Leonard Cohen - Live At The Isle Of Wright
by Dan MacIntosh
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If you discovered Leonard Cohen somewhere in the middle of his career -- around about the time of I'm Your Man, where self deprecating humor entered into the man's repertoire -- this live document from 1970 might be a hard road to hoe. Although Cohen does joke a bit with his huge European crowd, this show (captured both on CD and DVD) is mostly a sad trek though the iconic folk singer's early, tortured catalogue.
A song such as "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" features Cohen singing in a depressed, yearning voice, accompanied by picked acoustic guitar and empathetic female vocals. People like James Taylor mined similar territory, but with a much, much more comforting voice. He may have seen both fire and rain, but Taylor also explored life's extremes with a calm tone. Cohen's voice is flat like Dylan's – albeit, without the same nasal snarl – and never he sugarcoats the truth melodically. It's easy to see why Goths in the '80s ate up his music, and how the Coachella crowd took to him -- better late than never -- recently.
It's tough to recommend watching this DVD, simply because Cohen is not a mover or a shaker on stage. It's difficult enough to listen without putting a gun to one's head, let alone watching it, too. Nevertheless, there's more music and poetry (such as the short, political "They Locked up a Man") on the DVD than the CD, just in case you're interested.
With all this said, if you're still not scared off, a song like "Suzanne" offers up the sort of romantic poetry you just can't get on contemporary pop radio. After all, how often can you hear lines about Christ's Passion, mixed in with words that praise a woman? Try never. "Bird on a Wire" should have been a country smash – done country style, of course – as it reads like a barroom weeper. Elsewhere, "The Partisan" is the type of story song Hemmingway could have appreciated, as it also includes political/military intrigue.
Believe it or not, Cohen – much like a fine wine – has gotten even better with age. Recent songs included lines like, "I ache in places where I used to play," which are both funny and sad at the same time. If you're a tortured soul or a musical historian, pick up this DVD/CD set and study it. But if you want to actually enjoy Leonard Cohen music, investigate some of his latter work, instead. That way, you may well live to tell the tale.
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