Three Moments of Love In Leonard Cohen and Bruce Cockburn [Paperback]

Paul Nonnekes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2000

Three Moments is a series of reflections on the work of Leonard Cohen and Bruce Cockburn, two popular singer-song-writer-poets.

These two artists, so different in style and temperament, are brought together in one work in order to compare and examine the way in which they approach the question of love and desire—in their art and in their life. Three Moments looks at how masculine desire, in its search for love, expresses itself in song and poetry; at how the poetics relate to the ideal; at the obstacles faced and the struggle endured. These issues are examined from the points of view of the psychoanalytic, the symbolic and the universal.

Paul Nonnekes, Ph.D., teaches Cultural Studies at Red Deer College, Alberta.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Black Rose Books (December 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551641763
• ISBN-13: 978-1551641768
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,220,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars First book about Bruce is not worth reading., December 25, 2000

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This review is from: Three Moments of Love In Leonard Cohen and Bruce Cockburn (Paperback)

I have often wondered how no one has written a book before about Bruce Cockburn considering the consistently amazing quality of his work over the last 3 decades. If you are looking forward to this one like I was, let me do you a favor: Save your money and wait for Bruce book # 2. I read the book more for the Cockburn content than the Cohen. I am only familiar with Leonard Cohen's last couple of albums (I found "The Future" to be excellent), but I have been an avid Bruce fan for the better part of two decades. About two thirds of the book is devoted to Bruce (and I will devote my comments to that). I found the book completely disappointing. The first problem is that Nonnekes deals strictly with the lyrics completely apart from the music. There is absolutely no discussion of the performances (in the studio or live), the passion and manner of delivery. There is also no context of Bruce's known feelings from interviews, comments at shows, etc. It is as if Nonnekes wrote the entire book by just reading Cockburn lyrics and was unaware of Bruce's performance or comments about any of these lyrics. Nonnekes takes a scholarly approach that will put off most readers. I consider myself to be of at least average intelligence (I enjoyed Michael Gray's 900 page Dylan commentary Song and Dance Man 3) but I was bored by Nonneke's over-analysis of songs that often speak for themselves. Also, I personally found much of the analysis to be way off the mark of anything I have ever gotten from Bruce's work myself or from his own comments. A book like this should illuminate an artist's work, but there are few revelations here.