Looking back on Leonard

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Leonard Cohen in Dublin 2013
Leonard Cohen in Dublin 2013

I can’t definitely say that I’d never heard of Leonard Cohen until 1980. I’ve seen YouTube clips of him on TV series that I know were required family viewing in the 1960s, but if he ever made an impression I quickly forgot him. However, when a new boyfriend introduced me to Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs of love and hate I was hooked. Thirty six years later, I can’t say John (for it was he) and I have embraced all of each other’s musical tastes. I have never reconciled myself to Captain Beefheart, and he can’t understand why I find Abba so entrancing, but we share a good solid core and Leonard was the first. And the best.

Neither of us had ever seen him perform, so you can imagine our joy when he started touring again in 2008 – and then our sorrow when we realised that his only UK dates were when we were on holiday in the US. Not to worry – he would be performing in Dublin before we left. I still class that weekend as one of the most special in my life.

My weekend in Dublin with Leonard Cohen (I wish)

While we were away, we got an excited message from a friend, another Cohen fan. Good news! New dates! Leonard was coming to Glasgow in November. We immediately ordered tickets. I remember the concert was the day after the US election in which Obama got in for the first time. There was a sense of elation from both band and audience at the line Democracy is coming to the USA. That’s quite poignant to look back on too.

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Leonard Cohen and band in Berlin 2012

In 2012, we travelled to Berlin where the stand-out line in terms of audience participation was First we take Manhattan – then we take Berlin. This left me with the ambition, sadly unfulfilled, to belt out the same line in Manhattan some day.

Berlin: Leonard Cohen at the Waldbühne 05/09/12

However, we did get one more chance at a Cohen concert towards the end of his touring days when we travelled to Dublin again in 2013.

Dublin Diary: Day 1

Leonard was still in such good shape then. He skipped and danced, bent down on his knees – and got back up again without a struggle! When his former lover and muse, Marianne Ihlen, was dying earlier this year it worried me that he told her that he wouldn’t be far behind her, then I heard that he had said in an interview that he was ready to die. He recanted this in his final interview at the launch of his last album just a few weeks ago, but he looked terribly frail and, from comments made by his son Adam, was in a lot of pain and not very mobile. I was shocked at the decline in just three years, but I suppose that’s old age and we all have to face it.

I’ll leave you, not with my favourite Leonard Cohen song which would be far too hard, but with this little gem that I discovered a few years ago via the wonderful site, Cohencentric: I love Leonard Cohen.

Leonard – you might, or might not, have been ready to die, but we certainly weren’t ready to lose you. So long, and thanks for all the memories.

Musicians, People ,

43 Comments »

  7. Hi Anabel – I’ll be back to listen and re-read … as I feel much the same. Amazing poet and wordsmith, let alone musician … thanks for writing this up … it’ll be an emotional listen and read … cheers Hilary

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  9. Liked him and Neil Young. Only owned three earlier albums out the 14 studio ones he made so the first time I heard Hallelujah was on Grace by Jeff Buckley and some more of his later songs by various artists, including Tower of Song sung by Martha Wainwright. He definitely had the power to make good singers even better as well as delivering them in his own unique style. A floor/room next to Hank Williams would be fitting.

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  10. Thanks for the Memories, indeed. I never saw the great man perform but I’ve loved his music since the day I first heard it in a tiny attic in Paris (thanks for that memory, too, of the time when we could pretend to be bohemian for the weekend before returning to our bourgeois jobs on Monday morning). He was a wonder, a one-off, a great poet and a giver. As one of the comments above said, at least he was spared Trump, but oh the joy we have missed of hearing him cover that ‘victory’ in words and music.

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  14. You are so lucky to have seen him in concerts so many times. We never did manage to see him live but we have most of his CDs and have been listening to them one after the other the last few days. He was truly a wonderful poet. He is now buried in a cemetery not far from where we live and one day I will go pay my respect. We haven’t been yet to his house in Montreal where lots of people have been paying tributes but we have seen it on TV. As he was born in Montreal and was very attached to the city, he is particularly revered here…Thanks for the lovely tribute. (Suzanne)

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  15. I grew up in Montreal in the late 60s and was a huge folk fan so I knew Leonard Cohen. Was thrilled to see him twice in Toronto during in 2008/09 tour. But the concert I would have loved to see was his Dublin show, my birthplace.

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  16. Thank you for sharing you memories, it’s a great loss. I think many people have very personal reasons to mourn his death, his music and poetry touched so many of us. Thank you for the links, too 🙂

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  17. You are so lucky to have seen him perform live so many times! And I love the song you included. Indeed, we love Leonard Cohen. And his songs will live on.

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  18. What wonderful memories you have of Leonard Cohen; it seems his music has woven itself through many special moments in your life. 🙂 I had never even heard of him until 2011 when I was in Oman and some of my British friends introduced me to him. I couldn’t believe I’d missed out on him most of my life. Such a sad loss for all of us.

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