DVD Perspectives

[tomsakic]

There are some thoughts about so much mentioned DVD we all want. It's for George and everyone
I think Jarkko mentioned that Sony/Columbia, or Leonard, has not any copyrights on video footages to release them. Let's sistemize everything:
This is the list of in-trade-available or existing Leonard's footages we know - Jarkko please correct me if I don't know some.
1) BBC sessions »Leonard Cohen sings Leonard Cohen«, 31.8.1968 & 07.9.1968 - the soundtrack of this 2 shows was bootlegged as »Live at the Beeb«, I don't know whether from TV footages or from later radio broadcasting, but with One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong cut off. In 2001 the complete and excellent recording was emerged and can be find in trading. Never heard of any TV recording.
2) BBC's Julie Felix Show 1967 - 2 songs, Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye & The Stranger Song. 6 minutes. Available on VHS called »The Sound Of the 60's«.
3) BBC's Top Gear session summer 1968 - Bird On The Wire & You Know Who I Am. On audio CD, part from bigger recording, it seems. Almost 7 minutes.
4) Isle Of Wight 31.8.1970 - they said it was complete recorded both in video and audio. Maybe that's only the legend.
5) Stockholm 02.4.1972 - only reasonable recording from 1972 tour we have, and it is actually the soundtrack of Swedish TV broadcast (June 9, 1973) of this concert.
6) Bird On A Wire - 1974 movie from 1972 tour, re-edited by Leonard himself after he didn't like the first version. That could mean that Leonard controlls it, or he controlled it at the time, so he and Sony/Columbia/CBC could own the rights. Waiting for new release.
7) 27.5.1976 A2-TV Le Grand Échiquier: Paris, France - 3 songs and interview, less than 15 minutes.
Rock Pop Special - show at german ZDF television, 31.10.1979, bootlegged as »Live In New York«, because somebody recorded it from New York radio broadcast in December 1979. It has only 7 songs, 51 minutes. One more song is available in other ZDF show from the same day.
9) The Song Of Leonard Cohen - a film by Harry Rasky from 1979 tour. Excellent film produced by CBC, so they have copyrights. That's maybe only materials on which they have rights, if they don't own Bird On A Wire. But when they released Field Commander Cohen, they said they're not interested in releasing it because it is not commercial.
10) I Am A Hotel - this is produced by Leonard himself, 1983. But it is not concert nor documentary. It easily can be put as good bonus to DVD.
11) The Songs From The Life Of Leonard Cohen - produced by BBC and CMV Enterprise in 1988. I heard it's released even as Video CD, and of course on VHS. The soundtrack is bootlegged as »Last Of The Bohemians«. This is the hot material - it contains excerpts from London Royal Albert Hall 01.6.1988 - so we can presume BBC recorded it complete! (Originally recording must have one of last performances of The Gypsy's Wife, according to the setlists.).
12) San Sebastian 20.5.1988 - Spanish TV broadcasted the whole concert, and it is available on TV recording and Video CD, and also on audio CD from radio broadcast. Somebody said on this board you can even buy it from Spanish TV, for the big money.
13) Reykjavik Iceland 1988 - they also broadcasted this concert available widely in soundboard recording. VHS with TV recording can be found also.
14) Austin City Limits 31.10.1988 - of course, the first of 2 legendary concerts unavailable in Europe. It is important to notice that Hallelujah and Who By Fire from this concert present on »Cohen Live« aren't broadcasted in-9-songs-TV show, so maybe there is recording of the complete concert existing.
15) Austin City Limits 12.7.1993. - 6 songs broadcasted.
16) Helsinki 29.4.1993 - 4 songs are available from TV recording on video CD, mixed with interview and 3 promotional videos. Anyway, Jarkko will know if they recorded only 4 songs or maybe complete concert?
17) Leonard Cohen Spring 1996 - excellent documentary by Armelle Brusq.
18) Leonard's promotional videos - Dance Me To The End Of Love, Take This Waltz (1986 version), First We Take Manhattan, The Future, Closing Time, Dance Me To The End Of Love (Live), In My Secret Life.
- they can go as bonus of course, and copyrights are Leonard's and Sony's, I hope.
PS. 19) Ladies And Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen, 1965 non-music documentary, is available on DVD. This shows how the good job is made - the producer and right-owner National Film Board Of Canada released it by itself, and put as bonus all they have with Leonard - animated film with I'm Your Man playing, experimental video in which Leonard stars as uncredited shadow, the second experimental movie in which he repeat one line from his poem, and the fourth with another poem.
(It is important to notice that there is any 1993 TV broadcast except Austin City Limits. This wonder me because 1988 tour was widely coveraged.)
(To mention audience recording - Roskilde Festival 1985 (Complete), Koln 1988, Munich 1993 (Complete), and I presume much more from 1988 and 1993 tour.)
And also many TV interviews, shows like BBC Later, Jools Holland, Sunday Night, etc.

And that's it. My opinion is that DVD must contain a good and complete concert recording, and also it must be recent. So, Bird On A Wire can be release only as some reminder on pop history, as they release Woodstock or Isle Of Wight footages (without anything from Leonard except Suzanne, of course). Sony isn't interested in buying copyrights from Spanish or Iceland television, I presume. And I think they will go, if they ever do that, only to most recent materials, though BBC Sessions would be interesting for fans and collectors. So our hope is that these TVs will release VHS or DVD, as BBC released this 1988 documentary, or that maybe some wide action as coproduction between Sony/Columbia and these companies will happen.
Anyway, I still think that the best choice would be both (complete?) Austin Limits on DVD with 1 or 2 discs, with bonus as interview, and promotional videos. Maybe to Sony would be easier to negotiate with them than with someone in Europe. Or maybe there is possibility the will emerge some video recording from Sony's archives, or BBC's recordings will raise on, maybe this Royal Albert Hall 1988 also? I propose: »Leonard Cohen, BBC sessions & broadcasts 1967 - 1993«! That sounds excellent to me, and according to the list above, you can imagine what would it have.
Anyway, at the end, George and everybody, I think that much depends on Leonard. When he decided to make 1979 tour compilation, he just made it, and Leanne Ungar produced it. Though we often talk how he is not commercial, after all he isn't Nobody or Somebody, and I think that European and Canadian succes of Ten New Songs prooved that. I repeat, maybe Austin or London concerts will be the easiest choice...
Regards,
Tom.

[George.Wright]

Tom, you have put a lot of work in this post. It just goes to show the wealth of matieral on Mr Cohen and the possibility of a commercial venture of a DVD, which would given the sales of Ten new Songs, hardly be a risky venture.
The ball is firmly in Sony's court and we aint heard no rebound. Combining the visual with CD quality is better than re-releasing old audio matieral on CD, although old die hard fans of Leonard like myself will probally buy it. It is hardly doing us a good service........................
Georges

[tomsakic]

Yes George... Anyway, I think that Leonard might listen to his fan's wishes. Some kind of serious petitions, so something like Essential LC wouldn't happen.
Regards
Tomislav

[johann]

George

Where, exactly, is the "pun" that we are supposed to forget?

[George.Wright]

Somewhere in your head, bewteen the real and the divide, the dark and the light, somewhere in the mists of time
Georges

[Paula]

There you go I was wrong again I thought the pun was sun/son

I feel like columbo

[Andrew McGeever]

Dear George,
Re your new signature, writing either "The mist of dreams is chased" or "The mists of dreams are chased" makes grammatical sense (if nothing else).But what you have written makes no sense at all, i.e. "The mist of dreams are chased" (sic).
Andrew.

[Partisan]

I wonder when the rest of you are going to realise that nothing Georges writes makes any sense. Paula, there is no pun. Andrew, there is no meaning. He writes it because it sounds good to him. There is no considered thought. He is lost in a haze of vowels and consonants. This is why he can never answer a straight question put to him, e.g. why the 's' on the end of George, or why he used the name LEECHE on the VP board. It just sounded good at the time. No point or meaning in it. He has admitted before that most of his 'poetry' is just written almost randomly as it comes to him. He may be taking the idea of the monkeys writing Shakespeare in Africa as his inspiration. Perhaps he hopes that one of his outpourings will actually be the next Kubla Khan. Maybe it will, but i won't be holding my breath.

p.

[Andrew McGeever]

Dear Partisan,
I accept all you say, but would like to make two points:
1. I'm sure George has his own reasons, known only to him, why he writes what he writes, in the way that he writes it. We'll just have to accept the fact that he's not going to stop.
2. More importantly, I'd like this string to return to Tom Sakic's excellent post re D.V.D.s. Now that is a post worthy of downloading and investigating. If you are reading this, thanks, Tom!
Yours, Andrew.

[johann]

Andrew,

You remind me of a nervous border collie trying to herd the scatterbrained sheep into a pen.

Why this obsession with never deviating from the original post? Especially as you have added nothing to Tom's post. Other than saying "Thanks".

[Andrew McGeever]

Johann,
Firstly, thanks for the reply.Your metaphor ( me, the shepherd dog rounding up the scattered-brain sheep) confused me, then amused me.
Yet you touched on a truth: I wouldn't know a D.V.D. if one jumped up and bit me on the backside. That's why I spoke about the need to investigate Tom's post. There are correspondents on this board who clearly have more knowledge of recordings/technology/ musicology than I will ever have. In the meantime, if "Thanks" is all I can offer, then Tom will just have to accept them.
Secondly, I am not obsessed with "never deviating from the original post."(sic). I have checked all my posts on this board since the beginning of July, and don't accept the accusation of non-deviation. I'm a member of the Leonard Cohen message board: deviation is part of the territory we tread. I've also read your messages on this board, including your poem.
Yours, Andrew.
P.S. Deviation time! Are there any events planned in Germany for Leonard's 68th birthday? He's been big in Central Europe for many years, and all we've heard on this board are the ones planned in Canada and Australia. Johann, let us know !
Yours, Andrew.

[Partisan]

I always suspected that there are a lot of deviants on this board.

p.

[George.Wright]

Well let's hope we all make the pillar of perfection you grasp on to in your sainthood.
All the best...............Georges

[lizzytysh]

Hi Georges,

Deviant simply means deviating or departing from the norm;a person or thing that deviates or departs markedly from the accepted norm. As Leonard Cohen appreciators, we are inherently so, with either definition fitting. "Thank you for the compliment." The negative connotation can be bypassed....regardless of others' intent.

All good things,
Lizzytysh

[George.Wright]

I was not talking about the devious crap, just Partisan passing his high moral remarks about my writing and my motivation two or three posts up on this thread. I must aspire to be as perfect as he is to be able to throw the first stone.
Georges