Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 11:00 AM

Their is a danger that the R&RHoF will end up like Wallmart in reverse

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 12:36 PM

From: meself
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 09:46 AM

"His earliest roots are in Rock so why not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Actually, his 'earliest roots' are in Country & Western. Seriously.

   meself, you are pretty close. Leonard did have a C&W band called "The Buckskin Boys" while a student at McGill in the early 50's, but I recall him mentioning in some liner notes that he and a friend had sang there way through "The Little Red Songbook" while they worked in a lumber camp as teenagers in the late 40's. He said they had the somewhat naive idea that the Nazis were defeated by song. This was where he learned "The Partisan" that he then recorded some twenty years later. His EARLIEST roots probably include some Jewish music from his boyhood in Montreal's Jewish community.

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 12:43 PM

It was right before Christmas in - I think it was 1973. I was getting ready to leave for home the next day, but that day, I was stuck in the dorm after a blizzard with about 5 other people including a friend's brother who had brought what I shall refer to as 'some really good shit' and it went along with passed around bottles. That night, we sat in the day room (accidental pun) and someone (me, I think) dragged their stereo speakers out onto the balcony that circled (squared?) the floor above us. We had Leonard Cohen's 'Songs of Love and Hate' cranked up, and I understood every word. I understood the meaning of the words, the meaning of the meaning, and I'm pretty sure I was just a tad away from grasping the meaning of life.

Anyway, I woke up the next day and didn't remember any of it except that I had understood it all. To this day, I wish I could remember what I was thinking, although it would probably be more funny than insightful. I did come away with the belief that although Cohen is the darkest of the dark, that darkness, warmed by humor and gentleness is what makes some things shine so bright.

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 05:55 PM

Slag wrote,

    The word "Hallelujah" appears in the Bible only four times, all in the Book
    of the Revealtion of John, the Divine

I'm no biblical scholar, but this seems unlikely to me. Psalms 113 through 118 are referred to in the Jewish liturgy as The Hallel, and I think you'll find Hallelujah written several times in those psalms, in the Hebrew if not in the King James.

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 11:00 PM

Yeah Jeri.......sounds like a wonderful memory.

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: Slag
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 02:07 AM

Footnote to the footnote. Apologies as my reference was to the KJV of the Bible. The primitive Hebrew root "halal" meant to be clear of sound or tone or even of color according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (it been many years since I studied Hebrew so I am relying heavily on Strong's). It can also mean to rave, to be wild, to give glory or be beside one's self or to shine. It is used throughout Scripture and when coupled with the clipped version of Yahweh, Yahh it means praise of Yahh or Jah. Yah or -iah often occurs on ends of names denoting some aspect, relationship or deed of God in that person's life. Same with -el which is short for Elohim a more generic term for God meaning "The Strong One". So you get names like Isaiah (Salvation of Yahweh) and Ezekiel (Whom God Will Strengthen). Why the translators of Ps 113 KJV did not use "Hallelujah" when they might have I can only guess (King James is purported to have used 72 anonymous translators as did the Alexandrian Jews (as tradition would have it) in translating the Hebrew to the Greek in the version known as the Septuagint (the Seventy-two[but abbreviate The LXX erroneously as LXX = 70]). This, of course, has to be one of the worst cases of thread drift ever but what the hey! I wonder If Mr. Cohen went to such lengths to analyze the word he chose for that song?

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 03:53 AM

Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Tina Turner .......... L Cohen?

Subject: RE: Leonard Cohen To R&R Hall Of Fame
From: gnu
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 06:17 AM

Well, I have read a lot of the above. What really matters is the first post... and LC's works.