“But it’s strange what you forget to do / A thousand kisses deep” Leonard Cohen’s Unique 1997 Video Recitation

Featured

Posted on by

The video is actually a portion of Beautiful Losers – Arte Network, France, which was originally a 34 minute Interview for French TV, broadcast on 29 July 1997. The second verse, as far as I can determine, is found nowhere else. The transcribed lyrics follow:

Don’t matter if the road is long
Don’t matter if it’s steep
Don’t matter if the moon is gone
And the darkness is complete
Don’t matter if we lose our way
It’s written that we’ll meet
At least, that’s what I heard you say
A thousand kisses deep

Don’t matter if you lie to me
Don’t matter if you cheat
When you sell me down the river
I’ll pretend to be asleep
There’s a pair of leather gloves for you
And a blade against your cheek
But it’s strange what you forget to do
A thousand kisses deep

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
You see, I’m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second hand physique
With all he is and all he was
A thousand kisses deep

 

Thanks to AlanM5049 of Adelaide, Australia and Roman Gavrilin aka Hermitage Prisoner of Saint Petersburg, Russia, who alerted me to this video.

“There is a crack in everything, because this is the realm of the crack, the realm of failure, the realm of death, and unless we affirm failure and death, we’re going to be very unhappy.” Leonard Cohen (1993)

Featured

Posted on by


quoteup2
There is a crack in everything, because this is the realm of the crack, the realm of failure, the realm of death, and unless we affirm failure and death, we’re going to be very unhappy. The more we affirm death, the happier we get. The more we affirm failure, the more successful we get.quotedown2

Leonard Cohen

 

The Future by Alberto Manzano. El Europeo: Spring 1993. Originally posted Jun 17, 2014 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric

“We all want to dissolve. We all need that experience of forgetting who we are. I think that’s what love is — you forget who you are.” Leonard Cohen Talks About What Love Is

Featured

Posted on by

Anjelica Huston: Do you think [distracting us from our internal panic] is what the present trend in extremely violent films and music is about?
quoteup2
We all want to dissolve. We all need that experience of forgetting who we are. I think that’s what love is — you forget who you are. Forgetting who you are is such a delicious experience and so frightening that we’re in this conflicted predicament. You want it but you really can’t support it. So I think that really what our training, what our culture, our religious institutions, our educational and cultural institutions should be about is preparing the heart for that journey outside of the cage of the ribs.quotedown2

Leonard Cohen

 

From Leonard Cohen Interviewed by Anjelica Huston. Interview magazine: November, 1995. Accessed at Remembering Leonard Cohen by Anjelica Huston (Interview: Nov 11, 2016). Photography Dana Lixenberg. Originally posted June 18, 2014 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric

Must-See 2013 Leonard Cohen Video: Partisan Performed In Paris On Appeal Of June 18

Featured

Posted on by

partisanscnsht7mais j’ai tant d’amis;
j’ai la France entie`re

Special Features: Appeal Of June 18 – June 18th, the day of the concert, is the date in 1940 when Général De Gaulle spoke to the French people from London after the fall of France. He declared that the war for France was not yet over, and rallied the country in support of the Resistance. The appeal is often considered to be the origin of the French Resistance. Consequently, the performance of The Partisan had special significance.

Leonard Cohen – The Partisan
Bercy: June 18, 2013
Visual: clear, steady visual elements featuring full stage views (no closeups)
Audio: excellent
Video by mhlenoir

Note: Originally posted June 18, 2014 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric

The Marianne Variations: Leonard Cohen’s Divergent & Devastating Version Of So Long, Marianne – Oslo 1993

Featured

Posted on by

marianne-cat-hyrdra

Leonard Cohen’s Recurring Revisions Of So Long, Marianne

This is the final entry1 in The Marianne Variations, a series of posts devoted to the major recurring variations of Leonard Cohen’s “So Long, Marianne” that significantly differ from the versions found on the Songs Of Leonard Cohen and Field Commander Cohen albums. An introduction and links to all published posts in this series as well as the inclusion criteria and the original version of “So Long, Marianne” from the Songs Of Leonard Cohen album can be found at The Marianne Variations Summary Page.

The “Here Comes The Morning Boat” + “Your Eyes” Version of So Long, Marianne

Continue Reading →

  1. “Final entry” already requires qualifications. Even before the official completion of The Marianne Variations series, Lennard Torbijn of the Netherlands has astutely pointed out a Leonard Cohen rendition of “So Long, Marianne” that meets criteria as a distinct version although it does not fit the characteristic pattern of those revisions thus far included in The Marianne Variations group. That version will be posted later in a supplement to The Marianne Variations. [↩]

Take A Look Inside Leonard Cohen’s Hydra Home

Featured

Posted on by
1-18

Leonard Cohen’s Hydra Home – Photo by Mel Joss

Great photos of the interior of Leonard Cohen’s home on Hydra can be found at

Also see

Videos

The video promotions for Adam Cohen’s “We Go Home” and “Like A Man” albums each offer images of his father’s homes in Montreal and on Hydra.

Adam Cohen – We Go Home Promotional Video

Adam Cohen – Like A Man Promotional Video

Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal To Perform Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me – Vancouver Nov 22, 2018

Posted on by — Leave a reply

 

Montreal’s BJM has announced it will bring the new Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre on November 22. Approved by Leonard Cohen during his lifetime, with artistic direction by Robitaille and the dramaturgy of Eric Jean, the 14-dancer ode to the late poet-singer-songwriter plays on “the cycles of existence in five seasons, as described in Cohen’s deeply reflective music and poems”, according to today’s announcement

From BJM to bring contemporary-dance ode to Leonard Cohen here on November 22 by Janet Smith (Straight: June 18, 2018)

“I am aware my passionate love affair with Leonard Cohen in my Paris days is at least partly responsible for the dissolution of my then relationship. But I don’t hold it against you, Leonard.”

Posted on by — Leave a reply

mich1

Leonard is, no doubt, relieved to be forgiven. A nice piece about the relationship between Leonard Cohen and his fans, many of whom are sacrificing their budgets, risking their jobs, and straining their relationships to attend the 2008 Tour concerts. “He’s my man” by Julian Tompkin (The Australian: June 7, 2008). Photo by Michael Bromfield.

Originally posted June 8, 2008 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric

“The routine softens you, you stop thinking about yourself, your plans and you’re too tired to accuse yourself of many things and you’re not bright enough to think about the things around – you kind of smooth out.” Leonard Cohen On Life At Mt Baldy Zen Center

Posted on by — Leave a reply

quoteup2
I really like that life, it’s very regulated and it has some kind of a military crispness to it. And then, you’ re doing it for a reason. It’s not to build up your muscles, it’s not just a macho exercise, it’s to kind of cook your mind so that you can hear what you’re saying, because you can’t hear what you’re saying if you’re full of yourself. If the daily life hasn’t emptied you out a bit through fatigue or eh… just what would I say, the routine, the routine softens you, you stop thinking about yourself, your plans and you’re too tired to accuse yourself of many things and you’re not bright enough to think about the things around – you kind of smooth out. That’s what the daily life does to you. So that you’re open to hear something, you know most of us are not open most of the time, we pretend that we are open, but mostly you’re running your own dramatic event of which you are the hero or the heroine. Usually that’s what we are doing most of the time. So there you get so tired that you can’t pretend, and that’s all that a monastery is. They make you so tired that you give up pretending.quotedown2

Leonard Cohen

 

Leonard Looks Back On The Past: Interview With Leonard Cohen by Kari Hesthamar.  Los Angeles, 2005 (Unedited  interview for Norwegian Radio). Found at LeonardCohenFiles

Note: Originally posted June 30, 2013 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric

“With Hydra, it was love at first sight. The people, the architecture,the sky, the mules, the smell, the life. Everything you looked at was beautiful.” Leonard Cohen

Posted on by — Leave a reply

hydrascrn

What made you stay there [on Hydra]?

quoteup2
For one thing, economic reasons: I had little money. Renting the house cost me $14 a month. As for the climate, I had never been in a warm place, I did not know what the Mediterranean climate looked like, it was a delightful surprise. In England, everything is very humid, the beds are wet at night, that’s why women are so strong! (Laughs). The first night Mrs. Pullman gave me a kettle. Why? Undo your bed and you’ll know why (laughs)? With Hydra, it was love at first sight. The people, the architecture,the sky, the mules, the smell, the life. Everything you looked at was beautiful, every corner, every lamp, everything you touched, everything you used was in its proper place. The relationship with the water: there was no running water, you had to catch the water drop by drop, so you knew every drop. You knew everything you used, every time you lit the lamp, you knew that you would have to fill it and clean it the next day. The things you used were rich. It was a very nice feeling. It was more animated than any city, much more cosmopolitan. There were Germans, Scandinavians, Australians, Americans, Dutch who you would run into in very intimate settings like the back of grocery stores.quotedown2

Leonard Cohen

 

From Comme Un Guerrier by Christian Fevret (Les Inrocks: Aug 21, 1991). Via Google Translate.

Father’s Day Photo & Greeting From Leonard Cohen – 2016

Posted on by — Leave a reply

fday

quoteup2
Happy Father’s Day!quotedown2

Leonard

Leonard sends Father’s Day greetings and this brilliant photo of himself reading to his children, Lorca & Adam (along with a kitten clutched by Adam) at their home in Hydra.

2018 Update: Leonard sent this Father’s Day photo and greeting my way at this time two years ago (2016). It immediately became one of my favorite shots of Leonard and his children. Now, the fact that he took the time and effort to search out and forward this photo when he was already in pain and all but incapacitated by the illness that led to his death renders this image all the more poignant and moving.

Also see Leonard Cohen As A Father