Leonard Cohen: Kill Your Idols [Paperback]

David Sheppard (Author), John Aizlewood (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000 | Series: Kill Your Idols

The consort of Janis Joplin and Rebecca De Mornay and one-time collaborator of Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen has for the last five years been a full-time resident of the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles where he submitted to the rigors of zazen and communal living. He was officially ordained a Buddhist monk and given the name of Jikan (Silent One). Born in Montreal in 1934, Cohen received international recognition for his second collection of poems The Spice Box of the Earth in 1961, rising to prominence in 1967 with his debut album The Songs of Leonard Cohen. His most recent album, The Future, is his eleventh. He has written two novels including the cult classic Beautiful Losers, and eight volumes of poetry. Author David Sheppard explores Cohen's fifty year odyssey through Judaic mythology, drugs, alcohol, sex, and Buddhism. What he finds is a man with a unique ability to serve up bleak but heartfelt individual truth. "Cohen has always been a man of surprises, so much so that many take him to be a man of artful disguises (as he sometimes does himself). His life has always been dangerously mythic..." -- Pico Iyer

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Because the subjects of the publisher's "Kill Your Idols" series are "unafraid of experimentation," "hold nothing sacred," and "inspire skepticism of idol-making in their listeners" (for the most part), they are perhaps more magnetic than popular music's traditional gods and goddesses. These anti-idols may not have directly sprung from the pelvis of Elvis, but they are related to the Velvet One. Here, original research is not the point (rabid fans have frayed these musicians' yarns anyway); the authors relied on each performer's standard biography, documentaries, liner notes, and other sources to relate a condensed chronology of career and personal highs and lows. Rather, this is a chance for a "professional" fan (read: a music critic) to express his opinions on the roles that pompousness, vision, and circumstance played in his band's life. Each profile is under 150 pages and consists of three sections: "The Story," "The Music," and (often the most compelling section) "The Legacy." Quoth Quantick in his insightful closing: "People were inspired by The Clash not for what they actually achieved, but for what The Clash thought they might achieve." Much like Cliff Notes for frustrating music careers, these pocket-sized biographies contain indexes but no bibliographies. That absence, along with the personalized tone, recommends the series to comprehensive music collections. Johnny Green's A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with the Clash (LJ 1/99) and Ira B. Nadel's Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen (LJ 11/1/96) will well serve library patrons. [The standard Neil Young biography may end up being Shakey: The Biography of Neil Young by Jimmy McDonough, who spent eight years writing the tome. Right now, however, McDonough is suing Young for $1.8 million for prohibiting its publication after Young signed an agreement to cooperate with McDonough. Ed.] Heather McCormack, "Library Journal.
- Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Sheppard traces Cohen from 1940s childhood in Montreal's Jewish community to early acclaim as a poet and novelist and successful pursuit of a musical career to current semiretirement as a Buddhist monk. A song-by-song critical rundown and an assessment of Cohen's legacy follow. In Sheppard's hands the series' title is an idle threat, for he treats Cohen with nearly reverential respect. He isn't the most stylish writer, either, though his information and insights are solid. A lugubrious and monotonous singer, Cohen is an acquired taste. His fans are devoted and numerous, however, and his influence on the likes of Nick Cave and Cowboy Junkies is undeniable. Superior books on both subjects exist, but librarians seeking an expedient way to represent important, overlooked musicians in their collections--other series entries cover Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Neil Young--should consider the series. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252707
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252702
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,080,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Cohen, Leonard

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor as Biography--And Info Here Free On-Line, August 16, 2004

By 

Blind Blake "blindblake" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leonard Cohen (The Music Makers) (Paperback)

Sheppard sets the stage for this weak book by entirely misconstruing the value of the two major 1990s Cohen biographies. He says _Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen_ is for "besotted" Cohenites, whereas _Leonard Cohen: Prophet of the Heart_ is for the more "literary" minded. Turn this observation around and it makes sense, but as it stands it's the comment of a moron. Ira Nadel's biography is kind to Cohen, to be sure, (he had Cohen's full cooperation, after all), but it is not the fawning piece of dreck that is _Prophet of the Heart_. Nadel, in fact, uses _Prophet of the Heart_ as a source, for factual details and for some of Cohen's comments in it, but Nadel manages not to incorporate the syrupy crud that the folks who wrote _Prophet_ poured onto every page. Sheppard needs to learn what excessive deference is before his writing will inspire.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trivial commercial Trash, refuse delivery, June 20, 2004

By 

Barbara A. Harris (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leonard Cohen: Kill Your Idols (Paperback)

Excuse me, but this book should be banned, and I'm a librarian who would fight to the death for freedom to read. To put the facts of LC's life into 60 pages, the man's almost 70 and he's been doing this his whole life. Cartoons would be better. And THEN to try to summarize his songs in a few sentences. What is this, English as a second language for people who don't speak a word yet? If for some personal reason anyone wants to read ABOUT LC, and really who needs to, it's just that he's so absent from view and I understand, then of course turn to Various Positions: a life of Leonard Cohen, by Ira B. Nadel. The publisher insisted that Mr. Nadel ask LC if his book could be called an authorized biography. I quote the book here Reply: "tolerated" adding an instant later "benignly tolerated." LC knows we hunger for him and he allowed this book to be given to us, despite his bemusement at his gift and his reluctant acceptance of hero and icon status, but he knows and lives in the same darkness we all battle every day, all our lives. Thank you to all reviewers for sharing. I never read reviews of his music before because who cares, but this morning I got up early and was going to cut the knees out from under anyone daring to give less than 5 stars to anything of his. But the reviewers fought against the packaging and wouldn't bother to have written at all, in almost all cases, because we are brothers and sisters in our need for and love of Leonard Cohen. And we pity anyone who doesn't have the solace of his songs so we want to give everyone what we've found with him.

4.0 out of 5 stars All about him, June 24, 2011

By 

Ed Van Eeden "BookEd" (netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leonard Cohen: Kill Your Idols (Paperback)

It seems like I'm collecting everything from and about this man. Simply can't help it. Cohen is Cohen. He keeps amazing me.