Favorite Cohen song to play

Irene Teresa · Post by **Irene Teresa** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:58 am

Hey all you musos and practicing musos and singers out there- would anyone care to share which LC songs they like to play and or sing - for their own pleasure etc ?

I am a long way from a musician but do play a little guitar and my favorites to play are Take this longing, Dance me to the End of Love, ballad of the absent mare, sisters of mercy, so long marianne, no diamonds in the mine and Gypsy Wife....

Why ? because they are easy to play and sing - probably....

Havnt learnt anything from TNS yet and songbooks these days are so expensive- does anyone know a place where I could get the chords for TNS online ?

Any more takers ?

Love Irene Teresa

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 2:26 am

Irene Teresa,

This site has chords for some of the new songs:

http://cohenchords.sphosting.com/song.html

I love playing/singing many of the songs. I would say that my favorites include: Sisters of Mercy, Seems So Long Ago, Stories of the Street, Lady Midnight, Joan of Arc, Field Commander Cohen.

Richard

Irene Teresa · Post by **Irene Teresa** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 2:47 am

Thank you very much Richard

peter danielsen · Post by **peter danielsen** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 3:03 pm

I am the singing part of a happy little Leonard Cohen-duo called Brothers of Mercy. When we play live I like to sing greensleeves, because our version is so utterly grotesk and wild. Mostly I end up kneeling, screeming red in the face in the middle of the audience.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 4:05 pm

Hi Peter,
I'm guessing the audience doesn't know what hit them. Do you bypass such a great opportunity for wailing such as Please Don't Pass Me By. I'd intended to ask earlier what direction you go with your music/band. Do you do a lot of other Cohen stuff as well?
~Lizzytysh

brann@club-internet.Fr · Sun Aug 04, 2002 12:45 am

my favorite songs to play sing r defintely suzanne, the stranger song, and the partisan.. try those

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 06, 2002 10:59 am

Peter you had me in fits of laughter very good...

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:04 pm

I love playing "Waiting for the Miracle". I borrow the fingerpicking from "Avalanche" and I think it works.
Well, it does to my ears anyway!
Also love playing "A singer must die"

Other favourites;
Who by fire
Chelsea Hotel
Joan of Arc
Famous Blue Raincoat
Minute Prologue leading to Passing Through
Nancy
One of us cannot be wrong
Winter Lady

I do others from the first 3 albums but the above are the ones which I resort to when shut away in my empty room.

I have also been practising "Sisters of Mercy" for the last 30 years but still can't perfect it....one day it will come.

Pete

smile · Post by **smile** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:27 pm

I find it too difficult to choose a single one there are too many good ones.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 9:16 pm

stranger song, just because it's a great song, not sure if it's better to listen to the live version or not...oh and strictly to listen to...
will

Sane Man · Post by **Sane Man** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 6:36 pm

A small selection of my favorites:

Closing Time
I'm your man
Joan of Arc
Suzanne
Who by Fire
Democracy
The Future

mike h · Post by **mike h** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 7:14 pm

First heard 'Suzanne' on the '66 Judy Collins LP before ever hearing Leonard. So playing that over the intervening 36 yrs (is it really that long!) has a special resonance.
Then there are those that have made me into a much better guitarist with their deceptively intricate chord sequences and words that demand the delicacy of careful finger style as accompaniment:

The Traitor, Famous Blue Raincoat, So long Marianne, Seems So Long Ago Nancy, Story of Isaac and the absolutely mesmeric Take This Waltz.

Not to mention that marvelous confirmaton of the value of stopping shaving and being one who is bearded -Dress Rehearsal Rag!
And, most of all, this has led to the confidence to set other poets to music (e.g. Thomas Hardy -surely a soul-mate of Leonard!). So to paraphrase Loudon W. III in his song celebrating Dylan's 60th (or was it 50th):

'Thanks a lot Leonard'

Mike h

rick · Post by **rick** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:42 pm

Stories of the Street
Marianne
Gypsy Wife (recently divorced from a Spanish woman after 10 years - I always new this song was in my future somewhere!).
The Old Revolution
Hallelujah (though way the heck out of my singing range!)

greenfeld69 · Post by **greenfeld69** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:22 am

Bird on a Wire, Last Year's Man, Dress Rehearsal Rag, So Long Marianne and many more. I rarely sing them in public, though enjoy it when I do.

I don't feel I do justice to the songs in some respects as I feel more 'true' emotion from my own songs, knowing the meaning intimately.

greenfeld69 · Post by **greenfeld69** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 1:07 am

greenfeld69 wrote:Bird on a Wire, Last Year's Man, Dress Rehearsal Rag, So Long Marianne and many more. I rarely sing them in public, though enjoy it when I do.

I don't feel I do justice to the songs in some respects as I feel more 'true' emotion from my own songs, knowing the meaning intimately.

...and the first song I ever sang to my wife...Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye