Saturday, September 19, 2009

Cohen Ok after Collapse on stage

MADRID – Montreal singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who turns 75 next week, was released from a hospital in Spain hours after collapsing on stage during a concert, hospital sources said Saturday.

Organizers of his concert in the eastern city of Valencia said he had fainted on stage Friday night after being stricken with food poisoning.

Witnesses told Spanish media Cohen was performing Bird on the Wire about half an hour into the show when he lost his balance as he went to pick up a guitar.

He was saved from falling by backing singers, but moments later he collapsed again and was helped off stage to receive treatment from a medical team in the concert hall.

He was then taken by ambulance to hospital, from which he was discharged in the early hours of Saturday, the hospital sources said.

A clip from the concert posted on YouTube showed him sitting on a platform on the stage and then keeling over sideways.

He had performed three songs - Dance Me to the End of Love, The Future and There Ain't No Cure for Love - before he collapsed.

A member of his band, Javier Mas, came out almost an hour later to tell the thousands of people gathered in the Luis Puig Velodrome that Cohen was suffering from a stomach complaint and would not be returning to the stage that night, but that he hoped to reschedule the show for another time.

Valencia was the penultimate stop on his nine-concert tour of Spain, which is due to end in Barcelona on Monday, his 75th birthday.

Born in Montreal, Cohen published books of poetry before embarking on a singing career with his smash debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1967, which included one of his best-known songs, Suzanne.

He quit the music scene in the early 1990s, living at a Buddhist monastery in California, where he was ordained a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the name Jikhan, meaning "silence."

But he was forced to return after he was swindled out of his retirement nest egg by his former manager.

His most recent album, Heather, was released in 2004. And last year, he embarked on his first world tour in 15 years.

His music has inspired countless artists and more than 1,000 renditions of his work have been recorded by R.E.M., Elton John, Jeff Buckley, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, k.d. Lang, Tory Amos, Nina Simone and Peter Gabriel.

His songs have also has been used in dozens of movie soundtracks such as Natural Born Killers and Shrek.

7 comments:

Les F said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFBKV0zVXSE

Les F said...

............and the Johnny Walker Wisdom's Running High......................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt6vhRAu3k&NR=1
Closing time HF&RV

Les F said...

A very Humble ,but realistic Leonard Cohen commenting on a tribute concert to him,.....CBC interview
looks like it's filmed in mayb e Dunn's? or another Montreal eatery ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVFz91-mEls&NR=1
HF&RV
Allow me to correct that Eatery Statement,...it certainly is more of a Bar background........ I get a laugh out of his statement to "walk around on the streets I know so well"...............................I think that'sa how most of us feel,when thinking of Montreal..........Cheers!! HF&RV

robert jomphe said...

I've seen Cohen and Richler often at the Rainbow. Humble was never a qualifier for those two.

Les F said...

No and you are correct, but time has a way of humbling everyone,.......as for Richter he's dead.....you can't get more humble ......it's only the people still around who remember or recall first hand, ones indiscretions,...............but I, like You, probably have none...............hahahahahah Saint Les HF&RV

Les F said...

Here's a young Mordechai.............
and if you like me have experienced many people over the years, then you probably agree ,We Were Way Smarter & Knew Everything ,when we were younger..............hahahahahah
Remember the line about ,"When I was 17, I thought my Parents were idiots,......by the time I was 25 I was surpirsed to see how much they had learned"......................Hmmmmn I would hope that some people aren't repeating that train of thought............hahahahahhqah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCJ-FHhHXpY

Diane Roberts said...

Saint Les, I totally agree...age does seem to make us all more humble and gracious. In youth, everything is black and white and we think we are the Center of the Universe! Age has a way of mellowing us out and most of us come to realise that there's so many shades of grey.....Diane