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Cohen's musical influence important

By Mark Harrison
The Times-Journal

Published October 26, 2009

Déjà vu. I wrote a column similar to this in 2006, about Joan Baez.

Being a longtime lover of folk music, it was impossible to turn down an opportunity last week to see Leonard Cohen in concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. I’ve been a fan of Cohen since my college days.

In Cohen’s case, he’s more than a musician. He’s a poet, a novelist, a mystic and a monk, among other things. Still, when I told people I was going to see Cohen perform, I found many had either never heard of him at all, or had only some vague notion of him.

At 75 years old, the Canadian-born Cohen has had a tremendous – if slightly unrealized – impact on music and culture. Lou Reed once described Cohen as belonging to the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters”

Cohen’s immediately recognizable voice and deeply complex songs have slipped, over time, into the collective subconscious of the mainstream. His songs have often become huge hits for other artists like Judy Collins (“Suzanne”), Johnny Cash (“Bird on a Wire”) and Jeff Buckley (“Hallelujah”).

With a deep, gravely voice that seems somehow a mix of sandpaper and silk, his music – though ultimately hopeful –has a dangerously dark romantic vibe and a strong spiritual subtext. It’s the sort of stuff that can take you places you don’t necessarily want to go, to places you didn’t know music could take you. To hear that sort of music performed live is an almost indescribable experience.

I never expected to have that opportunity. Cohen had all but retired from performing, and virtually withdrawn from music until recent years, when an alleged misappropriation of some $5 million of Cohen’s retirement funds by a longtime manager forced him back to the stage. Cohen’s loss was ultimately our gain.

“I don’t know when we’ll be passing through here again,” he told the sold out crowd. “So I want to tell you that it is our intention to give you everything we’ve got tonight.” No empty promise, that - backed by an incredible folk-rock jazz band of tight, world-class musicians and angelic backup singers – a sprightly Cohen literally ran onto the stage and, with profound reverence for both his band and the audience, and performed for three hours.

Perhaps my concert companion described it best. “It was not a concert,” she said. “Rather, a spiritual experience.”

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