Final Sunday Session – Leonard Cohen Live Pack!

yaniv2975 hours ago

0 23 3 minutes read

Hello again! Time for the final Sunday Session! Of this run, anyway. And for this, I have a really special pack.

Of all the (many) packs I’ve done, there’s one that was always a favorite of mine: the Leonard Cohen “Live in London” pack. Leonard is one of the artists dearest to my heart, and while his studio recordings don’t usually translate to the most thrilling Rock Band charts, his live recordings are always amazing. The show I saw in 2008 remains probably the best and most emotional concert of my life. The way he reinvented his old material is just astonishing. His backing bands were exceptional, his arrangements evolved and breathed in ways the studio versions didn’t allow.

So we’re back to the same well – and this time it’s a double pack. The first focuses on the 1979 tour, the second on 2008-2009. A lot of great music awaits. Beautiful songs, and great on all instruments.

From Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 (released 2001):

The 1979 tour was one Cohen himself called his best ever. He had assembled what he nicknamed “The Army” – a full jazz-inflected ensemble including the Austin band Passenger, violinist Raffi Hakopian, oudist John Bilezikjian, and backing singers Jennifer Warnes and Sharon Robinson, both of whom would become long-term collaborators. This band was honestly absolutely amazing, and you will hear exactly why.

“Field Commander Cohen“ is the title track of the live album, and one of Cohen’s most theatrical self-portraits – a song full of twists and turns, military imagery, dry humour, emotional moments, and social criticism, all delivered with a witty performance and a great arrangement. “Memories“ is one of the great curios in the Cohen catalog – it originally appeared on Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977), produced by Phil Spector in a chaotic, overblown arrangement. Here it’s stripped into a great live band song: funny, bittersweet, charming, horny, and with a great saxophone solo (authored to keys, naturally) as Cohen pleads for the “tallest blondest girl” to show him her naked body, in a song that is – in full Cohen tradition – simultaneously very sexual and very spiritual.

Finally, “Bird on the Wire.” This song probably needs no introduction, being one of Cohen’s most iconic songs, with possibly the most memorable opening lines of all time (“Like a bird on the wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried, in my way, to be free”). But I want to explain this specific version. The original studio recording, and earlier live versions, are beautiful – but so slow, weightless, and sparse that playing them in game would just be rough. The later live performances are great too, but tend to stray too far into Leonard’s full-band soft rock mode and too far from the acoustic origins. This version hits a beautiful sweet spot: still built on Leonard and his acoustic guitar, but with the full band picking it up when needed – and a genuinely beautiful minute-long electric guitar solo. This is the one that best represents this great song.

(I should also mention that I previously authored the live version of “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” from the same record – quite possibly my favorite Leonard Cohen performance of all time.)

From the 2008-09 Comeback Tour (Live in London / Songs from the Road):

Fast forward thirty years. What started as a necessary tour – Cohen had been robbed of his life savings by his manager – evolved into one of the most legendary and emotional tours of all time: a victory lap that grew and grew, eventually spanning over 380 shows across four years, each one roughly three hours long. It’s an era I’ve visited before – the previous pack included “First We Take Manhattan,” “Dance Me to the End of Love,” and “I’m Your Man” – and now it’s time to add some more.

“Heart With No Companion“ – originally from Various Positions (1984) – is a country-flavored, beautiful song, and also Cohen reaching out toward the lonely and the broken. “Take This Waltz“ is something else entirely: Cohen’s own translation of a poem by Federico García Lorca, the great Spanish poet, which he worked on for over a year to get right. It appeared on I’m Your Man (1988) and is one of the most lush and romantic things Cohen ever recorded – pure beauty, and he gives it such a tender performance here. And “Closing Time“ – from The Future (1992) – is an apocalyptic party song, as Cohen celebrates the end (of a relationship? his life? the world?) with a lot of humour and a lot of beauty.