Adam Cohen Gets Dad Leonard's Praise for 'What Other Guy' -- Song Premiere

Posted on Mar 14th 2011 1:15PM by Steve Baltin
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The Musebox

Singer-songwriter Adam Cohen, son of Leonard Cohen, knows that there's almost no winning when it comes to meeting the lofty expectations placed on him. "What you end up having is disappointment written on the faces of people when they hear your music because it's either too much or not enough like they were hoping and expecting," Cohen tells Spinner.

For a long time, Cohen let the pressure of his legacy influence him musically. "I was playing a different kind of game, one that was designed to have toes tap and heads nod, possibly have songs spin on the radio, all of which I was capable of doing and successful in doing it," he says. "I had a No. 2 hit at Triple A [radio] for weeks on end and songs that charted."

But after a five-year hiatus from music, Cohen has finally embraced his name with the upcoming album, 'Like a Man.' "It's a combination of songs I didn't have the courage to release because they were too much like my old man's music for my own taste. I had been busy trying to carve a niche for myself and was fearful of the fact that the songs were either too much or not enough like my old man," he says.

The song, 'What Other Guy,' is a beautiful, poetic piece, definitely worthy of the Cohen name, and Adam even got that word from his father, who called it a "world-class love song." Hearing that from his dad meant a great deal to the younger Cohen. "It was a tremendous validation and relief to have the nod of approval and even enthusiastic support of my father on this new project," he says.

The link between fathers and sons, and children wanting their father's respect, goes back a long way. "The other way to look at it is sons going into their father's business is something that long predates [me]," he says. "Jesus went into the family business and one of the lures of going into the family business is not just that you were brought up under certain circumstances down a certain path, it's also that you have a natural goal to gain the respect and admiration of your parents."

Listen to Adam Cohen's 'What Other Guy'

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