Isle of Wight 1970 release (October 2009) - all the details

News about Leonard Cohen and his work, press, radio & TV programs etc.
Hal E. Lujah
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by Hal E. Lujah »

Still seems inexplicable. They did a pretty good job of not noticing LC for decades. Even Hallelujah was rejected by Columbia and the album itself did not do particularly well in the scheme of things. How is he acceptable now of all times? I think that the tour has a lot to do with it. It got him out there; the oldies brought their children, etc. He's the existential Tony Bennett (I forget who said that) and cool always cuts it. He said maybe 6 of his longs will live. I think that good stuff is hard to miss, but that great stuff is hard to see, in agreement with you (lisa). Because of the transcendent nature of his creations, it is never popular in the times (because he was not of the times); at any point the public may take note of it, not because of maturity of the culture, but I think simply by happenstance (the financial downstroke, the Tour and the exposure of Hallelujah in pop culture). LCohen is a very strange visitor. Stranger, indeed. Truth is never popular, is it?
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remote1
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by remote1 »

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. I was born in a provincial European city in the late 1960s. My friends and I spent all our teenage years listening to Cohen and Dylan (mainly, amongst a few others). Everybody knew Leonard Cohen. Everybody knew all of Leonard Cohen's lyrics. We owned his albums or lent them to each other to tape. Same as with Dylan. I don't think we were unusual and I don't think people failed to notice LC for decades. I think everybody knew that he was great then and I am not surprised that everyone is so pleased to be reunited with him now. :)
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Womanfromaroom
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by Womanfromaroom »

There is a review from an eminent Australian newspaper ("'Weekend Australian") here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15910&start=255#p203069
"You thought that it could never happen / to all the people that you became"...
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MaryB
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by MaryB »

LisaLCFan wrote:
Hal E. Lujah wrote:To me, the outstanding question is how such a niche-audience, folkie from Canada, so obscure back then, can blossom into one the largest acts in touring at age 75. How could he keep up artistically, when Collins, Baez, Mitchel, Young, could not? For a guy who never had a hit, never appealed to the crowd; how did he last for decades, and command such respect, yet, almost never had been mentioned (until recently), as if he did not exist at all?
Here's one possible answer to your question: because Leonard Cohen has written some of the best damn songs ever! And in today's world, when we seem to be inundated with so much utter crap that passes for "music" and "entertainment," suddenly the brilliance and beauty of Leonard's timeless artistry shines through like a million-kilowatt beacon that is impossible to ignore, and he is finally noticed by larger numbers of people.

Just a thought.
What a perfect thought Lisa!
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by LisaLCFan »

Thanks, Mary! :D
Hal E. Lujah
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by Hal E. Lujah »

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16895&p=203244&e=203244

Remote:

Yes, you were in a provincial European city. I was referring to United States, where I am. I know he is better-known there. I am just marvelling at the bizarreness of it. I mean, he had forty years for this to happen; it could have happened at any time; his music was always good. Yet, in the US, he could barely get an album out. Recall that Hallelujah was considered too uncommercial to release and it didn't make much of a splash back when it came out. How is it that all the world now loves it, yet for how many years it was ho hum. Perhaps it's God's Grace period? I think he got better as he got older, to differentiate him from others who are still around, but arent' what they used to be. It's great that he finally feels recognized for all the great qualities he has. A little exposure goes a long way. Even his big songs had to be done by someone else to get big, eg., Judy Collins, not his own versions (in the United States). Such an odd jewel he is.
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sirius
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by sirius »

Leonard Cohen & His Army

Image
Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

By Daniel Sylvester

http://www.exclaim.ca/motionreviews/lat ... fid1=42289

It's four in the morning, the end of August, Leonard Cohen takes the stage three years after Woodstock in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight Festival, following Hendrix's guitar blazing performance. Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 is a DVD (or Blu-Ray)/CD combo capturing one of Leonard Cohen's classic performances, recorded by Miles Davis's famed producer, Teo Macero, released to the public for the first time. With the camera lovingly fixated on Cohen's sleepy, starry-eyed visage, Live at the Isle of Wight delivers Cohen's entire performance inter-cut with new interviews with Kris Kristofferson, Judy Collins and producer Bob Johnston. From the introduction to stirring closer "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy," Live at the Isle of Wight is a heartbreakingly gorgeous and moving document of a career poet finally reaching his masses. (Sony Legacy)
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sirius
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by sirius »

Leonard Cohen showcases a 50-year career

By Azia Squire / Staff Writer

published: Wed, 4 Nov, 2009

Leonard Cohen, Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

Murray Lerner; Columbia Records


http://www.pittnews.com/article/2009/11 ... ear-career

What can be said about Leonard Cohen that hasn’t been said before?

Since the 1960s, he’s been an influential figure in music and literature. He’s been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters of Hall, and his career spans five decades.

He’s simply a legend, and this DVD/CD set captures one of his more fantastic moments.

Whimsical and reflective, Leonard Cohen, Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 is a DVD/CD set of Cohen’s performance at the third and last Isle of Wright music festival, which is regarded as one of the largest musical events in history.

More than 600,000 people attended the concert to see legends like Jimi Hendrix, Taste, Joni Mitchell and Cohen perform.

A casual fan of Cohen’s music wouldn’t be too stimulated by this collection. It’s definitely for his die-hard fans and those interested in experiencing Cohen’s introspective music from a variety of perspectives. And this set will definitely allow them to do that.

Various interviews with Bob Johnston, Judy Collins, Joan Baez and Kris Kristofferson weave beautifully through the music of his live performances.

Baez shares anecdotes about the famous incident involving the stage going up in flames at an intersection between her performance and that of Jimi Hendrix, recalling, “I was worried enough. That’s why I offered to step in before Jimi Hendrix, because I knew my music was a little more difficult to burn fences down.”

She also offered a deeper look into analyzing the work of Cohen. “When people would think that a song had to make sense, Leonard would prove otherwise. It doesn’t necessarily make sense at all. It’s just coming from so deep inside of him it somehow touches deep inside other people.”

Many of his most beloved songs are on the CD set, but they are audio versions of the live performance from the DVD.

This might be disappointing for someone hoping for a “greatest hits” compilation or someone who prefers to listen to music without the background noise of fireworks overtaking the vocals at certain points, which happens on “Suzanne.”

Leonard Cohen, Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 is not a jam record, and it’s not a greatest hits album. It’s a time capsule from Cohen’s stunning career and the musical movement of the ’70s.
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Hal E. Lujah
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by Hal E. Lujah »

What can be said about Leonard Cohen that hasn’t been said before?

--Never can say enough. Just read a great review from a Nashville paper. How so many artists cannot do Hallelujah, because they can't grasp its pathos and broken exhilaration (sp?). How if beauty is truth, then there cannot be too much. How his songs don't have to make logical sense, since, coming from such a depth, it touches the depths in others bypassing the rational mind. No, there can never be enough said about such a great like L. Cohen. And, unlike Dylan, he only gets more profound, more ageless as he ages. He will illuminate how to grow old gracefully for the Baby Boomers, and as such, light the way. He is far from the gloomy, depressive fools make him out to be. No, he will be showing the way for millions of my generation, those who say "too old to rock, too young to die." He is the greatest poet of our times, reaching the heart of angst of our times. It's fitting that he finally gets the recognition he deserves. Now, why did they strike the "Our Man" from the plaque at the Chelsea? That's what I want to know.
bruinsy19
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by bruinsy19 »

Anyone know where this album can be purchased in Nova Scotia?Sorry if this question has been answered before!
Hal E. Lujah
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by Hal E. Lujah »

amazon.com?
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by LisaLCFan »

bruinsy19 wrote:Anyone know where this album can be purchased in Nova Scotia?Sorry if this question has been answered before!
Most stores that sell CDs/DVDs should have it, like Best Buy, Future Shop, Chapters, Indigo, HMV (I got mine at an HMV), and, depending on where you live, there must be at least one of those stores! Call any of them in your area to see if they have it in stock, otherwise, online, chaptersindigo.ca or amazon.ca will have it. Good luck (and enjoy!).
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sirius
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by sirius »

Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

October 29th, 2009 by James Kelly in Listening Stack

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/cribno ... ight-1970/

The final Isle of Wight festival produced some of rock’s greatest moments, but exposed the dark side of the peace and love generation. At 2 a.m., folk singer Leonard Cohen walked on stage and faced a riot, as the beleaguered audience ripped and roared following one of Jimi Hendrix’s last, incendiary performances of his career. Somehow, Cohen’s monotone storytelling brought a vast chunk of the raging 600,000 back to earth, and he proceeded to deliver one of the most mesmerizing concerts of the decade. Backed by what was basically a country western band including banjo player Elkin Fowler and fiddler Charlie Daniels (yes, that Charlie Daniels), Cohen’s dark poetry intertwined with the vastness of the night and hypnotized the masses. The event, filmed by Murray Lerner, is almost 40 years old. In a stark visual comparison to the recently released Live in London 2008 DVD, 1970’s Cohen is scraggly, unkempt, but just as enigmatic and committed to his words. Ageless, indeed.

Sony Legacy) 4 stars out of 5

Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (Trailer):
http://new.music.yahoo.com/Leonard-Cohe ... -218593451
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by LisaLCFan »

I have one small...complaint...about the IOW CD, and it is a technical thing concerning where the track breaks are inserted, and it seems to be a very odd thing for them to have done. Leonard introduces almost all of the songs, and yet, his introductions to the songs are not at the beginning of the song, in the same track as the song they are introducing, rather, they are at the end of the previous track. His introductions are really quite wonderful, adding something special to the entire performance of the song, and yet, if for whatever reason one chooses to listen only to select tracks (or has them on an iPod playlist set to shuffle), skipping directly to the track results in missing out on the intro (and sometimes even missing out on the first few chords, as some of the tracks don't begin until right when Leonard starts to sing!). It doesn't seem like it would have been that difficult to set the track breaks differently (and, I would say, better).
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Re: Isle of Wight release (Oct 20) - all details

Post by elcord »

The track breaks placed where they are is pretty standard technique, and you may come to appreciate it. If you just want to listen to the song then it helps, particularly if the intro is long. I think that is the tack they take. If you fast forward to a new track they assume you want to listen to the song. You can always go to the track and rewind a little to get the intro. Having said that I know there are times when you want to get the intro, but I guess the 'best' decision has to be made in these cases. Maybe just give yourself the time to listen to the whole thing without fastforwarding :) I know I have done it to flick through Marianne to get to You Know Who I Am, but that is just me, perhaps.

Having said this, I found the index points a bit clunky in execution. Honestly they sound rather like the inexpert cuts I've made in some field recordings I've done for my study. I console myself with the fact that if that is as good as the experts can do, then I'm not doing too badly!
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