Looking for a live.

Recollections from Leonard Cohen's pre-2008 tours, YouTube clips
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mrstocks
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Looking for a live.

Post by mrstocks »

Hi there some time ago i found a live concert of our dear cohen it was pretty huge in flac format, there was 2 cd's i think it was un Germany 1988.

I can recall downloading it with bit torrent. The last two or three songs were the sound balance with Bird on a wire and the ladies singing in the back made a joke and sir cohen didn't know his lyrics.

Anyway i know its a but vast but can someone recall where and what it is?
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Davido
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Post by Davido »

Welcome! This rings a bell with me, but have you got the tracklisting?
If you haven't already done so, I suggest you check the tracklisting against the concerts listed at http://www.leonardcohenlive.com/concerts.htm
If you have no luck there, let me know. (Koln April 10 1988 perhaps?)
mrstocks
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Post by mrstocks »

I can recall it was recorded directly from teh sound board too.
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tomsakic
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Post by tomsakic »

I got two german 1988 shows in flac format, one was Hamburg (from audience), the other Koln (soundboard)... Don't remember the Bird on the Wire anegdote, though. Maybe this helps - you can compare the tracklists on the given link.
Last edited by tomsakic on Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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tomsakic
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Post by tomsakic »

Actually, I think it *is* Koln 1988 soundboard - but it's not that Cohen didn't know his lyrics of Bird on the Wire, but the song was in the middle of changes between 1985 version, and new, 1988 version, which was finished only later during the tour.

Early BotW (1969, Songs from a Room):
...
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch
He said to me “You must not ask for so much”
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door
She cried to me “Hey, why not ask for more?”

...

Late BotW (1993, Cohen Live):
...
Don’t cry, don’t, don’t cry, don’t cry no more
It’s all over now, it’s over babe, don’t cry no more
I say don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry anymore
It’s over. It’s finished. It’s completed. It has, it has been paid for.

...

This parts of the song were in changes for long time. The late version was petrified only later in 1988 (Reykjavik, June, and the whole Fall tour in the US). But during early Spring tour in Europe, there were many oscillations, so in Koln, Leonard sings some kind of unfinished, "middle version", he repeats "it's done, it's done", more like talking that singing (he actually misses the lines enough long, they're obviosuly too short, and it obviously sounds like lines are hanging unfinished in the air). Later in the song (I think it was in Koln, but maybe on some other German shows from April 1988 - I recall similar happened in Munich!), he still sings the original chorus, with "lady" and "beggar", which was dropped forever very soon in 1988, while in 1993 he sung the new version of chorus, never returning to the original woman-beggar version.

I.e., in reykjavik (June 1988) it was:
...
Ah Don't cry, don't cry no more
It's over now, it's over Baby
You see there's nothing left to pray for
Ah It's over now, don't cry, don't cry no more
It's over, completed, it's finished
It's been paid for, it's been paid for

...

And there are even few shows where he sings "it's finished, consumatum est, it's all been paid for".
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linda_lakeside
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Post by linda_lakeside »

I love those lines in Bird on...on Cohen Live. He sings them with such passion. During the time of Cohen live, he was, of course, on his way from the arms of Rebecca de Mornay and on to Mr. Baldy, and I always wondered if the intensity was a sort of 'good-bye'. But then, I read all sorts of stuff into his many different recordings.
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