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.
