AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Leonard Cohen

Artist:Leonard Cohen
Song:Bird On The Wire
Album:The Best Of Leonard Cohen





Leonard Cohen has had a long career in music for someone who isn't a musician. He's really a poet who reluctantly started performing to reach a wider audience then the average poet. The result is he is one of the most successful songwriters in history. Columbia Records never tried to sell Cohen as a pop star and kept the production minimal on his early albums. He was born Sept. 21, 1934 in Montreal. Cohen studied with poet Irving Layton when he was in high school. He began publishing his poetry in the 50s and also wrote novels. But by the mid-60s, the folk music boom made Cohen think that he could be a singer. He moved to New York and started hanging around with Andy Warhol's crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen based his musical style on Nico's minimalist style. When Judy Collins had a hit with Cohen's Suzanne in 1967, this encouraged Cohen to perform at the Newport Folk Festival. This got the attention of legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond Sr. who had discovered artists from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan. He assigned John Simon to produce Cohen's debut album The Songs Of Leonard Cohen. Simon wisely did not go overboard with strings and other frills and the album was certified Gold. Despite the success, Cohen switched to Bob Dylan's producer Bob Johnson for his second album Songs From A Room. He clashed with Simon over post production. Bird On The Wire is from the Songs From A Room and is one of Cohen's signature songs. It has been covered by many artists but the first was Joe Cocker. This budget comp was first released in 1974 and concentrates on Cohen's first two albums. It's a good intro to his music. Leonard Cohen continues to perform and record today. His latest CD Songs From The Road was released in Sept. 2010. He has been honoured for his work many times including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2008. He is working on a new CD for release later this year. Here's Leonard Cohen performing Bird On The Wire from the 1972 film Bird On The Wire.