BBC Radio Scotland - Leonard Cohen Special,1st Jan 2013

[leonardthecat]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pf034

I forgot to post yesterday.

Leonard Cohen Special
AVAILABILITY:6 DAYS LEFT TO LISTEN
Duration: 55 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 01 January 2013
Leonard Cohen's music is a far cry from the bubble gum sound of 20th & 21st century pop, as he's often accused of creating music to "slit your wrists to". In a special edition of the Culture Cafe, Janice Forsyth calls an unofficial Leonard Cohen Appreciation Society meeting with three other fans - Sylvie Simmons, renowned music journalist, and author of I'm Your Man, The Life of Leonard Cohen; film & TV producer, John Archer, who made a BBC Omnibus - Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen; and music radio producer, Stuart Cruickshank. They dive into the peaks and troughs of the living legend's life and work.

[musicmania]

I really enjoyed this thanks

[st theresa1]

Thanks for posting this Leonard the cat. Loved listening to it and to the clips of Leonard included in it.
I especially appreciated the comments about our love of Leonard being vindicated, but have to disagree that it was okay for women to
love Leonard. I also received the barbed comments with regard to my taste in music--

[Cate]

Thank you for posting the link.
I'm listening to it right now and really enjoying it.

So many artists are ahead of their times - it's so wonderful that Leonard is still around to be appreciated as the world begins to catch up.

[John Etherington]

Thanks to leonardthecat for drawing my attention to this programme. Overall they didn't do a bad job in presenting a potted synopsis of Leonard's life, most especially for newbies and casual listeners. Also, it was good to have Sylvie Simmons involved, and to hear contributions from Adam Cohen (in particular) as well as the Webb Sisters.

However there are several things that irked me about this progamme, and upon which I feel the need to comment. Right at the start, the presenter resorts to mentioning the tired old cliches about pessimism and razor blades (i.e. the misunderstandings from the early days), and then says "what is it about Leonard Cohen that makes grown men and women swoon and say 'I'M YOUR FAN'!". Well fortunately, apart from a few obsessives, most followers of Leonard don't do this!

As has often been said before, it was mentioned that Leonard appears to have ended most of his relationships on reasonably good terms, and ex-partners tend to speak kindly of him. I've often thought how lucky he has been coming from the societal level and cultural climate that he did. Poor Ted Hughes was not treated so kindly, and I can't help but wondering how different things might have been if Leonard had hit on Sylvia Plath!

It always mystifies me (as in this programme) when people say they were into Leonard's work, but went off him around the time of "Death of a Ladies Man". Why one wonders were they listening to Leonard in the first place. Certainly one didn't listen to him for "entertainment" in the Seventies. His work was for people who gravitated to it through personal identication or some deep psychic need. No one who truly "got it" then, would put Leonard Cohen albums on at parties and urge other people to listen to them! When "Death of a Ladies Man" came out, it was the first new Leonard album in three years and some of us embraced it wholeheartedly (however different it was).

Inevitably, "Recent Songs", a masterwork and a personal favourite of Leonards,doesn't even get a name check, and it seems there were only a few of us who realised this in 1979 (there is added irony with "Recent Songs" still being the one album that you can't easily find as a single work). After "Recent Songs", it felt totally appropriate that a work as subtle and spiritually deep as "Various Positions" should meet with a low-key response in 1985. Thank Christ there weren't "tweets" then!

Sylvie mentioned that when Leonard took time off from Mount Baldy, he would watch TV, drink good wine and eat McDonalds (I think she also mentioned that in the book). Surely Leonard would never eat at such a disgusting establishment as McDonalds? I ate there once in the late Seventies and was quite sick afterwards...never again!

Finally there seems to be this odd idea that early Leonard Cohen albums were used for seduction. Maybe "Songs Of" was once used by some stoned hippies for this purpose...but imagine trying to get it on to "Songs From a Room", "Songs of Love and Hate" or "Live Songs". Better to stick to Marvin Gaye, Barry White...anything else, for that matter!

[Vicomte]

......................

Finally there seems to be this odd idea that early Leonard Cohen albums were used for seduction. Maybe "Songs Of" was once used by some stoned hippies for this purpose...but imagine trying to get it on to "Songs From a Room", "Songs of Love and Hate" or "Live Songs". Better to stick to Marvin Gaye, Barry White...anything else, for that matter!

Well in line but not as a hippie, my first listening to Leonard Cohen in '67 was whilst partaking of a very nice joint in a friends West London flat (Lebanese if I remember correctly) the mellowness felt combined with Songs of Leonard Cohen, especially on first hearing Sisters of Mercy set me up for practically for a life time of enjoying the chap but never so much as to ever fawn. Tell me John because I can't really recall this phenomenon of "swooning" and utter adoration as we can witness it today happening before 2008? I can certainly remember people in the audience shouting out songs they wanted to hear and loud clapping, even the odd whistle and a holler when a song they wanted was duly announced but that was about the most adoration I remember. The IOW festival, as I have said before, I went to see a few others before LC and all I remember was it being very late and people being very calmed by it all, again I believe it was whilst having a puff but then so were many thousands of others during that and other gigs during the festival and not all of us were hippies

I fear this might end in a Daniel O'Donnell type audience if LC continues to tour......

I ate a McDo burger once, even went back again sometime, necessity is sometimes the key when hungry, any ship in a storm, or is that an equation to something else? So I can imagine why way back when Leonard felt the need to eat summat

[Rodin]

I always make love to 'Agadoo' by Black Lace.
3 minutes of magic.

[John Etherington]

Vicomte - I think there was an element of hippie in all of us at the Isle of Wight, or at least a sense of solidarity with hippiedom (even Leonard grew his hair). I also felt a certain glee when the revolutionaries tore the fence down because of the £3.00 ticket charge (this tradition could perhaps be revived for European stadiums?). Talking of the Isle of Wight, I wasn't particularly stoned and my memories of it are still very vivid. I maintain that it didn't rain during at all during the two days that I was there and definitely not during Leonard's performance (despite what Bob Johnston/Sylvie Simmons say). Do you have personal memories of this?

You're right about the early responses at concerts.... I remember Leonard at the Albert Hall (if there were any interruptions) saying "would you please appoint a spokesman?". Indeed Leonard "fandom" and the emergence of the "Hallelujah harpies" effectively came to prominence around 2008. You can tell by the daily bombardment of Leonard trivia on the internet that there are huge projections on him, which have yet to be fully processed.

Rodin - Due to collective demand, I've no doubt that Leonard is preparing a version of "Agadoo", as we speak!

[leonardthecat]

[quote][/quote] John Etherington .....
Sylvie mentioned that when Leonard took time off from Mount Baldy, he would watch TV, drink good wine and eat McDonalds (I think she also mentioned that in the book). Surely Leonard would never eat at such a disgusting establishment as McDonalds? I ate there once in the late Seventies and was quite sick afterwards...never again!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dAPM ... sh&f=false

Sylvie writes in her book about Leonard driving from Mount baldy, to Mcdonalds for a Filet O Fish. Followed by a bottle of wine and Jerry Springer on TV. Sounds like a great night to me. Don't know if McDonalds have improved since the late Seventies, I'm not old enough to remember.
Sometimes you just need to keep it simple.
Who's to judge? Maybe Mr.Cohen likes McDonalds for what it is, and doesn't find it disgusting.

I enjoyed the radio programme for what it was. 3 fans (or whatever word you prefer), talking about LC.

[Vicomte]

John you are right, although I did have long hair in the late 60's and early 70's, I wasn't a hippie exactly but certainly felt the calmness that they exuded at the time and yes perhaps it was a kindred spirit to belong to a time when love and peace were uppermost. Well it would have been even better if you took away the Hells angels and some of the activists that thought we should all bring down the establishment, when all we wanted was to have a good time.

Your memories appear to be better than mine but as far as IOW in 1970, I can only remember having pretty good weather, in fact although we took a tent I do seem to recall sleeping outside most, if not every night. I have a very vivid memory of seeing the many thousands of people outside the "arena" who stayed there throughout the festival and struggling on occasion to get to a toilet and the food and drink we took run out after a day or two and I remember just how dear the festival food seemed to us.

I do wonder why though 2008 produced this new fandom the "Hallelujah harpies", was it after Live in London CD/DVD perhaps? I can't see how the preceding years could have seen such new fans, after all, he hadn't done anything after the Future tour and I really would not have thought that Ten New Songs and Dear Heather would produce such fans, perhaps they did?

Yes, LC, Waits & Cohen are also working on new versions of YMCA and the Birdie Song, altogether now..........feel the lurve.

[ScottM]

Thanks for the link. Although we were back in Scotland for New Year we missed this.
Still, something to enjoy now while we recover!
Happy New Year.

Regards,

Scott & Helen

[leonardthecat]

What is a "Hallelujah harpie"?
What's the problem with people finding Leonard Cohen after 1969, 1979 or 2009?
The more new 'fans' the better. Keeps the music alive.

[Vicomte]

There is no problem, what is wrong in finding out why?

Why indeed do you find it wrong that some of us might like to know why? After all, there is often a thread on the forum asking when and how did you find Leonard Cohen, so would that also be a reason to ask, "why do you want to know" and "what does it matter when anyone found him"?

It's only asking how, when and why this particular "kind" of phenomenon took place.

I have posted before that no doubt partly due to new fans LC keeps on touring, so we all gain.

[leonardthecat]

Nothing wrong at all. Just thought the term Hallelujah Harpie didn't come across as a compliment.

[John Etherington]

"Hallelujah Harpies" according to my dictionary are beautiful, winged maidens (though not gender specific) who heard a version of"Hallelujah" and later became winged monsters with the face of an ugly old person and equipped with crooked, sharp talons - i.e. the sort of person who gets pissed, talks through concerts, waves banners etc.