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Comment by hobochili | Hacker News Reader

As much as I love Bob Dylan, I wouldn't have been upset had Leonard Cohen been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He's written two novels, several volumes of poetry, and, of course, has made his own irreplaceable poetic contributions to American songwriting.

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He would definitely deserve it. But he's Canadian so his contributions would more correctly be classified as going towards Canadian songwriting.

Haha... Valid point. I'd have to explore the intricacies of Canadian songwriting before I could confidently make the assertion, but my feeling is that Cohen's songwriting falls in line with the American tradition.

I've explored the intricacies of Canadian songwriting. J Biebs.

(Biased Canadian)

I'd say Cohen is entirely Canadian. He has this very self-deprecating humor that you don't really get from Americans.

I'll concede that Cohen is a Canadian songwriter. It's interesting to me, though, that he launched his music career in New York.

That's where all the good record labels and record producers were. All good Canadian musicians/actors/directors go to the US. They largely leave Canada behind without much mention of Canada during their careers besides Drake and to a lesser extent Neil Young being the exception.

Leonard's first album had amazing production by american producer John Simon (who also worked with The Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin), probably the best in Cohen's entire career, so he chose well deciding to work out of Columbia's studio in NYC...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Leonard_Cohen

I'm struggling with the use of the word American here, both you and the parent posters. In my opinion all Canadians are just as much Americans as anyone from the USA.

Not sure what else you can call someone from USA, so I guess it makes a bit of sense.

Last time I checked Canada was in the Americas but I get your point.

I know, but Canadians never call themselves Americans.

> As much as I love Bob Dylan, I wouldn't have been upset had Leonard Cohen been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I would not be surprised that one of the lesser reasons Dylan was awarded this year was to open the door to others including Cohen in future years.

Not to mention that Dylan's awarding might have the more subtle effect of encouraging contemporary musicians, if they are not already doing so, to commit to more enduring songwriting than otherwise just making a weekly Top 40.

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