"Thanks for the dance" - the new album

[Heather1969]

Thanks for the Dance, album of the day in BBC 6 music. A joy to hear Leonard coming out of my radio.

Interview with Adam on 5th December on Mary Ann Hobbs show.

Heather

[confetti]

Thanks for the Dance, album of the day in BBC 6 music. A joy to hear Leonard coming out of my radio.

Interview with Adam on 5th December on Mary Ann Hobbs show.

Heather

Heather wasn't it wonderful? It made my drive to work so much better, though very tearful.

[Andrew (Darby)]

This album is growing on me so much, though several tracks were immediately appreciated on first listening. As is usually the case, this album doesn't fail to resonate within the deepest recesses of my being... and I just keep playing it over and over.

Maarten, thanks for posting Sony's detailed credits for the tracks on the album.

However, I have one minor puzzle on my mind. In the CD booklet on the last page, Gratitudes, there’s a whole stack of people mentioned, but one lot in particular caught my attention, because I can’t quite work out how they fit into the picture. Here’s the excerpt: “To Stephan Colloredo, Katerina Kafentzi and Theodore Polychronopoulos, for finding an Athenian studio in an hour of need, and to Panos Mouzorakis and Maria Rizou for singing beautifully there.”

So my musing about this is that no mention is made of an Athenian studio elsewhere, nor are any of these people mentioned in any of the track credits. All I can surmise is that at some point Adam was holidaying on Hydra and needed to attend to something urgently in the production process whilst staying there, so summoned help from his Greek friends to attend to whatever this matter was, which entailed finding a studio and the services of the singers mentioned.

If any of our Greek Cohenite friends, or anyone else, can cast any light on this, I’d appreciate such an explanation of this little mystery.

Cheers,
Andrew

[yopietro]

“To Stephan Colloredo, Katerina Kafentzi and Theodore Polychronopoulos, for finding an Athenian studio in an hour of need, and to Panos Mouzorakis and Maria Rizou for singing beautifully there.”

"Theodore Polychronopolous"...what a name!

[Sophia]

According to Mariza Rizou (vocals for "Moving On"), Adam Cohen contacted her after seeing her singing at a party of greek radio station Pepper, and they finally met at a studio near Acropolis. At the beginning she thought she would work on Adam's songs, she was astonished to hear that it was a LC album. She was very pleased working with Adam, he knew exactly what he wanted but he also gave her the freedom to suggest a few things. Also,on 7 and 8 November 2018 Radio Pepper dedicated the programme to Leonard Cohen, inviting some Greek singers to cover his songs. Panos Mouzourakis was among them.
https://www.pepper966.gr/leonard-cohen/
https://www.ogdoo.gr/epikairotita/mousi ... narnt-koen

Sophia

[Geoffrey]

several articles in norwegian press, here are two.

first is a link to today's 'dagbladet'.
https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/overras ... d/71843779

the other is in 'v.g.' ('verdens gang') from a couple of days ago, unfortunately a pay area, so unlike the nice 'dagbladet' people, these objectionable miscreants refuse access unless one gives them money.
https://www.vg.no/rampelys/i/Xg3xqn/sna ... -siste-tid

[Andrew (Darby)]

Sophia, thanks for that very interesting and pertinent information, which resolves the mystery... and it's nice to know that the Cohen father and son connection with Greece is manifest in such a lovely collaborative way in this instance!

I must admit too that I'd missed seeing Mariza Rizou's name in the credits for 'Moving On'.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Hal E. Lujah]

Hi, all. I just read a very intriguing review of Thanks for the Dance, in The Beast. I read a very sour one as well. I think the positive one is better because it dealt with the complexity of the reversal of the goal falling short of the reach. The author of the poor review had found nothing profound in the album. He failed to see the Buddhist depth of those lines. Leonard remained true to his heart up right until he left the body.

[Andrew (Darby)]

Additional info on 'The Night of Santiago'

As ProfNowlin has indicated in his earlier post, 'The Night of Santiago' is based on a Frederico Garcia Lorca poem entitled 'The Unfaithful Wife', which I found a few translations of, each a bit different. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how it’s been very effectively adapted in Leonard’s version, seems to flow better, also with the marital status of the woman kept as more of a punchline towards the end (unlike the original). Anyway, here’s one of the translations:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-casad ... -wife.html

The other thing I discovered was that Philip Glass’s ‘Book of Longing’ show included his naturally very different version of the song, which I found a recording of (but be prepared for the Bruegel painting to suddenly become blackness in this particular YouTube clip ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoZs7An7WyY

Cheers,
Andrew

[Hal E. Lujah]

...

[idealcrash]

Dear me, where did you dredge that up? There's nothing, absolutely nothing that I agree with in that review. I guess on one level it's a matter of taste and preference (I personally liked 'Free As a Bird', this guy didn't), but he makes such sweeping, bizarre and self-contradictory statements:

- Cohen 'was just beginning to find his voice as a singer/songwriter' but then right at the end he praises his back 'catalog of brilliant, raspy essays'
- it seems to me his problem is actually with the backing to the songs (cheesy synths, etc) but then he says the songs actually hold up ("The fact that a song like “Everybody Knows” is good at all, given these impediments, just grows more amazing over time") so isn't that precisely proof of good songwriting?
- 'the songs come from his stubborn, perfectionist attempt to be more than a nostalgic hypocrite' which is just word salad,
- 'idiotic fits of mystical joy' - if that is the level we are at I don't need to go on, though I could rebut almost every line of this 'review'

that this 'review' simply has no legs to stand on. It's a bit like reading an amazon review from someone who gives a book 1 star because it arrived with a couple of pages bent... I would safely consign it to the rubbish bin.

[LisaLCFan]

Hello, all. What do forumites make of this rather dissonant review...

I don't waste my time on such garbage, and neither should you! Just ignore stuff like this -- avoiding this kind of thing makes life so much more pleasant!

Perhaps instead of reading meaningless reviews (and reposting them here, as if they deserve to be read, which they don't...), a better idea may be to use that time to listen to one of the songs on "Thanks for the Dance," or even just to think about what the new songs and the new album mean to you and why you enjoy them. Then, maybe post something here about that, something nice and positive, which would certainly be more worthy of our time than reading some crap review.

"I fought for something final
Not the right to disagree."

Focus on what matters. (Just a thought.)

[Hal E. Lujah]

I think the positive one is better because it dealt with the complexity of the reversal of the goal falling short of the reach. The author of the poor review had found nothing profound in the album. He failed to see the Buddhist depth of those lines. Leonard remained true to his heart up right until he left the body.

[Clementine]

From the very first line of that review it was clear that this Joseph Kugelmass - whoever he is, simply thought he was was being clever and went to a lot of trouble to deliberately find fault with every single aspect of 'Thanks for the Dance'.

He's at odds with dozens of known and respected reviewers and frankly, his nasty screed is not even worth reading.

Millions of us will remember Leonard with fondness long after Kugelmass has slunk back to wherever he came from!

I'm off to listen to the album again. I'm just loving it and I'm so glad Adam went through with this project. Leonard would definitely approve. The Hills just gives me goosebumps - it's magnificent!

[Hal E. Lujah]

I agree. Kugelmass thought he was being profound. And who listens to Avalanche twice a day anyhow? Wish I hadn't posted it.