And Thanks For The Trouble You Took From Her Eyes

“Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win ‘Vocalist of the Year’.”

I recently took in the new film about the great songwriter (and alma mater of Canada’s finest university), Leonard Cohen. (70 facts about him here.) It played before a packed house on a Monday night and…while it’s worth seeing it was also kind of frustrating. As my friend noted, it couldn’t really decide whether it wanted to be a concert film or a documantary, and I would add that what’s worse is that it was much more the former. Admittedly, as is the case with many alleged nonsingers irrespective of how it looks on paper I almost always prefer his songs with his voice (and that includes, although this may make me a minority of one, “Hallelujah.”) (*) And so despite the impressive list of talent the only covers in the film I would be likely to listen to instead of the original with any frequency are Beth Orton’s “Sisters of Mercy” and Jarvis Cocker’s “I Can’t Forget,” although certainly many of the other performances score on their own terms (I was especially partial to The Handsome Family’s “A Thousand Kisses Deep” and Martha Wainwright’s “The Traitor.”) The too-brief docmentary aspects introduced stuff that was potentially fascinating, such as the Irving Layton-led group of poets that met in Montreal and the tumultuous Phil Spector collaboration, that unfortunately aren’t really developed. And the contrast between the witty and self-deprecating Cohen throws the highly unilluminating nature of the performer tributes (with a particularly egregious amount of screen time given to Bono) into particularly sharp relief. So while I was happy to have seen it, I hope someone will make a proper documentary sometime.

(*)In a strange paradox, however, the Cohen Tribute album I’m Your Fan is a rare exception to the general rule that tribute albums both suck and blow. Not only do you have some major artists (Pixies, Forster, Cave, R.E.M, Cale) doing good-to-excellent versions of unassailably great songs, but also get good turns from some more minor ones (especially James’ “So Long Marianne.”) And it’s made more useful by the preponderance of material from the exceptional-songs-with-dubious-80s-production I’m Your Man.