Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2017
Images from the Internet
Leonard Cohen: The Live Broadcast Sessions 1985-1993
Go Faster Records / MVD Visual
118 minutes, 2016
When Leonard Cohen died in November
2016, he was a Canadian, certified Zen monk and orthodox Jew who often sang
songs using Christian symbolism, and he left the world a better place. There
are many who call him “Canada’s Bob Dylan,” but honestly I would say it was the
other way around, and Dylan was “American’s Cohen,” even though Dylan achieved
fame first. Sure, Dylan has a way with words, and he’s now won a Nobel Prize
for his songs/poetry, but if there was any justice, Cohen’s poems would be more
recognized as they were more striking, lyrical and, structured. Dylan likes to
rhyme lots of words together, but Cohen built his words into a tower of song, if you will.
However, one thing they definitely
have in common is that their voices could be considered less than – err –
culturally standard. Dylan’s is generally high and whiney, where Cohen’s is a
low rumble, like a storm coming over the horizon.
I came to be a Cohen fan late, after
his seminal Various Positions LP (1984),
still my favorite set of his tunes, perhaps rivaled only by his Best of collection. I feel extremely
lucky to have had the chance to see him perform live a couple of years ago,
during his final tour. Sure I sat towards the rear, and yet it was a magical
evening.
For this DVD, they compiled some live
footage from European television during three tours. Being the day of VHS (or
most likely PAL), the images have been significantly cleaned up (or taken from
the master tape), though are still a bit grainy – though better than the clip
below – but the sound is clear.
The first four cuts are from June
1985, at the Kalvøyafestivalen (Kalvoya Island Festival), in Sandvika, Norway.
The 26-minute section starts off with a doo-wop tune (of all things) called
“Memories,” from Death of a Ladies Man (1977).
On stage, he is smoking a cigarette, puffing during the musical interludes of
the songs. The last few albums were nearly whispered, and I wonder how much of
that had to do with his heavy leaning on ciggy-butts at that time, because while
his voice may not be the prettiest, he has some strong lung power and hits some
notes at full volume. Also interesting is how he uses 1950s wrappings to
discuss the possibilities of seeing his date’s naked body, or vice versa. “Heart
With No Companion” is from Various
Positions, a country-tinged tune (there is more than one on this release),
mixed with a militaristic marching rhythm. It’s a tricky song because the verbiage
sounds negative (e.g., “I sing this for the captain, whose ship has not been
built”), but it’s actually about sending love to those who are suffering.
“The Story of Isaac” is from 1969’s Songs From a Room. It tells the Old
Testament story of Abraham taking his son up the mountain to sacrifice to the
new God to prove his devotion, but it’s taken from the perspective of the young
Isaac. The set ends here, and Cohen leaves the stage to come back for the
encore, with the apt “I Tried to Leave You,” from New Skin For the Old Ceremony, in 1974. Thematically it’s similar
to Paul Simon’s “Overs,” in that the topic is the failure of a relationship breakup.
This song goes on for a meandering 10 minutes as Cohen riffs commentary while
introducing the band. Honestly, I was getting impatient after about the halfway
point of the intros.
The second set, from May 1988, was
also recorded in Norway, this time at the Oslo Konserthus (Oslo Concert House).
This section is 50 minutes long, but also intersperses short interview
segments; more on that later. This was aired as a complete program titled “Take
This Waltz,” and it is shown here complete, including the full end credits, I’m
happy to say.
The first cut is the powerful and
heavily orchestrated “First We Take Manhattan,” a nice way to start off. It
comes from the 1988 I’m Your Man record.
The band here is tight, and the two women doing the background vocals are
killer synced. This is one of the weirder songs in Cohen’s canon, as it is more
opaque than most of his others as far as figuring out just what the significance
is, and it has been discussed many times. It’s a great one and oft quotes
(well, paraphrased), but I still don’t know what “First we take Manhattan /
Then we take Berlin” means.
It’s also worth noting the stark
difference between the previous 1985 show and this one. Only three years later
and there is a cognitive shift going on. The first is still in the tail end of Cohen’s
folk-singer-songwriter phase, but this is a turning point into full tilt mode. He’s
mostly put down the guitar and began in earnest his trademark way to grasping
the microphone cord; his look is also more stylized (which he would keep to the
end, though no hat yet) including the loss of his trademark 5 o’clock shadow;
his sound is more honed and pre-arranged, and his use of a wider orchestration
is in play.
This is even true with some of the
older songs, such as the next, “Joan of Arc,” from 1971’s Songs of Love and Hate. Here we are presented with an imagined conversation
between Joan and the fire that would envelop her. It’s a brilliant piece that
I’ve always liked from the first time I heard it. Here he shares the vocals
ably with Julie Christensen (of the California alt-country punk band, The
Divine Horsemen!), supported by Perla Batella. It’s an odd love song followed by
one of an extreme level of lust, “I’m Your Man,” the title track off the 1988
album. Parts of it have the lyrical tone of Tom Lehrer’s “Masochism Tango,” or
a list of possibilities like the Temptation’s “Can’t Get Next to You,” but with
Cohen’s basso slow burn in sharps and flats with his patterned growl, it’s way
more sensual.
Actually, it makes sense that this
would be followed by “Ain’t No Cure for Love,” also from I’m Your Man. If I may digress for a second, between each songs are
interviews by Vera Kvaal, who hosted the “TopPop” show at the time, from which
I believe this was taken. Cohen discusses his writing, his mother, and his
life, among topics. While it’s all very interesting, it kind of takes away from
the music. For some songs that’s literally true because we only get to see an
excerpts, starting while the song is in progress after the interview clip, and
then it cuts away a few times after during the tune. Let me say, sighhhh.
Next, since he’s doing love songs,
it’s time for an anti-love one, so he picks up his acoustic black Gibson tell
does “Chelsea Hotel #2,” from New Skin…,
which is about his brief fling with Janis Joplin. It’s a slow, explicit ballad that
is touching and sad, like Harry Chapin’s “Taxi,” of a love that never grew
beyond the physical. It’s full of remorse and nostalgia.
For the first of two times on the DVD,
is his most covered song, “Hallelujah,” from Various Positions. While it’s a great number, for me it’s
overplayed to the point where I’m getting a bit weary of it, when played by another
than Cohen, surprisingly. Here, though, they only show part of what’s known as
the “profane” version of the lyrics. This is followed by the quasi-doo-wop
influenced paean to music, “Tower of Song,” from the I’m Your Man collection. With just the vocal back-up and Cohen on Technics
electric piano with a pre-set rhythm keeping time, he gives us a love song not
to a person, but to what he’s given his soul (music). Well, that’s how I
interpret the lyrics, with music being anthropomorphic in a similar way as
Chuck Berry did with a car in “Maybellene.” He finishes this segment with “Take
This Waltz,” again from I’m Your Man.
The final 43-minute grouping is from
May 1993, recorded at the Palau Municipal d’Esports, in Barcelona, Spain. It
starts off strong with one of his then-later songs, “Closing Time,” off of his 1992
album, The Future. Again, this is a
complete program that aired on Spanish television that they titled after his opening
tune. It says something about the man that nearly 10 years later, he is still
being backed vocally by Christensen and Batella. As for Cohen, his hair if
definitely graying but his voice is still holding strong, with perhaps a bit
more bass to it.
While the previous two shows were visually
cleaned up digitally, here you can see a bit of the noise of the PAL transfer
as lines will occasionally break out here and there. It’s definitely a fuzzier
image than the earlier clips, but it’s also pretty clear relatively, especially
when the lights are their brightest. Plus all the songs are captioned in
Spanish, and the sound is still great.
Next up is the whispy and whispery
“The Sisters of Mercy,” from Cohen’s first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967. A tribute to prostitutes, I found
the original recorded song a bit “tinny” on the vocals, but here they are quite
a bit smoother as his voice has aged. The next tune is also a ballad, from I’m You’re Man, “I Can’t Forget.”
This time when we hear “Hallelujah,”
we get most of the song without interruption, in all its (if you’ll pardon the
pun) glory. It starts a couple of stanzas in, with “Baby, I’ve been here before…”
and I don’t understand why they don’t just play the whole (again the pun) damn
thing. His voice definitely has more growl on the powerful parts. Following is the
repeated, lovely “I Tried to Leave You.” And again, it’s a long version, as
Cohen introduced the band as each member plays a solo.
The final cut is “Democracy,” from The Future. This is a sarcastically timely
song at the moment, especially since his death the day before the American
election, as the line “Democracy is coming to the USA.” We can only hope that
it will return soon, but I digress. This is one of the more powerful songs from
his later period, in my opinion, so it is a good choice to close out the
collection.
Leonard Cohen is sorely missed. I can
honestly say that we own every one of his records (in various forms), though there
are some I know better than others. If you are curious to know what you are
missing, this is a nice collection through his work (well, until 1992, or
course) to give you some idea of why he is mourned so deeply by so many. His
death has definitely been a crack in our musical history, but a DVD like this is
how the light gets in. RIP, Leonard, and thank you.
1985 Set List:
Memories
Heart With No Companion
Story of Isaac
I Tried to Leave You
1988 Set List:
First We Take Manhattan
Joan of Arc
I’m Your Man
Ain’t No Cure For Love (excerpt)
Chelsea Hotel #2
Hallelujah
Tower of Song
Take This Waltz
1993 Set List:
Closing Time
Sisters of Mercy
I Can’t Forget
Hallelujah
I Tried to Leave You
Democracy
From the 1988 set in Norway:
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