CONCERT REPORTS: Manchester, UK (June 17, 18, 19 and 20)

[beboppity]

Leonard cohen and me

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Leonard Cohen outside The Opera House 17/6/08

[Waiting For Suzanne]

how sad it is i only just heard about the tour!

[John Etherington]

Hi Waiting for Suzanne,

It may not be so sad that you've only just heard about the tour, since the tour is billed as the 2008/9 tour. Assuming that you live in the UK, you may also still have a chance to buy good O2 tickets -either by ringing the venue close to the time, or repeatedly trying seetickets or ticketmaster during the week before the show. It wouldn't surprise me at all, if they release best seats at the last minute(as they did with Manchester). Don't pay over the odds, though!

All good things, John E

[gingermop]

Gingermop did her best and it came up to scratch with truth and objectivity whilst clearly subjectively smitten. Thanks G-Mop. Gina (not in G-Mex).

The next big decision is where to have the tattoo inked into my skin.

Why thank you, Byron. That's very kind.
(unfortunately I may have to write a more gushing, artsy/cutesy article later).

However I wouldn't have my review tattoed on you, it would look rather unsightly.

Cheers,

Gina

[Doctor Bob]

I was at the Friday show and words fail me in expressing the way I feel about it. All I can say is that those few hours were some of the greatest and most memorable moments in my entire life, and I will cherish that evening forever. Thanks Leonard--we can't thank you enough.

[12stringbassist]

Does anyone know if any of the shows were filmed - or are planned to be filmed for a possible DVD?

Manchester on the Wednesday night was absolutely transcendental and I'd like to be able to get hold of an official DVD
from the tour.

[Shansey]

Does anyone know if any of the shows were filmed - or are planned to be filmed for a possible DVD?

Manchester on the Wednesday night was absolutely transcendental and I'd like to be able to get hold of an official DVD
from the tour.

Me too..may have brushed shoulders with you... our tears may have collided...

[Pamela]

I noticed that the recitation of A Thousand Kisses Deep differed from other versions I have heard/read. Does anyone have a transcript of the most recent version?

Hi J, I would also like to get a copy of the transcript - have you had any luck?

[yhtrownu]

Jonnie and Pamela, I was so entranced, by the version I heard Leonard recite on Wednesday, in Manchester, that when I returned on Thursday, I recorded it.

So on Thursday 19th June, in Manchester, this is the version recited by Leonard:

"You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat.
You´d have to be a man to know
How good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin,
I´d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep?

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
You see, I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique,
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.

I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
To pose all hot and high
Behind The veils of sheer deceit
Our perfect porn aristocrat
So elegant and cheap
I’m old but I’m still into that
A thousand kisses deep.

I'm good at love, I'm good at hate,
It's in between I freeze.
Been working out, but it's too late,
It's been too late for years.
But you look good, you really do,
They love you on the street,
If you were here, I'd kneel for you
A thousand kisses deep.

The Autumn moved across your skin,
Got something in my eye,
A light that doesn't need to live,
And doesn't need to die.
A riddle in the book of love,
Obscure and obsolete
‘Til witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep.

And I’m still working with the wine
Still dancing cheek to cheek
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne
But the heart will not retreat
I ran with Diz, I sang with Ray,
I never had their sweep
But once or twice they let me play
A thousand kisses deep.

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
You see, I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique,
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.

But you don’t need to hear me now,
And every word I speak,
It counts against me anyhow
A thousand kisses deep."

nb: As you can see, Leonard repeated verse 2 entirely, as verse 7, then recited the last 4 lines, as verse 8.

It is possible that the last 4 lines were intended to end verse 7, the last 4 lines of verse 2 repeated by mistake, but if so it is a fortuitous mistake, as the repeated mention of a "frozen love," and a "second hand physique," brings a poignant added sense of stifled fragility to the futile fact that every final word now "counts against" the speaker. Intentional, or unintentional, it's beautiful. . .

[Joe Way]

yhtrownu-

"You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat.
You´d have to be a man to know
How good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin,
I´d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep?

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
You see, I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique,
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.

I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
To pose all hot and high
Behind The veils of sheer deceit
Our perfect porn aristocrat
So elegant and cheap
I’m old but I’m still into that
A thousand kisses deep.

I'm good at love, I'm good at hate,
It's in between I freeze.
Been working out, but it's too late,
It's been too late for years.
But you look good, you really do,
They love you on the street,
If you were here, I'd kneel for you
A thousand kisses deep.

The Autumn moved across your skin,
Got something in my eye,
A light that doesn't need to live,
And doesn't need to die.
A riddle in the book of love,
Obscure and obsolete
‘Til witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep.

And I’m still working with the wine
Still dancing cheek to cheek
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne
But the heart will not retreat
I ran with Diz, I sang with Ray,
I never had their sweep
But once or twice they let me play
A thousand kisses deep.

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
You see, I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique,
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.

But you don’t need to hear me now,
And every word I speak,
It counts against me anyhow
A thousand kisses deep."

This is how he recited it in Kitchener, also. In Hamilton, he changed "The Autumn moved across your skin" back to one of his earlier lines, "Was looking at a crucifix, got something in my eye." It would be interesting to see/hear all the changes that he has made in this poem over time. I love how he changed the line to, "I ran with Diz, I sang with Ray" which clearly is a reference to Ray Charles and the album that he played of his while writing, "Beautiful Losers."

I didn't realize how moved I would be by hearing his recitation. When I saw him back in 1970, he recited "Dead Song"
From my poor memory:

"As I lay dead
In my love soaked bed.
Angels came to kiss my head.
I caught one's gown
And wrestled her down
To be my love in death town.
xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx
xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx
Oh, what a clever corpse am I."

Joe

[hydriot]

'Unworthy' - you are correct:

In the published version of A Thousand Kisses Deep (page 56, Book of Longing) the final verse consists of just the first four lines of lily/snowman (for some reason in italics) followed by the last four lines you quote. But I think this change is intentional, as he spoke thus both on 17 and 18 June.

As I mentioned previously in this thread, all the verses he recites on stage are published verses, though some in a slightly different order, and with a few whimsical changes. Thus "Dante" becomes "Ray" (better rhythm), but "But you look fine you really do / The pride of Boogie Street / Somebody must have died for you / A thousand kisses deep" becomes just "But you look good, you really do / They love you on the street / If you were here, I'd kneel for you / A thousand kisses deep" which I feel lacks the impact of the original (Boogie Street means a place where you're forced by circumstance to sell your wares - in an interviw he explained it is a street in Singapore which in the daytime is a market but at night becomes a haunt for transexual prostitutes).

[yhtrownu]

Joe Way, Thanks for that. I too am intrigued by the changes, the way the changes give the poem different nuances, and give it the texture of a living thing, changing with age. I love the mention of the more contemporary figure of Ray Charles, the way it draws us deeper into the poem because we all know and have impressions of Ray Charles.

hydriot, well done for cracking the code of my name. It is meant to be ambiguous: Have I encoded the fact that I feel 'unworthy' in some sense or other, or, by writing it backwards, am I suggesting that in fact, I consider myself the reverse of 'unworthy,' namely, worthy?

As regards the poem, I suspect Leonard ditched the mention of Boogie Street for a specific reason. After all, he also explicitly excluded the following brilliant verse:

"I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,
I´m back on Boogie Street.
"I tried to quit the business -
Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.
But sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep."

On the face of it, this is the one verse he SHOULD have included in a world tour that has driven him straight back into the exigencies of commerce, into a tour where he is "getting fixed" financially again, grasping for a buck by repeating the same jokes and poems and songs for different audiences, we "tricks" that he is "turning" on "Boogie Street" again. He "tried to quit the business," but now he engages again with the endless compromises of capitalism. . .

But NO, this most appropriate verse for the tour is NOT recited. . .

My reading of this is that, while "Boogie Street" may be necessary to fund his retirement, and an inheritance for the kids, it's got NOTHING to do with Leonard's final statement, in his final tour, in the final recited verses, that most of us, admirers of his work, will ever hear him speak. . .

Instead of making a final statement about how capitalism makes whores of us, Leonard instead only wants to speak to his most major theme: the euphoria and ECSTASY of our lives, that which means the most to us (especially sexual intimacy, the "broken hallelujah"), and it's inevitable LOSS, as or when the final curtain falls on our lives. So it's SEX and DEATH, it's a final goodbye, it's a statement about how our flawed ("frozen") selves find greatest fulfilment in kneeling to each other, opening like lilies to each other, about how we we find in this the greatest meaning in our lives, persisting connecting in this way even as "Auld Lang Syne" signals the end, and the curtain falls on all of us. . .

Leonard's final tour is about the end of ecstasy, ecstasy in the end, a bittersweet farewell. . .

[rhona]

Any old way, just leaping back to the Manchester thread - what was the kefuffle on the front row on the Friday night after the concert finished? Who saw it? There were police and everything!

xxx

[phillip]

so what did happen on the friday night???

[drsing]

just two more pictures of the poster on the Opera House