Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man -- the movie

[cmac2012]

Finally went to see this film tonight. It's at a little place in B-town where movies go when they're just about played out.

I've been a Leonard Cohen fan for a long time. I heard on a Fresh Air interview with him a while back that recently, while staying at a Zen retreat for a year or so, his business manager managed to steal $millions from him, leaving him almost broke. Apparently he might not be able to get it back (?!?).

I have a feeling this film was put together in a hurry by some of his many fans to give him a leg up. It's a bit rough in spots -- features a lot of other artists covering his tunes, some are not too listenable, some are OK and a couple are really good, specially Rufus Wainwright singing "Halellujah."

It'd be worth checking out on DVD cause at the end, Cohen appears on a sound stage with Bono and the Edge and a couple of other guys, and he sings "Tower of Song." Priceless. Bono and Edge had been making comments in the film about how rare a talent Cohen is and I have to agree. The guy is like one of the true greats of our era, methinks.

I got lucky in Seattle in '88. I had just come back to town and was living in a little rooming house with the phone on the first floor and me on the 3rd floor. One night it rang and rang, finally I went to get it, and a lady I know who ran the open mike I played at a lot said, "Oh my God, I was just about to hang up. If you get down to the Paramount right away, I can get you in to see Leonard Cohen for free." A former foster child of hers was an usher there.

What an awesome show. And we had front row seats, way off to the far side, but close still.

Tower of Song - L. Cohen

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all
I'm standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they don't let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song

Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And there's a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the Tower of Song

I see you standing on the other side
I don't know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that we lost
We'll never have to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the Tower of Song

Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song