Name your lame duck artist........

Agree - Tesh makes Yanni look like Johnny Rotten.

= best post ever.

Martykl

I actually have his CD "Dear Heather" playing as I write this and I am trying to get into it but I find it extremely funny, and that dreadful attempt at some kind of sexy voice is just killing me. I just find it incredible that he is serious. Some decent music behind the voice and that's it.

Anyway, I grabbed some lyrics to to run by myself in attempt to delve into the mind of a genius.

TO LIVE IN A HOUSE THAT IS HAUNTED BY THE GHOST OF YOU AND ME
YOU WERE MARLON BRANDO AND I WAS STEVE McQUEEN
YOU WERE KY JELLY AND I WAS VASELINE

That's pretty deep man.

Here is an excerpt from an interview when he was approached unexpectedly back-stage:

In this interview he was asked to explain the lyrics to one of his highly regarded songs -

"I'm not sure what it means right now because I had this long voyage from Chicago. I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it is a response to terrorism. There's something about terrorism that I have always admired, that position is always very attractive. I don't like it when it's manifested on the physical plane. I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities - buy Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read - I'll give you a paraphrase of it. It was "well you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there" He says "but our terrorists are Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking."

He goes on to clarify the meaning of another one of his great masterpieces:

"It's a curious song. I used to know what it means but I don't know what it means anymore, and I think it was just a moment ago that I wrote it. I think I intended to take Manhattan and then Berlin. Oh comrades you are very kind and very warm, but kind as you are and warm as you are it will not deter me from my appointed task which is to take Manhattan and then Berlin and any other cities and do with them what I will.

Oh, now I get it.

He's selling camel shit and telling you all its top grade hash.

Oh, the title song "Dear Heather" has just come on - quite possibly the worst song I have ever heard in my life, it really is amazing that this circus is supposed to be serious. Don't know if you are familiar with the song "Dear Heather", if not check it out on the internet and give me an honest opinion - I am genuinely curious to see what you are all getting out of this. Don't mean to sound rude but it really does anger me to see people getting away with passing this twaddle off as art or music.

Musicman, The music industry sold out years ago with particular fever sometime beginning in the early '70s. Grammies have been generally bogus for years. Hey, it's big business and that's ok.

A couple of good tunes about it that come to mind are Rundgren's "The Death of Rock 'n Roll" ('75) and Van Morrison's "Big Time Operators" ('93).

It was refreshing to have the Foo Fighters get a grammie a year or so ago. And yea, there are others who've won who are deserving but such is a rarity I.M.O.

I've made sifting through the music "crud" for what I like an enjoyable life-long hobby; one no less interesting than that audiophile disease of searching for the Holy Grail in equipment.

Thomas-- Madonna has talent for publicity, making $, and tapping in to and shaping teen sensibility (or did anyway).

Thomas,

Don't know "Death Heather" but, given his ambition and associative style, it should come as zero surprise that Cohen will produce an ocassional airball. Aim high and you can fall shorter. As a general rule (for me), the more explicit his poetry, the more likely it misfires. You may have just found one miss. Congratulations. There are more. There's also, say..., "Hallelujah", an absolutely exquisite piece of poetry, which seems to have resonated very deeply with the many, many artists who've covered it to tremendous effect. There are more of those, too.

As to the "psychic terrorism" of Jesus, etc - his meaning is pretty clear (even though his choice of words is designed to provoke a reaction).

Finally, the "I'm not sure what it means now". This is a fairly common notion, not only among poets, but also among really ambitous writers of prose. Thomas Pynchon (considered by many to be the finest living American novelist) once acknowledged that there are parts of "Gravity's Rainbow" (considered by many to be his finest novel) that he can't decipher today. Associative writing, by it's nature, is the product of the moment and sometimes the entire point is that the resonance of an association resists rational explanation. That part is called "poetry".

Marty

Bottom line:

I never said Cohen was perfect.
You've said (repeatedly) that he's a poseur and a fake.
I look at the ARMY of highly regarded artists (and a fair number of writers and critics) on my side of the fence and feel pretty comfortable that the best examples of Cohen's poetry have passed the highest level of scrutiny (save your own).

That said, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.