The songwriter Bob Dylan labelled a “genius”
In the world of songwriting, it is hard to look too far beyond Bob Dylan when landing on who might be considered the very best. That’s not to say he doesn’t have competition. Artists such as Paul McCartney and John Lennon have a serious claim to stake when it comes to ubiquitous love. Lou Reed may be the most game-changing lyricist of all time, while the confessional crown certainly belongs to Joni Mitchell, and that’s before we even approach the latter half of the 20th century.
However, where all of those artists pale in comparison to Dylan is the potency of his poetry. Lyrically, Dylan stands head and shoulders among the vast majority of songwriters. Especially during his early years of folk mania, the musician would craft elaborate odes to the finer points of society, all wrapped within a three-minute ditty. However, for Dylan, along with Woody Guthrie, Warren Zevon and a few more, there was one man whom he considered the greatest: Leonard Cohen.
Dylan once said that Cohen didn’t write songs; he wrote prayers. As two of the most fabled and reclusive names in American music, it’s hard to measure the depths of their relationship, but it was always clear that the pair held immense respect for one another, a respect based on a mutual appreciation for the sanctity of a well-written song.
Indeed, Dylan’s appreciation for Cohen’s songwriting saw him heap more praise on the old Field Commander than anyone bar Woody Guthrie. They even recorded a particularly raucous song together, titled ‘Don’t Go Home With Your Hard On’, and when Cohen passed away in 2016, Dylan covered ‘Hallelujah’ in his honour.
However, Dylan and Cohen also had very different approaches to songwriting. Dylan, like McCartney or Tom Petty, thrived on churning songs out faster than he could keep up with. This way, he never paid too close attention to the words falling from his tongue and landing on the page in front of him. Dylan, despite his plethora of fantastic lyrics and wonderful songs, created the majority of them in a flurry of creativity, which means he also generated a hefty tonne of garbage. The songwriter was more frenzied than cultivated.
Cohen, on the other hand, had spent years pursuing a career as a high-brow novelist. In contrast to Dylan, Cohen’s process required him to slowly chip away at an idea, to sand it down until it no longer seemed a product of his own mind. The pair’s differing approaches were summed up by a conversation they once shared, in which Bob asked Leonard how long it took him to write ‘Hallelujah’.
“Ten years,” he replied. Leonard asked Bob how long it took him to write ‘I and I’. “Fifteen minutes,” said Dylan.
But Dylan recognised how all that dedication had allowed Cohen to craft works of high art disguised as pop songs. Explaining the true genius of Cohen’s songwriting, Dylan noted how Cohen’s songs actually featured very complex examples of counterpoint – a complimentary melody line that also emphasises the chord progression beneath it. “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines—they give a celestial character and melodic lift to every one of his songs.”
He added: “As far as I know, no one else comes close to this in modern music. Even the simplest song, like ‘The Law’, which is structured on two fundamental chords, has counterpoint lines that are essential, and anybody who even thinks about doing this song and loves the lyrics would have to build around the counterpoint lines”.
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