Legends of Note: Leonard Cohen

I would like to start this edition of Legends of Note with a bold claim: Leonard Cohen is the greatest English-speaking lyricist of all time. Not the best English-speaking poet of all time (although his poetry is indeed a thing of wonder, and his novel “Beautiful Losers” is a true masterpiece), but the finest artist we’ve had who has put words to music. I’ve been known to say, with only a little hyperbole, that if I had to live with only Cohen’s first 5 albums to listen to, I would die a happy man. The beautiful, sparse, stark sadness of Cohen’s work is brave and wonderful. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Cohen has turned to Zen Buddhism in his later years, as much of his lyrical canon dwells on the impermanence of things small and grand, finding beauty in unlikely corners, and confronting sexuality with an honesty unparalleled in the Western folk tradition.

Who was it who said they don’t trust singers with good voices? They could easily have been talking about Cohen. His is not the harmonic pleasantry of Simon and Garfunkel’s, yet also not the unique put-on of Dylan’s. Rather, Cohen’s is a humble, small-ranged voice that that carries a subtle tune, and allows the listener to focus on the lyrics, always the main attraction. To be sure, Cohen’s output since the 80’s has come to be characterized by his extremely deep vocals, but this a later development, and serves to illustrate my point: while still an amazing lyricist, the focus has shifted; some of the magic is gone.

There is no better place to start than the beginning, with Cohen’s 1968 debut, “Songs of Leonard Cohen.” Right from the start we have perhaps Cohen’s best known work, “Suzanne.” Breezy and melancholic, “Suzanne” mixes images of time spent with a woman in Montreal with ruminations on the life of Jesus, mixed in with some possible sexual allusions, and beautiful descriptions of the landscape. I have listened to this song more times than I can even venture a guess at, and it still moves me. The story told, the story hinted at, Cohen’s quiet delivery, the beautiful background vocals… It’s the closest thing to a perfect song I can think of.

Legends of Note: Japan Edition

Hello again, monster friends. Last time I said I would talk about Leonard Cohen for this installment of Legends of Note. As you can see from the title of this post, I am not going to do so.

As someone who has spent much of his life devoted to the study of Japanese language, literature, and film, has lived and studied in Japan, and has many friends still living in Japan, last week’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami has been weighing heavily on my mind. I am heart-broken and extremely worried for friends and strangers alike, and mourn the destruction of Sendai, a beautiful city I was lucky enough to spend some time in.

So, I’ve decided to take a break from scouring the web for news and force myself to do something positive. This installment of Legends of Note is dedicated to 4 Japanese bands that have indeed become legends of the Japanese indie scene, although criminally unknown outside of Asia.

First off is Supercar, my personal favorite. Active between 1995 and 2005, Supercar have an extremely solid discography, ranging from their early, Jesus and Mary Chain-esque noise-pop (see videos 1 and 2) to their later electronic/experimental work (video 3). Track down “Highvision” in particular, one of my favorite albums of all time.

Legends of Note: Talking Heads

Hey gang, let’s talk music once again! Today’s legend in question is none other than one of the most interesting and unique bands to come out of America in the ‘80’s: Talking Heads. It’s sort of bizarre to me that David Byrne’s highly idiosyncratic spaz-rock art band is virtually a household name at this point, largely due to the band’s highly-successful, highly-unlikely hit “Once in a Lifetime.” There is an argument to be made for its popularity being owed to a new interest in music videos fostered by the advent of MTV, but again, Byrne’s now-famous nerdy dance moves are not the stuff of fame (then or now, really).

Legends of Note: Sonic Youth

Hello friends, welcome to another installment of Legends of Note. Today we’ll take a look at one of the most popular, most enduring American independent bands of all time, Sonic Youth. 3 decades and some 16 albums in SY has been a mainstay in the rock underground, influencing more bands than I could even try to recount. But you know all this, right? I mean, SY recently released a “greatest hits” through Starbucks, they’ve been on the Simpsons, they sneeze and Pitchfork reports. Which, really, is all very well deserved.

I think I knew of SY as a concept long before ever hearing their music. The idea of a band that didn’t play “real chords,” didn’t properly tune their guitars, were punk but weren’t “punk,” it was all very inspiring, even without owing a copy of “Daydream Nation.” It’s a bit unfortunate, then, that the first SY record I did hear was 1994’s “Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star,” a record interesting in its own right, but not necessarily the album most representative of their sound. I didn’t really get it. It wasn’t catchy, but it wasn’t overtly subversive either. When I moved on to “Dirty,” I remember thinking, “Yes, this is it. This is what I want SY to sound like.”

Legends of Note: R.E.M.

Hello friends, topknot here. Welcome to my new column for MOBFD, “Legends of Note.” After a fun round of R.E.M.-based tweets with fellow Monsters, the idea for a column exploring musicians of legendary status was rather spontaneously thought up. Having spent a good portion of my early twenties writing about underground/indie bands, I thought the idea of writing about big bands (both commercial and cult) would be a fun challenge. After all, what is there left to say about bands like R.E.M., the Rolling Stones, or even Neutral Milk Hotel that hasn’t been written and regurgitated time after time?

Well, here’s what I’m thinking. Every other week, I will pick 1 band or musician that is considered in someway legendary, and I will choose the 1 record they’ve created that has left the largest impression upon me. At the end of each column, I will announce the next column’s focus, and invite anyone to email me with their thoughts on the best album by said band/artist. I will then include this in the next post. Make sense? I hope so!

Okay, with that out of the way, this week we delve into R.E.M., with the help of thekelsburrows, Teacherman, and Mans. I'll share my thoughts first. Enjoy!