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From: elf@utcsrgv.UUCP (Eugene Fiume)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Leonard Cohen
Message-ID: <5065@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Aug-84 10:58:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.5065
Posted: Thu Aug 23 10:58:16 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Aug-84 12:25:54 EDT
References: <199@boulder.UUCP>
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 25

Cohen has begun to resurface once again after a long hiatus in Greece
and elsewhere.  I must say that I left him behind musically some time
ago, but in terms of recent work, I think his last album was a rather
unpopular effort of a few years ago, which more or less coincided with
the publication of his book "Death of a Ladies Man".  More recently, he
has released a 1/2 hour or so video entitled "I am a Hotel", which interpolates
some of his old stuff with a pretty dimwitted story line.  Some scenes are
very nice, though, and it's many planes above your standard vanilla pop
video.  Its major problem, apparently, was budgetary.

Cohen has rediscovered his Jewish roots in a strong way.  His latest book,
just recently released in Canada (and perhaps not yet in the U.S.) is a
set of 50 rather beautiful prose prayers to coincide with his 50th (!)
birthday.  Those that identify with Cohen-as-mystic will not find this
book inconsistent with the man.

I still have a soft spot for some of his earlier albums,
especially "New Skin for an Old Ceremony", and "Songs of Leonard Cohen".
The first is full of radiant poetic moments, and the second has all those
nice little ditties like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne".


Eugene Fiume
U of Toronto
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