[He's] [My] Man - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

In my first column of 2023, so almost two full years ago, I wrote about my ongoing obsession with listening to Leonard Cohen, much to the dismay of a co-worker at the time who said that, due to the frequency at which I would listen (she could hear it, I guess, from her office) to Songs of Leonard Cohen, his debut album, she could no longer stand the sound of the great Canadian songbird’s voice.

 

Well, Spotify Wrapped has come and gone for another year, telling its users what they listened to and for how long throughout the year and - surprise, surprise - for what must be the fifth or sixth year in a row, Songs of Leonard Cohen was my top album. I listened to it, according to Spotify, for 5,220 minutes. That’s 3.625 days.

 

Now, there’s a bit of a wrinkle to this in that I often listen to the album, which I know so very well, at work as I write so I’m able to concentrate on what I’m doing. I have found that if I listen to something new as I try to write I tend to focus too intently on the music and not what I’m trying to do for The Citizen.

 

Anyway, in that column (and others since), I wrote about the need to, perhaps, expand my horizons. To that I ask, why? Discovering new music and art is always a good thing, so I’m not talking it down in that respect, but why should I run from who I clearly am? I’m a Co-bro and - damnit - I’m proud of it.

 

With all due respect to the great Celine Dion and Arcade Fire, Cohen has been embraced widely as the voice of Montreal. (In fact, the three may work well together as the top man, top woman and top band of that great city.) He is accepted as one of Canada’s greatest music men and if not one of its best songwriters, certainly its horniest. We’ll get to that later. 

 

Cohen grew up as a member of Montreal’s vibrant Jewish community in the years after World War II. And while he would be associated with other communities - the Greek island of Hydra, Manhattan and Los Angeles, among others - he was truly a member of the Montreal community who could frequently be seen at some of its best restaurants, bars, cafés and shops. (Ernie Phillips, the late Stanley Cup engraver who lived just outside of Blyth until he died several years ago, famously - to me - told me about casually running into Cohen in a café when he lived in Montreal all those years earlier and chatting with him for, if memory serves, the better part of an hour.)

 

Since his death, several artists have put paint to brick for murals of him throughout the city, most notably the Crescent Street mural that overlooks Montreal, coloured simply with black and grey and the building’s sepia tone, but with a faint red glow over Cohen’s heart.

 

He was a special dude and his impact can be felt everywhere. Three of his songs carry the great McCabe and Mrs. Miller on their backs, “Hallelujah” has become accepted as one of the greatest songs ever written and his work has inspired some of the world’s greatest living musicians. (The great Nick Cave has famously cited “Famous Blue Raincoat” as the song that made him seriously consider making music.) 

 

Here is a pair of quick personal top fives. 
Albums: 1. Songs of Leonard Cohen. 2. Songs of Love and Hate. 3. Various Positions. 4. New Skin for the Old Ceremony. 5. Songs From a Room. Very heavy on the early stuff.

 

Songs: 1. So Long, Marianne. 2. Suzanne. 3. The Stranger Song. 4. Famous Blue Raincoat. 5. Avalanche. Honorable mentions: Dance Me to the End of Love, Hallelujah, Night Comes On, Who By Fire, Everybody Knows and If It Be Your Will.

 

I refuse to resist who I am anymore.