Yesterday in Maryland Leonard Cohen gave the greatest concert of all time. I want to tell you about it.
I'm 54. Cohen was born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, so he's 20 years older, now 74. Old enough to be my father. But he's always felt like an older brother, or more.
I love him. I knew him as a poet long before I even knew he was also a musician. I'm a poet myself, and I think Leonard is a GREAT poet. It's strange, but I've always felt he was almost a reflection of me, a doppelganger or something. I've never felt that way about any other artist. His music touches me more deeply than anything else I've ever heard. I fantasize sometimes that he and I were both working in the Jerusalem Temple more than 2,000 years ago . . . although of course I don't really believe that.
For decades I've idolized three singer-songwriters: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Leonard Cohen. All are great Jewish poets who are drenched in spirituality, sensuality, and politics, who all use many Christian images and symbols. I'm a religious Catholic, but those three artists have always been my favorite; I can't think of a comparable Christian singer. Bruce Cockburn is really great, but not on that level.
Bob Dylan actually converted to Christianity for awhile, then backtracked. I don't know about Paul Simon, but I don't think he ever converted. I'm sure Leonard Cohen never converted to Christianity, and yet, from my perspective, he is the one with the most deeply Christian sensibility, at least if you want to consider dark mystic Christian sensibilities like Meister Eckhart. In any event, nobody in many, many years has written such beautiful songs of prayer as Leonard.
And of course, nobody else writes such erotic poetry. Last night I showed my wife Leonard's most recent poetry volume A Book of Longing, from just a few years ago, and she said she blushed many times! Sex and God, doubt and faith, depression and transcendance. Leonard is now in a state of great joy that is an incredible marvel to see. I think he is what Catholics call a saint. If you have a chance, even if it costs you $1,000 a ticket, get to one of these remaining shows!
In my early years, for a long time I thought Dylan was the best. But I've gotten tired of him, and I just don't get the critics who like his last three albums so much. I tried, but I don't like them at all.
Then there came a time when I thought Paul Simon was the best of the three. His difficult Rhythm of the Saints album is one of the all-time greatest. I didn't like it at all the first few times I heard it. Took awhile to get those new rhythms in my heart. But it's great! His Central Park concern in the late 1980s, featuring that music, is sublime. I went to a Paul Simon concert in the late 1980s with my ex-wife, and afterwards I mentioned how interesting it was that he used so many Christian images. She was not Christian, and she got angry at me and said there was no such thing! Like, uh, read the lyrics, you poor thing.
But in the 1990s I realized that Leonard Cohen is the greatest of all of them, although he'll never have the same measure of fame. His concert on Halloween Day 1988 on the TV show Austin City Limits is one of the all-time great concerts. It's the favorite video I own. My wife once accidently overwrote it and I almost died! But we got another copy. Look for it!
So for years I've regretted that I may never get to see Leonard perform live. Although he remains an orthodox Jew, he spent much of the last decade in a Zen monastery in California. During that time, his closest advisers robbed him of every last nickel he'd ever saved. He recovered a $9 million judgment against him, but won't recover much if anything of it.
So he HAD to go on tour. And he is now in the midst of what he says will probably be his last tour. He's charging $100 a ticket or more, and he obviously wants everybody to be satisfied.
So he has put together the absolutely most amazing concert performance anybody has ever seen! At 74 he is in great shape and full of energy. He has an incredible 10-person band featuring some of the world's very greatest musicians. And they're performing the same set at every show (with minor variations).
I just saw them at Merriweather Post Pavillion outside D.C. last night. It was a 3 hour and 20 minute show, with 3 encores! It turned out to be a cold and rainy night, but everybody was transported.
He has just come out with a new CD/DVD called, I think, Live In London, which is the early version of this show. It's a must have!
I have many more thoughts, but let me just give you the set list, with some notes and links to all the lyrics. (I compiled this all myself tonight, from notes I took in dead darkness with a bad pen on the back of my ticket--a Ticketmaster 8 x 11.5 print your own ticket.)
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Leonard Cohen
Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia, Maryland
Monday, May 11, 2009
Really great review of this tour by Gary Kamiya in the April 17, 2009 Salon:
http://www.salon.com/...
First Set
- Dance Me To The End Of Love (1984)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/dance-me-to-the-end-of-love-lyrics.html)
- The Future (1992)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/the-future-lyrics.html)
- Ain't No Cure For Love (1988)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/ain_t-no-cure-for-love-lyrics.html)
- Bird On The Wire (1969)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/bird-on-the-wire-lyrics.html)
- Everybody Knows (1988)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/everybody-knows-lyrics.html)
- In My Secret Life (2001)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/in-my-secret-life-lyrics.html)
- Instrumental Break (maestro Javier Mas from Barcelona playing a bandurria)
- Who By Fire (1974)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/who-by-fire-lyrics.html)
- Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (1974)
(http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/CHELSEA-HOTEL-NO-2-lyrics-Leonard-Cohen/1A7711D520478DBF4825
6AF00027B605)
- Waiting For The Miracle (1992)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/waiting-for-the-miracle-lyrics.html)
- Anthem (1992)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/anthem-lyrics.html)
Second Set
- Tower Of Song (1988)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/tower-of-song-lyrics.html)
- Suzanne (1967)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/suzanne-lyrics.html)
- The Gypsy's Wife (1979)
(http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/leonard_cohen/the_gypsys_wife-lyrics-12802.html)
- The Partisan (1969)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/the-partisan-lyrics.html)
- Boogie Street (2001) (sung by co-writer Sharon Robinson)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/boogie-street-lyrics.html)
- Hallelujah (1984)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/hallelujah-lyrics.html)
- I'm Your Man (1988)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/i_m-your-man-lyrics.html)
- A Thousand Kisses Deep (2001) (recited, no music)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/a-thousand-kisses-deep-lyrics.html)
- Take This Waltz (1988)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/take-this-waltz-lyrics.html)
First Encore
- So Long Marianne (1967)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/so-long-marianne-lyrics.html)
- First We Take Manhattan (1988)
(http://www.lyricsdomain.com/12/leonard_cohen/first_we_take_manhattan.html)
Second Encore
- Famous Blue Raincoat (1971)
(http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/famous+blue+raincoat_20082860.html)
- If It Be Thy Will (1984) (partially recited by Leonard, then sung by the Webb sisters playing harp and guitar,
exquisitely beautiful)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/if-it-be-your-will-lyrics.html)
- Democracy (1992)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/democracy-lyrics.html)
Third Encore!
- I Tried To Leave You (1974)
(http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/leonard-cohen-lyrics/i-tried-to-leave-you-lyrics.html)
- Whither Thou Goest (from the Book of Ruth, the entire band singing a capella)
(http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/leonard_cohen/whither_thou_goest_from_the_book_of_ruth.html)
- Beautiful benediction from Leonard, a blessing on the crowd.
Peace to you all, Timaeus.