I'm your fan
Jun. 16th, 2008 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radegundLEONARD COHEN last Saturday OMG OMG OMG! OMFG! He's seventy-three, and we (my sister, my parents, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kulfuldi and I) bought our tickets largely on the basis that he almost certainly won't play in Dublin again. And he was ... just. Utterly. Stunning. He performed for three hours, and the only thing wrong with the gig, from my point of view, was that he didn't do every song he's ever recorded. And I include "Jazz Police" in that. Srsly. I mean, I wasn't exactly expecting "Teachers" or "Avalanche" or "Dress Rehearsal Rag" or "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong", but ... well, he rehabilitated "Ain't No Cure For Love" for me, which is saying something.
He didn't do many of the oldies - "Suzanne", "Bird on a Wire", "Who By Fire?" - possibly because he had a six-piece band and preferred to do the big-sound stuff he's focussed on since the 80s. But he started with "Dance Me to the End of Love", fergawdsake! And he did "I'm Your Man"! And all six verses of "Hallelujah"! And "The Future"! And "Take This Waltz"! And "Tower of Song" (featuring himself on keyboard for the plinky bit)! And "Anthem"! And and and stuff I didn't recognise but now have to buy! And a poem ("A Thousand Kisses Deep")! And then he finished up with "First We Take Manhattan", went off, came back and did a few more, finished with "Closing Time", went off, came back and started again with "I Tried to Leave You"! Ahahaha, Leonard, I see what you did there.
He had one memory lapse - sang a verse of "Democracy" twice - but other than that it was, as far as I could tell, a flawless performance. He was dressed in a grey suit and a fedora, doffed his hat and bowed slightly to receive applause, gave plenty of praise to his musicians and backing singers - in short, generally epitomised charm and gentlemanliness. (Funny line: "I last stood up on stage almost fifteen years ago. I was sixty years of age - a young man with a crazy dream...") More than that, though, he epitomised, for me, a genuinely inspiring dedication to his art. There was no posturing (OK, a little kneeling, a little dancing), no rambling patter, just understated brilliance, a straightforward delivery of songs that are still some of the most thoughtfully constructed, beautifully polished pieces of writing I've ever encountered.
kulfuldi and I) bought our tickets largely on the basis that he almost certainly won't play in Dublin again. And he was ... just. Utterly. Stunning. He performed for three hours, and the only thing wrong with the gig, from my point of view, was that he didn't do every song he's ever recorded. And I include "Jazz Police" in that. Srsly. I mean, I wasn't exactly expecting "Teachers" or "Avalanche" or "Dress Rehearsal Rag" or "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong", but ... well, he rehabilitated "Ain't No Cure For Love" for me, which is saying something.He didn't do many of the oldies - "Suzanne", "Bird on a Wire", "Who By Fire?" - possibly because he had a six-piece band and preferred to do the big-sound stuff he's focussed on since the 80s. But he started with "Dance Me to the End of Love", fergawdsake! And he did "I'm Your Man"! And all six verses of "Hallelujah"! And "The Future"! And "Take This Waltz"! And "Tower of Song" (featuring himself on keyboard for the plinky bit)! And "Anthem"! And and and stuff I didn't recognise but now have to buy! And a poem ("A Thousand Kisses Deep")! And then he finished up with "First We Take Manhattan", went off, came back and did a few more, finished with "Closing Time", went off, came back and started again with "I Tried to Leave You"! Ahahaha, Leonard, I see what you did there.
He had one memory lapse - sang a verse of "Democracy" twice - but other than that it was, as far as I could tell, a flawless performance. He was dressed in a grey suit and a fedora, doffed his hat and bowed slightly to receive applause, gave plenty of praise to his musicians and backing singers - in short, generally epitomised charm and gentlemanliness. (Funny line: "I last stood up on stage almost fifteen years ago. I was sixty years of age - a young man with a crazy dream...") More than that, though, he epitomised, for me, a genuinely inspiring dedication to his art. There was no posturing (OK, a little kneeling, a little dancing), no rambling patter, just understated brilliance, a straightforward delivery of songs that are still some of the most thoughtfully constructed, beautifully polished pieces of writing I've ever encountered.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-28 09:44 pm (UTC)I have to say that I did not mourn the loss of Jazz Police.
Just back this evening from another outdoor-oul-lad gig - Brian Wilson on Hampstead Heath. The crowd were so well-heeled and picnic-basketed that it was fairly tricky for me to move around, what with Babog making me distinctly clumsy here in week 32. But the music was joyful...
I have decided that 32 weeks' gestation would be just enough pregnancy for me.