Tag: music

#MusicMondays Alma Cogan “Hello, Young Lovers”

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

On our long trip home from India, I whiled away the hours by listening to music on the in-flight entertainment system.  I looked over the playlists and played some of the Leonard Cohen playlist (natch!), but what piqued my curiosity was a playlist featuring Alma Cogan.  Who is Alma Cogan?  Never heard of her.

Here’s what I found out:  Alma Cogan was Britain’s highest paid female entertainer in the 1950s.  In the 1960s, she got swept away by the Beatles and was considered passé.  There are, however, unsubstantiated rumors that she had an affair with John Lennon. She died young, at age 34, in 1966.

For our #MusicMondays feature, here is Alma Cogan singing “Hello Young Lovers”:

What do you think about that dress? I love it. Alma Cogan studied fashion design, and she might have designed those hoop dresses herself.

Alma Cogan - I Love to Sing
Alma Cogan – I Love to Sing

Review of The Holy or the Broken by Alan Light

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The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah” by Alan Light

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been a fan of Leonard Cohen’s songs for nearly 45 years. “Hallelujah” covers all the themes of Leonard’s songwriting: sex, death, and religion.

The Holy or the Broken covers the trajectory of Hallelujah from its appearance on a Cohen album that Columbia Records rejected to John Cale’s rendition to Jeff Buckley’s rendition – and beyond: particularly the song’s embrace by Simon Cowell on “American Idol.” It discusses Bono’s absolutely weird rendition of Hallelujah that appeared on the Tower of Song tribute album. The book helpfully contains QR codes that one can scan to get different covers of Hallelujah.

I am best acquainted with k.d. lang’s cover of Hallelujah on her Hymns of the 49th Parallel album. The Holy or the Broken makes me want to check out Cohen’s, Cale’s, and Buckley’s renditions – and also Neil Diamond’s rendition(!), which The Holy or the Broken describes as an effective reading.

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Canada Day

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Flag of Canada
Flag of Canada

Today is Canada Day. Warm wishes to all our Canadian readers (our second largest readership)!

Canada Day marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Happy 146th birthday, Canada!

Want to mark Canada Day with music? Here are The Style Page’s picks:

Classic Canadian Songs from Smithsonian Folkways
Classic Canadian Songs from Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways describes Classic Canadian Songs in this way:

Canadian identity was once truly a mosaic—of disparate regions and small communities widely dispersed over a vast and inhospitable landscape. Classic Canadian Songs from Smithsonian Folkways showcases the rich musical traditions from generations of European settlers and contrasts with that of Aboriginal peoples fiercely determined to preserve their ways of life in the wake of colonialism and its injustices.

Hymns of the 49th Parallel – k.d. lang covers songs by fellow Canadians Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen,  Bruce Cockburn, and others

Famous Blue Raincoat – Jennifer Warnes is best known for her overwrought duets with Bill Medley (Dirty Dancing) and Joe Cocker (Top Gun), but this is her heartfelt tribute to the songs of Leonard Cohen (again!). Leonard Cohen himself appears as the voice of Fire that consumes Joan of Arc. Moody and melancholy, one friend said that this album was music to slit your wrists by.

Northern Songs: Canada’s Best and Brightest – this Starbucks Hear Music CD features signature songs Constant Craving by k.d. lang, Angel by Sarah McLachlan, the Cowboy Junkies’s cover of Lou Reed’s Sweet Jane, and more.