Category Archives: Leonard Cohen

Video: Leonard Cohen Performs Famous Blue Raincoat – Miami 2013

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Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat
Miami: March 20, 2013
Video from hea ther


New Video: Leonard Cohen Performs Suzanne – Memphis 2013

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Leonard Cohen – Suzanne
Memphis: Mar 24, 2013
Video from Jack Wagoner

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Three Dates Added to 2013 Leonard Cohen Tour: Antwerp, Brussels, Rotterdam

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Jarkko Arjatsalo posted the following March 25, 2013 at LeonardCohenForum:

These three concerts have now been confirmed:
- Sportpaleis Antwerp 23 June
- Forest National Brussels 30 June
- Ahoy Rotterdam 18 September

Presale from 2pm CET on Tuesday March 26 to 9 am CET on Thursday March 28. The links will be posted in the PRESALE LINKS thread.


Those Incredible 1985 Leonard Cohen Norway Videos Are Online Again

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Now You See Them, Now You Don’t, Now You Do, … The Spectacular Leonard Cohen Kalvøya Videos

In 2009, Heck Of A Guy posted Baby, Baby, Baby – Leonard Cohen & Anjani Sing The Blues In Norway celebrating the YouTube appearance of three spectacular videos, “I Tried to Leave You,” “Heart With No Companion,” and “Story of Isaac,” taken from a TV broadcast of a 1985 performance by Leonard Cohen in Kalvøya (“Isle of Calf” – near Oslo), Norway.

The color and clarity of these recordings were outstanding, the performances, with Anjani on the keyboards and vocals, were  solid, and watching these videos was moving, exhilarating, and fun.

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Note: On my computer and with my internet access, there are a few segments with fluttering sound.

Since then, the videos have reappeared and been removed at least once.1

The good news is that, as I discovered in catching up after a week away from  Cohen World, some of the Kalvoya performances have now been uploaded to Daily Motion and can be viewed below.

The bad news is that “I Tried To Leave You” has not been re-uploaded.2

The corresponding good news is that “Memories,” a performance not previously available, has been added.
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And, with his hair slicked back, his beard stylishly scruffy, a cigarette in one hand, and a microphone in the other (note the dramatic microphone dip at 1:58), Leonard Cohen’s matinee idol persona, typically used in the performance of “Memories,” has never been more enjoyable.

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Leonard Cohen – Memories, Heart With No Companion, Story Of Isaac (Kalvøya, Norway, 1985)
Uploaded By dag2007

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Credit Due Department: All images in this post are screen captures from the Memories video (Kalvøya, Norway, 1985).


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  1. Most of the content of this post, in fact, was originally published the last time these videos were available. []
  2. I heartily recommend checking out Baby, Baby, Baby – Leonard Cohen & Anjani Sing The Blues In Norway for the description and screen captures of that performance. []

Leonard Cohen Video Of The Day: Sisters Of Mercy – 1993

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This 1993 performance of Sisters of Mercy features sections spotlighting  Paul Ostermayer on saxophone and Bob Furgo on violin.

Leonard Cohen – Sisters Of Mercy
Barcelona TV: 1993
Video uploaded by a1000kissesdeep


March 13, 2013 Leonard Cohen Chicago Show: “A great, great evening — a terrific, moving, funny, sometimes heartrendingly beautiful concert”

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2013 Leonard Cohen Chicago Concert Report
by Mace Rosenstein

Mace Rosenstein attended the March 13, 2013 Leonard Cohen Chicago concert and emailed this report shortly after the show’s final song ended.

Leonard and the band were on their game tonight for nearly the entire show.  They all were  demonstrably happy.  Leonard often smiled broadly or laughed, boogied, did his weird scat thing during Rafael’s drum solo in “The Darkness,” stood alluringly close to Sharon while singing with her a couple of times, and did a fantastic expanded riff during his now-well rehearsed new intro to “Ain’t No Cure for Love” — lamenting that he had been passed over by the Papal convocation and now would have to “wait a decade — or maybe a generation” before he would have another chance; and then he went on to catalogue his history of humiliation and defeat, including that he had been a “failure in bed.” The crowd went wild.

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Sharon Robinson, too, beamed during the entire concert, chatting with Leonard or with the Webb Sisters at a couple of points; and she got a terrific ovation after “Alexandra Leaving,” which seemed to take her by surprise and genuinely move her.

Roscoe Beck really seemed to pick up the pace; the band picked up the tempos and the concert itself was shorter by several songs [see playlist below]. It just felt like a more structured, thoughtful show than the December shows in New York that we saw.  My wife, Louise, thought this was a positive change — she says you always want to leave people wanting more, and that’s hard to do when you play for 4 hours.

There seemed to be some confusion at the end of the first 3-song encore set. Leonard left the stage but returned quickly — it seemed unexpectedly — just as Roscoe was organizing the band to walk off.  After a moment’s hesitation and then some bustling about on the stage the Webb Sisters performed “If It Be Your Will,” followed by a somewhat ragged “Closing Time,” with no blessings, etc.

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But these are quibbles.  It was a great, great evening — a terrific, moving, funny, sometimes heartrendingly beautiful concert in a terrific venue.  As usual, we laughed, we cried, we sang along — and we will be going back for more next month.

Setlist: March 13, 2013 Leonard Cohen Chicago Concert

Source: Setlist.fm

First Set

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows
Who by Fire
Darkness
Ain’t No Cure for Love
Amen
Come Healing
Democracy
A Thousand Kisses Deep  (recitation)
Anthem

Second Set

Tower of Song
Suzanne
Waiting for the Miracle
Show Me the Place
Anyhow
Lover Lover Lover
Alexandra Leaving
I’m Your Man
Hallelujah
Take This Waltz

Encore 1

So Long, Marianne
Going Home
First We Take Manhattan

Encore 2

If It Be Your Will
Closing Time

Credit Due Department: Photo atop this post by  Sketchbook Things via Statigram.  Second photo (with blue lighting) by yogaemily via Statigram. Third photo (red lighting) by darren borowski via Twitter.