I am reading very interesting book about Joni Mitchell right now - basically its a collection of essays, interviews and reviews about her trough various decades and how the media perception of her changed with the time. At first she was constantly lumped together with every other girl-with-a-guitar but with time this over-simplistic attitude changed a she moved away from that into completely different spheres and before you know it, her name started to be mentioned in the same breath with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. For some reason I never warmed up to Dylan although I gave him a fair chance but for Cohen I always had a soft spot. In fact, his music and poetry followed me trough life with surprising consistency - no matter what else I might listen, I will return to his magical combination of music and poetry.
This morning I woke up at some ungodly hour, way too early to start a day since I am on vacation and while day was just breaking outside, I treated myself with Cohen's song "Leaving the Table" and its accompanying video clip that I played again and again, until I fell asleep again. Later, when I woke up again, I discovered that today would be his birthday - what a wonderful man - no doubt, it was this book about his fellow Canadian that got me thinking about him and by some coincidence, today happened to be his day. I am listening "Leaving the Table" again as I am writing this and his gentle purr caresses me right now. It is a beautiful video clip as well, very artistic (what else?) with his face never really shown but just vaguely suggested, like he is already a distant dream.
Another interesting video clip with Leonard Cohen is this one, where he joins wonderful Judy Collins in his classic "Hey, that's no way to say goodbye" which is absolutely magical duet. As I have always loved both of them this is a special treat and just listening this song feels like meditation. Collins was always a marvelous duettist and I could write the whole essay just about her performances with other artists, here she particularly sensitively harmonizes on this legendary, immortal song that just feels timeless.
Happy birthday, dear Mr.Cohen.
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