Death Becomes Us
Last autumn I decided to go on a “see them before they die” campaign – to see, in concert, any of the legendary artists that are touring, that I hadn’t seen before or for a while. It started with a reformed Fleetwood Mac and included The Who, Van Morrison, U2, Bruce Springsteen, London Wainwright III, Squeeze, Buzzcocks, Neil Young, Jean Michel Jarre, Status Quo, Suede (twice), Joe Jackson, Preston Reed, Ron Sexsmith and, this week, Rod Stewart. Of course, the one artist I would like to have seen, one last time, was Leonard Cohen. The news of his death, last week, sent me into a state of grief that was quite surprising. Perhaps the grief resulted from Cohen being the soundtrack of a part of my life – long ago – between 1989 and 1992.
Like most music lovers, my first encounter with Leonard Cohen was those well known 60s tracks on “Songs of love and hate” which I heard relentlessly in a hostel in Germany during the summer of 1987. Nice songs, but they didn’t speak to me. And then, one day, in 1989, I caught a glimpse of a picture of a cool older guy eating a banana on the cover of a cassette in a record shop at a “nice price.” I bought the album (“I’m your man”), put it in my Walkman, and my music listening changed forever. It is still one of my favourite albums (almost perfect except for “Jazz Police”) – I have listened to it countless times and bought dozens of copies for friends and relations. Soon after, I picked up a copy of “Various Positions”- which is nearly as good. Subsequently I bought all of the previous albums – all good except for “Death of a ladies man,” ruined, typically, by Phil Spector. What is remarkable is the change in Cohen’s voice, probably by half an octave, between the 1970s and 1980s – he was like a new and different artist – who spoke to me in my early 20s. “The Future” arrived in 1992 and it was good, but not truely great.
Many years passes and eventually I got to see the gat man, decked out in Fedora, in Dublin about 4 years ago. I brought my two young sons – so that one day they can boast that they saw the legend in the flesh. He played for 3 hours; we nearly froze to death. It was awesome.
I buy a lot of records by young bands and go and see then in concert. None have the skill, the songs and stagecraft and the energy of the “geriatric” acts that I have seen in the past year. When you see the Stones, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon still touring – don’t slag them off – go and see them. “We will never see their like again….”
RIP Leonard, Bowie, Leon Russell, Merle Haggard, Prince and all of the others who have passed on this year, but leave behind their treasured recordings.
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