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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cohen: Man For All Seasons, 11 Aug 2007
There really are not words enough to describe the sweep and grandeur of Leonard's 1988 masterpiece. Age cannot wither, nor custom stale its infinite variety. There are many common misperceptions of Mr.Cohen, but none more frustrating to a lifelong fan than that of suicidal, morbid folk-singer. My own personal vision is of the ultimate caberet crooner, the last-dance, last-chance, end-of-the-night performer, dispensing gems of wisdom sometimes with an urbane humour, but always with love and a song in his heart: a mixture of Aznavour, Brel, and Noel Coward, with a little Brecht thrown in for good measure. This album answers perfectly that call, most seductively and gorgeously in LC's reading of Lorca's 'Little Viennese Waltz' (here recast as TAKE THIS WALTZ): "There's a concert hall in Vienna/ Where your mouth had a thousand reviews/ There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking/ They've been sentenced to death by the blues/ Ah! but who is it climbs to your picture/ With a garland of freshly-cut tears?/ Ay! Ay ay ay!/ Take this waltz/ Take this waltz/ Take this waltz, it's been dying for years." Monumental and crumbling, like Vienna itself, evoking grand balls of old, laughter, dancing, now fading with time like the Venice Byron and Shelley discovered. Make no mistake, this is writing of a grand scale, and anyone with a knowledge of Lorca's poetry will know how much fresh material Cohen has rendered from the original. Likewise, on First We Take Manhattan, Everybody Knows, I'm Your Man, Tower Of Song, Cohen is very much relishing his role as bandleader and showman, never once taking himself too seriously, always underpinning every commentary with his much under-appreciated and very jewish wit: "If you want to sleep a moment on the road/ I will steer for you/ If you want to work the street alone/ I'll disappear for you..." Most songs that even try to be funny usually pull up short somewhere. Here, in the title track, Leonard could give Noel coward a run for his money, in that it's hard to know if he's being achingly self-deprecating or deadly serious, such is the play of his word-craft. Similarly, on the oft-quoted "born with the gift of a golden voice" line from TOWER OF SONG, I recall how it raised a mass titter from a packed Albert Hall in 1988, yet I've always been of the opinion that LC wrote that line in earnestness: he is not so much mocking the flat drone of his singing voice, but saying that what emanates from that organ is golden and beautiful and beyond his control. In other words: he couldn't help it if he tried. Just as the most simple of melodies and statements such as AIN'T NO CURE FOR LOVE sprung from a conversation about AIDS he'd had with Jennifer Warnes, he can't help but fill it with the loveliest of details: "I see you on the subway/ I see you on the bus/ I see you lying down with me/ And I see you waking up/ I see your hand/ I see your hair/ Your bracelets and your brush/ And I call to you/ I call to you/ But I don't call soft enough..." Or, in FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN: "Remember me, I used to live for music/ Remember me, I brought your groceries in/ Well, it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded..." Could I also be the first to defend the inclusion of JAZZ POLICE, here, replete with dry, jewish, masculine humour: "Let me be somebody I admire/ Let me be that muscle down the street/ Stick another turtle on the fire/ Guys like me are mad for turtle meat..." It's rare indeed, to find such a wealth of poetry anywhere, let alone an album of popular song. As for those who abhor the sub-eighties production going on here, I have to say I've never found it dating as it only enhances and underpins the naked, honest phrasing of Mr.Cohen. For my money, this ranks as highly as SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE and only loses out to THE SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN because that album is chock-full of bonafide classics like SUZANNE and SO LONG, MARIANNE and others just too lovely for words.....
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~ Leonard Cohen
~ Leonard Cohen
~ Leonard Cohen
~ Leonard Cohen
~ Leonard Cohen
