Photos: Celebrity Dish 03.01.12
CHUCK BERRY, LEONARD COHEN GET EXCELLENCE IN SONGWRITING AWARDS
Credit: AP
BOSTON (AP) -- The people who gave Chuck Berry an award for excellence in song lyrics must have blown past his song "My Ding-a-Ling." Berry and Leonard Cohen each received the first PEN New England award for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence yesterday in Boston. Paul Simon called Berry the "great poet of teenage life," and Elvis Costello performed "No Particular Place To Go." Berry coaxed Keith Richards out of the audience to join him on "Promised Land." Author Salman Rushdie said Cohen's lyrics had "great beauty and depth" and said, "If I could write like him, I would."
