Search - Leonard Cohen :: Back in the Motherland: 1988 Toronto Broadcast

Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada, 9.11.1988 FM Broadcast 1988 was notable in the career of Leonard Cohen for a number of reasons. Not only was he was still reeling from the rejuvenation of his career in the US, largely as a result of Jennifer Warnes Cohen covers album from the previous year, Famous Blue Raincoat, but his own, second album of the decade was finally released. I m Your Man was a collection of songs quite unlike anything Leonard had recorded previously, and the sound, replete with fashionable 1980s synthesisers, was greeted with applause unlike similar forays from contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. The album was promoted via a series of television interviews, and an extensive tour of Europe, Canada and the U.S. Many shows were broadcast on European and US television and radio, but generally considered to be the finest of the tour was transmitted across the airwaves from the Massey Hall in Canada on 9th November. Featuring 6 of the 8 numbers from I m Your Man augmented by a gorgeous Joan Of Arc , a lengthy I Tried To Leave You - featuring band introductions and a few amusing anecdotes - and from his previous record, 1984 s New Positions, Heart With No Companion and Coming Back To You are featured too. Being on home turf, Leonard was never going to get out alive without giving the old guard a bit of what they came for most, so the show is almost bookended by classics Bird On A Wire and Suzanne . Having witnessed this superb performance, those either in attendance or listening in at home, may have wondered what would happen next in the career of this marvellous entertainer. Few could lay claim to have foreseen the bizarre events that the following quarter century would bring. As the final track on this wonderful CD, Leonard s reading of his 1992 epic The Future , from the album of the same name, broadcast live on Canadian TV in 93, is included as a bonus cut.