6. Leonard CohenThe Best Of Leonard Cohen
This collection is rather exceptional. I really thought it was an actual “album” for a really long time… I didn’t even know the albums that these individual songs came from. I just listened to this one on repeat.
I’ve been covering ‘Who By Fire’ in different versions for a long time and I’ve played other songs like ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ and ‘Bird On A Wire’… and ‘Sisters of Mercy’ … and ‘Chelsea Hotel’… all of them! I’ve mostly just played them live but, who knows, maybe at some point I’ll record them. In the same way as with the Joni Mitchell albums, these songs and words are such a part of me.
It’s such a magical feeling to sing these songs. It’s in all of them, but there’s one lyric in ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ in particular…”I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.”
There’s some abstract, unconscious thing about these songs… But that’s what I love about it. That’s what I really love about listening to music and performing it. There’s room for so much more than I’m able to put any words to either in writing or speaking. Plus, he always had that sort of weird style of instrumentation and sound in his music which I loved.
It was so sad when he died…. But I had at least gotten to see him live a few times which was amazing. He was so vital on stage, so remarkable, even though his voice was not that flexible anymore by the time I saw him. But when you get it, you get it and love it.The first concert was in a big outdoor venue and I was at the side, far from the stage. It was a really big experience but it didn’t matter at all that I was far away because he just had such a remarkable presence no matter the room.
