Title : "Alienated Young Man Creates Some Sad Music."
link : "Alienated Young Man Creates Some Sad Music."
"Alienated Young Man Creates Some Sad Music."
That's the headline from January 1968 in The New York Times for a review of "Songs of Leonard Cohen," Leonard Cohen's first album. The headline is hilariously dismissive.
The reviewer was Donal Henahan (1921-2012), whose obituary (in the NYT) says he was a WWII fighter pilot, and he began his NYT reviewing in September 14, 1967 with this:
“The American subculture of buttons and beards, poster art and pot, sandals and oddly shaped spectacles met the rather more ancient culture of India last evening at Philharmonic Hall. The occasion was the first of six concerts there this season by Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso, whose instrument traces back about 700 years and whose chosen art form, the raga, is said to be 2,000 years old.”
Oddly shaped spectacles.... Here's the whole Ravi Shankar piece as it appeared on page 53 of the NYT that day. There's not much more to the article, but, my God, what you see on that page!
Look at the ads for live shows in New York City on that one day! Shall we see Nina Simone at the Village Gate or Thelonious Monk at the Village Vanguard? Or Tim Buckley at the Cafe Au Go Go? We could see Fugs. Or Eddie Fisher and Buddy Hackett in "a hilarious evening of comedy and songs." We could see Marlene Dietrich with an orchestra conducted by Burt Bacharach. Or — the height of absurdity — Up With People at Carnegie Hall. We could see Lauren Bacall in "Cactus Flower" or Lou Jacobi in Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water." Angela Lansbury was doing "Mame" at the time (I caught that one). There were 2 Harold Pinter plays. And "Cabaret," "Fiddler on the Roof," and "The Man of La Mancha."
What insane riches! So maybe you wouldn't care about the alienated young man with some sad music. Subheadline: "Leonard Cohen Writes and Records Own Songs Poet Is as Unhappy as Bob Dylan, but Far Less Angry."
Leonard Cohen is fairly young — 33 years old — Canadian, Jewish, and very, very sad. On the ailenation scale, he rates somewhere between Schopenhauer and Bob Dylan, two other prominent poets of pessimism.Pessimism!
Weltschmerz and soft rock are what Mr. Cohen is selling.... His songs are crooned monotonously, mostly in minor keys, and their lyrics employ all seven types of ambiguity.... "Suzanne" has its moments of fairly digestible surrealism.... Mr. Cohen is smooth, of voice and bland of meaning.... [T]he Canadian troubadour sounds like a sad man cashing in on self-piuty and adolescent loneliness. "Oh take me to the slaughterhouse/I will wait their with the lamb," drones Mr. Cohen. After a while it seems like a tempting invitation.Meanwhile, I was listening to the "Songs of Leonard Cohen" this morning — and it feels completely fresh and beautiful.
Thus articles "Alienated Young Man Creates Some Sad Music."
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