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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
All aboard the Leonard Cohen bandwagon
Henny Ray Abrams / The Associated Press Leonard Cohen performs at New York�s Beacon Theatre in February. (CP)
The Leonard Cohen juggernaut launched in earnest yesterday.
Granted, one hesitates to apply a military-like metaphor to an artist as historically anti-commercial as Canada's great poet of despair.
But what else can you say about the calculated promotional push that accompanies the start of Cohen's six-week North American tour?
It is indeed "a huge or overwhelming force or object," to quote the Oxford Dictionary definition of juggernaut.
Madonna and Britney Spears have nothing on this guy. Or at least nothing on this guy's public-relations firm.
Yesterday saw the release of Cohen's new double CD, Live in London, recorded last July on his tour's first European leg. Along with it comes a two-hour film of the concert on DVD.
The CBC was to play the whole album last night on Radio 2, and tonight at 8 p.m., CBC-TV will air an hour-long excerpt from the DVD.
That's not the end of it. The CBC has been busy hyping its ticket giveaway for Cohen's New York concert in mid-May. They're already talking up an hour-long interview the man has done with Jian Ghomeshi, host of Radio One culture program Q. It airs April 16.
A 20-minute excerpt of the Ghomeshi interview, already taped, will air on The National April 14.
It is rumoured that the newscast's august anchorman, Peter Mansbridge, will be wearing his "famous blue raincoat" that night, proof that he's the unnamed Lothario who took "the trouble from Jane's eyes" so many years ago.
All kidding aside, our beleaguered public broadcaster deserves credit for tying itself to the Cohen bandwagon. As with the recent plugs it has given to Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot, two other top-floor residents in the Canuck tower of song, this one demonstrates a commitment to its audience's mainstream tastes.
The Cohen tour, where the real money lies, kicks off tonight in Austin, Texas. The tour hits Winnipeg April 30.
The thing about Cohen's show is that almost nothing is left to chance. What you hear on the CD of the London show, and what you see tonight on the CBC, is likely to be repeated note for note at the MTS Centre.
The wild card, of course, is the sense of solidarity fans will feel (or perhaps not feel) to be among a community of longtime Cohen idolaters.
Before Christmas, many observers wondered if the big arena tours would dry up as the recession took hold.
In the short term, these fears seem to have been unfounded. The MTS Centre is maintaining a steady stream of famous visitors.
The Eagles and Beyoncé have already been through town this past month. Coming up Sunday are Alberta rockers Nickelback, fresh off their Juno triumph.
Also confirmed are Diana Krall, Lightfoot, Coldplay, Rock of the Range multi-band event, the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift, among others.
It appears, in retrospect, as though our new downtown arena arrived as the music industry began to adjust to its new reality. It used to be that concerts were promotional events to sell albums.
But now buying music, or at least albums, is so 20th century. Acts put out records, sometimes giving them away, as a means to promote their live appearances.
Last anybody checked, Cohen was still charging for his new album and DVD. But he's financing his delayed retirement by giving the world a piece of himself onstage.
Let the juggernaut roll.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 1, 2009 D3
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