Leonard Cohen vs. Bob Dylan: Who Was the Greater Songwriter?

Pitting Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan against each other might seem a bit egregious, but it’s a question worth posing. Who was the greater songwriter? Ultimately, the answer to that question comes down to personal taste. But just for fun, let’s compare the two songwriting giants. You can cast your own vote for your favorite songwriter at the end!

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Leonard Cohen’s Songwriting Still Touches New Generations

Leonard Cohen is one of the most easily recognized folk singer/songwriters of his generation. His work spanned decades and explored everything from love to loss to isolation to faith to mortality. He often wrote about social and political themes. Though he’s best known for the 1984 tearjerker “Hallelujah”, the majority of Cohen’s discography is full of profound music.

We can thank his history as a novelist and poet for that. Few musicians have managed to master both the art of lyricism and musicality as a whole. Cohen seemed to take on everything from East Asian to jazz to Mediterranean sounds, and all of them sounded natural.

You Can’t Get More Classic Than Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan was one of the biggest figures in the Greenwich Village folk scene. He wrote some of the most incredible protest songs of his generation, and his controversial move to electric instruments rattled the music world and culture in a way that Leonard Cohen realistically did not. He was highly political early on, and he defied pop music conventions left and right. 

From “Maggie’s Farm” to “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, Dylan’s folk protest songs are still used to fight the power today.

Leonard Cohen vs. Bob Dylan: Who Is the Better Songwriter?

When it comes down to it, this is a really hard question to answer. Bob Dylan’s early work is on a completely different level from most of his contemporaries. Leonard Cohen, likewise, penned some of the most beautiful and intelligent songs of the 20th century. 

Both songwriters were incredibly well-read, but Bob Dylan had more street experience than Leonard Cohen, which translated well into his relatable songs. Cohen, on the other hand, produced music the way a novelist would, and some of his songs are more poetic and detailed than Dylan’s. The man was a writer before he was a musician, after all. Dylan followed in the footsteps of American beat poets, while Cohen was a beat poet, albeit in Canada.

If I had to go with personal opinion, I’d choose Leonard Cohen. But this whole battle is, really, a matter of taste and opinion from the masses. So, who do you think is the better songwriter between Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan? Let us know in the comments below!

Photos of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan by Jack Robinson/Getty Images and Brad Elterman/FilmMagic

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