レナード・コーエン。これ、日本発売されるのかなぁ？

Leonard Cohen's 'Songs From The Road' Showcases Most Outstanding Performances From Ongoing World Tour
JULY 15, 2010

In 1999, after an extended break from the spotlight, 64-year old Leonard Cohen returned to the recording studio and world stage with a passion. From then until now, his albums, concerts and DVD releases have informed a new generation. At the same time, Cohen has heroically fulfilled the dreams of his first generation of fans that have been following his career at Columbia Records since his debut LP in 1967.

Following the celebration of his 40th year as a Columbia artist in 2007 and coinciding with his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2008, Cohen thrilled his fans by announcing his first tour dates in 15 years. He's gone on to play the most prestigious and beautiful venues in virtually every corner of the globe, mesmerizing and charming audiences with performances that were hailed as some of the best of his career. "When legend Cohen takes to the stage," raved Ireland's The Independent (June 2008), "it's no less than a cultural event of Biblical dimensions."

One dozen of Leonard Cohen's most famous songs from those recent world tour performances - at auditorium halls, festivals, arenas, and stadiums from Tel Aviv to London, from across Europe to the California desert and his native Canada - are now collected on SONGS FROM THE ROAD. The 12-song program filmed in high def and recorded in 5.1 surround sound will be issued in four separate packages: The DVD+CD package will be a 6 panel 2-disc digipack, identical to last year's Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970. The Blu-ray will be in a standard amray case, the DVD will be in a standard DVD amray case and the CD in a standard jewel case. All will be available at all retail outlets starting September 13th through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

As a bonus, the DVD and Blu-ray configurations will include a 20-minute "behind the scenes" backstage interview with the individual band members. The interviews were conducted by Leonard's daughter, Lorca Cohen.

The sets also feature two different sets of annotations. One is a rare album liner notes essay written by Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic. The other is a detailed track-by-track insider's commentary written by Ed Sanders, who served as producer of the sound recording and editing, and producer and director of the video recording and editing. "I was there for every rehearsal," he begins. "I was at every sound check. I was present at every show."

Sanders' notes provides precious insight into the selection process for the twelve outstanding performances captured on SONGS FROM THE ROAD. For "Chelsea Hotel" (Royal Albert Hall, London, 11/17/2008), Sanders writes "Between sound check and show time Leonard would often play his guitar in the dressing room. In the early stages of this leg I would find him practicing 'Chelsea Hotel'. It came as a surprise to everyone (especially those on stage!) when at Rotterdam he launched into it solo after 'Tower of Song'. He continued to rehearse it with the band until the arrangement was ready. The version presented here is the second full-band performance. At the time I thought it was exceptionally compelling and I told Leonard so during intermission. He replied that he thought it went well; that he could feel the presence of a certain 'someone' as he sang it."

SONGS FROM THE ROAD is not only a tribute to Cohen's consummate artistry as a concert performer, it is also a tribute to his enduring worldwide popularity at this time in his career. The program complements his 2-disc DVD release of last year, Live In London, recorded on July 17, 2008, at London's 02 Arena, one of Europe's largest indoor venues. Live In London marked his first concert collection to be released since the 2001 CD, Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979. (Note: The O2 Arena selections on SONGS FROM THE ROAD are from November 2008.)

It is ultimately Cohen's ageless songs that draw faithful audiences - new fans and old - to his advance sold-out concerts. (The 2008 tour dates sold over 700,000 tickets alone, across 84 shows worldwide.) SONGS FROM THE ROAD represents every decade of his life as a recording artist, from the 1960s ("Suzanne" from his 1967 debut, Songs Of Leonard Cohen; "Bird on the Wire" and his interpretation of "The Partisan" both from his second album, 1969's Songs From a Room) - to the '00s ("That Don't Make it Junk" from 2001's Ten New Songs).

Along the way, SONGS FROM THE ROAD revisits Cohen's 'greatest hits' from the 1970s ("Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Avalanche" both from 1971's Songs Of Love and Hate; "Chelsea Hotel" from 1974's New Skin For the Old Ceremony, and "Lover, Lover, Lover" from the 1979 Field Commander Cohen recordings) - the 1980s ("Hallelujah" and "Heart With No Companion" from 1984's Various Positions) - and the 1990s ("Waiting for the Miracle" and "Closing Time" from 1992's The Future.)

"Throughout the show," Wieseltier concludes in his essay, "it was never clear whose gratitude was greater, Cohen's or the audience's. He seemed to find at every stop the sisters of mercy whom he immortalized in one of his oldest and most tender songs.... And now, wherever this precious man wanders, the famous blue raincoat notwithstand¬ing, people sing 'hallelujah!' The Psalmist himself could not have asked for more."

Tracklisting is identical for DVD, CD, Blu-ray, and vinyl LP:

1. Lover, Lover, Lover (Ramat Gan Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel, September 24, 2009)
2. Bird On the Wire (Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Scotland, November 6, 2008)
3. Chelsea Hotel (Royal Albert Hall, London, England, November 17, 2008)
4. Heart With No Companion (Oberhausen King Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Germany, November 2, 2008)
5. That Don't Make it Junk (O2 Arena, London, England, November 13, 2008)
6. Waiting for the Miracle (HP Pavilion, San Jose, California, November 13, 2009)
7. Avalanche (Gothenburg Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden, October 12, 2008)
8. Suzanne (MENA Arena, Manchester, England, November 30, 2008)
9. The Partisan (Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland, October 10, 2008)
10. Famous Blue Raincoat (O2 Arena, London, England, November 13, 2008)
11. Hallelujah (Coachella Music Festival, Indio, California, April 17, 2009)
12. Closing Time (John Labatt Centre, London, Ontario, May 24, 2009


　ジジィ〜〜〜。稼いでるぜ〜〜〜〜。

　コーエンは70代になってから人生の頂点がやって来てる。水木先生も40代半ばになってから人生がやっと上り坂に。かと思えば10代で金メダルとかとっちゃって後から大変な人もいたり。

　オレにもいつかあるんだろうか、キラキラ時代。。。。

　キラキラキラキラ。。。。顔痛い。とりあえず働く。うん。

　最近はなんかもう、何見ても「ここで働いたらどうなるっぺ？」しか言わない私。人生＝働く、だけの人かもしれん。

・・・・と。今日はタイアード・ポニーさんのインタビュー原稿をやっているのですが、ピーターがステキな言葉をたくさん言ってて嬉しくなる。ピーターはやはりステキな人だし、ハゲなんかよりピーターのが断然気が合うって感じぃ。ハゲの言葉って？？？なんだけど、ピーターの言葉は共感大。なのにどうして私はハゲが好きなんだ？　ワケの分からない言葉でメクラマシされて。。。それがステキとか思っちゃうのか？　バカオンナ？　ああ、いやっ。そんなのイヤっ。。。などと一人妄想する中野の６畳間。エアコンはつけてません。

ＰＰＳ：今日、暑い中、中野駅のホームを歩いていたときにジョン・スミスの「インヴィジブル・ボーイ」がグルグル頭ん中を廻っていた。なんか、この暑い夏、私が帰るところ、みたいになっているんだ、ジョンの歌が。


ＰＳ：エアコンの風が直接、パソコン打ってる背中に当たるのが敗因。。。。。と今さら気づいて布を後ろに張り巡らせることにした。で。白い布買ってきて＠中野の安い生地屋。。。それを洗濯ヒモで吊るしたが、貧乏臭いことはなはだし。。。。
　ああ。誰か〜〜〜〜。部屋改造に来て〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜！
　あまりに貧乏臭いの〜〜〜〜〜〜〜。でも布は必要です。



　朝から驚いた。今野雄二さんが自殺したというんだ。評論家で。私ら世代だと「１１ＰＭに出ていたゲイの人」というイメージか？

　ロキシー・ミュージックが大好きな今野さん。最近だとルーファス・ウェインライトが大好きな今野さん。ミュージックマガジンにも映画や音楽の評を今も書いていたのに。。。

　お会いしたことはないけど、そうか６６歳だったのか。生活にいきづまったのかな？　もっと何かあったのかな？　希望がゼロになったのかな？　理由は分からない。でも今どうかラクになれていることを祈るのみ。自殺はいけないと言うけど、でもどうか今、ラクになれていますように。これはいつも思う。自殺はいけないと言うけど、ずっと苦しんできた人が自ら死を選んだら、残された者たちは、それをいけないと言うのではなくて、どうかラクになれていますようにとみなで祈ってあげるのが一番だろうって。自殺したら天国に逝けないよ、じゃなくて、天国にいけるようにみんなでワッセワッセと祈って送り出してあげるべきだと思うんだ。彼に限らず。あらゆる自殺してしまった人に。
　ご冥福をお祈りしますです。。。。

　しかし生きていくのって、ほんま、たいへんや。。。。若いときは年をとればとるほど生きていくのはラクになると思ってたのに、逆やんっ。誰もそれ、教えてくれなかったわ。いや、教えてくれたのかもしれんが、聞いてなかったというか。

　たいへんなのに、なぜ、コンビニのおばさんたちは、ああも元気なのだろうか？　いや、コンビニに限らない。パートのおばさんたちはすべからく、元気だな。働くおばさん。汗するおばさん。

　死にそうな人はおばさんにまみれて、お惣菜屋あたりで働くとベストですね。

　まみれてると、なんとかなるかなぁ〜〜と思えてくるのです。不思議と。てか、そんなことも思わなくなるのです。不思議と。


　とにかくまた希望のために清正さんです。



　
　

　

ＰＳ：いつもの神社に行っておみくじ引いたら、大吉だった。わああいわあああい、神様、ありがとう。
　でも裏を見たら「ツゴウのいいときだけ神に頼るな」とかあった。。。み、見抜かれてる。。。。ドキドキドキ。



　顔が痛い。

　顔じゅうに鍼貼りまくり。自分でやった。。。

　バイトはマスクして、でも痛いから２時間で早退してきた。

　しかし鍼の威力でだいぶラクになった。昨夜は痛くて痛くてなかなか寝れなかった。温めるマットを顔にあてて寝てた。この暑い中。

　三叉神経痛です。

　疲れと冷え。

　もう夏ばてですね。土曜日にがんばりすぎました。。。

　バイト先には新しい中国人の女の子が入ってきた。この前の韓国人の子はもう辞めちゃったのか？　やはり厳しいマダムには耐えられなかったのだろうか？　中国人の子、日本語も下手くそそうで、もつだろうか。。。どうも無理そうな気が。。。マダムにものすごくあれこれ言われててなんか難しそうに見えた。。。他のコンビニなら大丈夫だろうに、よりにもよってここに来ちゃったかぁ、と思った。


Rolling Stone誌の記事。ＲＥＭはレコーディング終了なり。と。

　R.E.M. have completed recording their 15th studio album with producer Jacknife Lee at Berlin, Germany's Hansa Studios and will mix the disc in the fall. The band have penciled in a spring 2011 release date for the follow-up to 2008's Accelerate, and while Michael Stipe and Co. haven't offered up much in terms of details about their new LP, "postcards" from the studio posted on their official website have given fans the impression that recording in Berlin has influenced the band's latest work.

"Berlin is a pulsing, exciting city with so many varied and distinctive neighborhoods, iconic history all around, great food at all levels and from every corner of the world . . . an excellent place to set up camp and make a great record," the band wrote last month. R.E.M's manager Bertis Downs later added, "I will not report on the sound or the dimension of the recordings so far, to my ears it all sounds like quite a wonderful set of songs." Classic albums like Iggy Pop's The Idiot, U2's Achtung Baby and two-thirds of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy (Heroes, Low) were all also recorded at Hansa Studios.

Guitarist Peter Buck has also found time to collaborate with Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody on a new band called Tired Pony. The pair initially met at the Isle of Wight festival, then hit the studio for eight days to record 15 songs when both had a break from their day jobs. "We'd walk into a room and there'd be nothing, but an hour later there'd be a finished song," Buck told the BBC. "It was really an experiment to see how spontaneous we could work, and how much emotion you can bring to the surface, and how you can just listen to the songs and then have them just occur. We never spent much time on then, we never talked about it, we'd just go in and do it, and it would be done. There's the possibility it could really fail, and that's what made it so exciting, it was like walking a tightrope for eight days."

Buck added that his work with Tired Pony inspired at least one new R.E.M. track: "There's at least one piece of music where I kind of thought, 'This is something Gary would like, this is something he might write,' and I threw it out there, and I think it'll be on the next record."


　ああ。体調悪い。心臓バクバクしてる。漢方薬を飲もう。。。


・・・子どもを殺すお母さんやお父さんのニュースは珍しくないけど、大阪で若いお母さんが子ども２人を置き去りにして殺した事件。ふだんからガムテでドアを開かないようにがんじがらめにしていたようで。。。今になって大変なことをした、と言ってるようだけど、本当にそうなんだろうなぁ。やってるときはただ遊びたい、ただ面倒、ただ閉じ込めちゃえばいい、見えなきゃいい、だけなんだろうなぁ。そしていざ死んで、初めて実感したんだろうに。そのときにどんな冷たい、自分勝手な目をしてガムテ貼ってたんだろ？そういうときの人間の目って、何を見てるんだろ？　いつも目のことを思う。見えてるはずなのに見えてない目。
　それにしても離婚した父親ってのはもっとろくでもないんだろうなぁ。あんな若い、仕事もない女の子に子どもを押し付けて、自分はどっかで勝手にタバコ吸ってナンパでもしてんだろう。そいつの方が私は罪深い気がするんだけど。