Leonard Cohen

Oh my my, Leonard Cohen.  What can I say.  Ever since my music teacher, Marijke turned Class Three Y at Deliverance Grammar School (which included me) onto Cohen back in 1974, I've been a bit of a fan.  never heard a song of his I didn't like.  Never found a band that'd let me do covers of his work (bastards! - whatever my favourites are, I wanna do a cover of The Traitor).

So... top five Leonard Cohen sings Leonard Cohen's songs? Now that is HARD!

Leonard Cohen was a telepath and a prophet.  He could see into our hearts but even more, he could see the future in his crystal ball.  He was so RIGHT.  He still is.  There's a whole load of shit gonna come down this river before the clean meltwater of the former icecaps gets here,  Ladies and Gentlemen! THE FUTURE

Oh! How I was wrong!  You see I did not miss the attack.  I was waiting for the bus to picket the Stockport Messenger back in 1983 and I was kissing a girl I thirsted for.  But I was not what I should have been and I bid farewell and joined my comrades for a futile battle.  I was wrong and I hate to sing this song, but I know I should, in penance.  THE TRAITOR

Tears drip like acid down my ravaged cheeks as I listen.  I don't know how I know how it feels but somehow I do, and I think Cohen had a lot to do with that.  Over and again, they pour across the border (or maybe win by 'democratic' means) and we're cautioned to surrender, but that would break our hearts and sear our souls.  THE PARTISAN

Oh how Leonard gets me.  He knows where I feel so often.  The love that wants to sacrifice, to demand, to offer all and beneath the promises well... I was always a beggar for love, but you know I'd howl just like Leonard.  Yeah  I'M YOUR MAN!

Suzanne was somebody I knew when we were still children of 20 (and yes twenty IS a child) and we would spend nights together in her room talking until the world tasted of coffee and cigarettes and yeah, like the song, she got me.  I was a one and she was at worst a seven so I couldn't imagine why she'd want to know me.  Anyway, this was our song.  SUZANNE.

Hurts like cancer (and yes I know) to leave out: "So Long Marianne"; "Gypsy Wife"; "Famous Blue Raincoat"; "Dance Me to the End of Love"; "Bird on a Wire"; "Stranger Song", "Waiting for the Miracle"; "Halleluiah"; "Darkness"; and so many more.  But oh forget cancer, some of these hurt like gangrene (no, I had to ask my wife about that one).