Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: cohen

  • David Broza Sings Leonard Cohen

    David Broza Sings Leonard Cohen

    Three tracks, three interpretations of Leonard Cohen’s work by David Broza creates a beautiful contrast of music that showcases so much about this enigmatic musician and poet. Broza’s beautiful, rich timbered voice take the pieces into another realm and offers an unforgettable tribute to a man and his music. A man who influenced widely the world of music and has left behind a unique, classic and rich legacy of music that is timeless and beautiful.

    Internationally acclaimed Israeli superstar David Broza, has often been compared to Cohen which made him the perfect choice to create once again the beautiful, soulful, poetic music of a man who put nostalgic poetry to music, with a simple, but unique, flamboyance.

    Each track has been released as a stand-alone song: the first one So Long Marianne was released on 21 September 2022, which would have been Cohens 88th birthday. The second Famous Blue Raincoat on 21 October, 2022 and the final track Dance Me to the Ends of Love on 21 November, 2022.

    So Long Marianne is an up tempo, foot tapping tribute to long ago love Marianne Jensen which is ageless, and in Cohen style somewhat flamboyant with regret and love at the ending of a relationship. He considered her as his Muse down through the years and attributed many of his poems and songs to her influence.

    Famous Blue Raincoat begins with some delicate guitar before the vocals in sung in Hebrew, commence making this simple poem into a song that is once again heart wrenchingly beautiful. This adaption was inspired by the translation of the lyrics by Israeli Poet Yehonatan Geffen, which moves the pathos of the enigmatic song, inspired by the loss of his Burberry rain coat and Marianne, into another realm of delicate emotion.

    Dance Me To The End of Love, is once again a deeply moving set of lyrics, inspired by the Holocaust, revisiting the tragedy of violins playing as people entered their final minutes of this life. Cohen also described the words as those of passion and love, as a relationship begins and ends, but ultimately the translation of the lyrics belongs to the listener.

    As the work was originally commissioned by the Jewish Arts Collective in Boston as part of an online event, each of the three tracks are on U-Tube as David Broza Sings Leonard Cohen Live. They are well worth taking the time to enjoy.

    David Broza Sings Leonard Cohen is simply a beautiful, heart-warming and utterly delightful tribute collection. Perfection perhaps channeled by the man himself: Leonard Cohen.

  • Disappearing off the Face of the Earth

    Disappearing off the Face of the Earth

    Before we begin it is best you know this really is a totally warped novel, in the nicest possible manner, which will keep you turning the pages simply to find out what happens next: who has disappeared now and what happened; or, at least what you think may have happened.  Your brain and your intellect is exercised until the final word is read.

    In taking a journey into the other side of mental health, David Cohen has managed to keep the reader completely off balance, which in this instance is a good thing, as all is not what it may seem, or is it?

    We meet Ken Guy, owner of the Hideaway self-storage units, Bruce, who works for him but has issues, Kelvin, the guy who knows everything there is to know about selling on e-bay, Ken’s girlfriend, Ellen, client of Hideaway and owner of a small mobility scooter business.

    The self-storage units are folding up fast, with clients leaving or simply ‘disappearing off the face of the earth’. Ken is getting even more concerned as the sale of the goods from the units whose owners have simply vanished, just about pays the bills. Then there is the issue of the flashing, clicking fluorescent lights that never seem to be fixed, even though he repeatedly asks Bruce to fix them.

    Rival storage firm Pharaoh’s Tomb, and former employers of Ken, have purchased vacant land close to Ken’s business, causing him great concern. He often stops there to check out what is a happening, but even after several months the site remains untouched, other than for a security fence and a gate padlocked with the ultimate in padlocks, the Sargent and Greenleaf.

    Meanwhile, Bruce keeps appearing and mysteriously disappearing, much to Ken’s annoyance, seemingly turning up just when yet another client ‘disappears off the face of the earth’ and their storage unit needs to be emptied.

    As we move further and further into the daily  life of Ken, his everyday world seems a little bizarre, although functional, but it is not until Ken realises that yet again Bruce has disappeared, leaving him to cope with a rather extraordinary set circumstance, that  life, according to Ken, begins to come unravelled.

    Wonderfully unique, entertaining and captivating, Cohen has managed to capture a slice of life which, while darkly comical, cameos the issues that face so many of society’s members, with a rare and gentle understanding.