Live At The Isle of Wight -CD/DVD-

A magical moment for a mystical performer
Leonard Cohen "Live At The Isle Of Wight: 1970" (Sony Legacy, 2009) --------------------------------------------------- A remarkable document of Cohen's fabled appearance at the Isle Of Wight music festival, in which he was asked to perform for a fractious, grouchy, muddy audience, following a Jimi Hendrix blow-out that left the groggy festivalgoers in a dark mood. Facing a crowd that teetered on the verge of riot, Cohen, a little exhausted and apprehensive himself, worked his way through his set, stopping to "rap" with the audience in the hippie lingo of the time. You can feel him working his magic, literally weaving a spell with his songs, half incantation, half lullaby. This deluxe edition also comes with a documentary film that provides a frame for the music, telling this little-known story of a moment where Great Britain avoided having an Altamont of its own -- instead, we are given a great snapshot of Cohen in his prime, as a king of counterculture poets. Both the film and the audio have technical flaws, but the whole package is mysterious and sublime. A nice slice of hippie-era folk music history, and a fine set of music for Cohen fans to pour over and relish. Highly recommended! (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Guide To Folk Music)

Leonard Cohen at Isle of Wight
As always, I am more than satisfied with this Leonard Cohen product. It's nice to see him young again, and I'm thankful that the DVD and CD became available from that time.

Essential for Fans
1970's Isle of Wight Festival was one of the landmark events in popular music history, comparable to the prior year's Woodstock. 600,000 people heard some of the era's most popular and significant artists over five days. There were multiple great performances, but at least as important culturally and historically is what the crowd itself did - in a word, explode. About three times as many people showed up as expected, many without paying. A wall was put up to keep out the latter, and the crowd rebelled. The wall was knocked down, and many things were set on fire - including the very stage during one of Jimi Hendrix's most famous performances, as well as several instruments. Some of the less incendiary performers, such as Kris Kristofferson, were pelted and/or booed offstage. Fed up and perhaps scared, director Murray Lerner, there to film the festival, packed up before Cohen's performance. Such was the atmosphere when Leonard Cohen was due to play after Hendrix - a near-impossible act to follow in any case, needless to say. Pushing his already seemingly bad luck, Cohen insisted on a piano and organ when told they had been burned and pushed offstage, taking a nap in the meantime. He was eventually woken up and casually took his time getting dressed - putting clothes over his pajamas - and tuning. Then, with complete calm and something like mastery, he took the stage. Even then he did not launch into his long-awaited - his current album was #2 in the UK - and long-delayed performance but strolled gingerly to the microphone and gave a long allegory about attending the circus as a child. Finally, after an impromptu little song about the moment, he slowly lead into his then-popular, now-classic "Bird on a Wire" - and the rest was indeed history. Cohen gave an excellent, hour-plus performance that is one of his most significant. By rights it should have been released at the time or in intervening decades, as have live albums by several other artists at the event. It may have been held back because Cohen had an ongoing studio album - Songs of Love and Hate -, three songs from which appear here, and/or because he had a live album a few years later. The recent Cohen revival - which sees him more popular than ever in many places, including America - finally and thankfully ensured the release fans have been wanting for almost forty years. Perhaps to make up for lost time, and benefitting Cohen's new status, it was put out in a deluxe CD/DVD edition with informative liner notes and a generous set of photographs. A few people may have preferred separate CD and DVD editions, as with Cohen's Live in London from earlier in 2009, but most fans would have bought both and will appreciate the convenience - especially as the package costs little more than either would have alone. It is also nice compensation for what might otherwise seem inadequate: the concert is relatively short; the DVD lacks several songs; and sound/picture quality, while remarkable considering the equipment and the age of the tapes, are of course not up to current standards. First I will review the CD, which has Cohen's whole show. Simply put, it is a fine performance that fans, especially of Cohen's early work, will love and appreciate. Those close to Cohen were worried that he would be heckled or even driven offstage as prior low-key performers had been, especially as he was in no hurry, but he remained calm and gave a mesmerizing performance. Against all odds, the crowd was supremely respectful, hanging onto every proverbial word - a true testament to the performance and perhaps to Cohen's droll, unhurried demeanor. He is calm, confident, and collected, calming the frenzied crowd into a near-trancelike state. Cohen played most of the best songs from his first two albums, including "Suzanne," and three as yet unreleased: "Diamonds in the Mine," "Sing Another Song, Boys," and "Famous Blue Raincoat." These were saved until near the end and doubtless greatly appreciated. Probably everyone will miss a favorite or two, but the selection is hard to fault. Anyone who likes Cohen's early live album Live Songs will surely like this significantly more, as selection is notably superior and performances more consistent. A breathtakingly intimate "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" is the highlight for me, but others may have different preferences; there is really no weak performance. A significant bonus is that, as is his wont, Cohen also recites several poems. His choices are short and humorous, and the crowd responds approvingly. Perhaps even more interesting, and certainly more valuable in being unique to the show, is Cohen's frequent trademark onstage banter. He has an unusual voice and way of speaking for a popular music performer; one can tell he was used to reciting poetry, which truly makes him stand out from the mindless shouting and crowd enticing of most festivals. He also has a generous, if offbeat, sense of humor. All this comes out in several stories and song introductions; the latter sometimes have interesting information but are also valuable in themselves as samples of Cohen's impromptu speech. Some of what he says may have been rehearsed, but it is delightful to hear talk specifically for this crowd. He makes several insightful comments showing he was both part of and well outside the dying hippie movement, including several subtle digs at its superficiality, and the crowd reacts with a curious mix of appreciation and ambivalent silence. Perhaps most memorably, Cohen throws in "I know there are a lot of Maoists and atheists out there, but..." during the repeated "You've won me, my lord" at the end of "Lady Midnight." Pushing such a hostile crowd so hard was a considerable risk, and we must admire the pure chutzpah. Cohen was apparently heckled only once, responding, "Are you calling me a fascist pig again?" The ensuing laughter deflated the potentially fatal situation, leaving him undisputed master of the crowd. Neophytes may be puzzled and/or turned off by Cohen's banter, but it will delight fans. I have no real complaints about the performance, but a few quibbles that are essentially matters of taste will affect various listeners differently. For example, some nice lyric changes aside, the performances, in marked contrast to Cohen's latter-day approach, are generally quite similar to studio versions. This means arrangements are very minimalist - shockingly so for those used to Cohen's more expansive later renditions. Those not fully entranced by the words and/or Cohen himself may thus think the concert begins to get somewhat monotonous. However, this is true of his first four studio albums as well as his first live record; anyone who likes those will have no problem. Even so, one cannot help wondering why Cohen bothered having a band, especially such a large and prestigious one. Besides additional guitar, it features banjo, fiddle, electric bass, and other instruments, though notably no percussion. Hand-picked by legendary producer Bob Johnston - who appears on piano, organ, harmonica, and guitar against his better judgment but at Cohen's insistence -, it consists mainly of the day's best country session musicians. These players - including a pre-fame Charlie Daniels, a strange Cohen companion in many ways - were highly skilled and in great demand. Cohen was quite lucky to get them, and it seems a shame not to use them more. All songs are dominated by Cohen's acoustic guitar; several feature only it or very little else. When others do chime in it is usually only a musician or two at a time - ironically mostly Johnston, who contributes several fine organ fills and some other nice bits. The DVD shows that the band looks bored much of the time, as one might expect; they after all basically just watch Cohen like everyone else much of the time. They even seem occasionally restless, especially Daniels. Perhaps Cohen simply did not mesh well with them, despite the notes' claims. In striking contrast to his current tour, he does not seem to have much rapport with them, issuing commands gruffly and ignoring Daniels when he smilingly gets up and tries to play fiddle at Cohen's mic. As one might expect, the band has a very country sound when it does kick in; this works surprisingly well with Cohen's music and will be well appreciated by those who, like him, love country music. The band is quite good in these rare moments, making it easy to wish it had been used more. These are not really big issues musically; the minimalism keeps the focus on the words, where it should always be in Cohen, but he does seem waste some fine talent. Also, though Cohen's signature emotion is ever-present and we can have no doubt that he pours his proverbial heart into each song as few singers can, his voice is more than usually off-key and seems to grow tired at times. He has of course never been a technical singer, which unfortunately scares many away from his great work immediately, but it is more than normally apparent here. The performance will certainly not will new converts, but this should be a non-issue for fans. As for the DVD, it is of course great that we actually see Cohen perform, which is always interesting. However, unlike seemingly everyone else, I have some problems with the film as a film, though for admittedly subjective reasons. I personally hate ostensible concert films that intersperse documentary footage with performance. It is not that I fail to appreciate such footage; I indeed like it significantly, but it ruins the flow of the music for me. This film has relatively little of this but still does it occasionally. There is also not enough documentary footage; it would have been nice to have a lot more, as the concert is relatively short. There are short clips of recent interviews with Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Kristofferson, but they fail to say anything that is not already common knowledge or in the booklet. The absence of Cohen himself is also painfully felt; his long interview in the recent documentary I'm Your Man would seem to suggest he is not inaccessible, though he is certainly busy these days. As for the actual festival, the only footage is a short bit at the front of attendees talking about Cohen and a few very short crowd segments dispersed throughout the performance. The only interesting bit is Baez addressing the unruly crowd situation. Surely more footage could have been found. An entire documentary of the festival was made by the same director, and it would have been worth using some of it here if nothing new could have been unearthed. Those who have seen it might not care for the overlap, but a self-contained Cohen film would have been convenient. As always, I would have preferred to have all non-musical footage either before or after the performance or as extras. Another problem is lack of camera angles; nearly the whole performance is a close-up of Cohen's face. This is indeed where the camera should be most of the time, but such ubiquity becomes monotonous. Close-ups of the band when it is playing would have been appropriate, and there should certainly be more crowd shots. This may have been unavoidable to a large extent. As Lerner decided to stay at a late moment, two of his three cameras were already put away. However, this is not really an excuse; one could easily say he should not have packed up, even if it is hard to blame him, and there should have been enough time in the long gap between the Hendrix and Cohen sets to get the cameras ready. Besides, and more fundamentally, he could have gotten more variety even with one camera. For example, he could have at least backed away from Cohen slightly so we could see his guitar; this is done a few times but not nearly enough. Lack of crowd shots is more understandable; it was dark, and Cohen himself frequently mentions that he cannot see the people, which surely made it all but impossible to get good shots. More importantly, several songs are missing, as is some of the banter and all the poems. This is inexcusable if left out on purpose, as these segments are at least as good as those used and give some wished-for variety since "Diamonds," at least, features the band fairly heavily. It may be that these parts were never filmed or that the footage has been lost, though a few songs are heard or shown in fragments in the introduction. This is a significant defect, but the others are relatively minor, and all Cohen fans should enjoy the film; indeed, all seem to enjoy it rather more than me. All told, this is a must for Cohen fans, especially those who particularly like his early work. Fans of later material may be somewhat underwhelmed, but this is a worthy and important performance from his early period and worth seeing just for its insight into this stage of his career and for historical value. No fan should be without it.

Beautiful Time
I bought this for my mister for his Christmas gift. I really didn't know a whole lot about Leonard Cohen except for a few songs that I've heard. I really like him, but haven't seen him perform. I knew that my mister wanted this so I bought it from Amazon and we recieved it in the mail on Christmas Eve. We watched it that night and it was such a beautiful DvD. I think I may have cried a few times. Leonard is so genuine and such a talented man. I think every Leonard fan needs to own this. Since Christmas, I think we've put the DvD on about once a week, even if it is just background noise. We love it! I think you need to add this to your Cohen collection!

throwing us a bone after nearly 40 years...
This came with a CD and a DVD. I love Leonard Cohen so much, I didn't know how to take a new artifact from his musical work that included both a CD and a DVD. Should I listen to him first, or should I watch him? Out of necessity, I listened to him first - it was probably the right thing to do. All but three of the songs he played at this festival are from his first two albums, and as a total aspect it was just like listening to Leonard Cohen's greatest hits as I remember it, with wonderful new inter-song poetry as we have heard on other, later Leonard Cohen live pieces. It was not the full-on live stage concert spectacle, it was Leonard Cohen as he was in 1970, and people in those days understood him and what he was saying, he was one of them. It's amazing how we wander on and wander apart, and how people like Leonard Cohen only matter at certain, brief moments in history. Cohen has 11 studio albums and five live releases (of which I have three). This is the oldest one, although "Live Songs" has material that reaches back to 1970 as well; "Field Commander Cohen", from 1979, is a polished affair of polite applause, with a crack band and a groovy bass player (not to mention the violin, oud and clainet), but it is also a bit too speedy for the Cohen groove. I have not yet heard "Cohen Live" (recorded in 1988 and 1993) or "Live in London" (recorded in 2008). The CD was recorded on August 30th, 1970 and is nearly 80 minutes long and contains 14 songs (with five sections of pre-song banter, all in the first half of the concert, that last from 16 seconds to nearly three minutes). It was the last day of the five day long festival, with the final sets by Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix playing at midnight, and Cohen following Hendrix (he was the second-last artist to perform at the festival, which was closed by Richie Havens, who played "Here Comes The Sun" as the first rays of dawn hit). It is presented "warts and all", with a few incidents of onstage voltage zaps heard as people fiddle with equipment, most notable in Suzanne, one of Cohen's mellowest songs (not to mention his most famous). The recording starts off with Cohen's voice, "Are you guys ready? Is everybody ready?" Then the announcer comes on the PA saying "Our next artist is a novelist, a poet, an author, a singer and an album recorder. He's been trying to get here since 10:30 yesterday morning... won't you welcome Leonard Cohen and his Army." Like all Cohen live recordings, there is plenty of cryptic between-song banter, and here Cohen starts off with a story of the circus and an appeal to the audience to hold up matches so that he could see them "sparkle like fireflies, each of you at your different heights," he sounds elated, but he also notes "a lot of people without matches" (halfway through the concert again, he jibes "oh, we're sorely in need for matches"). He then launches into a shambolic impromptu song "Oh it's good to be here in front of 300,000 peopleeeee", then a very slow, sombre version of "Bird On A Wire," that is mostly him and his guitar, but also has some bass, a bit of keyboard, and some background singers. For the most part, the songs sound like they're Cohen playing alone, even though he has two backup singers, a bassist and three seated guitarists up onstage with him (no drummer - Cohen's not about percussion). The sound quality of the recording is excellent, and the production is top notch - the songs, except where Cohen improvises, sound like they did on the albums, and they are superb to listen to. "So Long Marianne", "You Know Who I Am", "Lady Midnight", "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong", "The Stranger Song", "Tonight Will Be Fine", "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", "Diamonds In The Mine", "Suzanne", "Sing Another Song, Boys", "The Partisan", "Famous Blue Raincoat" and one of my favourites, "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy," to end the evening. The intro to "You Know Who I Am" has a short impromptu ditty called "Let's Renew Ourselves Now" that might be considered a unique new Leonard Cohen song - it is about 50 seconds long and starts with some Spanish guitar plucking, then the lyrics "I know it has been cold, and I know it has been damp/I know you've been sitting all night long"; the tempo of the song then picks up, and he says "Let's renew ourselves now, let's renew ourselves now, let's renew ourselves now," then going directly into "You Know Who I Am." Most of these songs came from his first two albums, "Songs of Leonard Cohen" and "Songs From A Room"; the three from his not-yet-released album of 1971, "Songs of Love And Hate", are "Diamonds In The Mine", "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Sing Another Song, Boys" - in fact, the version of "Sing Another Song, Boys" on that album was recorded at this concert, so this is technically the second time it appears on a Leonard Cohen album (oddly enough, the tracking puts the famous "Let's sing another song boys, this one has grown old and bit-ter" intro at the end of the preceding track, "Suzanne"; this is a mistake, as it is clearly an important part of the song). The song got resounding applause, something which is cut off of the version on "Songs of Love and Hate", which fades it out quickly after his last "la-la-la-la-la-la-LA-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaaaaaaaaw". One of the highlights of the concert comes before "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong - one of his cornier songs, which he says he wrote in a peeling room in the Chelsea Hotel as he was coming off amphetamines and was pursuing a blonde lady whom he met in a Nazi poster, the courtship of which he describes even more cryptically - when he recites some poems: "As for the political situation: They locked up a man who wanted to rule the world/ The fools, they locked up the wrong man," and "A man who eats meat wants to get his teeth into something/ A man who does not eat meat wants to get his teeth into something else/ If these thoughts interest you even for a moment you are lost." He gets heckled once, to which he replies "Are you calling me a fascist pig again?" Besides a bit of organ and backing from the two female singers, the concert is relatively restrained - "The Stranger Song" seems to be just Cohen and his guitar - until the second bar of "Tonight Will Be Fine", more than halfway through the concert, when The Army really kicks out the jams and all the members saw away, including the banjo player - Cohen just wails and wails !! (Incidentally, this recording of "Tonight Will Be Fine" also appears on "Leonard Cohen Live", which contains bits of his 1970 and 1972 live performances.) It is followed by a mellow version of "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", but then comes an impromptu intro "They gave me some money for my sad and famous song/ They said `the crowd is waiting, hurry up or they'll be gone'/ But I could not change my style, and I guess I never will/ So I sing this song for the poison snakes on Devastation Hill/ And there are no letters in the mailbox...", which goes into a blistering version of "Diamonds In The Mine," a song that the audience would not have heard until then. It is very similar to the album version, although I suppose a keen ear will hear different lyrics. Another interesting moment is when, just as he's playing the guitar into to "The Partisan", he says "I'd like to dedicate this song to "Joan Baez and the work she's doing." The second-last song is "Famous Blue Raincoat," another song that the audience wouldn't have heard yet, which Cohen introduces with the words "It's not that I want to be coy standing out here, you know, but I know that it's late and... I don't know, maybe this is good music to make love to. This song was written in the East Side, the east end of New York; It's four in the morning..." For his last song, he says "(to the audience) my guitar has been heisted... (to the band) yeah, the song about Nancy, that's a good idea. (to the audience again) I want to sing this song for Nancy; it was in 1961, she went into the bathroom and blew her head off with her brother's shotgun. And, in those days there was not this kind of horizontal support, and she was right where all of you are, but there was no one around - to light their matches." He starts off with his solo voice and guitar, the bass comes in, then the voices drift in very subtly, some keyboard sounds, "Nancy wore green stockings, and she slept with everyone," background vocals come in stronger, "we told her she was beautiful, we told her she was free/ But none of us would meet her in the House of Mystery, the House of Mystery..." And that's it. The DVD is 64 minutes long and was produced and directed by Murray Lerner, who made his name filming the Newport Folk Festival form 1963-1965, and the three days of the Isle of Wight (with iconic full-length concerts from The Who and Jimi Hendrix). If you want to get the concert in its chronological sequence, you really need to listen to the CD, because the DVD shatters it and scatters it all around (which makes it even the more interesting to get the two packaged side-by-side). The DVD starts off with a snippet of "Diamonds In The Mine", the concert's most engaging (and engaged) piece, before moving into grandiose factoids of the concert, presented in a slideshow format, as well as some interviews with kids at the shot: "It's like going to Bethlehem, where they go to see the baby Jesus, [but] we go to see Leonard Cohen" (and somebody blurts in "Pink Floyd"). But, of course, you always wonder about duplicity from the filmmakers, especially with their memories addled by nearly 40 years of living - they say that he sang "It's four in the morning, the end of September" at four in the morning at the end of August, but was it four in the morning? Were the audience shots of hippies captured in rapture even filmed during Leonard Cohen's spot, or were they blissing out to Hendrix? I guess we'll never know. The DVD has several interesting interviews. One of them is with Bob Johnston, a Southerner who ended up producing three Leonard Cohen albums (although only one at the time of the concert - "Songs From A Room", Cohen's second release; he also produced the third and the fourth, "Songs Of Love And Hate" of 1972 and "Live Songs", from 1973), but who also produced six Bob Dylan releases and seven Johnny Cash releases, all from the 1965-1971 - busy guy. He talks about how he was shanghaied into being a keyboardist for the release, but also how the show went down, giving the quote "I think Leonard Cohen is the best performer in the world, he bought poetry into music" (hey - is that a dig at Bob Dylan?). Kris Kristofferson, who battled the militant and unforgiving audience at the show, talks about how Cohen commanded the stage throughout, and there are a few scenes to prove it of Kris' nervous performance - gosh, he looked young without a beard in 1970. Joan Baez talks about the era, and Judy Collins gushes about Leonard and "Suzanne", a song that she sorta made famous, spouting "God bless Leonard Cohen and his muse." This bit, and to some extent Baez's bit, are shoved into the edit, as they really don't have a lot to add to the concert itself. For the most part, the concert footage is on Leonard Cohen's face, with the occasional wander to the angelic backup singers (the only three people besides Cohen, incidentally, who stand throughout the show), with brief sections where you see the band and the whole stage (they look really bored while Cohen does "The Stranger Song" totally solo... some Army) - and a few shots where you see the band from behind, with the amps marked WHO displayed prominently. While it's not interesting to constantly watch Cohen's face as he sings his songs, it is interesting to see and hear him do the hand whistle of "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong", which I've heard a billion times but never knew it was done by Cohen himself just blowing through his hand. Happily, "Tonight Will Be Fine" is shown in its entirety, including the part where Charlie Daniels stands up and plays the fiddle next to him, as is the "They've surrounded the island; one of these days we're going to have this land for our own," to which there is tremendous (canned?) applause. But this how it appears on the album, so... Appearing in its entirety is also the illustrious "Sing Another Song Boys", which showed up in its entirety on his next studio album "Songs Of Love And Hate", although the wigged out "Diamonds In The Mine" is not on the DVD for some reason (except for a brief excerpt of the beginning bit at the start of the DVD). Cohen dedicates "The Partisan" to Joan Baez, and here we get a chance to see images from her press conference at the time, a bit of her live show, a snapshot of Jimi Hendrix's set as viewed from the audience (to avoid copyright hassles?), and ultimately the 2009 interview with the lady herself. Just a bit of deception - the last song in the movie is "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy," and it is presented as if it were an encore; listening to the CD, though, I'm not sure it was.