leonardcohenforum.com

Over 400 pages about Leonard Cohen and his work - poetry, songs, novels - also using excerpts from interviews in France and elsewhere, some from our own conversations with Leonard over the years since 1970 and his very first concert in France - the Paris Olympia. I was a journalist for "Rock & Folk" and had my first encounter with him back then. Since then I met him many times and along with Jean-Dominique Brierre I worked as French translator for "Selected Poems" ("Poèmes et chansons", publ. 10 X 18 in 1972), author of the first French book "Leonard Cohen (published by Albin Michel/Rock & Folk in 1975, reprinted in 1979) and at Leonard'Cohen's request I also did the French translation of his "Book of mercy" as "Le Livre de miséricorde" (publ.
by Carrère-Lafon in 1985).

Leonard Cohen's career has unfolded in waves. Admired and celebrated first as a poet, he gave most of his message in his first three albums. If the following, most unusual, were mostly appreciated by connoisseurs, anthologies quickly grafted these new songs to the repertoire of the early years. At the same time, fixed by performers of all generations and all styles of film music, tributes shows have made his work known to the public ever new. On the occasion of world tours that began in 2008, we can say that Cohen appeared again. Formed by Jewish culture and practice of Zen, it takes both the figure of a sage as a prophet in the public eye. The lifestyle he teaches is essentially an art of love: in the context of a civilization declines and a time is coming to an end, only love is an opportunity to light and rally lonely hearts and battered by life. A incoutournable and accessible test for fans of Leonard Cohen, or for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the course of this true legend of song and poetry.

Mabeanie1 wrote: So are all the others!! It's become rather a large bandwagon since Leonard's "comeback" in 2008.

Wendy

Vicomte wrote: No names but the same could easily be said for the rather large legion of fans that have mysteriously appeared since 2008, especially the many women who fawn at the very mention and at shows act like it is a Barry Manolow gig. No one has yet explained this phenomenon to me yet, any one care to explain?

John Etherington wrote:My own book "Cashing in on Cohen" is in the early planning stages...it may or may not happen - remember, you heard it here first!

John Etherington wrote:My own book "Cashing in on Cohen" is in the early planning stages...it may or may not happen - remember, you heard it here first!

In the course of his eighty years of life, which will be concluded on
September 21st, Leonard Cohen has experienced a lot. He distinguished
himself as a young writer in the French-speaking Montreal and also
sold to poetry, but it is with the music gained fame. His songs
explore the peaks and the miseries of the human soul with sincerity
shines, but in their verses often hides more than one interpretation,
making it necessary to find different interpretations that reveal a
writing sometimes symbolic, sometimes dreamlike: the Bible, the his
being jew, sex. Like his songbook, including his biography unfolds
between stubborn spiritual pursuits and absolute necessity of love.
Mysticism and passion are in an unthinkable interpenetration Cohen, a
supreme synthesis that never risk the inconsistency. Returning to the
stage of the world after long years in a Buddhist monastery, Cohen
continues to amaze us with his songs-poems interpreted in a voice
deeper and deeper, to the limit of the narrative. Get into the spirit
of the text becomes essential to get hold of all the nuances that
express, to discover anxieties of life so deep that they become
universal. This is what we propose to do this book, a tribute to the
hearing and proper long career as one of the most influential
songwriters of the last century.