Guitarists From Canada

"The candles burned The moon went down The polished hill The milky town Transparent, weightless, luminous Uncovering the two of us On that fundamental ground Where love's unwilled, unleashed, unbound And half the perfect world is found."

"And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music.""

"What if I had to Live here without you Oh, I don't really want to know Where you goin', Lenny Cohen?"

"This was a man where, within a Pop Song, there were some big ideas"

"He's got your young idealism, he's got You when You can't face the world. He's got You at all stages"

"He's of almost Biblical importance. I don't think there’s going to be another Leonard Cohen."

"You're a Leonard Cohen song"

"I tell you who I also think is wonderful is a chap called Leonard Cohen … do you know him? … He's remarkable. I mean, the orchestration is fantastic and the words, the lyrics and everything, he's a remarkable man, and has this incredibly sort of laid back gravelly voice, it's terrific stuff I think."

"In the Canadian film Hardcore Logo, a Canadian punk rocker suggests "Faster, Leonard Cohen! Die! Die!" as a possible band name. This also refers to the film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!."

"I finally broke into the prison I found my place in the chain Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows Leonard Cohen is one of the few songwriters who has words that you can just chew on for months and months and yet there’s still flavor left in there to taste. That third line is such a positive one, even though it sounds bleak at first. He saying that there is still hope even in the darkest situations, even in the terrible situations that have thrown yourself into, the times where you crawl into a hole and wait for suffering to be piled on top of you. Even in those moments, the clouds pull away and beams of light shine through. That’s the kind of music that I hope never stops being played, even after the writers of such songs are very very far away, or resting deep in the ground."

"Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld So I can sigh eternally"

"But I was caught, like a fleeting thought Stuck inside Leonard Cohen's mind"

"It is their desire to honor L. Cohen, songwriter, that has prompted a delegation of our brightest artists to climb, one by one, joss sticks smoldering, the steep and salty staircase in the Tower of Song. There is evidence that the honoree might be privy to the secret of the universe, which, in case you’re wondering, is simply this: everything is connected. Everything. Many, if not most, of the links are difficult to determine. The instrument, the apparatus, the focused ray that can uncover and illuminate those connections is language. And just as a sudden infatuation often will light up a person’s biochemical sky more pyrotechnically than any deep, abiding attachment, so an unlikely, unexpected burst of linguistic imagination will usually reveal greater truths than the most exacting scholarship. In fact, the poetic image may be the only device remotely capable of dissecting romantic desire, let alone disclosing the hidden mystical essence of the material world. Cohen is a master of the quasi-surrealistic phrase, of the “illogical” line that speaks so directly to the unconscious that surface ambiguity is transformed into ultimate, if fleeting, comprehension: comprehension of the bewitching nuances of sex and the bewildering assaults of culture."

"It is his singing voice as well as his writing pen that has breathed life into these songs. It is a voice raked by the claws of Cupid, a voice rubbed raw by the philosopher’s stone. … It is a penitent’s voice, a rabbinical voice, a crust of unleavened vocal toast—spread with smoke and subversive wit. He has a voice like a carpet in an old hotel, like a bad itch on the hunchback of love. It is a voice meant for pronouncing the names of women—and cataloging their sometimes hazardous charms. Nobody can say the word “naked” as nakedly as Cohen. He makes us see the markings where the pantyhose have been."

"I don't want, no I really don't want To be John Lennon or Leonard Cohen I just want to be my Dad."

"No one ever listens to me. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record."

"A nation comes to freedom in thousands of steps — some of them huge leaps, the others little. And the evening with Leonard Cohen more than twenty years ago was an evening of hope. Difficult as much to him as it was to us. Not necessarily political but intimate. And I learned to appreciate the power of intimacy. There are moments when nothing can get between you and the other person. And when this person is Leonard Cohen himself you feel blessed. And you feel free."

"Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain With the barkers and the colored balloons, You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain Though you're thinking that You're leaving there too soon, You're leaving there too soon."

"Neil Young is not a singer, nor is he a guitarist. Neil Young is a force of nature, like the wind or the sea or the sun, and his blazing talent is never better showcased than when he sits and strums his old Martin. He is able to achieve more with one note than most guitarists can with a hundred, and while his playing is sparse and song-orientated, you won’t find a finer example of music’s power to move anywhere else in the known universe. A living, breathing musical genius."

"Neil, you know, was this rock & roller who was coming around to folk music through Bob Dylan. Of course. Anyway, Neil came out to the club, and we liked him immediately. He was the same way he is now – this offhanded, dry wit. And you know what his ambition was at the time? He wanted a hearse, and a chicken farm. And when you think of it, what he’s done with his dream is not that far off. He just added a few buffalo. And a fleet of antique cars. He’s always been pretty true to his vision."

"And we'll be watching you No matter what you do And you can do your part By watchin' others too."

"Need distraction Need romance and candlelight Need random violence Need entertainment tonight Need the evidence Want the testimony of Expert witnesses On the brutal crimes of love."

"I never believed in much, But I believed in you."

"Welfare mothers make better lovers."

"We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man. We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand. We got department stores And toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes For the ozone layer. Got a man of the people, Says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, Got roads to drive."

"There's colors on the street Red, white and blue People shufflin' their feet People sleepin' in their shoes But there's a warnin' sign On the road ahead There's a lot of people sayin' We'd be better off dead. Don't feel like Satan, But I am to them. So I try to forget it, Any way I can."

"The economy was getting so bad, I had to lay myself off."

"When I was a younger man, Got lucky with a rock 'n' roll band, Struck gold in Hollywood, All the time I knew I would Get back to the country, Back where it all began. Get back to the country, Back in the barn again."

"Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!"

"Shelter me from the powder And the finger Cover me with the thought That pulled the trigger Think of me As one you'd never figured Would fade away so young With so much left undone."

"In my little box At the top of the stair With my Indian rug And a pipe to share."

"The king is gone But he's not forgotten. This is the story Of a Johnny Rotten It's better to burn out Than it is to rust. The king is gone But he's not forgotten."

"Where the eagle glides ascending There's an ancient river bending Through the timeless gorge of changes Where sleeplessness awaits."

"My my, hey hey Rock and roll is here to stay. It's better to burn out Than to fade away. My my, hey hey."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To get us through the night It's gonna take a lotta love To make things work out right."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To change the way things are It's gonna take a lotta love Or we won't get too far."

"It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down."

"You are like a hurricane There's calm in your eye. And I'm gettin' blown away To somewhere safer Where the feeling stays. I want to love you but I'm getting blown away."

"Please take my advice, please take my advice, Open up the tired eyes, Open up the tired eyes."

"He tried to do his best but he could not."

"I've been flyin' down the road, And I've been starvin' to be alone, Independent from the scene that I've known."

"I'm not going back to Woodstock for a while, Though I long to hear that lonesome hippie smile, I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day, No, I don't think I'll be goin' back that way."

"Think I'll roll another number for the road, I feel able to get under any load, Though my feet aren't on the ground, I've been standing on the sound Of some open-hearted people going down."

"I'm singin' this borrowed tune I took from the Rolling Stones, Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own."

"And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing."

"Oh tell me where the answer lies, Is it in the notebook behind your eyes?"

"Well, people let me tell you, it sent a chill up and down my spine, When I picked up the telephone and heard that he'd died out on the mainline."

"A sparkle was in his eye, but his life was in his hand."

"On the shore lay Montezuma with his coca leaves and pearls In his halls he often wondered of the secrets of the worlds.... The women all were beautiful, the men stood straight and strong They offered life in sacrifice so that others could go on Hate was just a legend, war was never known The people worked together and they lifted many stones."

"He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun"