leonardcohenforum.com

I just came across this, "My life with Leonard Cohen", don't know what to make of it really, quite long, haven't read it all yet. Anyone else read it?

http://mylifewithleonardcohen.cafeprogressive.com/

I have read the whole story, and the story disturbs my world. If the story is true, I shall have to pull lenny down of the piedistal and think that what I love is his music and his lyrics.

If the story is something going on in some mad womens mind, chasing L.C. around the world for some 20 years, I will still have lenny as my true hero.

But then again, we are all human - L.C. too!

hugs from Cia

This story has been highlighted here before. I don't pay much attention to the "kiss and tell" ramblings of someone who seems to have had a superficial relationship with L C and is clearly disappointed that it did not develop into a more permanent one. Living in Montreal and mixing in the circles that she did, it seems rather naive for her to be unaware of his reputation and his personal problems at that time.

The girl Hazel, that she mentions must be Hazel Field, who appears briefly in the 1979 film Song of L C made by Harry Rasky, who accompanied the concert tour of 1979 as photographer. Her photos are on the site under the Field Commander Cohen tour. She would therefore appeat to be a trusted friend of Leonard.

I have read parts of it before. I have no opinion on it. It is irrelevant to LC the musician and songwriter and poet and therefore irrelevant to me.

The accusations this writer makes are very disturbing. I hope she is just some crazy lady. But if she isn't crazy and the accusations are true then LC is a fraud.

one must seperate an artist from teir work. roman polanski drugged raped and sosomized a 13-yr-old girl; but "rosemary's baby" is a helluva movie

One of the advantages Internet offers is the opportunity to make anybody's writings public to the world. Simultaneuously it is also a considerable disadvantage: one may post whatever rubbish and daydreams without consequences. Some artists let their lawyers take care of those libels, some don't take the trouble to do it.

During my years on the net I've seen a number of "sensational disclosures" - at least the writers think so - about various topics and persons. I think the best way to deal with those is just to ignore them.

Jarkko

Yeah. It's like the text published on the net by a german girl I think. It is called "...On the Wire" . It's about her sexual relation with Leonard "Laying" Cohen Maybe a cool fantasm. I don't know. I never tought about Leonard that way

Hello Mamalex,

How does one do that "seperate an artist from their work" when the artist in question is Leonard Cohen? I thought his poetry and songs were a distillation of his life.

As for Polanski, sure a man can be an artistic genius and be a horrible person in his private life...but I still think that a man's soul comes out in his work and Rosemary's Baby pretty much says it all.

I'm just not able to completely divorce a man (or woman) from their work like some are able to do. If I discover that Wagner (for example) is an anti-semite then that is going to color his music for me however glorious I think it is.

art critics differ when it comes to biography as an important part of art.

if you ask me; some artists include more of themselves into their art, other less, but it doesn't matter that they are better or worse for it. that is how you should, methinks (he he funny word), treat biographies. if you want to understand françois villon you should first know somethink about him, but if you want to read t.s.eliot, no such knowledge is needed.

p.s.
though, many don't know this, eliot was devastated as a person when he was writing the waste land, and many think his personal life influenced gloomy tone of the poem. but you'll find no more or less in the poem now that you know that.

p.p.s.
if wagner was antisemit it changes nothing about his art. he never included such feelings or opinions in his music.

We all have skeleton's in the cupboards...........that don't make us frauds
just listen to the music and read the writing
that's when you must decide to applaude
LC is a man, he aint a God............
Georges

Yes keynard13 I read it. I read it all. I read it all because the story is (without much talent) well written, capable to hook the interest.

Now everybody knows (well anybody with a common sense) that human beings are not without flaws of all sorts. The perfect image of an artist is a dream, because it is what public wants to see. Dreaming is necessary. His ordinary job would he say, I think.

Is the dark side in Leonard Cohen is exactly what she described, I do not know but I do not think so (and I am not really interested about his private life) because her text appears to me like a mixture or real facts and her subjectivity, not the bare thruth she claims it is.

I know neither the author (Diamond or something ?) nor LC personally. But this seems like a cheap shot at LC, to put something like this on public display - for whatever grievances she may have, real or perceived. It tells me more about her than about LC.

And Polanski is brilliant !! If you don't see his movies it is your loss, not his. Check out MacBeth.

I read it and it is hard to tell where fantasy stops and reality begins. What is that that most offends you? There is only one aspect of the whole story which if it were true would perhaps put Leonard in a different light.

I can't really equate the man to that story.

Roman Polanski was in a class of his own and what he did coloured all his work afterwards the same with OJ Simpson. There is a wealth of difference between what is being suggested about Leonard and the established facts of Polanski and Simpson. They are not in the same league.

hi songster, i hope you can take some comfort in the fact that this woman is extremely flaky and anything she says must be taken with a large grain of salt.

how many of would like to be called to account for every mistake we've ever made?

i believe t.s. eliot shut hit wife in a mental hospital and never visited her despite her constant requests.