Heck Of A Guy

A pastiche of posts, featuring song, dance, snappy chatter plus notes on prose, poesy, love, lust, life, and beyond

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Allison Crowe Performs Leonard Cohen's "Tonight Will Be Fine" – The Video

March 1st, 2010 · Leonard Cohen, Music

The Allison Crowe -”Tonight Will Be Fine” Video

“Spiral,” the latest album from Allison Crowe, the Canadian singer-songwriter and icon in training who has been featured here on several occasions,1 is due for release March 17, 2010.2  In anticipation of this event, several of her previously released songs are being made available in video format on YouTube and other venues.

One of those, “Tonight Will Be Fine,” is a cover of a Leonard Cohen song and is a favorite of mine – as performed by both artists. Consequently, aided and abetted by Adrian du Plessis, Allison Crowe’s Personable Manager,3 I put together a montage of photos to serve as video resonance for Allison Crowe’s performance.

And, because the Allison Crowe version and the Leonard Cohen original are both on my personal hit list, tomorrow’s post will feature video of and commentary on Cohen’s own renditions of “Tonight Will Be Fine,” the Teddy Thompson cover, and Crowe’s take on the classic.

Now, however, the spotlight is, deservedly, on the impossibly talented Allison Crowe performing “Tonight Will Be Fine.”

Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen cover) – Allison Crowe

Video by – ahem – DrHGuy

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  1. See Wedding Song – Allison Crowe’s Small Masterwork, Must-hear Allison Crowe Cover Of John Sebastian’s Darling Be Home Soon, Allison Crowe On The Cover, Allison Crowe And Bobby McGee, and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah – Mood Music For Watchmen SuperHeroic Sex Scene↩
  2. See Video Prelude To Allison Crowe’s New Album↩
  3. No, it’s not a misprint. Adrian is the music world’s most prominent – and only – Personable Manager.↩

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The Leonard Cohen Photo Psychological Test

February 28th, 2010 · Leonard Cohen

Obscure Leonard Cohen Photo Or Diagnostic Exam?

The image of Leonard Cohen displayed above was discovered in a collection of photos of the singer-songwriter.  Although I was familiar with most of the photos, I am certain I have not seen this one before.  There was no attribution, date, or other explanatory data provided.

No doubt, there is a Cohen fan somewhere who can provide the occasion of, precise provenance for, and F-stop used in this graphic. While I would be glad to receive this information, I find myself more fascinated by the potential such a photo offers for intrapsychic exploration.

After all a projective test, such as the Rorschach inkblot test (see sample below) or the Thematic Apperception Test, is only an ambiguous stimuli to which people respond, thereby exposing (theoretically) unconscious feelings, conflicts, and traits. In most cases, the ambiguous stimulus in a projective test  is an image that can be interpreted in more than one way.

And the Leonard Cohen photo atop this post can certainly be interpreted in more than one way. Where is he? What book is he perusing? What is he holding over his face? What’s going on in the picture? What might be going on just out of frame? Who took this photo? What motivated the photo? … In short, WTF?

The Leonard Cohen Image Apperception Test

While professional medical ethics prohibit me from interpreting responses to  The Leonard Cohen Image Apperception Test without the receipt of huge sums of money, I suspect that anyone foolhardy enough to reveal his or her fantasies about the photo1  in the Comments will find several folks willing to speculate on the precise psychopathology and perversions thereupon revealed.

And, anyone in a New Yorker state of mind should feel free to also include a funny caption – it all means something.

Credit Due Department: A tip of the Cohen fedora goes to bridger15 for pointing me to the collection of photos which included the one featured today.

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  1. For that matter, Heck Of A Guy readers have the option to reveal, should they prefer, fantasies about Leonard Cohen, Roscoe Beck, the Heck Of A Guy seal, Sylvie Simmons, the Heck Of A Guy gargoyle (AKA the Guygoyle), Jarkko, Sharon Robinson, Dino, Marie of Speaking Cohen, Tom Sakic, the Webb Sisters, Waylon, Willie, …↩

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Best Bootlegs: Neil Young – Time Fades Away

February 27th, 2010 · Music

Because I may not know music, but I know what you should like

… and where to find it1

Time Fades Away – The Holy Grail And The Missing Link

The blurb accompanying this bootleg at Grateful Breed is informative but, more significantly, is so winningly intense and enthusiastic that I offer an excerpt of it here as a treat for viewers:

Neil Young’s 1973 “Time Fades Away” is one of the most remarkable live albums ever recorded. Certainly at the time of release, it was almost unprecedented for an artist to release a live concert recording of previously unreleased material. Long out of print on vinyl and still unavailable on CD in the early 21st century, the album is considered to be the “Holy Grail” of all Neil Young albums and the “missing link” of the “Ditch Trilogy”.

“Time Fades Away” is the first installment of the trio of albums known as the “Ditch Trilogy”. The edgy moody darkness of recording and brilliantly erratic song selection offer the portrait of the artist undergoing a deep catharsis and excorcising demons which is so palpable that most listeners turned away — or worse ignored completely. Critic Janet Maslin writes in a 1973 New York Times review on the film Journey Through the Past about “Time Fades Away”:

“… the vocals are wild, agonized, deliberately jarring. The backing musicians play less than perfectly because they’re playing live, but their gut intensity is an ideal match for Young’s new strained sound.

Also” Time Fades Away” contains one of his all-time great songs, ‘Don’t Be Denied’; the song mixes autobiographical verses with a chorus that chants the title warning, all adding up to a wail of epic frustration.”

Key to understanding “Time Fades Away” is the context within Neil Young’s album discography. Furthermore, understanding “Time Fades Away” is key to decoding the far more well known followup releases Tonight’s The Night and On The Beach. Released in 1973 following the massive success of the multi-platinum selling Harvest, fans were definitely expecting those folkie mellow hit tunes like “Heart of Gold”.

While fans did hear such Harvest favorites as “Heart of Gold”’s sunny optimism, they also heard more than just a laid back vibe. Listeners got raw emotional lyrics and high amplification electric guitar. This was not the Neil Young music they were expecting to hear when they purchased their tickets.

In the often quoted hand written liner notes of Decade, Neil writes: “‘Heart of Gold’ put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” Hence “Time Fades Away” is sometimes referred to as the first installment of the “Ditch Trilogy”.

Neil Young’s comments on “Time Fades Away” from the original, unreleased liner notes for his 1977 compilation “Decade” usefully extend that thought, lending  insight into Young’s state of mind and context to the album:

Time Fades Away. No songs from this album are included here. It was recorded on my biggest tour ever, 65 shows in 90 days. Money hassles among everyone concerned ruined this tour and record for me but I released it anyway so you folks could see what could happen if you lose it for a while. I was becoming more interested in an audio verite approach than satisfying the public demands for a repetition of Harvest.2

Time Fades Away – Track List

Side One
1. “Time Fades Away” – 5:36
* Recorded at The Myriad, Oklahoma City (March 1, 1973)
2. “Journey Through the Past” – 3:19
* Recorded at Public Hall, Cleveland (February 11, 1973)
3. “Yonder Stands the Sinner” – 3:17
* Recorded at Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle (March 17, 1973)
4. “L.A.” – 3:11
* Recorded at The Myriad, Oklahoma City (March 1, 1973)
5. “Love in Mind” – 1:58
* Recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA (January 30, 1971)

Side Two
1. “Don’t Be Denied” – 5:16
* Recorded at Memorial Auditorium, Phoenix (March 28, 1973)
2. “The Bridge” – 3:05
* Recorded at Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento (April 1, 1973)
3. “Last Dance” – 8:47
* Recorded at Sports Arena, San Diego (March 29, 1973)

Download Information

The download is a zip file that extracts to individual tracks formatted as 192 kbps MP3 files. The download itself is managed through Rapidshare or Megaupload.3  The files are properly tagged with name, artist, and album. Art is included in the download.

Download links and the complete description of the bootleg can be assessed at Grateful Breed: Neil Young – Time Fades Away

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  1. This post is part of the Heck Of A Guy Best Bootlegs Series. An explanation of this project is included in the first post in this category: Best Bootlegs: Otis Redding – A Soupçon Of Soul.↩
  2. From Wikipedia↩
  3. In the for what it’s worth category, I’ve found of late, the free version of Megaupload to be faster and more available than the free version of Rapidshare. Again, that’s just my personal, N of 1, experience. Your mileage may vary.↩

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