I saw Mr Cohen at the Royal Albert Hall in 1974 (if not 1973). That night he obviously didn’t have the depth and breadth of his later catalogue to offer the audience, but he was also on stage for three hours. He did something like 8 or 9 encores that equally perfect night in London. His ‘humility’ at being “brought back” each time by the audience for each encore song was also then either wonderfully contrived – or quite sincere. It was well after 11pm before we left the hall, nearly missing our train back home from Waterloo Station.

The Fox Theatre is no Albert Hall, but it was a decent ‘compromise’ between a small, intimate venue and a much larger venue. My mates in England saw him last year in Manchester, England and said he did about three hours.

Hopefully he’ll come back to Atlanta, not for the money this time. but because he, and his backing group have a unique ability to blow every other singer songwriter I’ve ever seen (except Roy Harper) off the stage. It was as polished a performance as I’ve ever seen, with very little direct verbal communication with the audience. Only once doing the robotic “Georgia/Atlanta” reference, in a small lyrical change in a song. “I didn’t come to Atlanta to be …”

There seems little point in posting yet more gushing praise on this blog. However richly l deserved.

If he doesn’t make it back to the Fox, which sadly is highly unlikely, then remembering this night will have to suffice. Its a little surprising to see just how ordinary the solo efforts of his backing singers are on Amazon.

thanks