Leonard tames 600,000 hippies.
It’s 4am and 600,000 fans have just witnessed an historic performance by Jimi Hendrix. Now, Leonard Cohen and his band amble on stage looking like they’ve been up all night, which they have. The Isle of Wight festival hadn’t been kind to folk singers… Joni Mitchell was reduced to tears just the day before… but somehow Cohen not only survives, but triumphs.
The crowed treats him like a messiah as he transfixes them with songs like Famous Blue Raincoat, Suzanne and Bird on the Wire. With a half-grown beard and a mass of long, unruly hair, Leonard cuts a much different figure than the dapper 74-year-old who performed in New Zealand earlier this year. But his performance is just as intense and this film captures it, along with newly recorded interviews with Kris Kristofferson (who was there) and Judy Collins (who first recorded his songs). An accompanying CD, with extra songs, fills out the package.