Listen to the 2nd KCRW interview

[jarkko]

Listen to the interview (43:51 min) at
http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl? ... _type=show

(June 24, 2006)

Chris Douridas hosts a very special conversation with the great Leonard Cohen and his collaborator Anjani, in celebration of her new album Blue Alert (on which Anjani sings songs she crafted from Leonard's previously unpublished lyrics.) The couple talk about how she selected poems from his notebooks to develop into songs, occasional frictions in the creative process, as well as Leonard's feelings about the unprecedented act of giving his words to another songwriter.

[peter danielsen]

and we get to hear the comming hitsingles from LC

Peter

[lizzytysh]

This is shocking in the BEST possible way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait until you hear the 'Zorba the Greek' feeling and the lyrics of this first song "Puppets" ~ AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL ~ OUR LEONARD ~ I'm moved to tears as I listen to this 'newest' song!!!!

Please keep writing, singing, and producing, Leonard. Please.

"Desire the whore [horse?] / depression the cart"... Stina should be happy with that .

Ey yi yi ~ I can hardly believe I'm listening to new material !!!

"Book of Longing" ~ ~ "I know she is coming... I know she will look. That is my longing... and this is my book." In print and in music ~ we have it !!!

Deeply satisfying... the rhythms, the music, the lyrics, Leonard's voice .

Anyone can clearly hear the quality and comfort in their relationship. If there are any doubting Thomases out there about Leonard and Anjani, tune in to this.

I also found it interesting that "Undertow" had the most minimum of Leonard, just a low 'undertow' of him later in the song, and then some more of him at a more 'visible' level, but overall... much more Anjani. Yet, at that time, Anjani's being the 'one' singing that song got very little if any comment in the way of complaint... perhaps, it takes only a 'minimum' of Leonard's comforting voice to comfort us into acceptance?

"Thanks for the Dance" closes it out and puts me in tears. This interview feels nearly as much about the beauty of their relationship as it does about Leonard's book, and their recent and upcoming album. The symbiotic quality of Dick's photo in the park can be heard throughout this interview. Even the balance in their sharing the talking. Leonard clearly takes the lead on their meeting... it sounds crucially important to him that they did, and that he be the one to explain it .

I want a copy of this interview.


Love,
Lizzy

[Simon]

This is very thirlling indeed.

He said with words: «We will go on tour»

On the second song, " Book of Longing" the music sounds a lot like Shivaree.

[Henning]

In both songs we hear elements of greek music, my heart opened up wide and I was about to letting myelf go but I got a job to do and it's better to wait for the entire album and then have this lonely sinking feeling as in the old days and be on my own for a whole night. I am very much looking forward to what comes in 2007 and it was so interesting to hear that his puppets sounded so different to mine, his .. more of a masterpiece, his .. more of a blessing, his .. much closer to heaven.

[lizzytysh]

Yes, exactly, Simon... I noticed the "we" linked with "tour," as well.

You're right, Henning, there are indeed elements of Greek music in both... only more pronounced in "Puppets" ~ and, you do lovely music renditions of Leonard's poetry... of course, his will always, I believe, sound closer to heaven than most any rendition I've ever heard of any of his songs. A couple may come close, but none surpass.

~ Lizzy

[peter danielsen]

anyone got the whole text for the second song, i know its from bol but I have not recieved that book yet

peter

[woody]

what an amazing interview. so unique to hear thedemos. if cohen was arriving on the scene today he surely would be reguarded as ultra modern and avant garde. i would love to keep this interview or be able to seperate the songs. has anyone managed to do that?

[tomsakic]

"The Book of Longing" could - after some postproduction work (maybe new, more upfront vocal from Leonard?) - be huge as In My Secret Life, it is Cohenesque smash hit! Great, just great.

I didn't succed in downloading the interview, can only listen to it while online. But as soon I succeed, I'll cut the songs in mp3. Usually ~greg knows do to that, but he wasn't on board for few weeks now. I'd like also to cut the reading of poems from all recent interviews.

Peter, the text og Book of Longing (poem) is available on publisher's site (Ecco's), and on KCRW's site. Early version is on The Files. But the song he played is not the poem version from the book - it's closest to it, but I think one verse is omitted, some lines from first version are introduced, and few words were changed.

[tomsakic]

The thread is somewhere bellow, I'm copying the poem from it:

The Book of Longing

I can't make the hills
The system is shot
I'm living on pills
For which I thank G-d

I followed the course
From chaos to art
Desire the horse
Depression the cart

I sailed like a swan
I sank like a rock
But time is long gone
Past my laughing stock

My page was too white
My ink was too thin
The day wouldn't write
What the night pencilled in

My animal howls
My angel's upset
But I'm not allowed
A trace of regret

For someone will use
What I couldn't be
My heart will be hers
Impersonally

She'll step on the path
She'll see what I mean
My will cut in half
And freedom between

For less than a second
Our lives will collide
The endless suspended
The door open wide

Then she will be born
To someone like you
What no one has done
She'll continue to do

I know she is coming
I know she will look
And that is the longing
And this is the book

[tomsakic]

I think that line "What the night pencilled in" was sung as "What the song sing" or something like that. Also, last lines are changed to past tense, "That was my longing, and this was my book".

[~greg]

Usually ~greg knows

the interview is about 41meg on mp3, and I don't feel like uploading it.

But here are the two new songs:

http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... uppets.mp3
(1.3meg)


http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... onging.mp3
(3.6meg)


( I'll trust Jarkko to remove these links if they're a no-no. )


----------

And now, for any of you who don't happen to be Leonard Cohen fans .....
; )


When I uploaded those, I ran into this golden oldie (from 1971),
already on my site.

(-- a possible connection being that,
"caught in the trade winds" is sort of like being a puppet....)

And since i'm probably already braking the law anyway,
might as well "go the whole hog including the postage",
as Gurdjieff used to say.

So here is my all time favorite Roberta Flack song,
in a very lowfi wav file, as found somewhere on the net:

http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... _Flack.wav
(833k)


It should be regarded as an ad for the new (2006)
"The Very Best of Roberta Flack" on Rhino,
- because this album really is apparently the best yet of Roberta,
- and because it includes "Trade Winds", which used to be
only available as a very rare B-side on vinyl,
- and because saying so might keep me from getting sued.

[~greg]

there's a clucking sound in there, in "Book of Longing".

could be just an artifact of the transformations.
or some accident during the recording.

or it could be an intentional effect.
like a speaker rapping his knuckles down on a podium
to emphasize a point.

but whether it's accidental or on purpose,
i hope LC has the balls to keep it in.
it's a needed piquant in a maybe too mesmerizing flow.

(if it's an accident, all the better reason to keep it in.
my favorite was on the Stone's Lurch boot-leg,
where Keith says to Jagger "we've got a echo in there".
And Jagger says: "let's do it with echo.")


(Gives me an idea for a song.
Well, for a sound effect in a song.
Scattered throughout this hypothetical song are very
brief subtle moments of:
1) a rock breaking scissors,
2) a scissors cutting paper
3) paper wrapping a rock.
)

[tomsakic]

Thanks, ~greg!

Yes, I heard the sound. I was thinking it's due to Leonard's home production - namely, ther similar sound is heard in his demo recording of A Thousand Kisses Deep (early, non-Sharon melody), in Spring 96 documentary. On screen, you can see the sound is coming from Leonard's hard hiting of a key on the synthesizer in front of him (in his monastery cell). I thought the same happened here. He probably uses the same Technics.

[Dem]

My page was too white
My ink was too thin
The hand wouldn't write
The song wouldn’t sing

[...]

I know she is coming
I know she will look
That is my longing
This is my book
I know she is coming
I know she will look
This was my longing
This was my book


Dem

PS) I have uploaded the interview on the ftp site:
ftp://homedev.org/pub/incoming/