IMHO, it should be mandatory in high school...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

...to study the life and works Lennard Cohen.

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

At the very least more folks would recognize when their lives are blessed and share their happiness or success with others. And also in their dark times and depression that there is a reason to hope and that we don't have to remain alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen

[Docreed2003]

1. I love that song.....

It totally irks me that it's become a favorite at funerals when the song clearly has no business being used for that purpose!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. As much as I love the song it's not his only one

I don't see it as a problem with the song being played at a funeral. Perhaps the song was a favorite of the departed. Perhaps the surviving family and friends will derive hope remembering their loved one or friend.

IMHO, there is never a wrong place to add a bit of hope.
Sometimes, when your Charlie Allnutt and it's time to get back in the water, you could use a bit more hope.

[RandomAccess]

6. What totally irks me about that song

is that the melody is so sweet and soaring - like a hymn. And the lyrics are so NOT. The lyrics are completely mismatched with that utterly beautiful melody.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING? LOL.

Here's my favorite Cohen song (out of many) -- the original has been removed, but I found this copy (happily). I love the song, and I especially love the video the original poster put together.

[Wounded Bear]

8. How about Silent Night by Simon & Garfunkel...

[WinkyDink]

10. "What was he thinking?" To elevate sexual congress to a spiritual act. I thought it was obvious.

[rzemanfl]

13. Well, I am not going to draw anything for this one.

Wait, should I draw a bed?

[smirkymonkey]

11. Beautiful, so soulful and exotic.

What film is that from? I feel like I should know it but I don't.

[RandomAccess]

22. The film

she took the clips from was Scent of a Woman.

[madaboutharry]

2. The greatness of Leonard Cohen was never fully appreciated.

This past June I was in Montreal, in the old Jewish neighborhood Cohen grew up in. The house he lived in is just off a main street just a block away from the delicatessen and coffee shops he once hung out in. He never left that upbringing far behind, even after becoming an ordained Zen Buddhist monk. After he died, there was an article about how when friends came to visit him at his home in Los Angeles, he would offer them a snack of gefilte fish and schnapps.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. A great man

[SecularMotion]

3. Is this about guns?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

16. Of course it is

How could you even be uncertain?

[SecularMotion]

25. Firearms In The Work & Life Of Leonard Cohen

"Boys like to play with guns. I like them myself."

Leonard Cohen

Guns have been a recurrent motif in Leonard Cohen’s work and life. He was deeply effected by his father’s pistol, a marker of his service in World War I, Phil Spector threatened him with a handgun, he has owned a number of guns, and he has alluded to firearms in his poetry, novels, and songs.

http://cohencentric.com/guns-leonard-cohen-arsenal/

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

26. Don't stop there

His music has been part of several movies where guns play a major and in one case are the primary topic.

Guns wouldn't be what they are without Leonard Cohen.












Thanks for the insight though.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Thank goodness it's not.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

17. Well most folks have an opinion

Sorry we don't agree.

[WinkyDink]

9. Lounge topic?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

18. Could be

GD: (Discuss politics, issues, and current events. Posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports are restricted in this forum.) Not sure about you but for me this topic fits as an issue. As I see it, the world, the nation and especially Democrats could use a bit more hope right now.

I consider the lounge as a place for less serious topics.
Just curious but who inspires hope for you?

[struggle4progress]

12. The Partisan

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

19. I like this one

[ismnotwasm]

14. I need to thank you for this thread

Leonard Cohen is exactly what I needed this day. And yes, the world would be better I think, studying his life and music.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

20. You're very welcome

It is a blessing to be of help.

[Hekate]

15. Civics should be required. Poetry and Music, yes, because they make you think as well. nt

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

21. Civics, foreign language, science, accounting...

All of those will tell you how to live or how to live better. Music, art, literature... they will teach you why.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

24. Great ones for sure

Can I add Bob Seger? I'm a fan.

[tblue37]

27. No, it shouldn't be mandatory in high school--but it sure is worth hearing!

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[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

28. Okay maybe mandatory is too much

But maybe at least available as part of an elective.

[tblue37]

29. High school students should certainly be taught about our culture, and Cohen's music

and poetry are a significant part of our recent and contemporary culture. I teach some Cohen in my college poetry class, in fact. But the idea of singling him out as the one lyricist whose work and life should be treated as most important is what troubles me.

Yeah, some individual artists' work needs to be required--e.g., Shakespeare's plays and some of his sonnets--because of the overwhelming influence their work has had on subsequent artists, and also because their work is alluded to in so many other works.

For example, I require that my Intro to Fiction students read Poe's stories, not because of their quality (he was by no means a great writer), but because he actually invented some of our fiction genres, and his influence has been massive. For example, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Latin American magical realists were influenced by French writers who were influenced by Poe.

I also do some of Poe's poems, as well as his critical theory about poetry, in my poetry class--again, because of his influence on later poets (like the French Symbolistes) and critics, not because of the quality of his poems, which for the most part are not particularly good.

I could see an elective college course on the work, the impact, and the historical context of popular lyricists like Cohen, Dylan, and Guthrie (both Woody and Arlo). Or such a course could be one of the options for satisfying a college distribution requirement in art or culture.

But high school should lay the general foundation for learning about the narrower, more focused aspects of culture. Every course required in school carries opportunity costs. By requiring any particular course, we are prevented from requiring a different one, because there are only so many "slots" for required subjects in any course of study, at any level.