Leonard Cohen: The Music & the Mystiqueby Maurice Ratcliff
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Omnibus Press (30 April 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1780383029
ISBN-13: 978-1780383026
My first thoughts on receiving this song-by-song guide the records of Leonard Cohen was that it was surprisingly short. Was that really all that laughing Len had produced?
It seemed highly dubious that an artist of his calibre could be dismissed in just 96 Crown Quarto pages, but when you look inside Maurice Ratcliffe has done exactly what it says on the tin.
The studio albums, the live albums, the compilation albums, and various odds and sods are all detailed meticulously with as much minutiae described as anyone could really expect from such a private man.
If I was to make ay criticism at all, it would have been nice to have had a few pages about his books, but the volume is strap-lined A Complete Guide To His Music, and Cohen’s written output has nowhere as near as much relatiion to his music as one might imagine. And when on occasion, he has taken parts of one of his poems and incorporated it into a song (such as he did with ‘Suzanne’ which is based on an earlier poem, ‘Suzanne Takes you Down’, from a book called Parasites of Heaven) Ratcliffe has explained how and when.
Sadly, there are a few omissions. Whereas the two bonus tracks on the 2007 re-issue of Songs of Leonard Cohen are mentioned, for example, they are not analysed. This doesn’t matter in most circumstances, because the vast majority of the nons tracks are early versions, or different versions, of previously released songs. However the omissions of the one or two which aren't is an oversight.
I have always mildly liked Leonard Cohen. During my student days his 1975 Greatest Hits set was always on my car stereo (where it alternated with David Bowie’s Station to Station) and I have come back to him reasonably regularly ever since. Earlier this year I played his latest album to death on Spotify, and am impressed that at such an advanced age he still has the stamina and compositional capability of a much younger man. This is a very useful addition to the library of anybody who has more than a passing interest in the life and works of one of the more consistently productive, and undeniably literate, songwriters in the past half century.
And yes, there is a Leonard Cohen DVD on Gonzo:
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/14453/Leonard_Cohen-Bird_On_A_Wire.html
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