Heck Of A Guy – The Other Leonard Cohen Site

Note: This photo and text appeared in last year’s Heck Of A Guy Father’s Day entry and remains one of my favorite posts.

Father’s Day & Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen’s reference to Father’s Day in First We Take Manhattan, “It’s Father’s Day and everybody’s wounded,” isn’t likely to turn up on a Hallmark card. Further, the Canadian singer-songwriter has consistently criticized his own record as a father:

I have never been a good civilian. my children like me. But the truth is that I tried to be a good father and husband, but I was not very good.¹

On the other hand, he has just as consistently expressed his affection, admiration, and appreciation for his son, Adam, and his daughter, Lorca. And, he certainly seems to enjoy being grandfather to Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen (daughter of Lorca Cohen and Rufus Wainwright) and Cassius Cohen (Adam’s son, pictured below).²

So, when Dominique BOILE serendipitously suggested the evocative photo now seen atop this post (click on images for best viewing) for another project, I realized that a young Leonard Cohen reading from Peter Pan to his delighted children could well be the quintessential Heck Of A Guy Father’s Day offering.

Turns out I was right.

1. Magazine, Sunday Supplement to El Mundo, September 26, 2001 [↩]
2. A collection of Leonard Cohen’s comments about his children and childhood in general can be found at Leonard Cohen On Children. [↩]

Dominique BOILE forwards photos of Leonard Cohen he took a few hours ago in Paris. These and other shots of Leonard Cohen, Dominique, and Dominique’s wife, Annie, can be viewed at Leonard Cohen In Paris – June 15, 2013.

Hello From Oviedo – A Leonard Cohen Greeting From Prince Of Asturias Awards

The Animated Leonard Cohen Gallery

OK, this is the only designated collection of Cohen-associated animated gifs on the internet at the time of posting. Still, there are a bunch of these things.

The collection was originally put together as one of the treats for the 2013 Leonard Cohen European Tour Advent Calendar, but like the buildings erected for the Olympics and World Fairs, this gallery will be available after the Advent Calendar is completed.

Leonard Cohen: White Man Dancing

Many entries – and all animations in this post – are DrHGuy constructs.  Several others are from Joey Carenza at Sunshine, Hello. Whatever is known of the origin of the animations is given in the description. All images are easily downloaded.

The gallery can be accessed at

The Animated Leonard Cohen –
The Moving Leonard Cohen Collection

Leonard Cohen is smoking

Man Of Steel Opens Today: June 14, 2013

Ongoing readers may recall that Watchmen director, Zack Snyder, had wanted to use Allison Crowe’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in that film but had opted for Cohen’s own rendition of the now iconic hymn because hers was said to be “too beautiful.”¹

It turns out that Snyder, who also considered Crowe for Sucker Punch, didn’t forget the Canadian songstress, signing her on to sing Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and play a cameo role as a singer in a pub in the Cassidy Inn in Nanaimo, Allison’s home town, that served as a bar for Alaskan loggers in the film.

This post is our celebration of this milestone in Allison Crowe’s career.

A few more glamor shots:

[Show as slideshow]

1. See Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah – Mood Music For Watchmen SuperHeroic Sex Scene [↩]

5 Days Until First Concert Of The Leonard Cohen 2013 European Tour – Paris June 18th

Like Christmas Advent Calendars, one door of which is opened daily, one new link of the 2013 Leonard Cohen European Tour Advent Calendar at DrHGuy.com is activated daily so that clicking on it takes your browser to that day’s gift.

If you haven’t been following the 2013 Leonard Cohen European Tour Advent Calendar, here’s what you’ve missed:

• Day 1: Smoke Ring-Blowing Leonard Cohen animation
• Day 2: Online posting of  Little-Known, Outstanding 1985 Leonard Cohen Interview: Tortoise-Shell Hero By Biba Kopf
• Day 3: Unpublished Leonard Cohen PeeWee Hockey Team Photo & Back Story From Sylvie Simmons
• Day 4: Special Suzanne Lyrics Leonard Cohen Sang Only At 1974 Parc de la Courneuve, Paris Concert
• Leonard Cohen Comes Out In Support Of Disco & “YMCA” By Village People

• Video: Leonard Cohen’s Only Performance Of “Beloved Comrade” 1974
• The 2012-2013 Leonard Cohen Tours Crossword Puzzle
• The First Review Of A Leonard Cohen Musical Performance
• Leonard Cohen: “Byronic Bullfrog” & Other Delights From The 1985 Boston Concert
• Unpublished Leonard Cohen Childhood Pictures – With Sister Esther, Mother, & Kelef
• The Animated Leonard Cohen Collection
• Leonard Cohen Art By Heck Gallery

All of these – and today’s new link – can be accessed through today’s post: 2013 Leonard Cohen European Tour Advent Calendar: Day 13

The 2013 Leonard Cohen European Tour Advent Calendar will be posted daily at DrHGuy.com until and including June 18, 2013, the date of the Paris concert that opens the European Tour.

 Leonard Cohen At The BBC – Paying Rent In The Tower Of Babel

In 1968, just one year after Songs Of Leonard Cohen, the artist’s first album, was released, four BBC broadcasts carried Leonard Cohen performances taped live for those programs. Since then, these important and relatively high quality recordings have been periodically rediscovered to the delight of new fans.

In the ensuing 45 years, however, the zeal of Cohen fans, technological advances, and irresistible commercial dynamics have combined to produce numerous versions of these songs in various combinations and permutations, subjected to a number of editing and engineering tweaks, and distributed on multiple media, inevitably leading to confusion.

Today’s post is an effort to bring some clarity to the situation.

Leonard Cohen’s 1968 BBC Broadcasts

The 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC broadcasts follow:

1. Two songs recorded and broadcast on BBC2 TV’s Once More With Felix on January 27, 1968

1. The Stranger Song
2. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye (Duet with Julie Felix)

2. Four Leonard Cohen songs recorded at BBC Piccadilly Studio 1 and broadcast on the July 9, 1968 BBC Radio 1 program, Top Gear with John Peel:

1. You Know Who I Am
2. Bird On The Wire
3. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
4. Dress Rehearsal Rag

3. Thirteen songs were recorded Spring 1968 at the Paris Theatre, London and broadcast by BBC2 TV under the title ”Leonard Cohen Sings Leonard Cohen.”

Five of these were broadcast on August 31, 1968:

1. You Know Who I Am
2. Bird On The Wire
3. The Stranger Song
4. So Long Marianne
5. Master Song

Eight others were broadcast September 7, 1968:

1. There’s No Reason Why You Should Remember Me [improvisation]
2. Sisters Of Mercy
3. Teachers
4. Dress Rehearsal Rag
5. Suzanne
6. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
7. Story Of Isaac
8. One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong

The Standard Distributions

Many of these songs an be found alone.  The duet with Julie Felix, for example, is a fairly popular standalone YouTube video,¹ no doubt because the visual as well as audio components of the recording are available.

Others are often found with Cohen songs of other periods in collections of unreleased Leonard Cohen songs. Indeed, Heck Of A Guy’s own The Other
Leonard Cohen Album includes one and only one song from the 1968 BBC sessions, There’s No Reason Why You Should Remember Me, along with 18 other Cohen tracks.

 Most frequently, however, these songs are grouped into one of three  configurations.

1. The 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC Top Gear With John Peel Session

The names of this grouping vary in the placement of “John Peel” “Top Gear” and “BBC”  but are typically easy to recognize. Typically, these collections include the four songs from the 1968 Top Gear Show:

1. You Know Who I Am
2. Bird On The Wire
3. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
4. Dress Rehearsal Rag

2. The August 31 and September 7, 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC 2 shows

Collections include: Leonard Cohen at the BEEB, Leonard Cohen – Complete BBC 2 Broadcast, 1968, Leonard Cohen – BBC 1968, Leonard Cohen – Live, BBC Television Theatre, London, 1968, and others.

These collections contain all or nearly all the songs broadcast on the  August 31 and September 7, 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC 2 shows.

The Almost-Complete 1968  Leonard Cohen BBC Sessions

Titles include: Leonard Cohen – BBC Broadcasts 1968, Leonard Cohen – Live at the BBC 1968, Don’t Touch That Dial, My Radio Sweetheart, and others.

These collections usually contain  all the songs broadcast on the  August 31 and September 7, 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC 2 shows and some or all of the songs from the 1968 Top Gear with John Peel Show.

The most complete versions, such as Leonard Cohen – BBC Broadcasts 1968, contain all the  August 31 and September 7, 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC 2 shows, all the songs from the 1968 Top Gear with John Peel Show, and the Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye duet with Julie Felix from the January 27, 1968 episode from BBC2 TV’s Once More With Felix.

The Formats

Vinyl

Yep, these sessions are available in vinyl editions (primarily of interest to collectors). Dominique BOILE and Peter Torbijn of The Netherlands have provided images and information about these which can be viewed at 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC Recordings On Vinyl and 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC Recordings On Vinyl – A New Subspecies.

CDs

CD versions of the standard bootleg configurations are indeed available but seem to be falling out of favor as downloads gain popularity.

Downloads

Downloads of MP3 or uncompressed files are probably the most popular format available. For a complete discussion of the songs available, their genesis, the technical information, and downloading instructions, see Best Bootlegs: Leonard Cohen Live At The BBC and 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC Broadcasts (Still) Available For Download. Note: All download sites listed were functioning at time of this posting.

Internet Videos

While individual songs from the 1968 Leonard Cohen BBC sessions have been available at YouTube and similar sites for some time, a collection of the four songs from the Top Gear with John Peel program and the  Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye duet with Julie Felix from Once More With Felix has recently been uploaded. (Note: This video comprises a single photo of Leonard Cohen and the audio tracks listed).  Uploads of other combinations of these 1968 Cohen BBC performances in the near future seem likely.

Leonard Cohen – Peel Session 1968
Video by VibracobraXXIII·

1. Available at Julie Felix & Leonard Cohen ‘Hey,That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ 1968 [↩]