Because Leonard Cohen’s April 1, 2009 Austin concert appeared to be just one more exquisite performance, I didn’t post on it. On reading the reports more carefully, however, I have discovered one unique and potentially important point.
Among the songs played as part of the encore was “Lullaby,”1 the song Cohen discussed in his February 20, 2009 interview with Rolling Stone.2
As far as I can determine, this is the first new or unreleased material Cohen has performed in any of the concerts of this tour – which may or may not be significant.
On one hand (that would be the significant hand), this could presage development of the long awaited album of new Leonard Cohen songs that has been the subject of discussion since at least as long ago as June 2006.3
Historically, however, Cohen has sometimes performed unreleased music in his concerts that was never to be issued as part of an album. An excellent example of this phenomenon would be one of my personal favorites, “Do I Have To Dance All Night,”4 which was frequently played as the final song of concerts for a couple of years and was issued in Europe as a 45 rpm single but was never released in the US or as part of an album.
For now, the addition of “Lullaby” to the current concert set list is a “how about that” sort of thing that bears monitoring.
_____________________- Documented by several sources, including the set lists published by the Decider Austin. [↩]
- See last section of Leonard Cohen Rolling Stone Interview Offers Fragments Of New Songs But Little Else [↩]
- See Two Very Raw, Unreleased Leonard Cohen Songs “Puppets” And “Book Of Longing” [↩]
- See The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve Never Heard (Probably) [↩]
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