How were you first introduced to the words of Leonard Cohen?

[Cate]

Hello, soft_naked_lady - Tonight Will be Fine is one of my favourite songs.
I liked your story and how it was an experience that was shared and still is shared by people you care about.
I'm going to have to try watching Natural Born Killers. So many people have mentioned it - I'm afraid I didn't get very far into it before.

Welcome to you and the other "newbies" here.

Cate

[Anniethecat]

Hello: I'm a newbie to this forum, but not to Leonard Cohen...I've been sitting here reading these posts and I suddenly realized that there is not another artist in the world about whom I can remember where I was and who I was with when I first heard them. It was my last year of high school, in 1969 when I was hanging out at my best friend's house. Her older brother had a record player set up in the basement and invited us down to listen to an amazing new record he had bought. It was Songs of Leonard Cohen and it totally blew us away. I've been a huge fan ever since. I don't have a great memory, but I will always remember that day and the many hours spent listening to my own copy of that wonderful record. Almost 40 years!!! Hard to believe...

[ben9]

listening to the first album which my sister had and then buying "songs of love and hate" for myself. Sensational.

[rhona]

I was sitting on my bedroom floor, age 14 years, tidying some magazines in my wardrobe (I have a VERY clear memory of this!), when a song came on the radio "First We Take Manhattan"... I was blown away, hardly breathed for the rest of the song, and hadn't heard anything like it before in my short life. I wanted to get to the end of the song so I could learn who was singing, and I kept praying "tell me who this is, tell me who this is..." Then, for the first time in my life, I heard the dj say "and that was Leonard Cohen."

And that was Leonard Cohen. x

[noob]

My first meeting with Leonard Cohen was a few years ago when I started to play guitar. My father showed me some old songbooks he have and showed me a translation (to swedish) of Joan of Arc. I thought that the song had a very beautiful lyric but I found it very hard to play so I gave up on it.
But Leonard didn't let me go. Last summer I work at an office and to advantage of the fact that I sat by a computer everyday and brought my cd's. But after some weeks I were so tired of my recods so I looked in my parents record collection and found Leonard Cohen's Greatest hits from the 70's and I though that he looked cool on the cover (the cover is kinda beige and a picture of Mr Cohen looking in a mirror wearing a suit). I brought it to work and I was blown away from the beginning. And now I have all his albums.
With his books I had some problems to find them. Were I live, a small town in southern Sweden, people evidently isn't that intrested in Leonard Cohens written works but I found a small, stained book with collected poems by Cohen . Sadly it was translated to swedish but I loved it and was captured by the beautiful words. But for christmas my brother gave me "The Favorite Game" and "Beautiful Losers". That is by far the best present I've ever got, becouse I didn't think it were that obvious that I liked Leonard Cohen
And in two days I'm going to see Leonard Cohen consert, and I hope my fascination for him and his works will stay intact for many years.

[GhostofTomJoad]

Hi, my first time here...

Many years ago, when I was still a teenager, I came across the following lines of what I thought was a poem:

They locked up a man
Who wanted to rule the world
The fools
They locked up the wrong man

...and I was hooked

[Kiwi56]

.....when I was 16, I listened to " Suzanne" . My former boyfriend played
" Songs from Leonard Cohen" in his car. There in 1972 on an old
"a-track-player " . You still know the big, fat cassettes ?
Yes, that was my first introduction to Leonard Cohen and after that, his
songs never let me off.

[fishfishquaileye]

Hello, I’ve been enjoying this forum for the last month but I’m a little shy so it took me a while to post something myself.

I’m wondering how people were first introduced to the words of Leonard Cohen.

For me it was grade 10 English class. We were briefly studying Canadian poets, which for me was mildly interesting at best. I wish I could remember which poem it was, but I can’t. I do know that it moved me enough to travel to our high school library and locate the Canadian poet shelf.
All books were crisp and clean and no spine was broken. I found two Cohen books, The Spice box of the earth and Flowers for Hitler. I opened the first and read You have the Lovers. I felt as if I had fallen into the poem, into the words, almost as if I was standing inside a Salvidor Dali painting. I was hooked and still am. By the end of High school these books were well worn and creased in many places as all well loved books should be.


Leonard Cohen - You Have The Lovers
You Have the Lovers

You have the lovers,
they are nameless, their histories only for each other,
and you have the room, the bed, and the windows.
Pretend it is a ritual.
Unfurl the bed, bury the lovers, blacken the windows,
let them live in that house for a generation or two.
No one dares disturb them.
Visitors in the corridor tip-toe past the long closed door,
they listen for sounds, for a moan, for a song:
nothing is heard, not even breathing.
You know they are not dead,
you can feel the presence of their intense love.
Your children grow up, they leave you,
they have become soldiers and riders.
Your mate dies after a life of service.
Who knows you? Who remembers you?
But in your house a ritual is in progress:
It is not finished: it needs more people.
One day the door is opened to the lover's chamber.
The room has become a dense garden,
full of colours, smells, sounds you have never known.
The bed is smooth as a wafer of sunlight,
in the midst of the garden it stands alone.
In the bed the lovers, slowly and deliberately and silently,
perform the act of love.
Their eyes are closed,
as tightly as if heavy coins of flesh lay on them.
Their lips are bruised with new and old bruises.
Her hair and his beard are hopelessly tangled.
When he puts his mouth against her shoulder
she is uncertain whether her shoulder
has given or received the kiss.
All her flesh is like a mouth.
He carries his fingers along her waist
and feels his own waist caressed.
She holds him closer and his own arms tighten around her.
She kisses the hand beside her mouth.
It is his hand or her hand, it hardly matters,
there are so many more kisses.
You stand beside the bed, weeping with happiness,
you carefully peel away the sheets
from the slow-moving bodies.
Your eyes filled with tears, you barely make out the lovers,
As you undress you sing out, and your voice is magnificent
because now you believe it is the first human voice
heard in that room.
The garments you let fall grow into vines.
You climb into bed and recover the flesh.
You close your eyes and allow them to be sewn shut.
You create an embrace and fall into it.
There is only one moment of pain or doubt
as you wonder how many multitudes are lying beside your body,
but a mouth kisses and a hand soothes the moment away.


http://www.lyricskeeper.com/leonard_coh ... lyrics.htm

Hello, welcome to the Forum. I do hope you visit us again one day

[Cate]

It's about time you welcomed me!
My first ever post - anywhere and now I'm almost at 3000!



Okay, now give your answer - how were you first introduced to the words/music of Leonard Cohen, does it have something to do with Birds on a Wire?

[regensburg]

I first seen LC sing on PBS. They had a Fund-raiser of some kind and you could buy the DVD from "The Life in London" concert. Of course I could not afford the money that they were asking, so I wrote his name down and thought I would find it in a record store. Never did and I kind of gave up. Almost after a year I received a catalog with all kind of music. I looked for Leonard Cohen and sure enough they had the Album. I bought it and when I heard the first song I was hooked. From that point on I bought all the Albums, books, DVD's and went to many concerts, my whole life has changed and will never be the same. This all took place in 2010 but I am so happy that I did discover him, better late than never. May God keep him for us for a long time.