http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimes...7-3d43159aa819
National treasures just hitting their prime
Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot still make music on their own terms
Ian Haysom, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, April 25, 2009
You're going to write about the concert, right? It's the concert of the year. A religious experience. You must write about it, they said. A bunch of people at the concert, and afterward, all said they expected me to.
Well, I wasn't planning to write about Leonard Cohen. I wasn't even going to go. Then friends in Vancouver told me the concert on the Sunday night at GM Place was unbelievable, so I snagged a couple of late-breaking tickets and headed for a rare midweek trip to Victoria.
I also felt Adrian Chamberlain did a super review in the Times Colonist the next day, catching the spirit of the evening, leaving little to add. I'm in awe nowadays of fast-writing critics. The show finished after 11 p.m., yet he got all the main ingredients into the review, including the reference to Victoria in Hallellujah. Kudos to Mike Devlin for his review of the Killers too. These guys know how to write on deadline.
But first, let's talk about Gordon Lightfoot. Like Cohen, he is a bona fide singer-songwriting Canadian icon. And, like Cohen, he's getting on in years. Lightfoot is 70, Cohen 74. National treasures. And both beloved. They both also seem to be working out.
I saw Lightfoot in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. His hair is now long. He's rake thin. And he's not dead, which is a bonus. He almost died a few years back from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.
And he still has that voice. Mesmerizing, memorable. Remember Tears Are Not Enough, the Canadian song for Africa? The ensemble cast of singers included Neil Young, Anne Murray, Dan Hill, Bryan Adams, Tom Cochrane and Joni Mitchell. But the opening five words -- "As every day goes by" -- are sung by Lightfoot and they still send chills down your spine. Just five words.
His voice strains a bit to hit the high notes now. He still has terrible stage presence (I never have been able to work out why a man who can write such majestic lyrics as those that make up the Canadian Railroad Trilogy mumbles and shuffles and stumbles on stage. He sings and it's pure poetry; when he talks he's almost inarticulate. (He asked us if Nanaimo bars were really, you know, world famous. We couldn't tell if he was being funny or ironic or, well, just asking.)
His music is still fabulous. Not just the old songs, but here he is, at 70, continuing to write beautiful lyrics and create catchy tunes. I went because I thought I might never get to see him again, but also as a thank-you for the music over the years. He sang almost all my favourites, though he left out Did She Mention My Name? which is still one of the most beautifully understated songs ever written about small-town Canada (is the ice still on the river?).
He's forever Lightfoot. Cohen, however, has reinvented himself for this tour. Yes, at the core, he's still the poet-troubadour, still singing lyrics that are, in turns, spiritual and sexual, but he now wears a fedora and sharp suit, has a tight, awesome backup band and singers, and looks to be thoroughly enjoying himself.
He skipped onto the stage. He got a standing ovation before he sang a word. And then he sang, in a gravelly voice that -- like Lightfoot's -- is part of the fabric of our collective musical experience.
At the interval, I asked a guy selling T-shirts to show me the back, which lists tour dates. The tour, after Victoria, was headed to Seattle, then Alberta, to Chicago, to eastern Canada, to New York, then back to Europe, to England, Norway and Spain. He started the year in Australia. He's bopping around the world delivering three-hour concerts. Scores of them.
This is gruelling stuff. As we left the concert, a woman walking in front of me said to her friend, "I'm whipped. I don't know how he does it night after night." Me either. It was a superb shared experience. An evening few of us will ever forget.
The fact that Cohen can still fill large arenas around the world and deliver performances that honour the past but are contemporary and relevant, is nothing short of thrilling. The fact the other septuagenarian, Lightfoot, is creating new, exciting music, is reassuring.
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Font:****It may be a cliché to suggest they're better than ever. Or that they're redefining what it means to be old. But they are. They both said it was an honour to perform for us. The privilege was all ours.
Vancouver article-Apr.25,2009
