This programme contains some strong language
and some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
Any system you contrive without us will be brought down.
We warned you before, and nothing that you've built has stood.
You have your drugs, you have your guns, you have your pyramids, your Pentagons.
With all your grass and bullets, you cannot hunt us any more.
All that we disclose of ourselves for ever is this warning...
nothing that you have built has stood.
Any system you contrive without us will be brought down.
The people up there seem very far away.
Why don't you come down here?
..But be careful of the wires, OK?
Come on down if you feel like it.
OK, leave those people alone. They can stay there.
I know you're trying to do your job. But you don't have to do it with your fists.
CHEERING
Now, listen, we can bring 6,000 people down into this place.
Let's sing a song for the men in orange. CHEERING
Sit down.
I know you guys are doing your work. Why don't you just sit down and enjoy the concert?
Come on down, if you feel like it.
# Tell the people now We're only passing through
# Tell the people Tell the people that
# We're only passing through
# Tell the people now!
# Tell the people that we're only passing through
# Tell the people now!
# Tell the people We're only passing through
# Tell the people now!
# Tell the people
# We're only passing through... #
SHOUTING
Let's not go their way. Let's not turn it into anything violent.
Let's just do our own scene.
Disperse quietly and let's take off and be together somewhere else, because this scene isn't working.
So I just want to say good night to you.
Just pass it back.
I just want to say good night on behalf of my group and everybody else.
There's no point starting a war right now.
CHEERING
Scared...
I didn't know what they were going to do, man, because they were beating the hell out of that one kid
when you weren't out there. I didn't know what they were going to do.
They were nasty, those people.
- They were pushing everybody about. - They were really nasty
# Well, I stepped into an avalanche
# It covered up my soul
# When I am not this hunchback that you see
# I sleep beneath the golden hill
# You who wish to conquer pain
# You must learn Learn to serve me well
# You strike my side by accident
# As you go down for your gold
# The cripple here that you clothe and feed
# Is neither starved nor cold
# He does not ask for your company
# Not at the centre, the centre of the world
# When I am on a pedestal
# You did not raise me there
# Your laws do not compel me
# To kneel grotesque and bare
# I myself am the pedestal
# For this ugly hump at which you stare
# I have begun to long for you
# I, who have no greed
# I have begun to ask for you
# I, who have no need
# It is your turn, beloved
# It is your flesh that I wear... #
I'm 37 now. Some of those poems were written at 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.
My books were written, the novels, when I was 22, 23, 24, 25.
You know?
When those books first came out, they sold 200 or 300 copies.
The novels now sell...
500,000 to a million copies.
When those books first came out,
they sold 2,000 copies.
So the idea of success has to be understood in those terms.
If you write a book and you publish it the next year,
and you win the Nobel Prize, then you can speak of it as a success, but when you write a poem when you're 15
and it takes 20 years for it to find its way to the people, you can't really speak of that
with the same... Success has to mean something different.
- Right? - You speak all times about success, but what is success for you?
Success is survival.
Could you recite one of your latest poems for television this evening?
- Anything you have recently written or recorded? - Nothing comes to mind.
Pardon?
I love it when you call out like that.
I believe that when I meet my love, it's going to be some girl who calls out.
LAUGHTER
Call out.
Anyhow, this is a song I wrote a long time ago.
I feel very good about this song. I'll tell you why. It is a song that people love
and, fortunately, the rights of it were stolen from me,
so I thought that was perfectly justified because...
it would be wrong to write this song and get rich from it too.
So, er...
APPLAUSE
I'm happy for that friend who put that piece of paper in front of me and said, "Sign this."
So I said, "Well, what is this?" He said, "Just the standard writer's contract."
So I signed it.
And it was gone.
# Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
# You can hear the boats go by
# You can spend the night beside her
# And you know she's half crazy
# But that's why you want to be there
# And she feeds you tea and oranges That come all the way from China
# And just when you mean to tell her
# That you got no more love to give her
# Then she gets you
# On her wavelength
# And she lets the river answer
# That you've always been her lover
# And you want to travel with her
# And you want to travel blind
# And you know that she will trust you
# For you've touched her perfect body with your mind
# Yes, and Jesus was a sailor
# When he walked upon the water
# And he spent a long time watching
# From his lonesome wooden tower
# And when he knew for certain
# Only drowning men could see him
# He said, "All men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"
# But he himself was broken
# Long before the sky would open
# Forsaken, almost human
# He sank beneath your wisdom
# Like a stone
# Now Suzanne takes your hand
# She leads you to the river
# She's wearing rags and feathers
# From Salvation Army counters
# And the sun pours down like honey
# On our lady of the harbour
# And she shows you where to look
# Amid the garbage and the flowers
# There are heroes in the seaweed
# There are children in the morning
# They are leaning out for love
# And they will lean that way forever
# While Suzanne holds the mirror
# And you want to travel with her
# Yeah, you want to travel blind
# And you know that she will find you
# For she's touched your perfect body with your mind. #
APPLAUSE
Do you sometimes listen to your own records?
Very rarely.
If you do, can you stand Leonard Cohen for more than half an hour?
Oh, nowhere near that long.
# That tonight, tonight will be fine
# Will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
# It's going to be all right once again
# For a while
# Let's hit that one more time
# And I know from your eyes
# And I know from your pretty little smile
# That tonight, tonight will be fine
# Will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
# I hope you find your way back home now
# For a while. #
APPLAUSE
Easy! Come on.
Easy!
Come back.
To the dressing room?
Go easy!
What's the matter with you, man?!
- ..Whenever he wants to go. - He wants you people out of here.
- Just a moment. - He will call security.
- If we go with the table outside... - There's no need. No. They're doing it beautifully.
Keep the line on.
Yeah.
We'll look after it. We don't need this.
After this group, we're going.
- Luggage. - You don't want to take the tickets?
- SPEAKS GERMAN - Sorry. Can you speak English?
Gate 41.
That's what that whole thing was about.
To record the goddamn thing!
INAUDIBLE
Have you got a special service?
Listen, can you bring some baggage in for us? All the bags are in the trucks there. Can you bring them in?
Yes.
Give us a little tune, man.
I might need a little help here.
# I saw Jesus on the cross
# On a hill called Calvary
# I said, "Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
# He said, "Talk of love not hate
# "Things to do - it's getting late
# "I've so little time, I'm only passing through"
# Passing through, passing through
# Sometimes happy, sometimes blue
# Glad that I ran into you
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through. #
- You've got to end that. - Wait a second, man. Wait and see what happens.
# I saw Adam leave the Garden with an apple in his hand
# I said "Now you're out, what are you gonna do?"
# "Plant some crops and pray for rain
# Maybe raise a little Cain
# "I'm an orphan now, and I'm only passing through"
Let's hit it.
# Passing through
# Sometimes happy, sometimes blue
# Glad that I ran into you
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through
# I was with Washington at Valley Forge, shivering in the snow
# I said, "How come the men here suffer like they do?"
# He said, "Men will suffer, men will fight, even die for what is right
# "Even though they know they're only passing through"
# Passing through, passing through
# Sometimes happy, sometimes blue
# Yeah, glad that I ran into you.... #
Just one of them things, like. Not so bloody much you can do about it.
Are you on holiday?
- No, we're touring as a band. - Are you?
Strike the band up and let's have a go.
# He said one world must come out of World War Two
# Ah, the fool
# Yankee, Russian, white or tanned
# A man is still a man
# We're all on this road but we're only passing through
# Passing through, passing through
# Sometimes happy, sometimes blue
# Glad that I ran into you
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through
# Tell the people now
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through. #
There's a bunch of friends here.
- Came to see you... - You don't sing any more? - Pardon?
- Somewhere... - We're going to Geneva.
- No, I mean now. - No, why? - No, tonight.
- Would you like to listen to us? - Yes.
Yes.
I don't have any plans for it.
You don't have any place?
I don't have any place, do you have somewhere for me?
Yes, a lot.
OK.
It's hard to come onto a girl in front of the camera.
What?
SPEAKS IN GERMAN
Why?
I just felt like going out for a drink or something...
With you, but not with other people.
The other people are beautiful,
they are all beautiful, but I just can't make it with everybody.
Maybe we could have lunch or a drink or breakfast or something?
We can do something.
OK.
- OK. - But not now.
OK, man.
I'll see you.
- Bye. - See you. So long.
Did you get all that? OK.
- What are you doing? - I don't know.
You can only ask...
She wants to come, she's not with him.
- He is a singer and she's an actress, they just came... - That's fine.
- It's too complicated to work out. - It doesn't.
It is already too complicated, so let's forget about it completely, OK.
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through
# Tell the people that you saw me passing through. #
Could you tell us what kind of music you enjoy doing the most, what do you feel the most effective in?
Well, I only do the kind of music that I can do.
I would like to do many other kinds but just with the limits of my talent
I'm obliged to just do my own kind of songs.
Would you care to try to group it into any type of genre?
Many people would call you a folk singer but a lot of people dislike the title "folk singer".
I think that...
I fit into a kind of singing that's done a lot in Montreal...
INAUDIBLE
It seems to be some combination of that and...
the European singer and maybe a little bit of the synagogue cantor.
That's quite a combination.
That's an ambitious description of the thing but those are the kinds of music I listened a lot to.
When you're at in the midst of a performance in front of an audience, how do you go about
putting yourself into a song, could you describe this for us?
You are very famous for your ability to
project yourself in a song.
Sometimes you...sometimes you can
live in the song and sometimes it is inhospitable and it won't admit you.
You are left banging at the door and everybody knows it.
It really depends a great deal on the moment
and the kind of shape that
you're in, how straight you are with yourself, how straight you've been with the audience.
There are many factors which determine whether you are going to be able to make the song live.
Would you say it's more of technical difficulty than the mood?
Yeah, there is a technical difficulty. There is another way a song can become inhospitable,
in that you lose contact with the emotion of the song.
After you've been singing a song perhaps you wrote six or seven years
ago and you sang it maybe 10 or 15 times in a row each night in a different city.
You lose contact with the song itself.
So there are many ways in which you try to overcome that.
Maybe you just try to sing it or play it as pure music, not your own...
Not something that you have to represent, it's just another song.
There are many ways of...
greeting the inhospitality.
I think we have time for one final question for you.
Can you think of one particular, very memorable, occasion
that you've performed in, something that really stands out in your mind, performance-wise?
I'm still shattered from the concert last night in Frankfurt.
What made it so outstanding to you?
Outstanding is not quite the word, shattering is...
the word I would use. It's just that sometimes you feel that you completely disgrace yourself
in public, sometimes you do it in a room of two or three people.
I feel I did it front of a couple of thousand.
APPLAUSE
I've had the pleasure of talking this afternoon with the singer of Leonard Cohen.
And this is specialist John Profit reporting for Weekend World.
Thanks a lot. I really appreciate that.
That's nice, thank you.
Very much my pleasure.
Would you like to hear just a small chunk of that and see how the voice...
I don't want to hear it.
Maybe I have to do it all over again.
Oh, no.
'How close to an actual contact situation does this come?'
That's weird.
INAUDIBLE
It didn't come out.
Oh, God help us.
I've disgraced myself, Tony.
I have.
Hello. How are you?
Remember me?
You do look somewhat familiar.
I think you are a singer, aren't you?
Yeah, and, um...
I wanted to ask you if you'd like to come after your concert, to Tel Aviv with us to a place.
I tell you what, I'm going to stay with my friends after the concert.
Oh, so you won't be able to...?
You can bring them all.
I think I'll let it go for tonight.
As you want.
- OK. - But I'll see you tomorrow.
Are you going to be at the hotel?
Yeah, I'll leave Tel Aviv at 7.30.
- I hope I can see you before then. - OK.
But if you change your mind...
How can I get in touch with you?
Well, I'll be here and I might come and ask you again.
It's just I feel I'm going to disgrace myself tonight, so I...
I can't... I hate to make an appointment.
So we'll wait for later. Bye.
- Did you meet Bob Johnson? - How do you do.
- This is the record producer. - Yes, I know.
I perceived the outline of your breasts through your Halloween costume.
I knew you were falling in love with me
because no other man could perceive the advance of your bosom into his imagination.
It was a rupture of your unusual modesty for me and me alone,
through which you impressed upon my shapeless hunger
the incomparable and final outline of your breasts,
like two deep fossil shells which remained all night long
and probably forever.
Les Soeurs De Charite.
APPLAUSE
# Oh, the Sisters of Mercy They are not departed or gone
# They were waiting for me when I thought that I just cannot go on
# And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song
# Yes, I hope you run into them
# You who've been travelling so long
# Yes, you who must leave everything
# That you cannot control
# It begins with your family, but soon it comes round to your soul
# Well, I've been where you're hanging
# And I think I can see how you're pinned
# When you're not feeling holy
# Your loneliness tells that you've sinned
# They lay down beside me
# I made my confession to them
# They touched both my eyes
# I touched the dew on their hem
# If your life is a leaf
# That the seasons tear off and condemn
# They will bind you with love
# That is graceful and green as a stem
# When I left, they were sleeping
# I hope you run into them soon
# Don't turn on the lights
# You can read their address by the moon
# And you won't make me jealous
# If I hear that they sweetened your night
# We weren't lovers like that
# And besides it would still be all right
# We weren't lovers like that
# And besides it would still be all right. #
- Creativity? - Creativity.
No, I couldn't tell you anything about that.
But you know something about it.
If I do, it's like speaking about one's own religion, it's not...
It doesn't serve you to speak about those things.
What would you like to talk about?
I prefer not to speak at all.
Who can take this seriously... as a career? LAUGHTER
# Leonard Cohen is going to sing his song of anguish and despair. #
APPLAUSE
# Here it comes, folks
# The organ is playing
# The skulls appear
# They are lowered by wires from a man above the stage
# He stands there
# The broken-down nightingale
# Oh, the broken-down nightingale
# Is going to sing you a little song... #
# And who by fire, who by water
# Who in the sunshine
# Who in the night-time
# Who by high ordeal
# Who by common trial
# Who in your merry merry month of May
# Who by very slow decay
# And who shall I say is calling? #
INAUDIBLE
What sort of band have you got behind you for this gig?
Well, the men and women that I work with are really fine.
There is...
Jennifer Warnes. APPLAUSE
'One of the girl singers, she has a few albums out on her own.
'I think she's the lead in Hair in LA, a really fine singer.
'Donna Washburn, she used to sing with Joe Cocker.'
This is Ron Cornelius. APPLAUSE
'Probably one of the best guitarists in the world, a fine songwriter too.'
Peter Marshall. APPLAUSE
'You will know when you hear him, he's a really extraordinary musician.
'David O'Connor, a kind of hermit.'
This is Bob "Duke" Johnston.
THE Bob Johnson is on the organ.
That's interesting, I didn't even know he was an organist.
No, he's hardly aware of it himself but he's a very understated player.
Last night in the middle of Suzanne in front of all those people, I actually nodded out.
LAUGHTER
- I had the feeling I wasn't quite getting the support... - You really weren't.
- For the first time. - The whole band, man...
It sounded like banging.
# And who in her lonely slip
# Who by barbiturate
# Who in these realms of love
# Who by something blunt
# Who by avalanche
# Who by powder
# Who for his greed
# Who for his hunger
# And who shall I say is calling? #
The killers that run the other countries
are trying to get us to overthrow the killers that run our own.
I, for one, prefer the rule of our native killers.
I am convinced the foreign killer will kill more of us
than the old familiar killer does.
Frankly, I don't believe anyone out there
really wants us to solve our social problems.
I base this all on how I feel about the man next door.
I just hope he doesn't get any uglier.
Therefore, I am a patriot.
I don't like to see a burning flag
because it excites the killers on either side to unfortunate excess,
which goes on gaily quite unchecked until everyone is dead.
This is a song called the Story of Isaac.
It's about those who would sacrifice one generation on behalf of another.
# The door, it opened slowly
# My father, he came in
# I was nine years old
# And he stood so tall above me
# His blue eyes, they were shining
# And his voice was very cold
# He said, "I've had a vision and you know I'm strong and holy
# "I must do what I've been told"
# So he started up the mountain
# I was running, he was walking
# And his axe was made of burning gold... #
Your songs have a political meaning and that's not directed in the past but I think maybe in the future.
Well, all songs have a political meaning
because loneliness is a political act today.
The reason we are lonely is because we have not organised our lives
so that we can meet ourselves and each other.
Loneliness itself is a political act
and any song about loneliness is a political song.
# Well, the trees, they got much smaller
# The lake was like a lady's mirror
# When we stopped to drink some wine
# Then he threw the bottle over
# Broke a minute later
# And he put his hand on mine
# Thought I saw an eagle but it might have been a vulture
# I never could decide
# Then my father built an altar
# He looked once behind his shoulder
# I guess he knew I would not hide
# You who build these altars now to sacrifice our children
# You must not do it anymore
# A scheme is not a vision
# And you never have been tempted by a demon or a god
# Who stand above them now, your hatchet's blunt and bloody
# Ah, you were not there before... #
The fact that I have a large public does not determine whether I sing or not. I would sing anyways.
It's just my voice. I like to sing and I like to...
Each man has a song.
And this is my song.
And if I didn't have a large public, I would still sing.
I think that everybody understands the songs.
We always don't understand perfectly what we say to each other in words.
But we always understand each other.
And it's the same way with my songs.
The texts are sometimes difficult.
But even when you sit with somebody and you listen to them speak about their lives,
you can't follow the meaning from word to word
or from sentence to sentence.
But something else comes through, something of the person, himself or herself, comes through.
And so it is with my work,
although the meaning of each line may be obscure.
# And if you call me brother now
# Forgive me but I must enquire just according to whose plan?
# When it all comes down to dust
# I will kill you if I must or help you if I can
# When it all comes down to dust
# I will help you if I must or kill you if I can
# And mercy, mercy on our uniform
# The man of peace, the man of war
# The peacock spreads his deadly fan. #
It's beautiful music, man.
I feel really good about everybody up there...
- Except me. - Yeah.
Not about your singing or your playing, it's just something in your eyes that was, you know...
And if it changes, it changes.
But I think everything else is right there.
Right there. Did you hear anything that you felt was wrong? Or not?
No, it's fine. It's really fine.
The music is right there.
I wish I was...
- Are you pissed off with anything? - Everything.
Like a pro!
Thanks, fellas.
For what?
Let's do it, folks.
APPLAUSE
Since I'm now broken down, no leader of the world
No saint for those in pain
No singer, no musician
No master of anything
No friend to my friends
No lover to those who love me
Only my greed remains to me
Biting into every minute that has not come with my insane triumph
Show me the way now, tonight
To possess what I long for
To ensnare, to tame, to love and be loved by
In the passion which I cannot ignore, despite your teachings
Give her to me, and let me be for a moment
In this miserable and bewildering wretchedness, a happy animal.
ACOUSTIC GUITAR INTRO
APPLAUSE
Now listen, you couldn't possibly know what song that is.
LAUGHTER
I start all my songs that way.
That's the only chord I know.
- Sing it anyway! - Pardon?
They're ALL wonderful songs.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, forgive my ingratitude.
Really, that's... Oh, forgive me.
It's the first day of Passover and I'm...
The last one. See, that's how confused I am.
And it's a festival of freedom.
And I'm trying to break free myself.
# I'm trying to break free myself, you know
# Trying to lose my old song
# Trying to start a new life before it is too late
# Trying to get along
# Trying to get along... #
Everybody told me that the Berlin audience was the most difficult in the world.
They told me that you stoned Rod Stewart.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
- HECKLING - Pardon?
Now just a second - would you please appoint a spokesman?
HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN:
Anyone else got anything to say?
I can stand here for a long time like this.
OK?
I'm tough, you know.
I can take this.
Nice and quiet now.
# When they poured across the border
# I was cautioned to surrender
# This I could not do
# I took my gun and I vanished
# I have changed my name so often
# I have lost my wife and children
# But I have many friends
# Some of them are with me
# With me right here tonight
# The wind, the wind is blowing
# Through these graves the wind is blowing
# Freedom soon will come
# Then we'll come from these shadows, these shadows
# Yes, the wind, the wind is blowing
# Through these graves the wind is blowing
# Freedom soon will come
# Then we'll come from these shadows... #
STATIC FEEDBACK
STATIC FEEDBACK CONTINUES
# I don't know what to do about you, speaker... #
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
# I suppose there's a solution
# But it seems too drastic for me... #
LAUGHTER
# But I'm going to be asking for the axe
# Or the gun or the dynamite... #
LAUGHTER
# And then just like the rest of the scene
# We'll just have to wait and see... #
STATIC FEEDBACK
# Come on, speaker!
# Won't you speak to me?
# Come on, speaker!
# Let's just see what you've got to say
# Today. #
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
STATIC FEEDBACK
It's our monitors, man.
We cannot play music. I mean...
I'm not a difficult person to deal with.
- I know that better than anyone, but... - It's the 15th concert, man, with no sound.
- Pardon me, have you got just one more minute? - Sure, man. Sure.
Man, the band is so ready to play tonight.
So ready.
Man, what we heard up there was bringing us down a little more each song.
It's exactly the same system as what we're using now.
- Same system, same hall. - And exactly the same company.
It's not clear to the people behind, and musically speaking...
there is none.
There's no music up there.
It's all in the dark.
- We didn't like it. - Get your money back.
Let the other people worry about themselves.
It's not a question about money.
Well, what are you asking then?
It's a question about cheating people.
- Do you think that this was a... - At the start of your concert...
I mean, the goddamn PA blew up, man!
Are you trying to bullshit me or something?
If you want your money back, get your money back. Let the other people worry about themselves.
Didn't you know that the speakers didn't work?
- Why didn't you... - When we came here today by ourselves and went through the whole thing, it worked perfect.
You were coming here without any rehearsal or something.
We came here today, everything was working perfectly.
It blew up, that's all. Do you think we came here and did that just to do that?
- No. But every decent concert... - We love this music. This is our life. This is our fucking life.
If you think that we came here to rip this thing off and let the PA go out,
and that was our idea of a joke to get your bread, you're full of shit.
It seems you should have stopped the concert and told people if you want, you get your money back.
- And stop it and go home? - If you want to stay here, you can have it.
I'd like to pay it myself, man.
Let Leonard pay him, let Leonard pay him.
- I have 60 on me. - I think you should offer all the people their money back.
Nobody else is here. Whoever comes here to ask for it will get their money back.
- Why didn't you go to the microphone and tell them? - A lot of people don't feel like you do.
I think you should.
OK, man, you speak for yourselves, OK?
If you want to go and incite the crowd to come back here, do so.
Why should you speak for the people?
Would you do me a favour?
Never, never, never show up for another show.
- I don't want to see you. - SOMEONE APPLAUDS
That's nothing. That's not a question...
Because I stand on my rights, you tell me this.
What about my money? I didn't get my money back.
- I have two tickets... - No, it's right.
- Me and my girlfriend. She's outside. - That's 15 American dollars.
Man, you got enough money between you to cover your...
ALL TALK AT ONCE
- Yes man, that's... - Two times 45.
That's 45...
Two times 45. I've got my money.
Wait a second, man. This is 12 dollars.
So here's another five...
ALL TALK AT ONCE
- You're giving them money back for the concert? - Yeah.
Wow!
ALL TALK AT ONCE
I stand on my rights. I just stand on my rights.
- Shut up! - You shut up yourself. - You got your right now.
- Now you have not paid to be here, so will you get out? - Shut up!
One concert we've had, where it's worked.
Glasgow.
One concert out of - what is it - 20 now?
Or 15, that the sound system has worked.
It's unbelievable.
- Keep blaming everybody for it. - I don't want to blame everybody.
It's just one of those nights where everything goes wrong.
If you really want to know, I'll say exactly what was done, right?
Bob plugged his earphones in the wrong plug unit on the second night,
which drew off on the monitor system instead of going from the PA system,
which overloaded all the amps on the PA system.
That blew the amps.
You see, it was a pure simple accident.
That's crap, man. That really is crap.
- No. No, Bob. - Yes, it is.
- I wouldn't have plugged the fucking cans in the wrong hole. - But you did!
It's wrong, man. It's wrong. I don't care
if it's your fault or his, or who's ever, it's fucking wrong with the people that do it.
No fucking excuses, no cop-outs from anybody, no blames or faults -
just get a system that will work, cos we've got 23 more days to do.
It's impossible, man.
Do you know what the trouble is?
- Are they using those horns instead of monitors, what is it? - I'll find out.
If there are some people who really can't hear...
I know it's difficult and I really do..
appreciate what's going down between us tonight.
But if there are some people who really can't hear,
I'd like them to come up and sit up here with us.
- That's not... - APPLAUSE
I'd like to sing another song or two.
LAUGHTER AND MUFFLED VOICES
APPLAUSE
LAUGHTER
Hey, watch those wires.
Move right in close.
# Ah, yes, you must leave everything
# That you cannot control
# It begins with your family
# But soon it comes round to your soul
# Well, I've been where you're hanging
# I think I can see how you're pinned
# When you're not feeling holy
# Your loneliness tells you you've sinned
# Yes, they lay down beside me
# I made my confession to them
# They touched both my eyes
# And I touched the dew on their hem
# If your life is a leaf
# That the seasons tear off and condemn
# Ah, they will bind you with love
# That is graceful and green as a stem
# When I left they were sleeping
# I hope you run into them soon
# Don't turn on the lights
# You can read their address by the moon
# And you won't make me jealous
# If I hear that they sweetened your night
# Oh, we weren't lovers like that
# And besides it would still be all right
# We weren't lovers like that
# And besides
# It would still be all right. #
APPLAUSE
I don't have a good voice, everybody knows that!
So, er...
It's just, you know,
there are two things to think of -
one is...
anything that is popular, anything that is really popular,
is often not really good, you know?
So...
the fact that my work is popular
does not necessarily mean that it's good,
it just means it's popular.
The other thing is that
whether it's written on a page or sung as a song,
whether it's me or someone else that is singing,
if you are in touch with that thing that moves a song from lip to lip,
and you never command it, it's just, if it's on you,
I'm not just interested in going from city to city
to gather the applause of the people.
I'm only... It's only nourishing to me
if I can do something for them.
I mean, you don't want to go in front of people
unless you feel that you can give them something,
and you can return...you can return to them the love that they feel...
to you through your songs.
And when you feel that, and when you don't feel that you can make it,
it's a terrible feeling, you feel you're cheating people.
I felt at the beginning that I was cheating people,
because I couldn't deliver the same emotion that they were giving me.
So, I see no reason why the energy has to be concentrated
on this broken-down nightingale.
LAUGHTER
- You forgot Jimmy. - I return it all to you,
and, if you could possibly make an evening out of this,
if it's not just the observance and the documentation and the record
of a few museum songs...
After all, I wrote these songs to myself,
and to women several years ago,
and it is a curious thing to be trapped in that original effort, because here,
I wanted to tell one person one thing
and now I am in a situation where I must repeat them,
like some parrot chained to his stand night after night.
It's like when Plato said...
No, it wasn't Plato, you know, it was his...
It wasn't Plato, it was a cat that copied him.
Socrates.
I mean, Socrates didn't bother to write it down.
But Plato saw he had a good gig writing it down.
"I'll write down everything he said,
"I'll publish it after he's dead."
But you know, all that Socrates ever said was...
# No, it wasn't any good
# There's no reason why you should
# Remember me
# No, it wasn't any good
# There's no reason why you should
# Remember... #
And I tell you, friends,
you can tell this to your Sunday school teacher
when she tells you about sin.
This is the appropriate response...
# No, it wasn't any good
# There's no reason why you should
# Remember me... #
Do you know that every word I say is being recorded and taken down on film?
And so, no doubt, if electricity persists,
and there are banks and governments devoted to its continuation,
if electricity persists, perhaps... our progeny, our grandchildren,
in some new form of cool, in some new style of hip,
in some new way of...expansion,
in some new trip on the old wine,
perhaps they will be able to see me standing here on this stage in Manchester,
which will then be a...a ruin.
It's well on its way.
- LAUGHTER - And you know, I hope that the banks follow,
and I hope the factories go down too.
And I don't even like the places they live in here.
And that's got nothing to do with the people.
That's part of another scene.
But anyhow, you know,
I hope these...imaginary descendants of mine
will be able to look me straight in the screen...
..and I'll tell them, one by one...
# No, it wasn't any good
# There's no reason why you should
# Remember me... #
I think I should eat a sandwich, let somebody else play the guitar.
I think you should too!
# I got a home in glory land
# That outshines the sun
# I got a home in glory land
# That outshines the sun
# I got a home in glory land
# That outshines the sun
# Must be the hand of the Lord
# Ah, do, Lord, oh, do, Lord
# Do remember me
# Do, Lord, oh, do, Lord
# Do remember me... #
# I remember you well
# In the Chelsea Hotel
# You were talking so brave and so sweet
# Giving me head on the unmade bed
# While the limousines wait in the street
# Those were the reasons
# And that was New York
# I was running for the money and the flesh
# That was called love
# For the workers in song
# And it still is for those of us left
# Ah, but you got away
# Didn't you, babe?
# You just threw it all to the ground
# You got away
# They can't pay you now
# For making your sweet little sound
# Come on, make it, babe
# Making your sweet little sound
# It's all good now
# Making your sweet little sound
# I can hear it
# Making your sweet little song
# Let me follow
# You'd be making your sweet little song
# Oh, don't leave me now
# Making your sweet little song
# All the way now
# Giving me head there
# In the unmade bed there
# Such a great surprise
# To be lying with you, babe
# Making your sweet little sound
# I remember you well
# In the Chelsea Hotel
# That was the winter of '67
# My friends of that year
# They were trying to go queer
# And me, I was just getting even
# And those were the reasons
# And that was New York
# I was runnin' for the fuckin' money and the flesh
# That was called love
# For the workers in song
# And it still is for the few of us left
# Ah, but you got away
# Didn't you, babe?
# You just turned your back on the pain
# You got away on your way
# This dream Racin' the midnight train
# I can see you
# Racin' the midnight train
# With no clothes on, babe
# See all your feet gettin' torn on the ground
# All of your clothes now
# No cape to cover you
# Shinin' your eyes in my deepest corner
# Shinin' your eyes in my darkest corner
# Racin' the midnight train
# I can't catch you, baby
# Racin' the midnight train. #
HE SHOUTS
SNAKE-CHARMER FLUTE PLAYS MUSIC
MEN SPEAK ALL AT ONCE
Do you speak Hebrew?
Er, no. I can read the prayers, but I don't know what they mean.
I have a notion with them.
Would you call yourself a practising Jew?
- I'm always practising. - Yeah...
Sometimes I feel the fear of God, I do feel that fear sometimes,
and I've got to get myself together.
I don't know whether that's an exclusively Jewish phenomenon,
but it's certainly one that is part of the Jewish training,
to sensitise yourself to that kind of direction.
- Do you visit a synagogue at all? - Yes.
How often, quite regularly, or...?
Depends, you know, how good the singing is.
- Shall we go? - Yeah.
Now, this is the end of my gig tonight, folks.
No filming tomorrow, this is it, you've seen the end of it.
Just real casually, calmly coming in.
They don't have any fear that it's going to...
You know, there's nobody in there, the seats are still being filled,
and nobody's in a hurry or nothing, it's just...groovy.
- You know what Jerusalem means? - No. - City of peace.
- You know they say Shalom... - Yeah.
..and Salem?
- What's the difference? - Nothing.
City of peace.
PEOPLE LAUGH AND CHATTER
Got to see my text here...
Hey!
ALL: Hey!
Is that you, baby?!
This the way it's got to be done. You think that stuff still works?
We're in serious trouble if it works or if it doesn't work!
OK, let's go.
I'm really scared tonight.
This is the last time we're doing this, folks.
- All's well that ends well. - Yeah.
It is the last time, isn't it, man?
LAUGHTER
MANY VOICES MURMUR
Norman!
Norman? Norman...? Waiting for me...
Norman - tell Bob they're ready...
APPLAUSE
We've travelled
all across Europe.
This is our last concert.
Probably the last one,
er, that I'll be doing for a long time,
so I'm glad that it's here.
HE STRUMS THE GUITAR
APPLAUSE
- HE STOPS PLAYING - I really enjoy your recognising the songs, but...
LAUGHTER
I'm scared enough as it is up here, and I think something's wrong every time you begin to applaud.
LAUGHTER
So, if you do recognise the song, will you just wave your hand?
LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE
# The morning
# Had not come
# Nancy was alone
# Looking at the Late Late Show
# Through a semi-precious stone
# In the house of honesty
# Her father was on trial
# In the house of mystery
# There was no-one at all
# There was no-one there at all
# It seems so long ago
# None of us were very strong
# Ah, but Nancy wore green stockings
# And she She slept with everyone... #
# An Eskimo showed me a movie
# He'd recently taken of you
# The poor man could hardly stop shivering
# His lips and his fingers were blue
# I suppose that he froze
# When the wind took your clothes
# I guess he just never got warm
# But you stand there so nice
# In your blizzard of ice
# Oh, please Let me come into the storm. #
HE PLAYS THE OCARINA
# It's four in the morning
# The end of December
# I'm writing you now
# Just to
# See if you're better
# New York is cold
# But I like where I'm living
# There's music on Clinton Street
# All through the evening
# I hear that you're building
# Your little house
# Deep in the desert
# You're living for nothing now
# I do hope you're keeping
# Some kind of record Yeah
# And Jane came by
# With a lock of your hair
# She said that you gave it to her
# That night that you planned to go clear... #
I hope that you bear with me.
These songs are kind of, er,
they become meditations for me,
and sometimes I just don't get high on it.
And I feel that I'm cheating you, so I'll try it again, OK?
And if it doesn't work, I'll stop in the middle.
But there's no reason why we should...
mutilate a song just to save face. But here it goes.
# I lit a thin green candle... #
APPLAUSE
# To make you jeal... #
Oh, you might as well clap...
APPLAUSE
..if you recognise the song! OK.
What do you mean, "Sing it"?!
I have my rights up here too, you know. I could just sit around and talk if I wanted.
Now, look, if it doesn't get any better,
we'll just end the concert, and I'll refund your money.
Some nights,
one is raised off the ground, and some nights,
you just can't get off the ground,
and there's no point in lying about it.
And tonight, we just haven't been getting off the ground.
And...
it says in the Kabbalah...
LAUGHTER THEN APPLAUSE
..that if you can't get off the ground, you should stay on the ground.
APPLAUSE
No, it says in the Kabbalah that, er, unless Adam and Eve face each other,
God does not sit on his throne.
And...
somehow the male and female part of me
refuse to encounter one another tonight,
and God does not sit on his throne.
And this is a terrible thing to happen in Jerusalem.
LAUGHTER
So, listen...
we're going to leave the stage now
and try to profoundly meditate in the dressing room,
to get ourselves back into shape.
APPLAUSE
And if we can manage, we will be back.
I'd like to give the people their money back, I really would.
It's just not there, you know, I can't fake it.
I can't make it, man. I don't like it.
Period.
So, I'm splitting.
WOMAN: No, you're not. No, you're not.
There are several problems. One is...the audience really doesn't want their money back.
And...they didn't pay very much for the thing.
The kids have come 200 miles.
I know, but when you're not delivering, you're not delivering.
That's it.
To them, you're really delivering.
I don't feel like it.
No, thanks.
Flowers - too wonderful.
WOMAN: At least it's legal.
Thank you very much.
They are beautiful. Thank you.
Maybe some of those people out there don't want to be in the army.
Maybe they think it's a drag to go shoot people, but they have to do it. They have to do it.
It's something you have to do.
And this is the last concert.
This is something you have to do and then bang.
I know what I have to do, I have to shave. What a life. What a life.
Oh, this is wonderful.
Why didn't you tell me about this?
INDISTINCT CHATTER
You ought to try it, man. It's wonderful.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, this is really great.
Oh...
Right.
That's it.
Jerusalem. Bombed in Jerusalem.
Have we got a bomb tonight?!
Let's read them our reviews from Germany.
LAUGHTER
Stoned would be more like it.
I felt this atmosphere once before, it was in Montreal.
My entire family was there...
their cousins, aunts, daughters and nieces.
The first thing I said when I walked into this room was I want a glass of water...
I'm going to ask everybody from Montreal to leave.
Just the people from Montreal will get their money back.
Anybody with a Canadian passport, out.
All close friends of the artists, please leave.
That's where it is.
SLOW CLAPPING
THEY SING "HEVENU SHALOM ALEICHEM"
# I loved you in the morning
# Our kisses deep and warm
# Your head upon the pillow
# Like a sleepy golden storm
# Many loved before us
# I know we are not new
# In city and in forest
# They smiled like me and you
# But now it's come to distances
# And both of us must try
# Your eyes are soft with sorrow
# Hey...
# Hey, that's
# No way
# To say goodbye
# I'm not looking for another
# As I'm wander in my time
# Walk me to the corner
# Our steps will always rhyme
# You know my love goes with you
# Your love stays with me
# It's just the way it changes
# Like the shoreline and the sea
# But let's not talk of love or chains
# And things we can't untie
# Your eyes are soft with sorrow
# Hey...
# Hey, that's
# No way
# To say goodbye
# I loved you in the morning
# Our kisses deep and warm
# Your head upon the pillow
# Like a sleepy golden storm
# Many loved before us
# I know we are not new
# In city and in forest
# They smiled like me and you
# But now it's come to distances
# And both of us must try
# Your eyes are a soft with sorrow
# Hey...
# Hey, that's
# No way
# To say goodbye. #
APPLAUSE
# Won't you come over
# To the window
# My little darling?
# I'd like to try to read your palm
# You know I used to think I was some kind of gypsy boy
# Before I let you take me home
Come on, now! # So long, Marianne
# It's time that we began
# To laugh and cry
# And cry and laugh
# About it all again
# Well, you know that I love to live with you
# But you make me forget so very much
# I forget to pray for the angels
# And then the angels forget
# To pray for us
# So long, Marianne
# It's time that we began
# To laugh and cry
# And cry and laugh
# About it all again
# We met
# When we were almost young
# Down by the green lilac park
# You held onto me like I was a crucifix
# As we went kneeling through the dark
# So long, Marianne
# It's time that we began
# To laugh and cry
# And cry and laugh
# About it all again
# Oh, you are really such a
# Beautiful one
# I see you've gone and changed your name again
# And just when I climb this whole mountainside
# To wash my eyelids in the rain
# Oh, so long, Marianne
# It's time that we began
# To laugh and cry
# And cry and laugh
# About it all again. #
APPLAUSE
WHISTLING
I can't fit in with this.
It's hard to, man.
They won't leave.
Well, we're all just going to have to sit here, because I can't put another song together right now.
Forget the songs.
I can't go and cry in front of the people, you know.
Bob, what do you think?
Whatever he wants. People are standing out their stomping their feet.
You know, I've already cried in public.
I can't keep up with that, you know.
- Do you want to split? - Let's call it a day.
Do you want to go tell them?
Yeah.
Are you sure?
- You already told them. - I think I told them.
I could always be talked into singing another song.
Is that what we want to do?
Those people are stomping their feet.
What if you sang one, Leonard, by yourself?
I think you should just talk to them, thank them again.
The end was too good to do it again.
Those people paid their money, if you want to sing a song, if you want to talk.
Really, I think it's...
I'd go out there and tell them, but...
Why don't you, Leonard?
STOMPING AND CLAPPING
Listen, people,
my band and I are all crying backstage there.
We're too broken up to go on, but I just want to thank you and good night.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Have you ever seen anything like that?
It was beautiful when they sang the song.
It's like a morgue in here.
Jesus Christ.
- What's happening out there? - Thousands of people.
They let the band in anyhow!
No, I can't break up, man.
This has got to be the end of the tour, really.
Couldn't ask for a better finish.
It's real nice.
Wow, it was a, oh, God, it was a tough start.
- But those people... - That's the most beautiful audience I've ever seen.
- They were... - I think that Leonard Cohen Street might become an avenue.
- What? - It may become an avenue instead of a street.
Avenues are wider.
They reckon, develop it.
What a beautiful audience, though.
- Yeah, incredible. - Did you see the faces down in front?
- Yes. - The kids singing?
What's unbelievable, they know every word of every song.
- They were singing. - Do you know what happened when you told me to kill the concert, get the money back?
I went out there and two of the kids heard me,
so they said, "No, we'll sing for Leonard - just let him stand there."
We know the words to all the songs, we'll sing to him.
So...
It's kind of, it's a wild magic.
Like when you step away the mic, they didn't quit, they just kept singing.
- So long, Marianne. It was beautiful. - Incredibly beautiful.
Can you ease back a little, please, because there's a camera coming through here?
Just ease back a little, please. Ease back a little.
Tony, it's been wonderful.
It has.
# Like a bird
# On the wire
# Like a drunk
# In a midnight choir
# I have tried
# In my way
# To be free. #
Now you've got to sing your part.
# Like a worm on a hook
# Like a knight from some old-fashioned book
# The shape, the shape of our love
# Twisted me
# If I
# If I have been unkind
# I hope you can, I hope you can
# Just let it all go by
# Let it go by
# And if I
# If I have been untrue
# It's just that I thought a lover
# Had to be some kind of liar too
# Like a baby
# Stillborn
# Like a beast
# With his horn
# I have torn
# Everyone
# Who reached out for me
# But I swear by this song
# And by all that I have done wrong
# I will make it all
# Up to thee
# I saw a beggar, he was
# Leaning on his
# Wooden crutch
# He says to me, "Come on, now
# "You must not ask for so much"
# Yeah
# And another pretty woman
# She was... #
I've led them to a dead end!
# She cried out to me
# "Come on, now
# "Why don't you ask, why don't you ask for just a little more?
# "Just a little more"
# Like a
# Bird
# On the wire
# Like a drunk
# In some old midnight choir
# I have tried
# In my way
# To be free. #
APPLAUSE