracks by Moby Grape, Electric Flag, Peanut Butter Conspiracy and The United States Of America. This was the first rock sampler released by Columbia.


Track listing / Musicians

The tracks and performers on this compilation are;
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bob Dylan
Can't Be So Bad - Moby Grape
Fresh Garbage - Spirit
I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife for You, Sugar - The United States of America
Time of The Season - The Zombies
Turn on a Friend - Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Sisters of Mercy - Leonard Cohen
My Days are Numbered - Blood, Sweat & Tears
Dolphins Smile - Byrds
Scarborough Fair / Canticle - Simon & Garfunkel
Statesboro Blues - Taj Mahal
Killing Floor - The Electric Flag
Nobody's Got Any Money in the Summer - Roy Harper
Come Away Melinda - Tim Rose
Flames - Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera
Scarborough Fair / Canticle by Simon & Garfunkel was not included on the CD release of this compilation due to contractual reasons.

[John Etherington]

Thanks for your reply. "The Rock Machine Turns You On" was a revelation for me...it's full of gems. I recently heard "Fresh Garbage" (Spirit) and "Can't Be So Bad" (Moby Grape) on CDs, and they sound as good as ever. Also, I've heard "Time of the Season" (Zombies) and Scarborough Fair" (S & G)live, this year. I heard Tim Rose sing "Come Away Melinda" a couple of years ago, and bought a CD of his , at the show, which he signed for me (soon after that, he died). Did you buy the second Rock Machine album "The Rock Machine Loves You"? It wasn't quite as good overall, but it included Leonard's "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye".

All good wishes, John Etherington

[Paula]

For my sins I did John. I was young and had no bills to pay so I made sure I went to at least one concert a week and bought loads and loads of albums. Those were the days Biba, pirate radio, joss sticks, patchouli oil and the pet shop sold out of budgie bells. We were lucky to be born in that era.

[Benedicta]

Hi, this is my first message.I was encouraged by Paula's about first Hearing Leonard's music.I remember mine vividly,July 1972 Inch Beach,Dingle, Ireland.The song was One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong,then That's No Way To Say Goodbye sung by a young Irishman called Bill. I was smitten, not with Bill but Leonard. He has been the soundtrack to my life!Living in New Zealand now and waiting for Dear Heather to reach us down here. Happy, happy birthday to Mr. Cohen on Tuesday!!

[lizzytysh]

Hi Benedicta ~

Please go to the thread itself, where birthday wishes to Leonard will be 'hand'-delivered to him, via Jarkko, and send him your wishes. He won't read what you've written here, but he will read your greeting if you post it there! It's in the News section, the thread obviously titled.

Welcome to the Forum !

~ Lizzytysh

[Broken Hill]

It was 1968,I was 17.my first record with him was Songs From A Room and after that it was no return.

[rick]

1967 - Group house, the resident hippy bought his cd when it was first released. We listened to it for a few days non stop. But it wasn't until the mid 80's that I discovered him really.

[justinburnett]

I was visiting my aunt and uncle with my family. They lived in a 20-year-old building that used to be the post house, and it had 14-inch boards for baseboard moldings. It was torturously hot those few days we were staying with them (in the 40sC) and since I couldn't sleep I explored their music collection and discovered Leonard Cohen. Quite a revelation. That was 13 or 14 years ago.

Take care
-J-

[Frankie Lee]

I first heard of Leonard Cohen some years ago. (I am now 27 years old.) I was watching a French short movie called "La page blanche" (The white page). It was about young persons who couldn't cope with the world of the adults. One girl was sent to psychiatry by her father and ran away. She went to a party in an old house where songs like "Knocking on heaven's door" were played. And then I listened to the first tunes of an unknown song. The music was so dark and fascinating. I guess I never trevelled so far within a few minutes. It was so deep, real and powerful.
I asked my mother: Who is singing this song? And she replied: Well, this is "Avalanche" by Leonard Cohen.
That was a good day.

[Stranger]

I was 15 and at highschool. One of our teachers had a stereo in his classroom, an instead of doing his job and teaching us his subject he played the bands and artists that were popular among students at the time. We loved it, and it is one of the best memories I have of that period (now having teenage school kids of my own I wonder if I would be equally happy if one of their teachers did the same, though..............). . Anyway, one day he played this artist who sounded like something completely different than all the others that we used to listen to, and I was immediately taken in by the melancholy atmosphere of his songs. I like the music of quite a number of bands and artists, but only with one or two of them I still remember the first time I heard them, and Leonard is one of these rare few.

[Cold Brains]

i use msn messenger profusely and as u all well know, ppl change their nicks all the time. A few years ago i was skimming through my msn list and a girl i knew had this as a nick:

'like a baby still born, like a beast with his horn, i have thorn everyone who reached out from me'

i kept staring at it.. reading it a countless times
the sheer power of that line blew my socks off
she told me it was taken from one of lc's songs.. and i ran off to the record store and bought the whole shebeng

i was definite that whoever wrote that line was some kind of a literary genius, some kind of musician, or a thinker. Well, he happened to be a combination of all 3.

fantastic

[Karri]

It was my father who originally (if unintentionally) turned me on to Cohen. In the late eighties, when I was in my early teens, he´d play tapes of selections from "I´m Your Man" and "Various Positions" on our car trips. It was an exciting peek at "adult issues" (I actually misinterpreted the line "There´s a bar where the boys have stopped talking" as "There´s a bar where the boys can´t stop f**king"! ) even if I couldn´t decipher half of what he was saying.

In my early twenties, I tried getting into Cohen´s stuff a couple of times but it didn´t really hit me - until I broke up with a girlfriend. Needless to say, today I´m a true believer. "Ten New Songs" was the first Cohen release I checked out fresh off the shelf and it took a couple of rounds for it to really get to me - I guess the fact that I had developed a kind of a hopeless crush by that time had something to do with it.

Karri

[lizzytysh]

A classic, misheard lyric, Karri ~ and a rather appropriate one, at that .

[Karri]

A classic, misheard lyric, Karri ~ and a rather appropriate one, at that .

Hmm, this probably calls for a topic of its own - "Misheard Cohen lyrics". Might start one, actually... After all, given the progressive deterioration (I wonder if that makes sense... ) of dear old Leo´s singing voice, certainly there´s plenty of opportunities for mishearing something every now and then.

If I may elaborate a little - the first Cohen album I checked out in its entirety was "Songs From A Room". I actually recommended this album to said girlfriend a couple of years ago but apparently to no avail. Helped me cope with that post-breaking-up blues, though.


Karri

[linmag]

There was a misheard lyrics thread a while back, Karri. I'll see if I can find it and boot it up again for you. There were some quite interesting ones if I remember rightly.