portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

LEONARD COHEN




LEONARD COHEN
 

Time to add a page.....now Leonard Cohen is important to me and for  a wide range of reasons.....first two albums as an angst ridden teenager, I found it helpful in dealing with the relationships we formed in youth and breaking up was soothed and balmed by drowning in that maudlin voice.... 'So Long, Marianne', 'Hey. That's No Way..........'
Then after leaving school discovering writers for myself and found 'Beautiful Losers ' on the college library shelf and it become a touchstone, as I realised there were younger generation writers who were talking to me, in language I understood and not the dusty classics we were made to learn by rote....then followed Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, Burroughs, Yevtushenko and the Mersey Poets...the Penguin paperback 'LOVE LOVE LOVE' poetry is still on my shelf....next to Beautiful Lowers with its humour and eroticism, strange esoteric histories and poetic lyricism
..... I re-read 'Beautiful Losers' every few years and it stays with me
Kateri Tekakwitha

......so here's a gem to start with for the real Cohen fan - here he is in 1966 (on my birthday - I was 13, he was 32 - reading from 'Beautiful Losers' some poems from 'Spice Box of The Earth' and 'Flowers for Hitler' and a song to close, 'The Traveller (the Stranger Song)'. This was an evening at the New York 92nd Street YM-YWHA (The Young Men's-Young Women's Hebrew Association) Hotel - wonderful stuff, surprisingly good quality too.....................


Here is the mother lode from The Master from early to recent, from the early poetic years to the Zen troubadour coming down from Mt Baldy when he realises someone was syphoning off most of his money ...still at 70 running on stage to entertain us.

............... we'll start with a smattering across the years from '68, to the 80's, 90's and to last year (2010) this last being the concert I went blithering on about being spoilt by chattering from the audience on the main blog page.....well, not quite spoilt...it's still worth a listen and especially for those of you who didn't buy the Live in London CD which stands as one of my favourite purchases of recent months (what do you mean you haven't got it? not only essential it's compulsory! heck you can buy the DVD for under a tenner!)



A Columbia Records radio broadcast quality 8 songs
Her;s the concert from Bowling Green, Weisbaden Germany from last year.....never mind the silly chatter it IS worth a punt.......



SUNDAY  May Day - 1st May 2011 -
Oh you want more do you? (who ARE you talking to? ED) here's a great set from Toronto, Canada 1988 the year of the Royal Albert Hall classic live concert (to follow) this is a Radio FM broadcast and as such being in his homeland they broadcast the whole concert
. I love this concert.....Leonard is never anything but a superb professional performer, each concert is like a journey and work of art in itself. I seem to live in a world narrated by Cohen, I understand it, this world view that we inhabit.......the moon's too bright and the chains are too tight.....

I thought for Lenny I might go chronological, but hey, why break the pattern? Here's how I first heard him under the bed cover listening to the radio and the John Peel show in 1968....this is something of an oddity bootleglandwise the cover from the ubiquitous 'Naughty Dog' only mentions the Israel gig and yet it is clearly numbered track by track as including the Peelie sessions....love the mentions of his Mum!............a few tracks covering all the classic first singles and entertaining banter from 'our John' coupled with a mini set from Tel Aviv in 1972.....both are worth catching and the Peel especially is why I am posting this...this is how I first heard that voice
Monday: OK, may as well keep on going...........here's another set from Montreux in Switzerland but this time from nearly ten years after the earlier one...1985

three discs...count 'em ....this is stormer of a concert and again really very good quality but it is Leonard's chat between songs that is so astonishing and his poetic interludes are brilliant check out what he says before the Chelsea Hotel no 2............mind you the music's astonishing too, check out the version of 'Diamonds In The Mine' and try not to smile at such an arrangement of one of the most astonishing displays of vitriol, phlegm, rattlesnake oil and venom. Why you can dance to it! (...to the end of love? ED)


....actually I have just been listening to it back and have to add (oh, go on then ED) This is what bootlegs should be like its AMAZING quality and even the cover is professional standard....this could easily be an official release as my fellow 'legger and hero out there Bucklberry says on his blog....from whence I may have lifted it?........"Now this is a proper bootleg! Laughing Lenny, soundboard sourced, and almost 3 hours long. What's not to like?".....Quite!
and there's more to come.......keep watching.............

say goodnight Len
.................update Oct 2011...........for visitor Phillip Smith, who was kind enough to point out my mis-posting of the third disc on the Montreaux '85 set above and as he was gracious and kind enough not to castigate me too harshly, this next set is humbly dedicated.......Thanks Phillip!

I'll post more soon but this one is just for you! [what so the rest of them can't download it? ED.....NO! They BLOODY well CAN'T!]            ;o)



Here the links for this seminal set from the latest staggering tour (de force) our Leonard from his homeland last year...........of which it is said:
The Leonard Cohen 2010 Vancouver Concert was indeed lauded not only by fans but also by critics.  The sentiments in this excerpt from “For one more night in Vancouver, Leonard Cohen is our man” by Marsha Lederman (Globe and Mail  Friday, Dec. 03, 2010) are representative:

In his trademark fedora, dark suit and bolo tie, Cohen offered his lyrical take on the facts of life: holy doves moving, events at the Chelsea Hotel on an unmade bed. Often on his knees, eyes closed, hand held up to his face, Cohen filled the arena with gravelly strains of aural sex. If he ached in the places where he used to play, he had the audience fooled.
… But never did Cohen appear to be mailing it in. The guy put the “pro” in “profound,” performing songs he has sung hundreds – thousands – of times with a vigour so genuine that they never felt tired.


Blessings........


Another one for Leonard fans.......I've got at least one! He's called Philip! Here's another for you, Philip! :o) 




Great set and the taper apologises for the quality but frankly it deserves to be up here with the rest. Don't normally (well not often ED) post audience recordings but occasionally make an exception and this is one of them
Enjoy!
(If only Philip!)


Leonard & Anjani Thomas

Here's another treat if not STRICTLY a Lennie bootleg......Big O posted a concert from Warsaw of Anjani Thomas ages ago now and here t'is in it's entirety....a fascinating document but also a lovely concert. [Document you say? ED] Check Cohen's talk between songs.....very interesting




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I have been listening to some older Cohen boots from the castle vaults while looking for something from 1974 for visitor 'Philip' and found this better than I recall. Here's Leonard in Sweden in 1993



There's no cover for this one so I have made my own notes for anyone interested......

Here's another from the vault , one from the past and a well known boot to boot! Its Leonard in Birmingham UK 1979 - again better than memory served!




Bit of a ladies man (won't say which bit!... sorry Bobby!) here we can see why..........
Leonard with a 'friend from Nadel, Romania'

and another and possibly my first Leonard Cohen boot I think [I'll have to ask the Quartermaster] Not the best quality despite the glorious venue here's Len at The Royal Albert Hall in 1988 (getting closer Philip!) two disc set
no track listing cover with this so here's mine......
Leonard Cohen  
Royal Albert Hall 
London UK 
18/ 11/1988
 


Disc One

01 Dance Me To The End Of Love
02 Ain't No Cure For Love
03 Who By Fire
04 Bird On The Wire
05 I'm Your Man
06 Sisters Of Mercy
07 Coming Back To You
08 First We Take Manhattan
09 Chelsea Hotel #2
10 Tower Of Song
11 The Stranger Song
12 If It Be Your Will
Leonard Cohen - The Royal Albert Hall, London 1988 disc II

Disc Two

13 Everybody Knows
14 Joan Of Arc
15 Hallelujah
16 There Is A War
17 Take This Waltz
18 The Partisan
19 Suzanne
20 Passing Through
21 I Tried To Leave You
22 Whither Thou Goest
23 So Long, Marianne


 -- -- _________________ -- -- 

Here from wonderful Leonard fan DrHGuy - at his tribute page 1HeckOfAGuy.com comes his compilations
Firstly ........
A compilation of previously unreleased songs as follows:
1. Feels So Good (The Other Blues Song) - Leonard Cohen -Live, Durham, NC (11/3/2009)
2. Book Of Longing ñ Leonard Cohen - KCRW (June 24, 2006)
3. The Darkness ñ Leonard Cohen - Live, Las Vegas (11/12/2009)
4. Puppets ñ Leonard Cohen - KCRW (June 24, 2006)
5. Lullaby ñ Leonard Cohen - Live, Grand Prairie, Texas (4/3/2009)
6. Do I Have To Dance All Night - Leonard Cohen - Do I Have To Dance All Night (single 1976) recorded at Olympia Theatre Concert, Paris 1976
7. Blues By The Jews ñ Leonard Cohen - L Cohen Rare Songs (Live 1979)


and his follow up set "Another Other Leonard Cohen Album"


another compilation of previously unreleased songs as follows:
'Another Other Leonard Cohen Album'




1. Je Veux Vivre Tout Seul: 27 May 1976, Le Grand Échiquier (A2-TV), Paris, France (Bird on the Wire with French verse) (4:39)
2. Kevin Barry: 1972 (4:00)
3. Die Gedanken Sind Frei: 1976 (3:31)
4. Store Room: Montreux, Switzerland, 25 June 1976 (4:37)
5. As Time Goes By: 1972 (2:26)
6. Don’t Go Home with Your Hard-on: Bryn Mawr, US, 23 November 1975 (2:59)
7. Blessed is the Memory: Frankfurt, Germany, 25 April 1976 (3:26)
8. Silent Night: Birmingham, UK, 15 December 1979 (2:24)
9. Dead Song: Frankfurt, Germany, 6 May 1970 (0:20)
10. Another Saturday Night: Melbourne, Australia, 8 March 1980 (0:58)
11. Ballad of the Absent Mare: Vienna, Austria, 6 July 1985 (7:06)
12. Guerrero: Bryn Mawr, US, 23 November 1975 (3:19)
13. The Butcher: Toronto, Canada, 31 January 1975 (4:32)
14. Un As Der Rebbe Singt: 1976 (0:58)
15. Thirsty for the Kiss: London, UK, 6 December 1979  (3:33)
16. If It Be Your Will: Vienna, Austria, 6 July 1985 (3:48)
17. Thirsty for the Kiss: London, UK, 6 December 1979 (3:33)
18. A Thousand Kisses Deep: Armelle Brusq’s documentary “Spring 1996" (2:19)
19. I Tried To Leave You Vienna, Austria, 6 July 1985 (14:56)
20. Whither Thou Goest: Warsaw, Poland, 31 March 2007 (1:45)
21. Mr Cohen Must Be Going: Paris, France, 19 October 1974 (0:38)





Enjoy!


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