NOT his man

I just read on Perez Hilton that Leonard Cohen is being inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Madonna and several others. Odd as it was to be getting my Leonard Cohen fix from Perez, and not, say, anywhere with even a slight scrap of dignity, I was fairly excited.

In a morbid conversation - or maybe just a realistic and useful one, depending on how Daria you feel - late this summer, Jess, Lauren and I narrowed down the songs we thought we would have played at our funerals. I think this was mostly an exercise in using the ultimate end-all-be-all criteria for narrowing down our favorite songs.

Jess went with These Days by Jackson Browne
Lauren went with Like a Prayer by Madonna
I went with Chelsea Hotel No. 2 by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen is a fantastic songwriter, but save a very very few instances, I have tended to like covers of his songs better. He occasionally has too dolorous a voice, to great a faith in the power of synth. Chelsea Hotel No. 2 is the greatest exception to the rule. Cohen's rough voice is just exactly right, and it hardly seems right for anyone else to sing about a one night stand with Janis Joplin other than the man himself.

Here's the only catch in his Hall of Fame induction: with so many amazing covers with so many amazing artists, couldn't they have found someone slightly better than Damien Rice to perform in tribute to him?