Leonard Cohen’s songs: are they pretentious?

[PTK]

Are the songs of Leonard Cohen pretentious? Are those who eulogise them pretentious?

Are many of the songs of the late Canadian songster not actually as profound as some would claim?

Was Ol’ Misery Guts in fact the purveyor of a curtain of pseudo-profundity, behind which was no intellectual wizard, but simply a wizened man with a distinctive voice and some nice tunes?

 

[bimble]

No.

 

[Sweet FA]

No.

 

[maomao]

Yes.

 

[blairsh]

Maybe.

 

[Looby]

No.

 

[bimble]

I don’t think he tried to be clever at all? He wrote about feelings.

 

[killer b]

pretentiousness isn't a real thing, so they can't be I suppose

 

[friedaweed]

Here's Tom with the weather.

 

[Pickman's model]

This will end well

 

[maomao]

pretentiousness isn't a real thing, so they can't be I suppose

Of course it is.

 

[izz]

Not the ones I've heard, no.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

No. He was wonderful.

 

[killer b]

Of course it is.

I guess it might occur in the wild from time to time, but 99% of the time it's just a way to tell people to stay in their place. fuck that.

 

[bimble]

The really sad thing is how the word earnest has become a way of taking the piss.

 

[dessiato]

Sometimes

 

[Knotted]

Oh yes. But is that such a problem?

 

[Carl Steele]

I'd forgotten how funny this was. Go to about 24 minutes for the Leonard Cohen song. Pretentious? You decide

 

[PTK]

I'd forgotten how funny this was. Go to about 24 minutes for the Leonard Cohen song. Pretentious? You decide

Yes, that is indeed funny. I like “Bird On A Wire” very much, as it happens. However, I find the following verse of another song by Lenny C to be distressing:

And I thank you for those items that you sent me, ha ha ha ha
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I'm ready
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

 

[surreybrowncap]

[The sender of the monkey and the plywood violin is] that part of ourselves that diminished that voice that… was demanding a spiritual aspect to our lives… We gave that aspect of ourselves that was hungry some kind of perverse and obscene charity. We made him into an organ grinder… We gave that part of us a monkey and a plywood violin, so that it would screech away and amuse us with its antics.

Leonard Cohen

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Are the songs of Leonard Cohen pretentious? Are those who eulogise them pretentious?

Are many of the songs of the late Canadian songster not actually as profound as some would claim?

Was Ol’ Misery Guts in fact the purveyor of a curtain of pseudo-profundity, behind which was no intellectual wizard, but simply a wizened man with a distinctive voice and some nice tunes?

sometimes, sometimes, probably, probably not.

 

[The39thStep]

I think you can take whatever you want from Leonard Cohen tbh. Some of his stuff is no doubt pretentious, decadent and contrite, other stuff of his , to me, is just fabulous. The combination of Robert Altman and Leonard Cohen in McCabe and Mrs Miller is one of cinemas greatest treasures.

 

[surreybrowncap]

I think you can take whatever you want from Leonard Cohen tbh. Some of his stuff is no doubt pretentious, decadent and contrite, other stuff of his , to me, is just fabulous. The combination of Robert Altman and Leonard Cohen in McCabe and Mrs Miller is one of cinemas greatest treasures.

Agreed - one of my favourite films....

 

[JimW]

Moi?

 

[PTK]

[The sender of the monkey and the plywood violin is] that part of ourselves that diminished that voice that… was demanding a spiritual aspect to our lives… We gave that aspect of ourselves that was hungry some kind of perverse and obscene charity. We made him into an organ grinder… We gave that part of us a monkey and a plywood violin, so that it would screech away and amuse us with its antics.

Leonard Cohen

Thank you for this. Interesting. I would never have guessed this. However, there are other lyrics by Leonard Cohen that I have not understood at first, but the meaning of which has later occurred to me.

Leonard Cohen died the day before Trump was elected President, which I think ought to be significant, but is merely a coincidence.

 

[krtek a houby]

jazz police

 

[Sweet FA]

Moi?

Non; lui.