Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: In interviews through the years, Leonard Cohen has mentioned a handful of specific songs he favors. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Heck Of A Guy feature playing those tunes for your edification and entertainment.
Roy Orbison In The Subjunctive
Ongoing readers may recall that Florian1 had endowed Heck Of A Guy with a list of Leonard Cohen’s favorite songs found in “Leonard Cohen – In Eigenen Worten” (In His Own Words) by Jim Devlin. Leonard Cohen’s Top Ten Songs Of 1988 from that volume lists, at #6, “House Without Love” by Roy Orbison.
Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, Mr Orbison did not release a song called “House Without Love.”
“A House Without Love” was written and first released by Hank Williams, who is known to be a favorite of Cohen’s.2 It was also covered by George Jones, who is likewise known to be admired by Cohen, 3 Bonnie Owens and Merle Haggard (duet), and others.
Roy Orbison did, however, sing “A House Without Windows.” Consequently, I am invoking Blogger Authority, which includes the power to resolve conflicts, settle disputes, and, I’m almost certain, perform weddings, to hereby declare that Leonard Cohen’s intent was to list Roy Orbison’s “A House Without Windows” as his sixth favorite song in 1988.
Readers should immediately seek shelter and move to the center of the room, away from any windows, in anticipation of the cataclysmic scholarly and theological schisms this revision to the Cohen biographical canon will inevitably trigger.
Roy Orbison – House Without Windows
Bonus – “A House Without Love”
Oh OK, here’s the George Jones version of Hank Williams’ “A House Without Love.”
I am so easy.
A House Without Love
Other Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Posts
All posts featured in the Heck Of A Guy Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series can be found at the end of the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.
_____________________- Of the several members of LeonardCohenForum who responded to my request for help in finding documented instances of Leonard Cohen favoring a specific song performed by another artist, Florian was far and away the most prolific. He will account for several Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox posts in the future. [↩]
- See “Your Cheatin’ Heart” Is On Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox [↩]
- See “Cold Hard Truth” Is On Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox [↩]
Roy Orbison! MERCY!!! *
“The Soul of Rock and Roll.”
http://www.myspace.com/royorbison
Good executive decision I think – about “House Without Windows.”
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*Anyone who has a MySpace page, and who has been fortunate enough to have had the honor of being added as a “friend” by Roy Orbison, will understand this. For others – if you are taken into friendship, Roy will eventually come to your page and comment – and that comment is – “MERCY!!!” I am amongst those who have been so honored.