My first year of university was what can only be described as a watershed year. I moved out of my parents' house; I struck out on my own; I met the woman who became my wife; I developed a love for literature and began on the path to my current career. Some of these new things were inconsequential - like learning to use chopsticks; others were considerably much more substantial.
One of the substantial discoveries I made that first year in Waterloo was the work of Leonard Cohen.
Someone on my residence floor played "The Future" a lot and I was drawn to the dark and witty imagery and hypnotic voice. I soon owned every Leonard Cohen and had purchased a large collection of his poetry. I got obscure out-of-print documentaries and television specials. I wrote strange dark love poems in Cohen's style. In my only public as a singer, my friend Doug and I belted out a pretty snazzy rendition of "First We Take Manhattan."
Last night, after 15 years, I finally saw Leonard Cohen in concert. And it was magical. At 75 years old, I wasn't sure what to expect, but when the man danced on to stage in his traditional black suit, I knew I was in for a magical evening.
With the exception of some lesser-known favourites, Cohen, in an almost 3 hour concert, sang almost every song I hoped for: "Suzanne," "Closing Time," Who By the Fire," "Tower of Song, "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "Hallelujah, which got its own standing ovation.
One of the substantial discoveries I made that first year in Waterloo was the work of Leonard Cohen.
Someone on my residence floor played "The Future" a lot and I was drawn to the dark and witty imagery and hypnotic voice. I soon owned every Leonard Cohen and had purchased a large collection of his poetry. I got obscure out-of-print documentaries and television specials. I wrote strange dark love poems in Cohen's style. In my only public as a singer, my friend Doug and I belted out a pretty snazzy rendition of "First We Take Manhattan."
Last night, after 15 years, I finally saw Leonard Cohen in concert. And it was magical. At 75 years old, I wasn't sure what to expect, but when the man danced on to stage in his traditional black suit, I knew I was in for a magical evening.
With the exception of some lesser-known favourites, Cohen, in an almost 3 hour concert, sang almost every song I hoped for: "Suzanne," "Closing Time," Who By the Fire," "Tower of Song, "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "Hallelujah, which got its own standing ovation.
2 comments:
I was there! Transfixed. Half the time I felt as if I was eavesdropping in a confessional booth. His lyrics are like a shot in the gut.
He doesn't sing as well as he used to, of course; much of the performances has become talking song, like Rex Harrison used to do so neatly. Still, he remains a charismatic performer, and the catalogue, though not enormous, is large enough to fill two hours easily without using up the material worth doing.
Here in our home it's my wife who's the old hand at Cohen concerts, having first seen him at the York University campus in 1967, when he was still the shocking young poet (reading his poem about Adolf Eichmann will show what I mean).
"Little-known favourites"? Since we listened to his records over and over until they were running inside our heads, they're all well-known to us. My own coffee-house career included a fair number of Cohen covers, though when I played cocktail lounges I stuck with "Suzanne" alone. He never seems to do the really tough numbers any more -- I'm pretty sure he hasn't done "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" in concert since about 1972; I myself have performed it more recently.
Post a Comment