Shut Out

So my dreams of seeing Leonard Cohen suffered a setback this morning. While I focused on my job, my trusted surrogate attempted to secure three tickets to his now-sold-out show at the Beacon Theatre on February 19. Sadly, no go. Whatever tickets had survived the fan club presale were long gone within 10 minutes. Bummer.

Now, I'm generally a free market guy and I put a decent amount of trust in capitalism. That probably makes me a rare specimen among music bloggers. At the same time, if you want to expand this discussion for a brief moment to our larger economic woes, I'll be the first guy to tell you that loosened regulations are partially to blame. Anyway, I don't want to expand that conversation because it has nothing to do with Leonard Cohen.

Sadly, as has been well documented, Cohen was horribly robbed by his old manager and has been in financial trouble ever since. That's why this 74 year-old is back on tour. Hell, he's even older than the Allmans and the Stones. So, when I know that he's using these shows to make money that he desperately needs, it's a little sad to see the resale market on StubHub asking $800+ for his tickets. Even he, for all his need, was willing to price these tickets with a modicum of fairness. He hasn't played this country in 15 years and, at his age, its certainly possible that he won't be going on any sort of extended tour.

Wouldn't it be nice, for once, if his actual fans bought the tickets and enjoyed the show? Rather than a bunch of brokers (or wannabe brokers) who are just looking to make a quick buck on a special show?

I'm not typically one to complain about scalpers. They are the people who facilitate getting tickets out to those most willing to pay a lot for them. In a sense, they protect the folks who's lives don't put them in front of a computer all moments of the day. But, occasionally, wouldn't it be nice if they didn't get in the way of some good fans getting to see a performer they love at a reasonable price?

It Goes Like This, the Fourth, the Fifth...

It should surprise no one that when I picked the graphic that adorns the top of this page, I did not do so at random. It's just not my style.

If you look closely, you'll see that the notes and underlying lyrics are from the opening verse of Leonard Cohen's masterpiece, "Hallelujah." The oft-covered beauty is a study in simplicity. And unlike Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," it didn't need a radical reworking to become as famous as it is. Rather, it needed only the plaintive voice of Jeff Buckley. If you need evidence, listen to the nearly-equal versions by Rufus Wainwright, KD Lang and John Cale. (Oh, and I think some dude from American Idol did it, too.)

Now interestingly, I just learned, Cale decided to record Hallelujah after hearing Cohen perform the song at the Beacon Theatre in New York. That recording came out for the first time in 1991. Just two years later, Cohen performed his final show in the United States.

That is, until next month!!!

Leonard Cohen is coming back to the Beacon. Apparently fan club members already have access to buy tickets, but the general on sale is Friday morning at 9 a.m. If I can get the cheap seats in the back, I intend to go, but I can't afford to contribute $250 to the My-Business-Manager-Blew-My-Retirement-Fund Fund.

Anyway, assuming I get tickets, I'm going to have to start listening to all my Leonard Cohen again. I have a lot of it, but I've probably never paid as much attention to it all as I should have. That said, readers, if anyone would like to leave their top 3 albums in order in the comments section, I wouldn't mind the guidance.