Tonight I went to see Leonard Cohen at the Nokia Center in Grand Prairie. Cohen is one of those artists who makes an indelible impression; at least that's how it was for me. In the summer of 1968 I heard my very first Leonard Cohen song: Suzanne, recorded by Judy Collins on her 1966 album, In My Life. The lyrics were so beautiful and haunting that I was blown away, and stopped what I was doing so I could completely give myself up to listening to it. As soon as the song ended, I looked at the back of the album cover to see who had written it. Within the week I'd purchased my first Leonard Cohen album, and as much as I liked Judy Collins singing that song, I loved him singing it even more. That was the beginning of a long love affair for me with Leonard Cohen's voice and songs.
All these years later, everything still holds up beautifully. This was an absolutely wonderful concert by an incredibly talented singer/songwriter/musician/poet/artist who, at 74, is still going strong. If you have a chance to see him, do it. He doesn't disappoint.
7 comments:
Okay, I'm confused because I thought "In my life" was originally done by the Beatles with many remakes since.
Either way, I am loving Leonard Cohen. The clip you played from YouTube is awesome! He sounds like a contemporary, edgy, singer of today. I'm off to YouTube to favorite it.
You're right, the song, "In My Life", is a Lennon-McCartney song that has been recorded by many people, including Judy Collins on that album of hers which is called "In My Life".
One of my current favorite songs is Cohen's "Hallelujah." What an amazing combination of the sacred and the sexual. His verbal images are other worldly, and his music is powerful.
In fact, I was just humming that song when I sat down at the computer and called up this post. I would LOVE to see Cohen in concert.
:)
Lisa, I am not surprised that you are a Cohen fan, too. If you ever get to Dallas, I promise you, we are going to make it to a concert together, of one kind of music or another!
What a unique voice. I'm amazed that he's still touring at 74. Thanks for bringing us along. XO
Those are pretty good pictures considering the low light availability!
Thanks! I think it's amazing that any turned out at all, considering the low light and that I was hand holding the point and shoot.
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