In memoriam: When Leonard Cohen "met" Mikis Theodorakis

News about Leonard Cohen and his work, press, radio & TV programs etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
Dem
Posts: 1079
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2002 3:05 am

In memoriam: When Leonard Cohen "met" Mikis Theodorakis

Post by Dem »

Image
Image

This happened in the 1986 CBS Federico García Lorca tribute album "Poetas en Nueva York"
https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/poetasny.html

It was there that Leonard originally released his beautiful adaptation
of Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés" ("Little Viennese Waltz")
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQm1OmLMNno

and where Mikis Theodorakis released an adaptation on Lorca's poem "Son de negros en Cuba",
that later became known in Greece as "Santiago".

The original version in the Lorca tribute album was with George Moustaki
www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=194&v=epbOVs-BJMQ

but a newer version with Thanasis Moraitis is I think one of the best by Theodorakis:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvhrPNUuVA0


Of course the two of them met again in the lines of Leonard's poem:

My Mother Asleep
From Book Of Longing

remembering my mother
at a theatre in Athens
thirty
thirty-five years ago
a revue by Theodorakis
those great songs
she fell asleep
in the chair beside mine
in the open-air theatre
she had arrived that day
from Montreal
and the play started close to midnight
and she slept through
the mandolins
the climbing harmonies
and the great songs
I was young
I hadn’t had my children
I didn’t know how far away
your love could be
I didn’t know how
tired you could get


Dem
Athens 2008, Prague 2009, Paris 2012
oldfriend28
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2016 4:48 am

Re: In memoriam: When Leonard Cohen "met" Mikis Theodorakis

Post by oldfriend28 »

Thank you, Dem.
Post Reply

Return to “News”