I would to thank all the wonderful Leonard Cohen FRIENDS who wrote, said prayers, lit candles and those who sent delicious special treats from afar to cheer me on. It was very much appreciated. I was very touched.
The Leonard Cohen community is truly exceptional.
It's nice to be back online. I have more rehab ahead but I look forward to resuming posts, especially about my Leonard Cohen concert experiences. The incredible memories from those six recent concerts kept me going on my darkest days.
Sometimes at the end of "Tower Of Song", Leonard Cohen has been playful with the final do dum dums sung in beautiful harmony by his backing singers. He would delight the audience with different secrets about that phrase while the ladies kept repeating their harmony to the amusement of the audience.
In Ghent, 2012, LC once again thanked Sharon, Hattie & Charley at the end of "Tower of Song". He was especially humorous and kept them singing again for an extra long time, which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.
You know, you've sung do dum dum dum de do dum dum maybe 30 or 40 times each time you've done the song
times 250 concerts.
That's a lot of do dum dums
But you know my dear friends,
I wouldn't give up a single dodum dum for all the tea in China
I thank you for every dodum dum you've sung
and every do dum dum that you will sing
You have my pledge of eternal gratitude
Thank you so much
Avi Elkoni, aka Brightnow on the leonardcohenforum.com, was in town for a conference and was kind enough to drive to the Valley so we could get together. Avi is a brave Cohenite to battle LA traffic especially in rush hour.
We met at a wonderful Israeli restaurant chain, AROMA. The atmosphere was exuberant, full of life, noisy and fun. And great food!
Avi is the visionary who started a project in 2010 to show our appreciation to the UHTC crew for takng such good care of Leonard Cohen on the last World Tour 2008-2010. Read about it here
Thanks Avi. It was wonderful seeing you again and reliving some great Leonard Cohen UHTC world tour memories.
Sometime during all the excitement of the Glenn Gould Prize Gala Concert announcement, press releases for the Old Ideas 2012 European tour and preparing for Adam Cohen's terrific gig here in Los Angeles, Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook hit an important milestone, 50,000 page views. I couldn't be more surprised or more pleased.
Most popular post:
Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen Photo on New Album Cover Reveals Familiar Accessories(click here)
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Most popular Forum Fan video:
Leonard Cohen Forum Fans (updated) San Jose & Las Vegas, Nov 11-13, 2009 .
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Most popular non-concert video:
Leonard Cohen Acceptance Speech, Special Grammy, Jan 30, 2010
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Most popular concert video:
Leonard Cohen, DARKNESS, New Song, Nashville TPAC, Nov 5, 2009
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I would like to thank everyone for your interest and support, your emails and for taking the time to leave comments.
And a special thank you to two Cohencentric bloggers who posted links to this LC Scrapbook on their own blogs which helped boost the page views - Dr Allan Showalter, Heck Of A Guy and Roman Gavrilin, Current Cohen
These past few days, I have been reminiscing about my parents and their immigrant life in Canada (father from Russia, mother from Poland). My thoughts reminded me about Leonard Cohen's gracious thank you to Canada at a gala a few days before he received his special Lifetime Achievement Grammy in January, 2010. I was so moved by his sentiments, I posted an extract from an article on my personal blog, Arlene Now(which pre-dates this Leonard Cohen Scrapbook.). The post title is mine, "A Real Mensch."Here is that post.
The Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles threw its annual Grammy bash to celebrate and showcase this year’s nominees from north of the 49th parallel. Leonard Cohen will be honoured on Saturday with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys.
The 75-year-old Cohen, clad in his ever-present dark suit and fedora, made a brief appearance to say he was “deeply grateful” for his accolade.
“My great grandfather, Lazarus Cohen, came to Canada in 1869, to the county of Glengarry, a little town in Maberly,” the folk-rock icon said. “On this occasion, because of the great hospitality that was accorded my ancestor who came here over 140 years ago, I want to thank this country, Canada, for allowing us to live and work and flourish in a place that was different from all other places in the world. So I thank Canada for the opportunity that was given me to work and play and flourish.”
-------------------------------------------------- I referred to the distinctive lectern in the screen shot above in, My Leonard Cohen Button Goes Everywhere
At the end of Tower Of Song, with the background of the familiar "Doo dum dum dum deh doo dum dum...", Leonard Cohen paid a moving tribute to Sharon Robinson, Hatty & Charley Webb, his back up singers.
Don't stop
Oh, sweet sounds
reach at me now
Sharon...Hattie...Charley
Have I told you how much I appreciate your back up singing
The wonderful inspiration for giving the Leonard Cohen Forum a way to show their appreciation to Leonard Cohen and the band came from Marie Mazur, Speaking Cohen, Time to say Thank You.
I took screen caps of my Thank You cards and the placeholder card covers.
The wonderful inspiration for giving Leonard Cohen Forum members a way to show their appreciation to the band came from Marie Mazur, Speaking Cohen,Time to say Thank You.
I took screen caps of my Thank You cards and the placeholder card covers.
A few months ago with the end of the world tour looming, I decided to start a neat little project. The idea was to start an ‘all inclusive’ project to say thank you to the UHTC [Unified Heart Touring Company] crew for taking such good care of Leonard and the band at the end of the world tour in Las Vegas... ...Next came a great idea from Bridger15 [Arlene Dick] who asked to “adopt” her favorite crew member. We took this idea a step further and invited everyone to adopt a crew member and write a personal letter to them. ..
This is my personal letter to Mickey Sullivan, Backline Guitar Technician for Leonard Cohen and Javier Mas
Dear Mickey, You must have noticed that for us, the fans, the Leonard Cohen World Tour of 2008–2010 was pretty special. It had been so long since Leonard’s last live performance that many of us came to accept the sad fact we would never get to see him perform on-stage again.
When the tour was announced, it was more than a dream come true, it was a miracle. We soon found that every concert was a perfect miracle in its own right – the sound, the lighting, the unobstructed view of the stage from every seat, the timing and every other little detail – it was flawless.
I know very well this kind of perfection does not happen by itself. Every detail was a result of the hard work and commitment of the crew, and we know you all labored to make the miracle happen night after night. You spent months on the road, travelling tens of thousands of miles, loading in, tuning, focusing, testing, loading out and starting all over again more than 240 times.
With your high degree of musical knowledge, you took outstanding care of the instruments for Leonard Cohen and Javier Mas for the entire tour. You accurately tuned and tested and performed ongoing maintenance on their instruments ensuring the best results. For that I am grateful to you beyond what words can express.
You came on stage several times during every concert to assist with the smooth transition of multiple instruments. These exchanges were seamless and enhanced the flow of the concert.
You are held in high regard by many Forum fans, always having time to chat with us and beaming one of your incredible smiles. Your warm smile is legendary along with your generosity in handing out set-lists quietly even in the midst of a frenzy. I know this first hand, you were very kind to me several times, especially in Gothenburg. I really appreciated that.
Every night the fans applaud the performers, but today we applaud you. We know the success of this tour would not have been possible without your hard work and we want you to know that your contribution to the tour is something we’ll never forget.
Soon we will all move on with our lives, but before we do, we’d like to present you with a few items as a sign of our gratitude. Everything in the bag was carefully chosen, designed and funded by volunteers fueled by love for Leonard’s work and much appreciation for yours. I hope you enjoy our little gift to you. We will forever cherish the memories you helped create by carrying and supporting the load of the Unified Heart Touring Company.
Leonard's tour will be coming to an end in just a few short weeks. We know this won't be goodbye. Leonard will be working to produce some new material for us and who knows, perhaps we will have a chance to witness the magic of a Leonard Cohen concert again. But before this tour ends, we have an opportunity to say thank you.
Would you please tell your readers that they are welcome to sign a thank you card for Leonard telling him what his concerts have meant to them. They can visit either of these sites for details:
