Following the New York Leonard Cohen Beacon Theatre Concert (February 2009) but prior to realizing that the Cohen concert junket had become the Tour That Never Ends,2 I began putting together a commemorative video of the event. The idea was that I would finish the project once the World Tour was over.
As of today, the Cohen Infinite Tour Loop includes confirmed concert dates through 21 September 2009 with possible venues being considered after that time.
So, in hopes of posting this video sometime before the Christmas rush, I am proud to present, on the occasion of the end of the US-Canadian leg and the beginning of the 2009 European leg of the World Tour,
The Heck Of A Guy
Dear Leonard Cohen – Thanks For The Tour.
I Hope It Was Good For You, Too.
Commemorative Video Celebration
Of The First 14 Months Of The 2008-2009 World Tour
Dear Leonard Cohen – Thanks For The Tour. I Hope It Was Good For You, Too.
I’d like to read
one of the poems
that drove me into poetry
I can’t remember one line
or where to look
The same thing
happened with money
girls and late evenings of talk
Where are the poems
that led me away
from everything I loved
to stand here
naked with the thought of finding thee
Link → New Central Park Shakespeare boss Barry Edelstein on the best way to "speak the speech."
Best Bootlegs: Leonard Cohen Live At The BBC
The best MP3 audio recordings of Cohen’s 1968 BBC-TV appearance I’ve found.
These well-preserved sessions at the BBC in 1968 offer a fly-on-the-wall experience to witness a young Cohen singing practically the entire first album. The voice is fresh and deep, pushing the songs outside the Tin Pan Alley perimeter, and delving into poetry with a richness of words and subject. Today, they still have that raw appeal of a young artist at the peak of his powers.
More info about the music and downloading at link.
This is a video I created for the the never-released 1980 version of Leonard Cohen’s “Do I Have To Dance All Night,” one of my favorite Cohen songs.
I also created a video for a very different arrangement of the same song as Cohen performed it in the 1976 tour. That video is found at Do I Have To Dance All Night - The Leonard Cohen Video You’ve Never Seen
Leonard Cohen’s Other “Do I Have To Dance All Night” (1980 Version) Gets Its Own Video
Allen Ginsberg and Leonard Cohen: another photo of the two poets meeting after a poetry reading in Los Angeles. From Allen Ginsberg Died 12 Years Ago
Tenuously related trivia - Allen Ginsberg was one of the backup singers on Cohen’s “Death Of A Ladies’ Man.” Another backup vocalist on that song, the title track on the Jeff Spector-produced album by the same name, was Bob Dylan.
Fine Point by John Updike
Fine Point
By John Updike
Why go to Sunday school, though surlily,
and not believe a bit of what was taught?
The desert shepherds in their scratchy robes
undoubtedly existed, and Israel’s defeats-
the Temple in its sacredness destroyed
by Babylon and Rome. Yet Jews kept faith
and passed the prayers, the crabbed rites,
from table to table as Christians mocked.
We mocked, but took. The timbrel creed of praise
gives spirit to the daily; blood tinges lips.
The tongue reposes in papyrus pleas,
saying, Surely - magnificent, that “surely”-
goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the sayd of my life, my life, forever.
Written December 22, 2008 - shortly before his death
