Dance Me To The End Of Love
The Future
Ain't No Cure For Love
Bird On The Wire
Everybody Knows
Who By Fire
Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye
So Long, Marianne
Tower Of Song
Suzanne
Hallelujah
Democracy
I'm Your Man
Closing Time
Anthem
First We Take Manhattan
This year, while inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, Leonard Cohen was described as being amongst the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters". After a 15 year touring break, the artist returns to perform on Glastonbury's Pyramid stage. Expect songs from recent albums Ten New Songs (2001) and Dear Heather (2004) as well the pick of his hugely influential back catalogue which includes classics such as Hallelujah, Suzanne, Bird On A Wire and Famous Blue Raincoat.
The veteran's famous song inspires a sunset 'moment'
Veteran singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen inspired a Glastonbury 'moment' when he played his legendary song 'Hallelujah' during his Pyramid Stage slot at Glastonbury tonight (June 29).
As sun set, the 73 year-old performed the song which originally appeared on his 1984 album 'Various Positions', and gained a new lease of life when Jeff Buckley covered it on his acclaimed 1994 album 'Grace'.
The star started the song just as sun was setting, and further delighted the massive crowd when he changed the lyric "I told the truth, I didn't come here to fool ya" to "I told the truth, I didn't come to Glastonbury to fool ya". The crowd sang every chorus with Cohen, and gave him a massive ovation at the end, when he took a bow.
Cohen played many of his most famous songs, including 'Who By Fire', 'Suzanne' and 'So Long, Marianne', after which he said the crowd: "It's a great honour to play before these angels born of the mud."
The Canadian legend finished his set with 'First We Take Manhattan', before getting a huge ovation from his legion of fans.
The set was:
'Dance Me To The End Of Love'
'The Future'
'Ain't No Cure For Love'
'Bird On A Wire'
'Everybody Knows'
'Who By Fire'
'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye'
'So Long, Marianne'
'Tower Of Song'
'Suzanne'
'Hallelujah'
'Democracy'
'I'm Your Man'
'Closing Time'
'Anthem'
'First We Take Manhattan'
In a Glastonbury dominated by white-rimmed sunglasses, coloured afros and tepees, perhaps Neil Diamond’s mid-afternoon croon should have found a more comfortable home.
With his backing trio, full jazz orchestra and plenty of goodwill from the crowd, all the right elements were in place. The Basher may have sold 120 million records over 40 years but yesterday he failed to convince. He was not getting traction, as ballads from his new album, Home Before Dark, skidded like Teflon over the crowd. Only I’m a Believer and Sweet Caroline really stood out since they let the crowd indulge in karaoke escapism.
“Thank you England,” he cried before leaving, but the feeling wasn’t mutual and the applause lasted less than 20 seconds as he walked off.
With his ageing frame hunched over a microphone, the barbed, sinister tones of Leonard Cohen had no difficulty commanding respect from the Pyramid Stage audience.
As the sun faded for the final time over Worthy Farm for this festival, Cohen — poet first, singer second — painted his gritty dystopian prophecies, opening with an invocation of Hiroshima, Stalin and the Berlin Wall. The pessimism of his lyrics entranced rather than dismayed, his performance knitted together by much-missed gravelly Dylanesque tones.
Where Diamond struggled to seem authentic, it came effortlessly to his Canadian counterpart. Denied for so long the chance to hear him in person — this is his first tour since his period in seclusion during which he was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk — the audience had come for that special jagged voice.
This is why there was a roar of agreement when he sang “I was born with the gift of a golden voice”. For this they had a limitless appetite.
A crowd-wooing selection of favourites from the master. He's your man
Where and when: The Pyramid stage, Sunday, 8.10pm
Dress code: The whole band, including the backing singers, are slickly besuited. Meanwhile, Cohen's look, all baggy grey pinstripe and trilby, is poised somewhere between Humphrey Bogart and a Galapagos turtle.
Who's watching: Everyone from tired and emotional fiftysomething women (to my left) to exuberant teenagers in hotpants (to my right). And all of them know the words.
In a nutshell: For many, Cohen was set to be the absolute guaranteed highlight of Glastonbury 2008, the major reason to brave the muck and the drizzle. Marvellously, he does not disappoint, delivering a crowd-wooing selection of favourites, including Dance Me to the End of Love, Bird on a Wire, Suzanne and Tower of Song, all performed with a charming hat-tipping humility, and an enigmatic half-smile.
High point: Hallelujah - a real crowd-swelling, arm-waving moment of perfection. As Cohen staggers into the line "love is not a victory march - it's a lonely and a broken hallelujah," half the people in the vicinity start crying. Myself included.
Low point: Following the statuesque I'm Your Man with the blousy Closing Time led to a bit of a dip, and the distinct absence of Chelsea Hotel.
Mark out of 10: 9.99 (as Cohen himself would put it "Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack, a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in")
What does it all mean, mean?: Leonard Cohen. He's your man.
Crooners play up Glastonbury final day's feel-good factor
The Independent
- June 30, 2008 by Elisa Bray (Photo: Getty)
Despite their status as songwriting legends, two of the most-eagerly anticipated performers of the festival's final night were Glastonbury virgins – Neil Diamond and Leonard Cohen.
He may have spent years in rock's home for the terminally unhip but Diamond drew fans of all ages for what was the most feel-good set of the festival. Flanked by a brass section on his left and gospel singers to his right, the 70-year-old showman captured the happy vibe of the festival. "I'm A Believer", written for The Monkees and the anthemic "Sweet Caroline" saved for the end, triggered the biggest sing-along of the weekend.
Cohen, dressed in a sober grey suit, was the big hero of the night, putting the crowd in raptures with "Bird On A Wire". Doffing his hat between each poetic song, this was a rare, gentlemanly performance.
It was the perfect wind-down before The Verve rounded up the festival with their indie rock anthems, leading the crowd through a sing-along of their hits before fireworks burst into the sky...
Leonard Cohen Praises Glastonbury Festival's 'Angels Of The Mud'
Gigwise
- June 30, 2008 by Jason Gregory (Photos: WENN)
Veteran performer Leonard Cohen praised the “angels born of the mud” during his performance a the Glastonbury Festival yesterday (June 29th).
Cohen's set on the Pyramid Stage was one of the highlights of the final day of the festival and comprised of a majority of his classic hits, including 'So Long, Marianne' and 'Suzanne'.
But it was Cohen's performance of 'Hallelujah' that proved to be the unforgettable moment for many festivalgoers.
The singer changed the songs lyrics as the sun set over Worthy Farm, singing:"I told the truth, I didn't come to Glastonbury to fool you" instead of “I told the truth, I didn't come here to fool you"
...Leonard Cohen brought some bling of his own to a charming Sunday performance. Breezy reinterpretations of sombre folk songs, such as Bird On A Wire, worked well in the larger setting...
Welcome to Glastonbury, Leonard Cohen; welcome to this gloriously gaudy feast of holy fools and neon-clad fakirs, of prophets and loss, of ecstasy and revelation. Welcome to a tower of song erected in a farm, where closing time is Monday and the world, for the most part, is a little bit more real, purely because of its unreality. Welcome to a world where flame haired girls shiver out tears from their lovers’ shoulders, a saline cascade of joy that chimes as it falls, to the tune of ‘Bird on a Wire’.
“It’s a great honour to play for these angels born of the mud,” says Cohen, his sonorous growl encompassing a lop-sided smile as he surveys the oasis of bliss rising from the heads and hearts of the crowd. He has moved them to stillness with ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’, which stalks up the spine like a lover’s finger, chilled them with his vision of ‘The Future’, and he is about to launch into ‘Tower of Song’.
I had forgotten this song until now, forgotten the line “I was born like this, I had no choice / I was born with the gift of a golden voice.” The crowd laughed appreciatively at the perceived irony, but it occurs to me that golden is exactly what Cohen’s voice is. It is heavy and coruscating, and, through the cracks, it shines down on the transfixed crowd, who worship it and join in with it in impassioned choruses, first with ‘So Long Marianne’ and then more and more throughout his set.
Cohen’s is a voice that Moses could have carved the Ten Commandments on with his fingernails; heavy yet tender, soft almost, mordant, but laced with a lyrical, playful wit and wisdom that beggars most of his contemporaries’; it is a savage and glorious tool that serves the words, which anatomise the vagaries of love and politics, lust and despair. He is “leaning out for love” and “will lean that way forever”.
‘Suzanne’ melts over the crowd like dew; ‘Hallelujah’ erupts like a volcano in thousands of lungs; the sensual, subtle bravado of ‘I’m Your Man’ sings like a pheromone in the encroaching dusk. Cohen, all the while, is simply smiling like Gabriel, occasionally doffing his trilby to bursts of applause. He is the epitome of refined cool, a dapper, studied man who carries peace in his wake and parts the sea of gaudy thrills that is Glastonbury to open ways to a myriad of promised lands.
..Leonard Cohen also required, and received, the crowd's patience. Clearly, few people knew his later material, but curiosity kept them hanging around for an extraordinary troika of Tower of Song, Suzanne and Hallelujah. The latter song has been performed here before, but never by the man who wrote it, never with such wracked intensity, and never to such a glorious response...
Michael Eavis might have said his goal was to "get the young people back" at this year's Glastonbury Festival – but it was veteran singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen who most impressed the 72-year-old organiser at this year's bash.
Speaking to 'The Independent' today (Tuesday July 1), Eavis, who watched Cohen's Pyramid Stage set from the side of the stage on Sunday June 29, hailed the entire festival as a success, but singled the 73-year-old Canadian legend out for particular praise:
"Leonard Cohen was so polite and such a gentleman. He took his hat off every time he finished a song, and bowed to the audience."
Predictably, the best-received song in Cohen's set was 'Hallelujah', the track which originally appeared on his 1984 album Various Positions, and gained a new lease of life when Jeff Buckley covered it on his acclaimed 1994 album 'Grace'.
Beginning the song just as the sun was setting, Cohen delighted the crowd by changing the lyric, "I told the truth, I didn't come here to fool ya" to "I told the truth, I didn't come to Glastonbury to fool ya". The crowd sang every chorus with Cohen, and gave him a massive ovation at the end.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way." - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens would have loved Glastonbury. With its population of urchins, toffs, thieves, painted ladies and pompous officials, it’s like spending four days in one of his books.
Throw in some foul sewers, beggars, dirty faces, disease and potent grog, the likes of which were beyond the imagination of old Charlie D himself, and you have one hell of a setting.
And then there was music. Lots and lots of music. So, let’s get out that of the way first.
Leonard Cohen stole the show and don’t let any Ting Tings fan tell you otherwise. A towering presence, he is a truly generous spirit with a band that was with him every second of the way. His voice was honeyed and his wisdom came straight from Solomon. He called us “children of the mud”, too.
Indeed, the best performances of the weekend came from the oldies: Neil Diamond, John Fogerty, Shakin’ Stevens, Crowded House and Alison Goldfrapp...
Cohen’s is a voice that Moses could have carved the Ten Commandments on with his fingernails; heavy yet tender, soft almost, mordant, but laced with a lyrical, playful wit and wisdom that beggars most of his contemporaries’; it is a savage and glorious tool that serves the words, which anatomise the vagaries of love and politics, lust and despair. He is “leaning out for love” and “will lean that way forever”.
Michael Eavis might have said his goal was to "get the young people back" at this year's Glastonbury Festival – but it was veteran singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen who most impressed the 72-year-old organiser at this year's bash.