Leonard Cohen gets $9M judgment

Canoe.ca ^ | March 5, 2006 | Associated Press

[billorites]

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen may never see the $9.5 million US a court ordered his former business manager to pay after she failed to respond to allegations of stealing from his retirement savings, Cohen's lawyer said.

A Superior Court judge granted Cohen, known for reflective songs such as Suzanne, a default judgment Monday. Cohen, 71, claimed in a lawsuit that Kelley Lynch siphoned $5 million US from his personal accounts and investments. He was left with a nest egg of about $150,000, the lawsuit claims.

"She's hard to get in touch with. I don't know where she lives now, and I don't have a phone number for her," said Cohen's lawyer, Scott Edelman. "We don't know what she did with the money. ... But she knows what's going on because she leaves me phone messages at all hours."

Lynch could not be located for comment.

Edelman said Lynch, who worked for Cohen for 17 years until he fired her, also refused to return photographs, records and memorabilia, even after a court order.

"We went into her home four months ago with a sheriff and a moving truck to get his stuff," the lawyer said.

Another defendant in the suit, tax professor and lawyer Richard Westin, reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen on Feb. 13, details of which were not revealed.

Westin's lawyer did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday.

"Leonard is sad that this whole thing took place, but glad that this leg of the litigation is completed," Edelman said. "He would prefer to spend his time on his creative endeavors."

[MineralMan]

Poor schlub. Time to hire a people finder and run this predatory manager to ground. If she's calling him still, she can be found.

[LeoWindhorse]

"Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she’s half crazy
But that’s why you want to be there"

[FreePaul]

This apparently happens a lot. I had two friends who lost everything they had (mostly inherited) because they didn't pay attention to their businesses. I've heard of a number of others. In a couple of cases the person who disappeared when the money was gone had ties to criminal organizations. They had done the same thing at other businesses. Best protection is paying attention and having people you can trust.

[Hildy]

Suzanne was the first song I ever learned on guitar. I can still play it, and I do. Leonard Cohen...one of..if not THE best songwriter of my generation. In fact, this morning as I was flipping through channels I saw a B/W video of his obscure song, "FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN" which is such a crazy song! Bird on a Wire...Sisters of Mercy...Famous Blue Raincoat. If you are a fan of Cohen's. The following is a song he wrote with Jennifer Warnes. If you ever have a chance to hear her sing it, please don't miss it:

Song of Bernadette

There was a child named Bernadette,
I heard the story long ago.
She saw the Queen of Heaven once,
And kept the vision in her soul.
No one believed what she had seen,
No one believed what she heard.
That there were sorrows to be healed,
And mercy, mercy in this world.

So many hearts I find, broke like yours and mine,
Torn by what we've done and can't undo.
I just want to hold you, come on let me hold you,
Like Bernadette would do.

We've been around, we fall, we fly;
We mostly fall, we mostly run.
And every now and then we try,
To mend the damage that we've done.
Tonight, tonight I just can't rest,
I've got this joy inside my breast.
To think that I did not forget that child,
That song of Bernadette.

So many hearts I find, hearts like yours and mine,
Torn by what we've done and can't undo.
I just want to hold you, won't let me hold you,
Like Bernadette would do.
I just want to hold you, come on let me hold you,
Like Bernadette would do.

[penowa]

My favorite songwriter from that time too.

[LeoWindhorse]

nice songs weren't they? But I think I heard heroin was his source of inspiration on all his early music. It was kind of 'sleepy' wasn't it? Later on he became a good Buddhist man.

[Everydayiwritethebook]

Weird. So they don't know where the woman is but they somehow knew where her home was in order to go get Cohen's belongings?

I'm always a bit skeptic about people who are wealthy who never bother to have a look at papers once in a while to see where things stand...

That said, if it is all true, no one deserves to be ripped off.

(My first post at Freep - I'm so glad it had to do with Cohen...if nothing else, you gotta love a guy who writes a song that repeats the word 'Hallelujah' that many times in a row.)

[Hildy]

Yes, he was definitely from the drug generation..only helped him, in my opinion. Have you ever heard the song, AIN'T NO CURE FOR LOVE? OMG...Love that song!

[Hildy]

Here Sisters of Mercy which I always thought was a song about his kicking drugs...

Sisters of Mercy

Leonard Cohen

Oh the sisters of mercy,
they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me
when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort
and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them,
you who've been travelling so long.

Yes you who must leave everything
that you cannot control.
It begins with your family,
but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging,
I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy,
your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Well they lay down beside me,
I made my confession to them.
They touched both my eyes
and I touched the dew on their hem.
If your life is a leaf that the seasons
tear off and condemn
they will bind you with love that is
graceful and green as a stem.

When I left they were sleeping,
I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights,
you can read their address by the moon.
And you won't make me jealous
if I hear that they sweetened your night:
We weren't lovers like that
and besides it would still be all right,
We weren't lovers like that
and besides it would still be all right.

[jocon307]

That's a great song.

[Eccl 10:2]

This was the closing song to "natural Born Killers"

"The Future" by Leonard Cohen

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...


Haunting, mesmerizing, disturbing, perfect.

[Supernatural]

I liked "Bird on a Wire".

[nothingnew]

Leonard Cohen....one of the greats, along with JDSouther.....Kris Kristoferson is another. yeah, I'm old, but I know good when I hear it.

These writers are proven to be exceptional by the artists that sing their songs. Most people would be amazed at the wealth of material they offered to other artists that sing the songs....

JMHO

FMCDH(BITS)

[appleharvey]

Would you happen to have the lyrics to "Dress Rehearsal Rag"? I always liked that song.I preferred the Noel Harrison cover though.

[Hildy]

Here ya go. For future reference, just google any song and type "lyrics" and you'll get them. Ain't the internet grand!!!

LEONARD COHEN LYRICS

"Dress Rehearsal Rag"

Four o'clock in the afternoon
and I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
all of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
there's nothing much to save
and a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
your trembling fingers to behave,
why don't you try unwrapping
a stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
and the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
it's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
that is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?

Once there was a path
and a girl with chestnut hair,
and you passed the summers
picking all of the berries that grew there;
there were times she was a woman,
oh, there were times she was just a child,
and you held her in the shadows
where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
and you sang about the view,
and everywhere that you wandered
love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
all along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?

You can still find a job,
go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
there are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
they can give you back your hope,
you can find your love with diagrams
on a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
except the one that seems
to be written on your wrist
along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
that's a razor in his mit;
and he puts on his dark glasses
and he shows you where to hit;
and then the cameras pan,
the stand in stunt man,
dress rehearsal rag,
it's just the dress rehearsal rag,
you know this dress rehearsal rag,
it's just a dress rehearsal rag.

[nothingnew]

(Lay me doon in the caul caul groon, whaur afore monie mair huv gaun)

That is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard, and I've heard and played a lot of songs.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Hildy]

You know as I've been posting lyrics to Cohen's songs here, and I'm rereading it just as poetry, as those who might not know the melodies, it shows me what an incredible writer he was/is. This verse alone is gorgeous:

If your life is a leaf that the seasons
tear off and condemn
they will bind you with love that is
graceful and green as a stem.

[Hildy]

Here ya go...I figure I'll post the lyrics until someone tells me to cut it out!!! This is one of my favorites too. Alot of singers have done covers on it.

Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook,
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
If i, if I have been unkind,
I hope that you can just let it go by.
If i, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you.

Like a baby, stillborn,
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee.
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?

Oh like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.

[TFFKAMM]

Brilliant lyricist. He's a Jew who was raised in ultra-Catholic Quebece, so he uses a lot of Biblical imagery in his words, and grasps the nature of sin and guilt like no other songwriter I've ever heard.

Here's one of my favorites:

The Story of Isaac

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, "I've had a vision
and you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady's mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
and my father's hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.