Hallelujah

Wednesday night, Leonard Cohen performed at the Rose Garden in Portland, a performance that I missed, even though it greatly pained me to do so. (Check out The Oregonian's run-up piece and review.) Nevertheless ...

Last night, winding down on a Friday from a week of intense work, I sat back for a bit of my kind of luxurious living -- five hours of uninterrupted music. Earlier in the day, friend Jamesa brought me a surprise in the form of a new DVD documenting a 1972 tour of Leonard Cohen. Entitled, Bird On A Wire, the film is said to have languished in storage by Cohen's manager, Marty Marchat, until Marchat's death when Cohen acquired and hid it away, only recently turning it over to the original director, Tony Palmer, for re-edit and completion. Now released, Kim and I starting watching at about 7pm, followed by a hearing of just about every Leonard Cohen album that I have so far committed and converted to my FLAC library, finally slipping off to bed around 1am.

The film, while ragged in places and including some unneeded VietNam footage, does show Cohen in very human form, and is undoubtedly a must-see for any serious Cohen fan.

Arising at 6am with Leonard still resonating in my head, I started prowling the Web for more backstory on the film while listening to still more that we had not heard by bedtime. Then, at the National Film Board of Canada website, I discovered this 1964 documentary, "Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen":




This early film is quite intriguing and even shows Cohen's youthful skills as a stand-up comic. Another must-see, but be warned: this 44-minute online experience needs pretty decent bandwidth Internet connection.

More on Leonard Cohen: http://eyeavenue.blogspot.com/2009/09/happy-birthday-leonard.html