Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The sublime lyrics of Leonard Cohen

Well, they were the most expensive concert tickets I will probably ever buy, but it was so worth it.

The magnificent Leonard Cohen payed at GM Place last Sunday night (April 19th) and it was a beautiful evening indeed. I have never owned an album, never bought a CD or a book of Mr. Cohen's work. I believe I became a fan by absorption - by default of being a Canadian - and I was quietly astonished by how many of his songs and lyrics I actually knew and could sing along with during the show.

I wrote down the set list as he played and I can't believe I even knew the song titles to most of the songs! There's only 3 songs where I had to write down some lyrics and find out the song name after.

He brought me to tears more than once . . . during Hallelujah . . . during the spoken word piece 1000 Kisses Deep . . . and during If It Be Your Will with the divine Webb sisters singing angelic harmony.

Set List:
Dance Me To the End of Love
The Future
Ain't No Cure For Love
*(missed the 4th song due to a white wine break)
Bird on a Wire
Everybody Knows
In My Secret Life
Who By Fire
Chelsea Hotel
Waiting For The Miracle
Anthem
~ Intermission ~
Tower of Song
Suzanne
The Gypsy's Wife
The Partisan
Boogie Street
Hallelujah
I'm Your Man
1000 Kisses Deep
Take This Waltz
~ encore ~
So Long Maryanne
Then We Take Berlin
Famous Blue Raincoat
If it be Your Will
Democracy is Coming to the USA
I Tried to Leave You

There's many videos all over YouTube of this tour, but none of them really do the concert justice. I"ll leave you with the best one I found so far.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wanted to go to the show but couldn't afford it. Thanks for sharing you experience of the show.