leonardcohenforum.com

I discovered LC simply thanks to a friend's suggestion...it was the end of 2004, and I bought a copy of "Songs of Leonard Cohen". When I first listened to "suzanne" and the voice came in, I felt every part of me trembling with the power of such tenderness. It was a very dark period for me, and his songs (especially the ones in SoLC and SoLaH) have been the moonlit streetlamps of a shadowed passageway.

And it's amazing how his voice grew deeper and deeper through the years..like the voice of someone who scanned the abyss without being swallowed by it.

Fascinating

my father introduced me to LC. well sort of, he would sit in his bedroom listening to leonard cohen records after my mother left us, i never forgot the words; For now I need your hidden love,Im cold as a new razor blade,You left when I told you I was curious,I never said that I was brave.
love you Dad xx

Even more fascinating.

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Hello...I've been lurking for awhile and thought the time had come to step into the light...

A girlfriend in college introduced me to Leonard's music. She smoked and I didn't, and she had a tatoo and I didn't, and she played me 'We Came So Far For Beauty' the night we met. I'm not sure how I survived that combination. We dated for awhile, but I couldn't keep up, and so we went our separate ways. She gave me the gift of Leonard though, and I can't ever repay that debt. I've been a committed fan ever since.

i heard the end of suzanne on local radio while waiting in the car for my dad to pay for petrol, I was about 12, i fell in love immediately but when the song finished it went straight to an advert and the dj didn't say what the song was or who was singing afterwards. I asked loads of people if they had ever heard of a song called suzanne and no one ever had, eventually when i was about 18 or 19 a friend who was very knowledgeable in music told me who it was and made me up a tape. I never thought i would get the chance to see him and I am delighted, i met my friend again for the first time in probably 26 years the day i got the tickets and i told him and he was so pleased for me. I miss having friends like that.

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Leonard, Leonard, Leonard, I first started listening to to his words around 1966,67 not exactly sure, my older sister had ordered some albums from Columbia house one of them being Leonard Cohen, that album quickly became mine and from then on I watched for every album as it came out and would add it to my collection. how many days I spent listening, singing along, anyone who knew me had to listen, His music was always with me, making the good times better and the bad times easier to handle "if your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condem I will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem". I was fortunate to see him in Montreal at the Place Des Art, a friend and I travelled by train to get there, her husband worked for the railroad and she had a pass, not I/but he borrowed id from a coworkers wife and I could now afford to go (I would have done without groceries) imagine my surprise when I look at the id and discover she had the same birthdate as me (11/11/55) I felt like the stars were aligned. A dream come true , we had 3rd row seats, an amazing concert . it had followed a 10 year hiatus and he was back. Then life went on I moved to Ottawa some years later and was living there when his next tour happened I couldn't believe another chance to be in his presence. I was there, the woman sitting next to me said do you know the words to all his songs, at 1 point I sat on the floor by the stage to listen and to snap a few pictures. He was like an affirmation to me that the world was okay and things would be alright, just keep going. Now 15 years later I recently returned to the Fredericton area as my father had passed away and with my Mother still alive I wanted to be near. Anyway now another tour is happening and Fredericton is the opening venue. Unbelievable Leonard is coming. But my story doesn't have a happy ending after being advised that the internet was my best option to secure tickets, it wasn't , spending the night in the freezing rain with those others would have been and I would have. I do go on, anyway the good thing is that out of that disappointment I came accross this site and after the initial bittersweet everything was a reminder that I don't have a ticket, I'm thrilled to see all the information and reference for Leonard. I expect to visit often. I also expect to stand outside the Playhouse on concert night. Heather

Heather, on the forum go to the World tour site and there is a line for swapping or finding tickets there. Good luck!

frisco girl thanks for the directon I gave a try hope something comes out of it thanks again

LC has always been in my life, probably since even before I was born. I grew up listening to my mother's vinyl copies of Love and Hate and Songs of. At first I was captivated just by the melody and of course his voice. I did like “tea and oranges that come all the way from China”. For very many years I was happy just to listen to those two albums repeatedly (obsessively?). Like many other members here I have listened to them constantly and tried to convert anyone I’ve met. It was only when I was in my 20’s that I began to think about exploring his work a bit more. I think the first Cohen album I bought myself was “The Essential” and shortly after Field Commander Cohen, that just opened the floodgates and I went hunting for anything I could get my hands on. I then fell in love with The Future. Cohen has been there through all the events of my life, many a night has been spent with some beer and LC in my headphones. I think that’s why I went looking for more of his work, I need to hear more of the voice that had already spoken to me so much. I was so happy to discover that my girlfriend likes him, well she is a major Nick Cave fan, she introduced me to Cave’s cover of Avalanche (love it).

Since the original post gave license to copy and paste:

"Hello all, newbie here.

I am a very new fan. LC has been on my "to listen to" list for ages, but didn't get round to it until a few weeks ago, when I bought the Essential 2CD set.

I mean it as a compliment (really!) when I say that he is the only artist I have ever heard who can alternately make me think my stereo is broken and then blow my brains out of my head - sometimes in the same song! [First hearings were on the car stereo, which may partially explain the first bit!]

Anyway, I have since bought most of his albums, and the rest should be delivered soon!"


In retrospect - yes, I think it was the car stereo! And great comment by thin_gipsy_thief above about the abyss.
Got all the (studio) albums now, and going through them slowly. Listening to a new one is a special treat, but I don't do that until I have absorbed the previous one as much as possible.

...the first meeting, first song, was of course, Suzzane, on the radio, and a used LP in the 60's. It touched me deeply but in a very un-defined manner (typical adolecent response, all passion, no brains); later, about every 5 to 10 years, I would collect his most recent LP, tape, CD and re-meet the man and his poetry. My interest and responses corresponded with my age and life situation (So Long Marriane has a lot to say to a divorcee...); now he is in his 70's and I am about to be 60 and he is still talking to me in ways I find meaningful. The old stuff seems to get deeper and the new new stuff is amazingly "new".