leonardcohenforum.com

Paula wrote:Some people look really good in a hat Leonard certainly does. Very suave. I like the complete look it is perfect for him.

Why does never wear a tie (personally I hate ties) but I keep having an overwhelming complusion to undo the top button of the shirt.

Damellon I think we have been here before

Indeed we have, Paula. And will return to it again many times, no doubt!
Aristotle states that an action is involuntary and morally excusable if it is done under irresistible compulsion, so if we ever get close enough, we're excused

Can't wait. this will be my first time to see leonard and this great picture just makes it seem much more real. Toronto June 6 th!

richardrj wrote:Let's hope he doesn't spend too much time behind that keyboard. In 1988 and 1993 'Tower of Song' was the only song performed on keyboards, the rest were all on guitar. I suspect that advancing age makes playing the guitar more difficult. A Cohen show performed mainly on keyboards, drawing heavily on songs from the last few albums, would be something of a disappointment to me.

i don't know if many people remember the audience reactions to tower of song on the '88 tour, but they were more than a tad luke warm, especially from some of the grey-haired fans. by the '93 tour things had changed though, and tower of song went down a storm and always got a few whoops and whistles from the crowd when leonard sang "i was born with the gift of a golden voice"

brian eno once said in an interview that people who grew up listening to music before synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines and sampling were invented, cannot help but visualise musicians playing instruments when they listen to music, whereas younger people just visualise sound coming out of speakers

i dunno, but maybe that's why tower of song received such a luke warm reaction in '88 from some of leonard's older fans who had probably listened to the record and pictured someone on percussion, and then been surprised at the concert to see there wasn't a drummer, just a drum machine!

i have to say it never bothered me, and i'm hoping leonard features a LOT of songs from his recent albums - a thousand kisses deep will be one of the stand-out songs on the tour methinks

Pure class

dharma wrote: i don't know if many people remember the audience reactions to tower of song on the '88 tour, but they were more than a tad luke warm, especially from some of the grey-haired fans. by the '93 tour things had changed though, and tower of song went down a storm and always got a few whoops and whistles from the crowd when leonard sang "i was born with the gift of a golden voice"

I don't know about that. My recollection is that it went down well on the '88 tour as well. And maybe it's presumptuous of me to describe myself as being one of "Leonard's younger fans" back then, but I was 21 in 1988 and I didn't like Tower of Song even then. It's not a bad song, but the cheap and crappy synths and drum machines ruin it for me. Imagine it being played on guitar...

dharma wrote: brian eno once said in an interview that people who grew up listening to music before synthesizers, sequencers, drum machine and sampling were invented, cannot help but visualise musicians playing instruments when they listen to music, whereas younger people just visualise sound coming out of speakers

Well, he was talking b*llocks then. The first musicians I ever loved were Gary Numan, Ultravox and Kraftwerk, synth-based artists all. I first got into their music when I was 12. I knew they weren't playing "proper" instruments, but I didn't care, and it didn't stop me from enjoying guitar-based music later on.

Nick wrote:

richardrj wrote:Cohen show performed mainly on keyboards, drawing heavily on songs from the last few albums, would be something of a disappointment to me.

It's seems many people would agree with you there, but personally I'd love such a show. Not necessarily keyboard based, but drawing heavily from the last couple of albums (particularly Ten New Songs) would be great. If I'm honest I would be disappointed if the new songs were ignored in favour of older material. Obviously there are a couple of older songs I'd love to hear (such as Famous Blue Raincoat & Avalanche) but am I alone in wanted to hear a lot of the newer material instead of older songs?




ps - The Hat is awesome, makes me very tempted to put my suit and hat on for the special occasion (in London) too!

Put me down for lots of "later" songs too, Nick." Agree on both counts - much of the old material's great (there's a Bird on the Wire on Cohen Live that knocks spots off the original recording in my view), and I'll be happy whatever he plays, but the Future/I'm Your Man and afterwards contain a lot of my favourites and I'll be grateful if we get those in quantity.

richardrj wrote:I was 21 in 1988 and I didn't like Tower of Song even then. It's not a bad song, but the cheap and crappy synths and drum machines ruin it for me. Imagine it being played on guitar...

i'm not sure how it would sound on guitar, but it sounds perfect on "cheap and crappy synths" methinks

for me tower of song is one of leonard's BEST songs!

HOT.

More photos please Jarkko/Lorca.

Nice pic of Leonard! Candid shots are nearly always better than posed ones.

Thanks for sharing those pictures, Jarkko! And to you, Lorca, of course!
Mr. Cohen's looking gorgeous! Since I won't be able to attend one of his concerts, I hope there will be a lot more pictures.

What a lovely pic! LC looks very much like my father at the same age there (he was a Russian Jew and always wore a hat just like that one).

I personally hope LC will sing some of my favourite older songs, but ultimately I don't care what he does. I don't mind if he just stands in the middle of the stage and looks at us. Or falls asleep in an armchair. Or reads from the phone book. As long as he's there.

Bela wrote:What a lovely pic! LC looks very much like my father at the same age there (he was a Russian Jew and always wore a hat just like that one).

I personally hope LC will sing some of my favourite older songs, but ultimately I don't care what he does. I don't mind if he just stands in the middle of the stage and looks at us. Or falls asleep in an armchair. Or reads from the phone book. As long as he's there.

I agree, he could read the daily newspaper aloud and I would still be mesmerised. The man has so much charisma.

Yes you are all right...he has that look about him which seems to take him out and past all of us mere mortals and into the wider universe...I dont really mind what he sings ...so long as it's "Dance me to the End of Love....."...
No seriously, it will just be great to be there and hear whatever he wants to sing on the day.....

Really he is a gentleman. He looks great, I hope that he has a good time and the tour continues.

I would say that I hear "Tower of Song", a fantastic song.

Studying the labels on the soundboard, I try to guess the musicians who were there.

Let's see:
Neil: Neil Larsen
BGV: ??
Len: Leonard Cohen
Bob: Bob Metzger
Javier: Javier Mas
Dino: Dino Soldo
Kit: ??

I do not identify to:
Roscoe Beck
Rafael Gayol
Sharon Robinson

Thanks a lot for the photos.