Leonard Cohen Books

Some people give it 5 stars, some think it's a bad book. I think it may depend on your skill to some degree. If you are a proficient piano player with already some skill on piano, you probably won't learn much from this book. For me, being an early intermediate player, I did get some info from this book which I can directly apply to my playing. A couple of bad points about this book is that there are no fingerings!! I mean really, a piano book without piano fingerings? That is just a pet peeve of mine, so that is minus 1 star right off the bat. Also keep in mind that there are only 17 pages to this book. So there isn't a whole heck of a lot of info in it. You really have to look at every measure and decide what you like and what you don't like and try to incorporate those into your playing. All in all this book could have been a lot better. For one, incorporate fingerings and two, possibly he could have combined book one and two together to form one book. It does come with a CD though which is a good feature. If you can find this book for really cheap it may be worth picking up. A better book is Tricia Woods "Beginning Blues Keyboard", which I highly recommend.

Like most other reviewers, I had been looking for a way to learn to play the blues and was very frustrated. David Cohen is the answer to my wish! If one is willing to do the work and practice, following the music both written and on the CD, you will be playing the blues.

You must be able to read music and have an understanding of music theory for his explanations to make sense, but you don't have to be anything more than proficient.

I played one of his solos for my son last week and he could not believe how good it sounded!

This instructional doesn't waste any time. I was amazed at how soon I began to improvise, and would often times find myself having already improvised the next lesson.

this cat has been around block.he knows his stuff.only warning is if your comfortable with alot of theory you might be left wanting. that said,i recommend highly.

A good piano teacher knows that a student needs continuing motivation and fullfillment in order for the student to progress. This is a challenging job for a music teacher, while working only through a book and an accompanying CD. Cohen's volumes 1 and 2 show only keyboard exercises with absolutely no written guidance for the student. For a more fullfilling learning experience with blues piano, see my review of Alan Swain's "Improvise, a Step-by-Step Approach."

The condition of the used book was just as described, shipping was quick. I am very happy with the purchase!

Very insightful reading about a very gifted writer and performer of poetry and music. Also provides interesting details of personal life experiences of life during the sixties and seventies. An interesting view of the development and maturation of a genius.

I much prefer autobiographies to other biographies. Biographies tend to be clumsily assembled or stitched or thrown together and filled out with plodding prose. And so this biography. Well, at least you get some kind of overview of Leonard Cohen's life and here and there some fragments of Leonard Cohen's incisive wit. Two samples:

Author: My publisher wants to know if this can be considered an authorized biography.

L.C.: It can be considered a tolerated biography, benignly tolerated.

Leonard Cohen is interviewing his famous actress girlfriend Rebecca De Mornay:

Rebecca: The great advantage to having you interview me is that I won't have to field questions about Leonard Cohen.

L.C.: Yes, let's talk about Leonard Cohen. What's he really like?

Recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.

This is a fascinating book. However, it is not a conventional biography, in that the author (Ira Nadel) does not fully succeed in weaving the events of Cohen's life into a flowing narrative. The story proceeds disjointedly, and the reader follows it with a feeling of uneven coverage and missing pieces. Ira Nadel is clearly in personal awe of Leonard Cohen (as any of us would be, I suppose), such that he shies away from offering much analysis (psychoanalysis?) of his work and conduct of his life, beyond what the work and facts of his life suggest readily. For example, Cohen's long, tortured relationship with his wife Suzanne is described by a series of vignettes, as cold as news reports, spiced only with relevant-seeming quotations from Cohen's work. Nadel doesn't do the interpretive work of suggesting was going on in Cohen's mind, and what was causing that, which is what biographers usually do for us (and we judge them on whether they do that well or badly). There are ocassional Freudian interpretations, as when Nadel compares Cohen's relationship with his lovers to that with his mother. But we don't get a feel for how the relationship developed and began to sour. In fact, we barely get any feel of "development" in Cohen's life at all, which makes it seem like disconnected reportage rather than a biographical narrative. This quality could be seen as a plus, as it gives the book a cryptic feel, rather like the work of Leonard Cohen itself. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the distant quality of Nadel's writing for what it was, but I was left wanting to know more. Perhaps Cohen, whose work often veers into playful impenetrability, perfers it that way.

While Leonard Cohen's music, writing, and intreaguing life are enough to satisfy any romantic, this book manages to give a clear and accurate depiction of Cohen's motivations, influences, and understanding of life. From his innovative novels to his influencial and engrossing music and poetry, Cohen's life is portrayed as a constant exploration into the soul and the true meaning of love, sacrifice, and isolation. However, it is impossible to convey the passion and emotion that Cohen transmits in albums such as "Death of a Lady's Man" and "Songs of Love and Hate." In only this aspect does "Various Positions: A Life of Leanord Cohen" fall short of possible expectations. But perhaps Cohen's emotion is something that prose writing simply cannot capture. Leonard Cohen's life is certainly something worth reading about.

This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called "Suzanne Takes You Down" and an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death Of a Ladies' Man, here called "As The Mist Leaves No Scar" ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan). The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song "Stories of the Street" on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just "Queen Victoria." The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 60's singer Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding). I won't try to venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.

Originally issued in 1968, after Cohen had released his first album and become something of a cult figure. People heard Suzanne and thought, "Oh, I hear this guy's a poet, too; I wonder what he writes..." This book was published to appease such sentiments. And it does a good job of it - covering all of Leonard's poetry books released up to that time, featuring the highlights from each, as well as a good slew of new poems. Although some of Leonard's best poetry (and lyrics) were published after the release of this book - and this omnibus itself has been rendered largely unnecessary due to the release of Leonard's career-spanning collection, Stranger Music (although this does contain several works that that doesn't) - it is still a good collection, and an accurate summing up of Leonard's career up to that point. Reccommended for Cohen fans, if you can find it.

Fingerpicking Leonard Cohen is a nice music book for guitarists who are a little more advanced. The book includes tablature for each of the songs as well as musical notation. Preceding each song are the lyrics, however, the lyrics are not included in the music notation so if you want to sing along than you have to have already heard the song before. The only complaint I had about the book was that I wanted to play the songs exactly the way Leonard Cohen plays them on his recordings and you won't get that with this book. The songs have been reinterpreted by the author, Marcel Robinson, into a more complicated and unique form which sounds like both the guitar and singing notes interwoven for the guitar, so what you get are songs that I believe are meant to be instrumentals. Songs include Avalanche, Bird on a Wire, Came So Far for Beauty (piano transcribed for guitar), Chelsea Hotel #2, Famous Blue Raincoat (a beautiful version), Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye, Lover Lover Lover, Seems So Long Ago, Nancy, Sisters of Mercy, Story of Isaac, The Stranger Song, Suzanne, and Winter Lady. I would say this book of songs is a must own for Cohen fan guitarists, although I wouldn't recommend it to beginners.

This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called Suzanne Takes You Down, and an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death of a Ladies' Man, here called As The Mist Leaves No Scar ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan).

The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song Stories of the Street on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just Queen Victoria. The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 1960's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding).

I won't venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these poems. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.

Flowers for Hitler

The Energy of Slaves

Lots of interesting information and useful facts about Field Commander Cohen's life and work. Well laid out with plenty of photographs and appendices. The book does not gloss over The Ladies Man pre-recording days, as other related material does.

The only criticism is that it is too sycophantic. Best example of this is the awe with which Leonard's university reading list is presented - Everybody Knows students don't read a quarter of the books they should, preferring to lead The Smokey Life instead. But if He's Your Man then it is worth a read.

This is a fascinating book. However, it is not a conventional biography, in that the author (Ira Nadel) does not fully succeed in weaving the events of Cohen's life into a flowing narrative. The story proceeds disjointedly, and the reader follows it with a feeling of uneven coverage and missing pieces. Ira Nadel is clearly in personal awe of Leonard Cohen (as any of us would be, I suppose), such that he shies away from offering much analysis (psychoanalysis?) of his work and conduct of his life, beyond what the work and facts of his life suggest readily. For example, Cohen's long, tortured relationship with his wife Suzanne is described by a series of vignettes, as cold as news reports, spiced only with relevant-seeming quotations from Cohen's work. Nadel doesn't do the interpretive work of suggesting was going on in Cohen's mind, and what was causing that, which is what biographers usually do for us (and we judge them on whether they do that well or badly). There are ocassional Freudian interpretations, as when Nadel compares Cohen's relationship with his lovers to that with his mother. But we don't get a feel for how the relationship developed and began to sour. In fact, we barely get any feel of "development" in Cohen's life at all, which makes it seem like disconnected reportage rather than a biographical narrative. This quality could be seen as a plus for the book, as it gives the book a cryptic feel, rather like the work of Leonard Cohen itself. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the distant quality of Nadel's writing for what it was, but I was left wanting to know more. Perhaps Cohen, whose work often veers into playful impenetrability, perfers it that way.

I recently purchased Rich Cohen's 'The Record Men' and 'Machers and Rockers', which are presented as two separate books on the subject of Chess Records, i.e. the descriptions are completely different. In actuality, the only difference is 'The Record Men' is a paperback, and 'Machers and Rockers' is hardcover. Otherwise, the chapter titles and text throughout are exactly the same. Amazon also offers a discount for purchasing these titles together, which is highly misleading. If Mr. Cohen didn't have enough material or insight on Chess Records to write two separate books with separate content, he should have written one book, and included better pictures and more extensive historical information. Buyer beware!

Rich Cohen's heart is in the right place here, but he needs to get some facts straight, e.g., the band is J. Geils, not Jay Geils. I liked his previous effort, "Cooler by the Lake", but this needs some serious editing.

I've read a couple of Cohen's books and enjoyed his tough prose style...

In "Machers and Rockers", he lets the style get away from him. Reading like an out of control Nick Tosches or a less violent James Elroy, Cohen uses his tough guy style loose on a number of unrelated tangents that immediately doom this book.

Even worse for a book about Chess Records, Cohen commits a number of horrific blunders about the artists and their music. This suggests either a lack of familiarity with his subject matter, a lack of editing and/or fact checking at the publishers, or a lack of caring.

When the lyrics to Muddy Waters' seminal "Hoochie Coochie Man" are badly mangled near the start of the book, it sets a dagerous precedent. (Note - Cohen badly messes up the third line of the song) If he can't even get a simple lyric right, why should we believe anything else that he wants to tell us?

To use a yiddishism to describe this book - "feh"...

These "record men" were a special breed. Men like Herman Lubsinky at Savoy in New Jersey, Sam Phillips at Sun in Memphis, Syd Nathan of King Records in Cincinnati and one Leonard Chess were the driving force in the evolution of the music we now call rock and roll. "Machers and Rockers" concentrates on Leonard Chess and tells the remarkable story of Chess Records. In the span of 20 years beginning in 1948, the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, would build Chess records into the second largest independent record company in America. No small achievement! More importantly, it was Leonard Chess who played a pivotal role in bringing the blues out of the fields and into America's cities. It was this development, perhaps more than any other, that would ultimately result in the emergence of what we now call rock & roll in the mid 1950's.
How did these guys do it? Why did these men succeed when so many others tried and failed? As author Rich Cohen points out there was really nothing terribly mysterious about it.
Leonard Chess was a savvy businessman who was determined to succeed in the record business. And God knows, he was not afraid of hard work. Successful "record men" would do whatever it took. Leonard Chess was actively involved in nearly every aspect of his business. He beat the bushes in search of talent. He signed the artists and produced the records. Then he would stuff thousands of records into the trunk of his car and hustle them all over the Midwest. For the indies like Chess there was little margin for error. A major miscalculation could doom a small record company.
"Machers and Rockers" is a revealing look into the underbelly of the recording industry in 1950's America. However, as other reviewers have pointed out there are several glaring errors in this book. Some pretty sloppy research if you ask me. The best I can muster is a lukewarm recommendation. Since there are a number of books devoted to the subject of Chess records you might want to check out one of those.

What looks like a history of Chess records is a bloated, unwieldy tome that deeply disappoints. While you hope to hear about Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and other Chess greats, you get Cohen's slobbering rambling.

Here's a typical sentence (speaking of a piece of art in the Metropolitan Museum, surely a necessary comparison for a book about a roots-oriented blues-and-rock record label in Chicago): "This man, as Avedon portrays him, is rough and angry, unsociable, clear-eyed, ancient and folkloric, a relic from another age, genetically no different than those who came later, yet touched by the residue of a great evil." HUH?

Fully half of the book is history of Chicago going as far back as the Civil War. This is a startlingly bad history that pretends to be about records and instead is a palette for palaver.

this is one of the best books ever written. there is no one who is as honest as cohen when it comes to marriage combined hate and love all in one person.

While Cohen has never been a very abstract poet, Death Of A Lady's Man (a sly re-titling of his album of the previous year) was perhaps his first foray into more unique poetics. The vast majority of the book, indeed, is not poetry at all (really), but a sort of very loose type of prose. Rather than being the straight up poetry that his earlier volumes mostly were, this is a collection of rants and raves, almost all of them followed by a commentary on the poem, or a type of analyzation. Highly sarcastic. Cohen seems to be analyzing the deconstruction of his former persona (the "Lady's Man") through a failed relationship with his "wife." Pretty heavy stuff. It can be difficult to penetrate at times; and, indeed, you will probably be asking yourself at times if there is any meaning to it at all. Overall, I'd have to say it's not Cohen's best book of poetry (try The Energy of Slaves for that), it is an interesting one. If you're not a fan of him already, this book certainly won't convince you. However, a fan will want it.

but until a proper review is posted this will have to do...

Mr Cohen is using an old notebook, reworking compositions, poems, notes etc. and commenting on them to describe (I hope!) the loss of his persona to a relationship and what it has done to him and his art. I have assumed that each piece is related, although I haven't read it all as I got half way through and felt like I was illiterate.

However, it is thought provoking with some excellent rants, raves and disgruntled observations.

As a book to dip into occasionally to jar the mind and start thinking on a new level it is very good One very good poem is scathing about the facile use of histrionics to emphasise what one is saying, because words themselves are constructed to describe the object and meaning. It probably has a deeper meaning which I haven't fathomed but it kept me absorbed for a few days.

Sorry I can't be of more help but from this review you will know whether it's your cup of tea. I can recommend this book if you are not afraid of dying and are looking for something that will test your patience. It is a challenge. You will appreciate the quality of Cohen's art even if you don't understand the cultural references. The effort does pay off.

First, my wife ordered both "The Record Men" and "Machers and Rockers" for me on the Amazon Buy-Together discount, as I was researching Chess Records for a historical presentation we are working on. They turned out to be the exact same book, only with different titles and one has a hardcover. This is misleading on the parts of the author, publisher AND Amazon.
Second, the subtitle of "Machers and Rockers" is Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll. Well, these subjects are covered, but not in the detail one would expect from the title. It covers a broader history of American music, but doesn't do either the justice they deserve. Considering the title(s) (of both books) do we really need to cover the story of W.C. Handy's first experience of Delta Blues? It's been done much better in other books.
And third, the author is sloppy with some of the details. He refers to a 1977 concert by The Who promoting their album "Who's Next" which was actually released in 1971.
If you are only going to read one book on Chess Records, either one (the're both the same) is adequate. However, for a more in-depth look at Chicago blues, I would recommend the biographies of Muddy Waters ("Can't Be Satisfied") and Howlin' Wolf ("Moanin' At Midnight") - both excellent books.

This is a nice book about the Chess family. However, it is mostly a short history of American popular music of which there are already so many. The history of Chess is short and not in much depth and you constantly feel you are missing something.
Nice to buy when the price is low, but really not that special.

This is a wonderful book--extremely well-written--that profiles Leonard Chess as a symbol of the American-immigrant experience, taking us back to the Chess family roots in Poland and their coming through Ellis Island. While lots of books discuss how rock and roll was born of integration, this one looks specifically at how the Jews, as fellow outsiders, were critical in finding and recording African American artists. It also acknowledges the fortunes Chess made off the musicians and how that affected him and the company as the Civil Rights Movement took hold. I teach American Studies at the college level and will use this in my classes.