Lou Reed and Anjani At “Came So Far For Beauty” Tribute
While fact checking my post about Lou Reed officially inducting Leonard Cohen into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10 in New York,1 I serendipitously discovered a reference to Mr Reed and Anjani teaming up for a duet at the Dublin “Came So Far For Beauty” tribute to Leonard Cohen.2
Further, the song they performed together was of “Memories,” which has itself been the subject of two recent Heck of a Guy posts:
Ambiguous Documentation
Yeah, I might skip a section labeled “Ambiguous Documentation” too, but it is short. The pertinent Dublin “Came So Far For Beauty” tribute is written up in a number of online and print publications. Some of those pieces indeed mention Anjani and Reed singing “Memories.” Others, however, describe “Memories” the evening’s final song, being performed by the entire cast. And some - yep - listed it both ways.
A couple of emails to folks who were present at the concert has solved, I think, this apparent conundrum.
Lour Reed and Anjani Sing Memories
“Memories” was indeed the final song and was used, the second night in Dublin, as not only the finale but also an opportunity for the performers to showcase their skills one last time. And, as it turned out, Lou Reed and Anjani were paired in the exchange of the song’s lines,
Lou Reed:
Frankie Lane, he was singing Jezebel
I pinned an Iron Cross to my lapel
I walked up to the tallest and the blondest girl
I said, Look, you don’t know me now but very soon you will
So won’t you let me see
I said “won’t you let me see”
I said “won’t you let me see
Your naked body?”
Anjani:
Just dance me to the dark side of the gym
Chances are I’ll let you do most anything
I know you’re hungry, I can hear it in your voice
And there are many parts of me to touch, you have your choice
Ah but no you cannot see
She said “no you cannot see”
She said “no you cannot see
My naked body”
An eye witness, who writes on the LeonardCohenForum under the arbitrarily truncated designation, Born With The Gift Of A G, describes the scene in his posting, Thoughts On Came So Far For Beauty in Dublin: Part 2:
Or, as Anjani commented by email about her duet with Lou Reed,
The Dublin Performance of Memories
The bad news is that I couldn’t turn up a recording of the Lou Reed-Anjani duet. The good news is that I did find an MP3 file of “Memories” as performed the first night of the Dublin Tribute. Despite the low-fi quality, the recording does conjure up a sense of the joyful tone of the concert.
“Memories” Performed By Cast of Dublin “Came So Far For Beauty” Tribute (4 Oct 2006)
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Other Performers: Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, and Julie Christensen
Credit Due Department
Photos and poster are from Dick Straub’s Review Of The Dublin Concert. A full description of the event as well as many, many more photos are available at that site.
Footnotes
- The induction ceremony for this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entrants begins at 7 PM Central (i.e., God’s Time) on March 10 and, as noted by an earlier commenter, will be broadcast on VH1-Classic.↩
- There were two performances of the “Came So Far For Beauty” tribute in Dublin, one on 4 Oct 2006 and one on 5 Oct 2006. The Anjani & Lou Reed duet took place at the 5 Oct 2006 concert. Other performers at the tribute included Nick Cave, Lou Reed, The Handsome Family, Antony, Laurie Anderson, Beth Orton, Teddy Thompson, Jarvis Cocker, Gavin Friday, and Mary Margaret O’Hara.↩
