The Original Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox
Biggest Influence on My Music
The jukebox. I lived beside jukeboxes all through the fifties. There was “The Great Pretender,” “Cross Over the Road.” I never knew who was singing. I never followed things that way. I still don’t. I wasn’t a student of music; I was a student of the restaurant I was in — and the waitresses. The music was a part of it. I knew what number the song was.
Leonard Cohen1
Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: Over the years, Leonard Cohen mentioned a number of specific songs he favored. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Cohencentric feature that began collecting these tunes for the edification and entertainment of viewers on April 4, 2009. All posts in the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series can be found at The Original Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.
Bobby Darin – If I Were A Carpenter
Take that ballad Bobby Darin sings, If I Were A Carpenter–that’s as good a ballad as any Scottish border ballad. It really is right up there.
Leonard Cohen (1966)2
If I Were A Carpenter was written by Tim Hardin, a singer-songwriter Cohen admired (and who is represented on Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox by “Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep”). Hardin also recorded the song and performed it at Woodstock in 1969, but Bobby Darin’s rendition, released in 1966, proved more popular, rising in the charts to #8 in the US and #9 in the UK.
Video
Bobby Darin – If I Were A Carpenter
TV Special: March 1973
I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted Aug 23, 2014 at 1HeckOfAGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric.
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