It was 1979 and my only dream at the time was to see KISS live. They were poised to release Dynasty, I was 14 and at the time they were the biggest band in the world, and the biggest thing in my life.
April of that year I saw Cheap Trick live, which was my very first concert. They were also riding high as one of the top selling bands of the time. My career in music as early as it’s beginings was about to kick off.
In July I saw KISS. 11 years later I met and interviewed Gene Simmons. It made the cover and was the main feature of the publication I first started writing for in 1989. It was my first big story and would reflect my work ethic for the rest of my life. Confront the big dogs head on. Put it behind me and move on. It’s all about closure. Gene Simmons was still my idol at the time. But after that interview was published my eyes were opened to bigger and more significant talents.
Closure.
Over the years that followed anyone reading this knows I would go on to interview and eventually befriend many popular and artistically creditable talents. I don’t think I could have done that the way I did if I didn’t stick to my guns and meet the challenge of many talents that people often refer to as intimidating head on.
The autumn of that year, I first heard the voice of Leonard Cohen. It was in the movie “Pump Up The Volume”, and the central character was played by Christian Slater. He operated a pirate radio station and would open every broadcast with the song, “Everybody Knows”.
The next morning I went to a local record store (anyone remember record stores?) and I inquired on who I believed was a new artist, Leonard Cohen and was surprised to hear that he was an ‘old folk singer’. Without hesitation I purchased his latest offering at the time a cassette format of “I’m Your Man”.
My life was about to change. Say what you want, music does that to me.
Lou Reed one of my favorite lyricists and poets described Cohen as the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters.”
As I began to plunge myself head first into his lyrical mastery and fall victim to his pure passion and desire for all things life, love and loss, I felt the need to examine the subject more in depth. I went to another record store and picked up the LP of “The Best Of Leonard Cohen”, and it featured standards such as , “Suzanne”, “Sisters of Mercy”, “So Long, Marianne”, “Bird on the Wire”, and “Chelsea Hotel #2” all staples of the LC live performance over his 40 year career.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn’t you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don’t need you,
I need you, I don’t need you
and all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, “Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music.”
And then you got away, didn’t you babe…
I don’t mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can’t keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that’s all, I don’t even think of you that often.
L Cohen
I bet that closing line really stuck it to the vain bitch eh?
And his lyrics do cut like a knife, that is to anyone with any sort of a heart or soul.
Over the next few years there were several compilations such as “More of the Best of Leonard Cohen” and “The Essential Leonard Cohen” and in 1992 he recorded and released “The Future”, which included the hits “Anthem”, “Democracy”, Waiting for the Miracle”, “Closing Time” and the title track. But with the exception of the ’92 release as far as any type of compilation is concerned I’ve always been partial to “Cohen Live” which came out in ’94 in synch with the debut of the movie “Natural Born Killers”which he did the theme song to as well as the song in the end credits. Kudos to Trent Reznor who was Oliver Stones choice for Musical Director on the film.
All of this time as much as it had been a dream of mine to see Leonard Cohen live more than any other performer but I never thought it would be reality. In 2001, would begin the five years’ seclusion as a Zen Buddhist monk at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center. He would come out and record 2 more albums of material and did not tour on them. Indeed he was older and I figured it was a dream and I had been born to late, thus it would remain just a dream.
But again, it was one of my dreams, and they seem to have their way.
In 2008 he announced he’d tour, his first in 15 years. The shows all seemed to be based oversees and I figured the US audience was just not there for his art as the majority of our populace is comprised of media fed puppets and sheep that feed off of what is injected into them by the mindless performers endorsed by corporations hell bent on over saturating the masses with bad reality TV and mediocre at best rising star shows such as “American Idol”. It is absolutely those Rx-like mega doses that dictate what is available to purchase at the limited retail outlets for entertainment as well what is exposed through media and brodcast via AM/FM or network television as well as cable.
Last February Deborah, a friend and reader of my work emailed me that tix were going on sale for LC in Chicago. I felt a tear of happiness. The shows would go on sale while I was in Baton Rouge shaking some of my winter frustrations out of it’s shell. I thought upon my return at worst I’d buy tix from a broker at any price. I returned from my trip to learn that the company I was working for over the last 3.5 years was no more. Thus my dreams of seeing Leonard Cohen live was dying a slow death.
As I mentioned, it was my dream.
A month ago Arbell Camron of Sony/Columbia Records offered me advance of the Leonard Cohen “Live in London” DVD and CD and I completely drowned myself in the performance. And all along believing that my dream was just that.
Last week she wrote to me again and offered 2 tickets. Was I going to say no?
Only one person came to mind when it came to sharing the 3 hour roller coaster ride of religion, isolation, sexuality and complex interpersonal relationships. However the reality of it seemed more complicated than the dream of seeing my poet live in and of itself.
As with the dream of seeing KISS, the 19 year wait of seeing Leonard Cohen live provided much ‘closure’ on many levels. I feel good today, alive, happy and free.
The entire mood of this Diary or blog as it has become tagged is on the verge of changing, more akin to that of my friend Scott Fayners’. But before I “put my past behind me and let my new life begin” I need to sum up the show in my own words from my own personal spiritual experience.
That shall be exposed later today.
Closure
You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat
You’d have to be a man to know
How good that feels, how sweet
My mirror twin, my next of kin
I’d know you in my sleep
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep
I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
You see I’m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet
Who loved you with his frozen love
His secondhand physique
With all he is and all he was
A thousand kisses deep
I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
To pose all hot and high
Behind the veils of sheer deceit
Our perfect porn aristocrat
So elegant and cheap
I’m old but I’m still into that
A thousand kisses deep
I’m good at love, I’m good at hate
It’s in between I freeze
Been working out but it’s too late
(It’s been too late for years)
But you look good, you really do
They love you on the street
If you were here I’d kneel for you
A thousand kisses deep
The autumn moved across your skin
Got something in my eye
A light that doesn’t need to live
And doesn’t need to die
A riddle in the book of love
Obscure and obsolete
And witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep
But I’m still working with the wine
Still dancing cheek to cheek
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne
But the heart will not retreat
I ran with Diz, I sang with Ray
I never had their sweet
But once or twice they let me play
A thousand kisses deep
I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
You see I’m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet
Who loved you with his frozen love
His secondhand physique
With all he is and all he was
A thousand kisses deep
But you don’t need to hear me now
And every word I speak
It counts against me anyhow
A thousand kisses deep
L Cohen