Leonard Cohen on screen - Dublin 2008
The Dublin Concerts
Leonard Cohen just completed three concerts in Dublin.
Click on graphics to enlarge
Leonard Cohen arrives on stage - Dublin 2008
The Who’s Who Who Were In The Audience
According to the June 16, 2008 Herald story, concert attendees at the three sold-out 10,000 seat venue included Bertie Ahern,1 Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, Gerry Adams,2 Bono and his wife Ali, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and his wife, and Gerry Ryan3 and his family.
Webb Sisters on tele - Dublin 2008
The Criticism
OK, everyone (really, everyone) seems to have been enthralled by Cohen’s performance. This excerpt from The Independent is characteristic:
The Venue - Dublin 2008
Not everyone, however, was enthralled by the location. In the comments section of that same Independent article, for example, Esmeralda writes,
The problem with big screens at concerts is you just look at the screens - Dublin 2008
And, in a forum dealing with performing environs, Forfismum observes
Good Lord, I thought that I had seen everything but……no. Yesterday went to see young Cohen in Dublin. The sound check did not start until 5 pm, the official time for the gates to open.The publicity for the gig at the Royal Hospital Dublin Royal Hospital Kilmainham: Conference Facilities for Conferences & Corporate Entertainment in Ireland boasted of a champagne bar, wine bar, Thai food etc all above the quality of the usual concerts, and we had looked forward to a nice picnic before the off at 7.15. We were at the entrance in a smashing setting at 5 and a queue started to form which built until 6.45, but the queue seemed to develope a mushroom head as new folks arrived. Not yer usual lowlifes like myself but “posh” and “artistic” plonkers who thought that queuing was for the dirty peasants and this was pathetic as the venue was all seats, no need to panic etc.
Anyway to the point. Halfway through Cohens performance the crowd from the back seats moved en masse into the two aisles leading to the stage. The security people did their best but were outnumbered and all they could do was hold the mob back. The police could not get in as they were at the back scratching their bums, I mean, who would expect crowd violence from a gang of old women fans of the venerable Leonard?
I am dead serious here folks, I have never seen such behaviour at concert before. Slipknot, Pixies, Radiohead, Muse, all full of teenagers and only the odd skirmish but this was scary. Crazed 50-70 year old women [and men] determined to see their God, but not in the way that kids worship bands, there was a fanatic aspect to it that i have never seen before. One of Irish radios top presenters was in our row with 4 kids and he was escorted our by a phalanx of security guys and we had mad bastards trying to climb over our seats and over us, as I said, scary. If you were to see these women in the shops you would think that they were harmless, that there was no danger but some form of mass hysteria seems to have taken over. The security boys and girls were magnificent in preventing a disaster, remember the Bradford fire? the Heysel [spelling] disaster? and other such events. The faces on some of these people and the eyes were frightening. Give me a mosh pit any day.
End of concert - Dublin 2008
There is an ongoing discussion on the pros and cons of the Dublin setting and the crowd, part of which can be found at LeonardCohenForum.com
Credit Due Department:
Photos (and most captions) are by Karl Smyth.
- Bartholomew Patrick “Bertie” Ahern (Irish: Parthalán Pádraig Ó hEachthairn, born 12 September 1951) is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008. Ahern has been a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1977 and he represents the constituency of Dublin Central. He served in the governments of Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds as Minister for Labour (1987–1991) and Minister for Finance (1991–1994). He also served briefly as Tánaiste after the break-up of Albert Reynolds’ coalition government. In 1994 he was elected sixth leader of Fianna Fáil. From Wikipedia [↩]
- Gerry Adams: MP (Irish: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, which is the second largest political party in Northern Ireland and fourth largest party in the Republic of Ireland. Adams is credited with having played a pivotal role in helping to end the Troubles in Northern Ireland. His leadership and ability to communicate and negotiate with both paramilitary forces and also politicians such as John Hume and John Major was the catalyst that brought about the Good Friday Agreement. From the late 1980s, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, initially following contact by the then Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and subsequently with the Irish and British governments and then other parties. In 2005, the IRA indicated that its armed campaign was over and that it is now exclusively committed to democratic politics. Under Adams, Sinn Féin changed its traditional policy of abstentionism towards Oireachtas Éireann, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, in 1986 and later took seats in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. However, Sinn Féin retains a policy of abstentionism towards the Westminster Parliament. From Wikipedia [↩]
- Host of numerous TV and radio shows [↩]
The Leonard Cohen phenomenon continues to confuse me. The guy has a horrible, boring, lifeless voice. Like the death rattle of a mummy. And yet he gets “the who’s who” to laud him like he’s a god.
You said in a previous post:
“Born with the gift of a golden voice: Leonard Cohen”
Golden voice? Come on. Not a chance. Roy Orbison had a golden voice. Jeff Buckley had a golden voice. Leonard Cohen has an asphalt voice: thick, dark, and chunky. He doesn’t even sing, he talks, very slowly. His songs aren’t even melodic until other people cover them.
While I know that he appeals to those serious music folks who think the top 40 is satan’s trash, Cohen goes so far the other way, his songs aren’t fun to listen to.
To respond to the points in the preceding comment,
The Leonard Cohen phenomenon continues to confuse me. The guy has a horrible, boring, lifeless voice. Like the death rattle of a mummy.
So, I’m getting the sense that you don’t care for Leonard Cohen’s voice, right? I can only suggest that not everyone agrees with your description of Leonard Cohen’s voice. A quick, non-scientific search for “Leonard Cohen,” “voice,” and “quality” turns up some negative comments but far more descriptions of this sort:
“newly magisterial quality”
“voice is deeper, softer and somehow there is a depth and quality”
“inimitably gravelly but melodious voice”
“I think I nearly prefer his voice now, with the added hoarse and raw quality age has given it. Somehow it suits the songs“
That search also turns up this pertinent observation from Film Ireland:
His [Cohen's] voice (often derided for tunelessness) has a depth comparable with that of Johnny Cash. But while Johnny has a voice to go to work to, Leonard’s has a dreamy quality; it is a voice to fall asleep to in the arms of dreams and philosophy.
and yet he gets “the who’s who” to laud him like he’s a god.
Many important musicians, political leaders, writers, actors, and directors do seem to think Cohen is hot stuff. To answer the implicit question of how he “gets ‘the who’s who’ to laud him like he’s a god,” I’m going with “they appreciate the quality of his songs and his performances.” I suppose Leonard could be inducing mass hypnosis or practicing a Zen variety of voodoo to trick various dignitaries into thinking they enjoy his music so that they will laud him like a god. Likewise, one cannot rule out large scale blackmail, bribery, threats, or chain letters as the cause of his popularity among the upper strata. To be frank, however, those possiblities seem to be long shots.
you said in a previous post: “Born with the gift of a golden voice: Leonard Cohen”
Golden voice? Come on. Not a chance. Roy Orbison had a golden voice. Jeff Buckley had a golden voice. Leonard Cohen has an asphalt voice: thick, dark, and chunky. He doesn’t even sing, he talks, very slowly. His songs aren’t even melodic until other people cover them.
Well, this is awkward. It is accurate that I wrote those words in a previous post that compared, rather humorously I thought, Bruce Springsteen to Leonard Cohen, ostensibly to aid the viewer in determining if he or she were attending a concert by The Boss or one by The Lord Byron Of Rock ‘n Roll. (This is what we call a comic premise in the blog writing biz.) In this instance, I juxtaposed a famous line from a Springsteen song, “Born in the USA” from the song of the same name with a parallel line from a well known Cohen song, “Born with the gift of a golden voice” from Tower of Song. So, first of all, I was quoting Cohen, not evaluating his voice. Even more awkward is the fact that Mr. Cohen’s lyric, which he also quoted at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech earlier this year, is widely, but apparently not universally, held to be written ironically as self-effacing comment on his singing. The explanation provided in Wikipedia is characteristic:
His wit contends with his stark analyses, as his songs are often verbally playful and even cheerful: In “Tower of Song,” the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was “… born with the gift/ Of a golden voice”
Yep, the line about Cohen’s “golden voice” that is the target of criticism is a Leonard Cohen quotation, which I’ve re-purposed with humorous intent, making fun of his own voice. (In another situation, Cohen also noted, “Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win ‘Vocalist of the Year.’”)
If it helps any, I do think Jeff Buckley and, especially, Roy Orbison had fine voices.
I respectfully disagree that Leonard Cohen doesn’t sing or that his songs aren’t melodic when he performs them. That seems a matter of subjective taste, and I can marshall lots of examples of folks who agree with my stance but that would seem to be to little purpose. I like his singing; you don’t. Got it. There’s no reason to go into a tizzy over it.
while I know that he appeals to those serious music folks who think the top 40 is satan’s trash, Cohen goes so far the other way, his songs aren’t fun to listen to.
Just to clarify, Cohen also appeals to many of us who are not serious music folks. And, at least in my case, I do think that “the top 40 is satan’s trash,” but that is only one of the reasons I like it. As evidence that this isn’t a predilection born of convenience for this argument, I invite readers to check out I Can’t Believe It’s Not Music, a post which includes this passage:
Now, astute Heck Of A Guy visitors may have noted that I am a tad judgmental, perhaps even fastidious about what I read, cavalierly dismissing well-regarded authors if their syntax strikes me as cumbersome or their metaphors a bit strained. I despair over typos and lament the unearned conclusion. But has that song got a beat? Can somebody, somewhere dance to it? Close enough. I’ll give it a 97. I find the esteem shown for Robert Frost’s poetry difficult to reconcile; Tom Jones, on the other hand, I recognize as an underappreciated genius. My name is DrHGuy, and I’m a pop music junkie
Finally, re “his songs aren’t fun to listen to,” I can only suggest that Cohen’s songs become considerably more fun when one gets the joke.