leonardcohenforum.com

I love to write about my favourite music -- so that's what this is. Sorry about the length.


18 Poems For 18 Albums

“A song will outlive all sermons in the memory.”
- Henry Giles


by
Glenn W. Cooper


Blank Generation – Richard Hell & The Voidoids
------------------------------------------------------------

we all
belong
to the
blank generation
whether we
like it
or not

Hell is only
speaking
the truth

and that’s
what this
album is all
about

the truth

of our
realities

hilarity
fucking with
despair

spawning
embyronic punk
rock

before it
became
self conscious

fashion obsessed
and

boring



The Trinity Session – Cowboy Junkies
-------------------------------------------------

the Cowboy Junkies’
Trinity Session
is an album so
deathly
quiet
that if you listen
to it alone
in your room
late at night,
the sound
of your own
heartbeat
becomes almost
a kind of sad
accompaniment
to Margot’s heart-
broken
whisper.



Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan
----------------------------------------

trying to
write about
Dylan’s
Blonde on Blonde
is like
trying to
describe the
universe in
25 words
or less

in this universe
God is
a 5 foot 7 inch
ball of molten
energy with
birdsnest hair
and acid tongue

who opened
language
to an infinity
of possibilities

who redefined
what it meant
to be a singer
of songs

who gave us
forever this
sad-eyed
landscape of
the mind and
never rested
on the seventh
or any other day.



train a-comin’ – steve earle
-----------------------------------

when Steve Earle made Train A Comin’
he was fresh out of prison, hadn’t
recorded in five years and in that time
had kicked the ass of heroin and cocaine
and pulled himself together right when
all seemed lost. i got this album in
December ‘95 and the next month my
good friend Blair committed suicide.
i played this record over and over
while i grieved, silenty and alone.
“Goodbye” was the song that got to me
the most, so touching and tender, filled
with burning regret for all the things
we should say but never do. to this day
it almost kills me the way drugs almost
killed Earle and life itself killed Blair.



Blue – Joni Mitchell
------------------------

listening
to Joni Mitchell’s
Blue
is like
pulling out
a shoebox
full of old love
letters
on a
rainy Sunday
afternoon
and remembering
through tear-
struck eyes
how
things
once were
on the
carousel
of love
before it
terminated
hopelessly and
the funpark
was closed
down and
boarded up
forever.



Flashlight – Tom Verlaine
----------------------------------

it takes a special man
to wear a beret
and not
look stupid

but when you play
guitar like
Tom Verlaine

you can
just about get away
with anything

Verlaine’s solos
on this record
are shorter
than what we’ve come
to expect

but what they lack
in length
they make up for
in depth

even after 20 years
of listening
i have not yet found
the bottom
of them.



Full Moon Fever – Tom Petty
-------------------------------------

this album
is like
a slim
volume
of poems
you can
easily
fold up
and
slip in
your back
jeans
pocket
ready to
pull out
whenever you
feel yourself
free
falling
towards
insanity
and
need
something
urgently
to break
the fall.



Alive On Arrival – Steve Forbert
------------------------------------------

Steve Forbert used to busk at
Grand Central Station in the days
before he became the latest in
a very long line of “New Dylans”.
but unlike Dylan he never achieved
mass popularity. one top forty hit
in 1979 was all. instead he has
continued along his own path,
never compromising, never
catering to anyone’s expectations
but his own, still writing and
still singing those same sweetly
delicate and tender tunes, not much
different to the ones he played
at Grand Central Station in New
York City, all those years ago.



The Stooges – The Stooges
-----------------------------------

Iggy
likes to tell
the
story
of how he
had a band
rule
back then
that no
Stooges song
could ever
contain
any more
than
25 words

and
holy shit
he was right

afterall

once you’ve
screamed with
such conviction
about how
you wanna be
someone’s dog
over and
over

what more
really
needs to be
said?



Horses – Patti Smith
----------------------------

inevitably i fall
in love
w/ all the women
in my record
collection

but i fall harder
for Patti Smith
than i do for
any of the others

though she does
seem like half
a man at times

i want to lie
down in that sperm
coffin w/ her

drift
into that sea
of possibilities

the Rimbaud
of New York City,
the misplaced
Joan of Arc,
dreaming of
animation
night and day

her and i
in that infernal
sperm coffin



Revival – Gillian Welch
------------------------------

Gillian Welch was born
too late, and this CD
would have made a great
vinyl album in, say, 1972,
when the hippie thing
was just dying out along
with the Vietnam war.
I can imagine myself
lying on the bed, holding
the album cover in my hands,

connecting the dots on that
polka-dot dress, coming up
with a different picture
each time which, in a way,
is fitting because that’s
what I get every time
I listen to these songs:
always something different.
Sometimes Gillian is
a backwards farm girl
and other times a temptress,
sometimes strong and
independent and sometimes
a damsel in distress. She
is a shape-shifter like Dylan
and Young, an orphan-girl
from California channeling
heartsick ghosts from the
faraway Appalachians.



Marquee Moon – Television
------------------------------------

some music is
too big for description
in any poem or even
any book or volume
of books
it can’t be
contained because it
keeps expanding
like the solos
on this album
that grow more
exponentially mesmeric
the more you
listen to them
Marquee Moon
takes me
higher
than any other
album
scares me
with the sheer
beauty of it all
every day i give
thanks for it in
one way or another
to Verlaine and Lloyd
to Ficca and Smith
those gods
those shamans
of electricity


I’m Your Man – Leonard Cohen
----------------------------------------

Leonard
on the cover
eating a banana
seems almost
incongruous.
We expect
a bottle
of whiskey
in his hand,
a cigarette,
or even
a woman’s
black bra.
But
Leonard
is a funny man
so he
poses instead
with a banana.
He is so high
in the tower
of song
that he can
do these things
and still come
off looking cool,
whereas you
or I would just
look silly.



Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
-----------------------------------

I came late
to jazz,
was 35 before
I got around
to hearing
this record.
Flamenco Sketches
was the track
that did me in.
I remember
a rainy afternoon
with a red-headed
girl, listening
to that track,
over and over,
holding one
another through
a veil of tears
as the the rain
pounded
the window.
It’s been a few
years, and the
girl is gone now,
but the good
thing is, I’ll
always have this
record to
remind me.



Velvet Underground & Nico – Velvet Underground & Nico
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


when I bought home
that first
Velvet Underground album,
all those years ago,

I didn’t know what
the hell
I had gotten myself
into:

the insane guitar cacophony
from Reed and Morrison,
the madness of Cale’s screaming
electric viola,
the ice-cold vocals
of the impossibly beautiful Nico,
the crazy banana album cover,

all served to transplant me
to another world,
far, far away
from Hicksville, Australia.

the next day I went out
and bought a leather jacket
and ridiculous wrap-
around sunglasses,
started talking with a sneer
like Reed.

but I
never did
find a girl
like Nico.



Rust Never Sleeps – Neil Young & Crazy Horse
-----------------------------------------------------------

to me
Neil Young
has always meant
time alone doing
my own thing

never much cared
for the company
of others

except in
small doses

have always
been content
listening to my
own thoughts

and sometimes I swear
Neil is singing
those same thoughts

like he’s inside me
almost a part
of my own DNA

i just hope he finds
the same peace
for himself
that he brings
to me



Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash
--------------------------------------------------------

forget the
hippie idealism
that you and i
were born
too late
to enjoy.
forget
the bloated
rock star
indulgence
of the years
that followed.
concentrate
soley on this
one record and
these 10 songs.
open a window.
let in some
of that pure
summer sunshine,
maybe a breeze
to cool you
if it gets too hot.
light a cigarette,
get a cup of coffee
and let yourself
drift away on those
wooden ships,
free and
easy.



Los Angeles - X
--------------------------

punk

was never meant
to sound
this melodic

was supposed
to be all
thrash and squall

but these songs
have hooks
as good as any
pop tunes

catchy and
singable without
ever losing
their rawness or
integrity

no ordinary feat

but then John Doe
and Excene Cervenka
are no ordinary
singers and no
ordinary songwriters

are they?

Hi Hero
I enjoyed reading you responses to music because I’m familiar with many of the albums and some are still played favourites in my collection, like Velvet Underground + Nico and Kind of Blue. I have other preferences for Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Although I’m afraid I can’t listen to Patti anymore, we have outgrown each other.

It always suprises me how music can evoke such intense memories, especially when I haven’t heard something for awhile. I forgot all about David Bowie for many years after my vinyls got packed away in a box to gather dust. Then iPods and iTunes arrived and I listened to ‘Wild is the Wind’ again and wept, uncontrollably (good thing I was alone at the time). I didn’t see it coming (it was a first love, died in a motorcycle accident, a memory I had also packed away).

Anyway, no poetry from me, I’m a prose girl. Have you read ‘31 Songs’ by Nick Hornby? I loved it, like having a conversation with someone nice and companionable about music, at the pub.

blonde madonna wrote:Hi Hero
I enjoyed reading you responses to music because I’m familiar with many of the albums and some are still played favourites in my collection, like Velvet Underground + Nico and Kind of Blue. I have other preferences for Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Although I’m afraid I can’t listen to Patti anymore, we have outgrown each other.

It always suprises me how music can evoke such intense memories, especially when I haven’t heard something for awhile. I forgot all about David Bowie for many years after my vinyls got packed away in a box to gather dust. Then iPods and iTunes arrived and I listened to ‘Wild is the Wind’ again and wept, uncontrollably (good thing I was alone at the time). I didn’t see it coming (it was a first love, died in a motorcycle accident, a memory I had also packed away).

Anyway, no poetry from me, I’m a prose girl. Have you read ‘31 Songs’ by Nick Hornby? I loved it, like having a conversation with someone nice and companionable about music, at the pub.

Thanks for your comments, Blonde Madonna. Yes, I have read 31 Songs; I work in a bookstore so I see most music books that get released.

I love Cat Power's version of "Wild Is The Wind"; I haven't heard the Bowie version.

Anyway, thanks again, and why don't you share some of your prose?

Hi Hero

Interesting stream of consciousness contemplations of these different artists and their seminal works and of the effect that they had on you. Nicely done throughout.

Chris