Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

General discussion about Leonard Cohen's songs and albums
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Ziyad
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Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Ziyad »

For me the song that has gone up in my personal Lenny hit parade has to be 'Anthem'. It truly is one of his best songs (with about 20 others!) and for some reason I can't get the line "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" out of my head. It has been one of the highlights of the live show on every concert I've seen this tour. I'd also add 'Tower Of Song' which I've had a tendency to treat less seriously though at Glastonbury I thought it was fantastic. Also 'A Thousand Kisses Deep' for the different version and for the fact that I've never seen it live before this tour. Finally, I think Suzanne has been fantastic but in terms of reappraisal it's always been one of my faves so it doesn't really count
1974 London RAH|1976 London RAH, London New Vic x 3|1979 Manchester|1985 London Hamm x 2|1988 London RAH x 3|1993 London RAH x 2|2008 Manchester x 2, Glastonbury, London O2 x 2, Big Chill, London RAH, Brighton|2009 Weybridge|2012 London Wembley|2013 London O2 x 2

"thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes, i thought it was there for good so i never tried"
commonweal
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by commonweal »

Hi Zayad

Interesting post. Anthem has always been right up there for me, and I'm glad you've seen that it's such a powerful song. I read somewhere that it was more than a decade in the making, and that earlier versions were recorded for Various Positions and I'm Your Man, only to be canned because something was missing. Do you know the version by Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen on the Lian Lunson I'm Your Man DVD? It's wonderful and incredibly moving. I agree that it's one of the highlights of the current tour, too. It was astounding at Edinburgh last week.

As many here have remarked, one of the wonders of LC's songs is that they get richer with age. Like a good whisky....

Keep enjoying!
UrPal
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by UrPal »

I thought Boogie Street worked really well in concert. The dichotomy of life analysed by the lyric came across really well (the line about "they're saving me a seat" etc), and it boogied.

Unlike many, I didn't go overboard on the Webb sisters' If It Be Your Will - perfectly sung and performed and all that, but two fresh faced twenty somethings singing a song contemplating the proximity of death dissipates its sting a tad as far as I'm concerned when the 73 year old author stands idly waiting in the wings and could be "saying it straight". Not weighty enough. I'd sooner have a lack of purity, and greater engagement. That's a big part of why I like LC in the first place - pure expression in construction, imperfectly human in delivery. It's not quite Brel's J'Arrive sung by the Muppets, but there's a whiff of that. I'd sooner LC had done it straight with a bit of arpeggiated guiter like he did on that Norwegion radio thing. Maybe he'd have found that a bit too trying to pull off night on night though, so I understand the defraction technique all the same.
Murf
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Murf »

I was never a big fan of The Sisters Of Mercy until last Wednesday, though I think Leonard sounds better live than on record in almost all instances. His live albums are excellent, unlike many artists.

I wonder if he will cahnge the setlist at all for the fall tour? Although I think it works well, I'd like to hear some of the more obscure tracks. It wont happen but I'd love to hear Death Of A Ladies Man live, Came So Far For Beauty would be nice as well.
Auld Reekie
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Auld Reekie »

Until last Wednesday's concert at Edinburgh, I also had a tendency to undervalue "Anthem". I thought it was stunning last week, and I can't get the "killers in high places say their prayers out loud" out of my head. "A Thousand Kisses Deep" was incredibly moving, but that was possibly because the lyrics were completely different from the recorded version.
And as for "Bird on a Wire", at last I can see what other people have raved about in a song that I had too often thought of as dirge-like. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!
Ziyad
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Ziyad »

Urpal - agree about Boogie Street and also That Don't Make It Junk (Manchester 1st night) - for me it's great to hear some newish songs that LC hasn't performed before when he last toured 15 years ago. Also very interesting point you raise re The sublime Webb sisters version of If It Be Your Will. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed their interlude, though I would have it earlier in the set, because by the encores I greedily only want to hear Lenny sing. Ultimately you are right though - nothing matches LC and it is a bit much to have the great man watching quietly. Though I must say, watching him standing perfectly still while they sing his song is strangely moving in itself. Interestingly you mention Jacques Brel in passing, another favourite via Scott Walker and Marc Almond (as well as David Bowie and Alex Harvey) and until recently I've not made the connection between LC and JB though it's definitely there.

Murf - I would love Leonard to play some more obscure songs in the Autumn, and also perhaps to experiment with a pared down style - more akin to Songs Of Love And Hate - I'd happily listen to the whole of that LP live. But also Death Of A Ladies Man and Memories would be a treat from that particular album. I doubt we will get that much of a difference in the tours, and I shan't complain because a 3 hour show by a 73 year old is more than we can expect, so little variation in that show is a reasonable price to pay.
1974 London RAH|1976 London RAH, London New Vic x 3|1979 Manchester|1985 London Hamm x 2|1988 London RAH x 3|1993 London RAH x 2|2008 Manchester x 2, Glastonbury, London O2 x 2, Big Chill, London RAH, Brighton|2009 Weybridge|2012 London Wembley|2013 London O2 x 2

"thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes, i thought it was there for good so i never tried"
abby
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by abby »

I never cared much for Suzanne until hearing Leonard perform it on this tour. I think I might've heard it played around our house one too many times when I was growing up and its beauty lost its stagger, or it might've been that my mom would mumble-sing a line or two from it during my eye-rolling teenage years. But hearing just Leonard play it with just his guitar brought an intimacy to the song that I'd overlooked- it was a man describing his experience all alone in the spotlight. It brought to mind the old days of Leonard's performances, when his guitar playing figured more prominently, the early albums I first fell in love with.
gary.armiger
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by gary.armiger »

Bird on a Wire has never been up there for me but I think it was the highlight at the O2. It moved me greatly, so different live. Simply the greatest concert I have ever been to.

Thank you LC

Gary
Movan
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Movan »

Hello, I am a new member, posting for the first time. I have been listening to Leonard Cohen since 10 years now ( I am 27) and he is really my number one favourite (ex aequo on top with Randy Newman I must say). I was delighted to be able to attend his live performance in Amsterdam July 12th. "Bird on the wire", "Suzanne" and "Take This Waltz" were unbelievable, although the whole concert was dazzling. I am really glad he is coming to Rotterdam in November! I have never been to two concerts in the same year of the same artist, but this one is different!
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Stranger
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Stranger »

Ziyan, I had the same experience with Anthem, and found it a highlight of the show (which, Movan, I saw twice within 48 hours, a record for me but then I never saw Leonard perform and I didn't want to miss the chance to get to see him twice). I see UrPal's point about the Sublime Twins sing a favourite, but then they were sublime indeed. And as I totally mis-interpret the True Meaning of that song (I don't associate it with approaching death), it doesn't really matter to me whether they are 20 or 70 (BTW death can also approach 20-somethings.....).
" ........... if one can describe as serious the confused comedy of our lives". Graham Greene, "The Comedians".
UrPal
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by UrPal »

Stranger wrote:I see UrPal's point about the Sublime Twins sing a favourite, but then they were sublime indeed. And as I totally mis-interpret the True Meaning of that song (I don't associate it with approaching death), it doesn't really matter to me whether they are 20 or 70 (BTW death can also approach 20-somethings.....).
You're absolutely right for calling me on that, of course. It occurred to me before and since my comments on the Webb Sisters IIBYW that some of my favourite writers died in their twenties and had explored some fairly morbid territories more starkly than many a fogged foggie could muster before they exited. In the midst of life we are in death, and also from conception maybes? Certainly no one is a stranger to the concept from the time their first pet or grandparent or other close relative done gone. And I wonder if in infancy we even have an innate sense of life's story ending before it becomes a rationalised experience?

And IIBYW is a love song (maybe to a lover, maybe to a supreme being) on every level, except that its told in the narrator's contemplation of "speaking no more". LC introduces it on the tour as having been written in one of the darker moments of his life, and it comes across as form of prayer. And the foundation of prayer is in death fearin' as well as god fearin'. The song has an Abide With Me-ness about it and that's as funereal as you get with your clothes on.

The Webb Sisters are sublime and the version they do of IIBYW is a worthwhile moment. I'd just like to hear LC do the song. And find the purity of their voices bring to mind The Corrs, The Carpenters and that end of the musical spectrum. Nothing wrong with it. I expect that there is a large proportion of LC's audience (indeed, I would expect the majority of pre-punksters) open to that mainstream popular musical sphere.

On the less pernickety side, In terms of their blending with LC's deep, deadpannish voice, Sharon and the Webb Sisters are as "sublime" as their predecessors, and I love the duet towards the end of Take This Waltz where the blonde Webb takes her cue and weaves around LC's lead. That's magic!
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Stranger
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by Stranger »

Hi UrPal,

I had a good laugh about your pre-punksters remark. You're right of course. I am one my self and I do like well-sung melodious songs (even my favourite hard rock band of my younger years is no longer considered hard rock but rather a melodious rock band :cry: ). I agree with your preference for LC to sing his songs (as I also wrote on the tour page, ref Amsterdam concert), but I just felt that the Webbs had their own sound which made it worthwile. Judy Collins singing Sisters of Mercy is still Judy singing Sisters of Mercy, but the Webb sisters were more than that. Of course I may have been affected by just being there at the concert, and on CD they might just sound like any other singers. I certainly can't wait to find out and hope that the Tour will be issued soon enough on DVD/CD.

LC did indeed introduce IIBYW as a prayer, and whether it is about death or love, the song has something very spiritual. Now back to my CD player and put another one on.

Cheers
" ........... if one can describe as serious the confused comedy of our lives". Graham Greene, "The Comedians".
cloudlea
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by cloudlea »

I have loved IIBYW since I first heard it and on 3rd December last year it became very real to when my 30 year old son died suddenly of a heart attack.

In the Manchester Opera House on 17th June to hear Leonard recite the first verse and then the young Webb sisters sing it so beautifully meant more than I can put into words.
Monica
imaginary friend
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by imaginary friend »

Hi Cloudlea,

That's very sad about your young son; the worst thing a parent could face.

IIBYW is so beautiful. Glad you were able to hear it live by Leonard and the Webbs.
cloudlea
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Re: Reappraised LC songs in light of the current tour

Post by cloudlea »

imaginary friend wrote:Hi Cloudlea,

That's very sad about your young son; the worst thing a parent could face.

IIBYW is so beautiful. Glad you were able to hear it live by Leonard and the Webbs.
Thank you. Leonard 's music and poetry have helped so much to keep me from going under.
Monica
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