Left to Right: Perla Batalla, Leonard Cohen, Julie Christensen
Cohen, Batalla, And Christensen – The Outrageous, Salacious, Vivacious, & Audacious Bits
Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla, and Julie Christensen, meshed their personalities, styles, and musical skills to produce an uncommonly large number of especially striking and effective performances.
I am, for the record, wild for Sharon Robinson and a unrepentant fan of Anjani. And, I am fond of the Webb Sisters – even though I have never, ever, once heard from them. But onstage with Leonard Cohen, these and the other talented female vocalists who have have worked with Cohen are – well, give or take a few songwriting collaborations and cartwheels – backup singers.
Cohen, Batalla, And Christensen, on the other hand, were something more akin to a vaudeville team, supplementing their music with exaggerated stage movements, broad comedy, and burlesqued flirtatiousness that ranged from innuendo through caressing and leering to barely sublimated symbolic intercourse.
Consequently, they were – and are – great fun to watch.
Which brings us to the inaugural episode of a new Heck Of A Guy feature,
The Best Of Perla Batalla & Julie Christensen
Onstage With Leonard Cohen
And, by “Best,” I mean the funniest, sexiest, most outré performance segments created by this troika.
Jazz Police As Farce
The initial offering of this series is an especially worthy segment comprising the end of “Jazz Police” performed by Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla, & Julie Christensen on 31 October 1988 for the Austin City Limits show.1 Perla’s and Julie’s gloriously dramatic, overextended gestures and facial expressions are priceless – as is Cohen’s uniquely percussive singing.
Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla, & Julie Christensen – Jazz Police (Austin City Limits, 1988)
Video from ForeignWindowFrame
Bonus: The Judy Garland-Julie Christensen Connection
Ongoing readers may recall I have presented the hypothesis that Leonard Cohen found the inspiration for his stylized skipping in the scenes on the Yellow Brick Road in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” and that, furthermore, other aspects of Cohen’s performances could be traced back to that same cinematic epic.2
Can the resemblance between the star of The Wizard Of Oz and Julie Christensen be solely coincidental?
And, note the parallels between Dorothy singing with the Tin Man (“If I Only Had A Heart”) in the movie and Julie Christensen singing with Leonard Cohen (“If I Only Had A Unified Heart”) in a performance for Swedish TV. 3
Credit Due Department: The photo atop this post is from the 1988 I’m Your Man tour and was found at LeonardCohenFiles
_____________________- The musicians are Leonard Cohen (lead vocals, keyboards), Julie Christensen (backup vocals), Perla Batalla (backup vocals), Bob Metzger(guitar, pedal steel guitar), Bob Furgo (keyboards, violin), Steve Meador(drums), Steve Zirkel (bass, trumpet, keyboards), John Bilezikjian (oud), and Tom McMorran (keyboards). From LeonardCohenFiles [↩]
- See Cohen Secret Skipping Source Sussed Out [↩]
- See Leonard Cohen Danced With, Fondled By Perla Batalla & Julie Christensen To “I’m Your Man” [↩]
Great concept good Doctor!
Look forward to many mores in this series. They are wonderful balm for helping sooth the sorrows of chronic DSM V – 301.LC Cohenphilic Personality Disorder.
Thanks for your compassion.
Haha, I had no idea what fun those three still had in store. Thanks!