Leonard Cohen
As influential as he was, in many ways, Cohen's recordings were sonically mostly "neutral", appropriately backing his voice and music, and good in their time, but not that significant as such - until his last several albums. And in that regard, I consider his last release, You Want it Darker, produced by his son Adam Cohen and Patrick Leonard, a masterpiece similar to his poetry, music, and life.
And even though you might think there is no big deal with arrangement and instrumentation here, and there was no big change in Cohen's sound for decades, for me this was the uppermost point of the unique sound development curve that started with Ten New Songs and Dear Heather. Just another fascinating thing about this man, in his ninth decade.
And, visiting Hydra recently... you might know why, although the island is inspiring anyhow. There are no signs on the island to direct you here, no plate on the house either, but on its door there is still the mark "the little Jew who wrote the Bible" was living here.
Very neat that you visited Hydra island. Until you posted this I only knew a little about Leonard Cohen's personal life and writing. I just knew his music from movies and sought out his albums afterwards. That crazy door knocker is so intriguing, it made me google "leonard cohen" hydra island and I read this article about his time there. Thanks Pedja!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/30/bohemian-tragedy-leonard-cohen-and-the-curse-of-hydra
I was very surprised to learn there's a new tv series dramatizing Leonard Cohen's life on Hydra island. it's already out now in entirety.. about to give it a watch
Interesting, thanks for posting this. I will look for it.
The world is changing, now possibly way too fast to truly expect anything, but I would expect the interest in Cohen and his work not to fade away.
Many of my music heroes are not on this earth anymore, but I still remember what I was doing when I heard that Leonard Cohen had passes away, somehow it really touched me in a way I was not expecting, as we all know, he was not a young man when he passed.
Another big loss was John Prine, someone I think did not get the recognition he deserved.
The next big loss for me will probably be when Van Morrison puts his mic down for the last time, but he is happily grumpy and still going strong so hopefully a few more records will hit the shelves before his time is up.
But is it not great that through different kind of media we can still enjoy their music, especially with streaming, I spend many hours letting Roon suggest music to me, it is a great way also to discover new music, like the last few years I have really enjoyed Jazz and classical, genres I was not strong in, but learning all about the musicians and interpretation they had of the same Jazz compositions is fascinating. I also feel streaming gives better access for both new musicians coming through and us the listener finding alternative artists/music, instead of the mass produced Pop and HipHop that seams to be pushed at the consumer.