First We Take the Netherlands, Then We Take L.A.

Hello and welcome to the weekend! I have returned with a first: a double anniversary special from one of Earth's greatest living songwriters.

This is unusual because it is exceedingly rare for one artist to have two well-recorded and exemplary performances fall on the same day, years apart. But it does happen, on alternate Saturdays where the fifth moon of Jupiter aligns with Venus... so here we are.

You likely know who this gentleman is. He's arguably the longest-tenured singer-songwriter, having been an award winning poet in his native Canada in the decade before Bob Dylan even came to New York City. He has authored probably upwards of 100 songs that will be listened to and pored over in detail a thousand years from now. His tours sell out continuously, even as he reaches his 80s. There may never be another like him.

So you've heard of Leonard Cohen, I will assume. What we propose to share today are two broadcasts -- one from FM reels captured off the air and the other from a pre-FM CD -- from 1988 and 1993, and both taped on April 18th. Both of these performances could pass as legitimate live records and I'm certain you'll find them in the utmost enjoyable!

Leonard Cohen

4:18:88:93
 

I.

Music Theatre
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4.18.1988

CD1
01 Dance Me to the End of Love
02 Who By Fire
03 Ain't No Cure for Love
04 The Law
05 Heart with No Companion
06 I'm Your Man
07 Coming Back to You
08 First We Take Manhattan
09 Chelsea Hotel #2
10 Tower of Song

CD2
01 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong
02 Everybody Knows
03 There Is a War
04 Take This Waltz
05 Sisters of Mercy
06 Bird On the Wire
07 Hallelujah
08 Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye
09 I Can't Forget
10 Suzanne
11 So Long, Marianne

Total time: 1:52:36

Leonard Cohen - vocals, acoustic guitar
Perla Batalla - vocals
Julie Christensen - vocals
Bob Metzger - guitars, pedal steel guitar
John Bilezikjian - oud
Bob Furgo - keyboards, violin
Tom McMorran - keyboards
Steve Zirkel - bass, keyboard, trumpet
Steve Meador - drums, electronic drums

FM reels, possibly edited down from a master reel to a 1st gen reel

II.

The Complex
Los Angeles, CA
4.18.1993

01 First We Take Manhattan
02 Ain't No Cure for Love
03 Coming Back to You
04 Dance Me to the End of Love
05 Democracy
06 Waiting for the Miracle
07 The Future
08 I'm Your Man

Total time: 49:06

Leonard Cohen – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Perla Batalla - vocals
Julie Christensen - vocals
Jorge Calderón - bass
Bob Furgo - keyboards, violin
Bill Ginn - keyboards, vocals
Steve Meador - drums
Bob Metzger - guitar, pedal steel guitar
Paul Ostermeyer - flute, saxophones

pre-FM Columbia Records Radio Hour CD

both shows zipped together

951 MB total/April 2015 archive link

The Amsterdam set required a slight amount of work... I repositioned a bunch of track markers to not occur 3 seconds into the songs, as well as doing a bit of volume adjustment where it was needed. Other than that, these are both stellar shows from one of our world's most revered and legendary songwriters, so you should wish them a very happy anniversary by pulling them down immediately!--J.