An interview in the Times on Saturday 19th.July.
Could it be our Darling??
Jarvis Cocker Jeremy Paxman Manchester
Alistair Darling (London or maybe Edinburgh)
where and when is Charlie attending?
The revelation that Leonard Cohen can number Prince Charles among his fervent fans, as the prince reveals in a TV interview involving himself, his two sons and presenters Ant and Dec, comes as a surprise.
The self-confessed puritan is an appropriate Chancellor for these austere days. He has a picture called Death’s Head on his office wall and his musical hero is the notoriously depressing Leonard Cohen. “I’m going to a concert he’s giving,” he said. “After a day at the Treasury I’m going there to be cheered up.”
Look after yourself and (each)others. All the best Dave ♫♫♫
It was London - the person I was with reported seeing a famous politician, "you know, the one with the white hair and black eyebrows"
2008: O2 London - July 17 | O2 London - November 13 | O2 London - November 14 | RAH London - November 17 | 2009: Antwerp - July 4 | Weybridge - July 11
Good to see a photograph of Mister Cohen gracing the front page of The Times this morning.
Do you think that Alistair Darling's favourite bit at The O2 Arena concert would have been when LC sang the opening line of So Long, Marianne...?
"Little lady.....I AM Kris Kristofferson....." London: 10 & 11 May 1993; Manchester: 17, 18, 19 & 20 June 2008; Vienna: 25 September 2008; London: 17 November 2008; Paris: 26 November 2008; Manchester: 30 November 2008; Liverpool: 14 July 2009; Paris: 28 September 2012; Manchester: 31 August 2013; Leeds: 7 September 2013.
there is a witty piece about cohen and darling on page 8 of the times today, Sat. and here it is:
Analysis: Pete Paphides
I have seen the future, brother / It’s murder,” sang Leonard Cohen in his 1992 song The Future. Cohen, of course, is a poet, with a poet’s way of saying things. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling is more confined in his choice of words, but there seemed to be no mistaking the similarity of tone when he told The Times: “You have the twin effect of the credit crunch and very high oil prices. That means the economic news is going to be difficult for quite some time.”
There is plenty in Cohen’s oeuvre to suggest that he might be working as some kind of unofficial secret policy adviser to the Chancellor. A less prudent Chancellor may have taken inspiration from the enjoy-now / worry-later philosophy that underpins, say, much of Oasis’s output but Cohen’s canon bears testament to an outlook based on a sense that the social fabric holding us together is getting more threadbare by the day.
Asked, by Jools Holland in 1993, if he would describe himself as an optimist, only the merest hint of a smirk betrayed Cohen’s mild incredulity that Holland had the naivety to even ask the question: “Everybody’s hanging on to their broken orange crate in the flood, and when you pass someone else, you know – to declare yourself an optimist or a pessimist . . . these descriptions are obsolete in the face of the catastrophe that everybody’s really dealing with.”
The Chancellor will probably have plenty more cause to turn to Cohen. Should the job get the better of him, however, he could do a lot worse than amble over to his record collection and drop the needle on to Iodine, the second song from Cohen’s 1977 album Death of a Ladies’ Man, where he’ll hear his hero intone, “Don’t you worry Darling /There are many ways a man can serve his time.” Perhaps, the Board of Trade, or Agriculture?
from outside London - south coast of England (are newspapers different here??) - the Times 19.07.08 newspaper front page:
"In his interview, the Chancellor also disclosed that to cheer himself up this week he went to a concert given by his musical hero, Leonard Cohen, whose songs are regarded as depressing even by his fans." (ibid. !!!)
The headline below the photo of Leonard Cohen on the front page reads: Leonard Cohen, the guru of gloom, cheers up the Chancellor."
"You let me sing, you lifted me up, you gave my soul a beam to travel on. ... You gave the injury a tongue to heal itself."
Leonard Cohen in Book of Mercy (1984) Ch. 19.
there was a little mention of this in the Guardian today as well, along similar lines to the Times one i.e. LC is very depressing, Darling has cause to be depressed etc
When, at the time, I heard Alistair Darling say he was going to the Leonard Cohen concert to 'cheer himself up', or words to that effect, I did not believe him to be a fan when evoking the usual rubbish about LC being depressing and believed he was just trying to appear 'cool', and was disgusted at the sniggers he was attempting to provoke. No LC fan would speak such garbage. I dismissed him as the shallow, unworthy person he has shown himself to be. Unless he, in person apologises for that impression on this forum would I retract this. I remember being outraged that some true fan had been denied a ticket to see Leonard by AD's disgusting person occupying a seat.
...he shows you where to look amid the garbage and the flowers
page 101 - ...i was actually in quite a cheerful mood...my friend ann coffery [PPS] had surprised me with two tickets to attend what proved to be the first of a number of leonard cohen farewell concerts.
i was taking calum [his teen son] and was looking forward to an uplifting performance by the master of gloom at london's 02 arena. it was a tremendous show...
---
page 250...the following year -- ...we listened to the killers CD that calum had given me for my birthday.
the previous year it had been leonard cohen who distracted me from my woes.
