leonardcohenforum.com

Re, "I know it sounds a little crazy that I would be so excited about hearing one song..."

If I recall, you were at least this excited when you first heard The Stranger Song!

Haha! Vickie, The title of this thread is Along the way... Discovering Leonard’s Albums etc and that’s exactly what you have done with Do I Have To Dance All Night I have mentioned this song many times over the years on the forum in different threads and thought I had done it here too, but not so! Coincidentally, the link below is my very first post on this forum and guess what it’s about
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... 04#p175330

my favourite song in 2010 -
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... ht#p227857

As you probably now know, this song was actually officially released in Europe as a vinyl single with The Butcher on the flip side. btw – Allan S (Dr H) has championed this excellent song for many years! Check out the link below.

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... ht#p218947
and updated album links -
https://cohencentric.com/2010/01/25/now ... hen-album/
https://cohencentric.com/2010/05/20/pre ... hen-album/

And this is interesting reading for that song and others -
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... ht#p318644

4, I had previously seen that most interesting 1970 link before too and was salivating at the prospect of one day hearing those recorded songs ….ah well, it’s a wishful thought!
btw - If you want to post a link from one thread to the other, just click on the title of the thread you want to get the info from, right click on that same title, copy then paste it into your message then post that normally. Do exactly the same thing if you only want an individual post in that thread.
And unfortunately, I don’t think Alan or myself here in the land of Oz can influence the MAC exhibition to come here.

I was thinking about the Montreal Memorial Concert, and wondering when the powers that be will get around to releasing a DVD of the performance (soon I am hoping).

This led me to look around on youtube to see if any videos by concertgoers had been posted there, and I found several, but most were rather poor in qualiity. One, however, stuck out as being superior, not only because the videographer knew what he/she was doing, but because of the subject, Elvis Costello's performance of "The Future." Obviously his treatment is far different than Leonard's, but it is, I think, just a stunning performance.

I will try to put a link at the bottom, but you all know I am tech-challenged (despite B4's attempts to teach me such things), so if I fail, you should be able to easily find it by googling "Elvis Costello The Future."

Vickie, I've referred you to various videos I found interesting in the past--this will be the first one of a performance you have actually seen!

4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH90tcT ... H90tcTwyzE

Bev, would be interested in reading your 2012 post about your father if you could guide me to it.

4

B4 and 4.... What a good lot of interesting links!!

I have been to a fair amount of concerts in my time, whenever able, but I have never heard of an artist repeating so many songs within the same concert like mentioned in that one link of yours B4! How interesting!! And yes, a little weird, in a good way.

After reading those links about Do I Have to Dance All Night ..my status as a newbie has seldom been so obvious to me as now....

Considering my enrapturement with Leonard, you would think I would be devouring everything on the forum from the beginning of time until now, but I have hardly begun to read the forum at all except for our thread and a couple others. I don't know if it is because I still don't feel qualified to join in, even as an observer, or if it is because I like pretending that I don't have to share him with so many others... Knowing me, it's probably the latter.

Thank you 4, for the Elvis Costello link! I too can't wait for an official recording of the concert to be released! Dave was just asking me yesterday when that would be!

We were just watching something tonight on PBS where the travel show host Samantha Brown went to Montreal, but there was no mention of Leonard. How can that be!?
Vickie

4, put your glasses on I wrote "above in my 2012 post" - so simply cast your eyes in that direction
It's only a few lines anyway.

Vickie, you're an old hand here now
Spread your wings and fly over the threads and feel free to land and talk on any one that takes your fancy!

Thank you B4. I like knowing that I am welcome to post elsewhere. I have to admit though,that I care most about what you and 4 and Alan and Jean have to say. That's just human nature I guess (even though we all think we are special and immune from being humans). I hope to have time to 'spread my wings' more soon.

As you all know here, we have sold our house, and Dave is interviewing for jobs now. Soon we hope to know when and where we will be moving. Right now, listening to Leonard and reading his poetry (I am starting Parasites of Heaven) and reading the posts here on the forum (when I have a chance), are the things that are keeping me grounded.

Lately I have been listening to the live MP3 tracks that Alan was so kind to send me. I am on the 1988 tracks now. The closer I get to where I could have stumbled upon Leonard when he was touring, the more I am starting to feel grateful that I didn't discover him like that. I know I have said to you many times that I wish I had the chance to know his work earlier and that I wish I had seen him live, but I think I like the way I have been learning about him. I am able to see his whole life at once and not only to benefit from what you have learned about him and have taught me, but to see what he learned about himself and more importantly what he learned about that great "whatever". Because I feel he really is all those things people say he is--- a poet, a saint, a sinner, a priest, but most of all a teacher. I don't need to have discovered him earlier or to have seen him live to benefit from that. Although I have been filled with regret for not discovering him earlier, I am starting to realize that it doesn't matter as much as I thought it did.

So now... B4, tell me about that avatar. Did he send you his shirt??

Vickie

A forum post in the "news" section today titled, "Leonard Cohen, Philosopher" has a link to a lecture by the head of the Philosophy Department at Maynooth University in Ireland.

In it he spends a great deal of time analyzing "Steer Your Way," which has become one of my favorite LC songs.

I recommend viewing this lecture, it will be an hour well spent.

Sadly, I must say that, after viewing his analysis of "Steer Your Way," the various song analyses I wrote in this thread seem amateurish.

4

4-
Thank you for the heads up! I want to watch it but will likely wait until I have more reasonable internet connection. I see Jarkko posted a pdf of the lecture transcript, so I will read that when I have a chance.

After reading what you said about your own take on Steer Your Way being amateurish, I had to write because it reminded me of a documentary on Dylan that I just happened to see on TV today! It was Scorsese's "Don't Look Back". I only caught part of it as it was on in the background while we were doing some packing. One of us is a pack-rat, so the boxing up of our belongings has just begun! Anyway, the part that caught my attention was when Joan Baez was discussing something Dylan said to her. She told the interviewer that when Dylan lived with her in Monterrey, he was always typing prose and songs and would ask her, "What do you think?" of this or "What do you think?" of that. She said it was good but she wasn't really sure what it meant, so once she really tried to analyze a piece and then told him what she thought it was about. Dylan said to her, (forgive the language, it was AXS channel and they don't cut stuff out), "That sounds pretty fucking good." and then he laughed and said, "A bunch of years from now, all these assholes are going to be writing about all this shit I write, and I don't know where the fuck it comes from and I don't know what the fuck it's about, and they're going to write about what it's about." Sorry again about the language, but the point is that sometimes poets and songwriters don't even know themselves what their stuff means, yet here we all are writing about it and analyzing everything and injecting what we think it is about. And by the way, I hardly think your analysis of Steer Your Way was amateurish.

Back to boxing stuff up... And in case you are wondering. I am not the pack rat, except maybe when it comes to my newly acquired Leonard stuff!

Vickie

4, keep saying what you think. It’s how you yourself feel about LC’s words and music that matters!
Anyway, Leonard was always saying that different people see different things in his work.

Vickie said: I love, love, LOVE your avatar, and especially your explanation of it......... I need to hear more about it.
Have you posted about it elsewhere on the forum?

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... 45#p356110

Vickie said: So now... B4, tell me about that avatar. Did he send you his shirt??

Hehe! Vickie, He sure did
https://cohencentric.com/2016/07/26/bev ... -off-back/

Seeing as we’ve tried to find out what LC song we are on that other thread, I thought it would be interesting to see if you would like to try and find out what LC song is the answer to these following questions. I know you are very busy at the moment so don’t feel obliged to complete it but I thought at this stage of your LC education, it would be a fun test for you or anyone else who cares to give it a go! It’s not mine in origin – Hartmut is to be thanked for that! And I hope he doesn't mind that I re-post it here:

1. one Cohen song that is based on an English folk song.
2. one Cohen song that is based on a Canadian folk song.
3. one German folk song that Cohen sang at least two times in concerts.
4. one Yiddish folk song that Cohen sang at least once in concert.
5. one Irish folk song that Cohen sang at least once in concert.
6. one French folk song that Cohen incorporated into live performances of one of his own songs.
7. one Trinidadian song (almost a folk song) that - again - Cohen incorporated into live performances of one of his own songs.
8. one Spanish poem that Cohen used as the basis of a song.
9. one Greek poem that Cohen used as the basis of a song.
10. one Cohen song which melody is somehow based on a country song.
11. one Cohen song that uses the melody of a piano piece by Franz List.
12. one Cohen song that exists in two different versions - each with a different melody writer. I'm talking about two totally different melodies here. The second composer didn't even know that the first melody existed. Both versions appeared on official studio albums. One a long time ago, the other one quite recently. One of these albums is not really a LC album. One melody was written by a woman, the other by a man.
13. one Cohen song that is based on a series of Chinese poems.
14. one Cohen song that is based on a Hebrew prayer.
15. one Country song Cohen wrote an additional verse for.
16. one Cohen piece that almost sounds as if it belonged on the 'Twin Peaks' sound track, i. e. as if had been written by Angelo Badalamenti.
17. one French Canadian song on which translation Cohen has been working on for some time now, and I can't wait to hear it.
18. one Cohen song which lyrics are the text of an English poem from the 19th century.
19. one Cohen song which lyrics are the text of a Canadian poem from the 20th century.
20. one Cohen song that has similar lines as a Disney song, a Beatles song, and a Felicity Buirski poem.
21. a Cohen song that is based on a Persian poem from the 13th century.
22. a Cohen song, or rather a recitation, that uses an Israeli folk song as the background music (allegedly; I only hear a similarity). It's not on an officially released album.

Bev adds:
23. A song not written by LC; sung in concert by him and it’s on an official album. He first sang this song in the early 1950’s. The last time this song was sung at a concert, he sang the last line only
24. A song not written by LC; never sung at a concert by him and it’s on an official album

btw – I have another similar quiz that incorporates both song and poetry for you when you complete your poetry readings and have more time and knowledge

B4, maybe you were right about "putting my glasses on." I swear I did not notice the new avatar! Now that is just...just...yes, I have to use the "A" word...awesome. If we meet at Hydra in 2019, you have to promise to wear it so I can see it.

I scanned your quiz and will take it later. But the initial run-through indicated I "knew" five answers, but two of them are the same song, so one is probably wrong. I am mildly depressed by this.

Non-Cohen miscellany: We have a pair of geese that have been returning to our pond late every winter for about six to eight years. Some years their eggs are taken by predators, some years they hatch and we see the goslings for a day or two, after which parents and young go into hiding somewhere. Well, this year the parents arrived around mid-March, and shortly thereafter the female was sitting on a nest and the male was guarding it. Unfortunately, this year our winter weather just wouldn't quit. It continued, on and off, through the third week of April, every few days we had a very cold, rainy, windy storm, so I feared that this year's nesting ritual would be a failure. But lo and behold, four days ago I saw the parents parading around with at least six little yellow fuzzballs. Now those are dedicated parents!

4

B4real wrote: ↑ I thought it would be interesting to see if you would like to try and find out what LC song is the answer to these following questions.

This should be interesting indeed. - You're pushing her into deep water ...

Ah Hartmut,
on the strength of your words and 4’s findings, I thought I would add a couple of “easier” ones to your above list

4, Ha! I always like to see when you are forced to use the “A” word! And every time Hydra comes around again I always want to go but I never seem to make it - if I do you can be sure that Leonard’s shirt will be with me

Btw - I like the yellow fuzzballs tale - it reminds me of the curlews across the road from me last year

B4real wrote: ↑ I thought I would add a couple of easier ones to your above list

Well, these are worthwhile additions.

I don't want to ruin the fun for 4, so I'll be very vague.

#23: Is it a song that takes its inspiration from the Bible?

#24: I think there are (at least) two songs that fit this description. The first one would be a good nickname for an online forum. The second one has an eternal theme.

Just getting a chance to read the recent posts!

I love the quiz! Assignment accepted! I am not sure when I will have a chance to complete it, but I will start now. Like 4, I know a few of them from the get-go, but will need to delve into a good amount of them to figure them out. What fun! Please don't post the answers yet! I beg for more time... give a few days anyways? Maybe we can message our answers to Bev when we figure them out. And Harmut, yes your comment on #23 is vague indeed. Wouldn't that be at least half of the songs he has written?

4- I loved the yellow fuzzballs tale also!

Did someone say Hydra....?

Vickie