Description Summary Cohen reluctantly agreed to tour Europe after his second album, Songs From a Room, became a hit in England, reaching #2 on the charts. He was backed by a small country-influenced band called The Army that included guitarist Ron Cornelius and fiddle player Charlie Daniels. The group had been assembled by Cohen's new producer Bob Johnston, who also assumed keyboard duties. Cohen was scheduled to perform on the last day of the festival and had the unenviable task of following Jimi Hendrix. As can be seen in the footage shot by award winning director Murray Lerner, the vibes at the festival were not good, with many fans upset that a wall had been erected to keep non-paying fans outside the concert grounds. During Hendrix's performance, the fiery audience set light to the stage. A shaggy-haired Cohen appeared in the early morning of August 31, 1970 in front of an estimated crowd of at least 600,000. As Kris Kristofferson, who had played his own troubled set earlier, recalls on the Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 DVD:

"I think it was about four o'clock in the morning they went in and woke him up in his trailer and he took a long time to get out to the stage. Everybody had been sittin' there in the filth, in their own squalor - half a million people there - for five days. And Leonard finally came out of his trailer and he was wearing his pyjamas...I never have known why they didn't just hoot him off the stage like they did with a lot of people, especially me! I can only think that he was such an honest performer and didn't scramble after anybody's attention. He took his time gettin' out there, he took his time tunin' up and he wasn't intimidated by a half million people who'd been very ugly."

It was very late when Cohen, chin stubbled and now wearing a khaki safari jacket and jeans, finally took the stage. In the liner notes to album, film director Murray Lerner confesses to Sylvie Simmons: "As I watched him walk out there I thought this is going to be a disaster. Because the mood was still very mixed. There was definitely a sense of bad feeling, though there was also a sense of people being tired and not so aggressive as earlier. But Cohen was essentially acoustic, just as Kristofferson was, and I thought the crowd would be expecting a bigger high in terms of the sound of the music. I worried that what happened to Kristofferson would happen to him." After glaring out at the darkness and strapping on his guitar, Cohen began by telling a story about his father taking him to the circus when he was a boy. Leonard didn't much like the circus, he told them sedately, but he had enjoyed the part when a man would ask everyone in the audience to light a match. He then asked the audience to do the same so he could see where they were. Almost from the moment he began speaking, the mood of the crowd changed, and when he began singing - starting with "Bird on the Wire" - many of them became transfixed. Kristofferson later commented to Cohen biographer Ira Nadel in the 1996 book Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen that the Canadian singer "did the damndest thing you ever saw: he Charmed the Beast. A lone sorrowful voice did what some of the best rockers in the world had tried for three days and failed."
Main Description

ARTIST: LEONARD COHEN

TITLE: LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT (1970)

LABEL: MUSIC ON VINYL

CAT. NO.: MOVLP005

FORMAT: 2 x 180gsm AUDIOPHILE VINYL LP

TRACK LIST:

Side A:
A1. Introduction (3:06)
A2. Bird On A Wire (4:15)
A3. Intro to So Long, Marianne (0:16)
A4. So Long, Marianne (7:07)
A5. Intro: "Let's renew ourselves now..." (0:51)
A6. You Know Who I Am (3:58)

Side B:
B1. Intro to Poems (0:29)
B2. Lady Midnight (3:38)
B3. They Locked Up A Man (poem)/A Person Who Eats Meat/Intro (2:00)
B4. One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (4:54)
B5. The Stranger Song (6:37)

Side C:
C1. Tonight Will Be Fine (6:17)
C2. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye (3:34)
C3. Diamonds In The Mine (5:23)
C4. Suzanne (4:18)

Side D:
D1. Sing Another Song, Boys (6:13)
D2. The Partisan (4:47)
D3. Famous Blue Raincoat (5:20)
D4. Seems So Long Ago, Nancy (4:19)

Item Listing & Description

We use our best endeavours to ensure that all listing, detail and information is correct at the time of publication. Where any error should occur we will rectify it as soon as we are aware that an error exists.

Grading

Not Applicable

What Our Customers Say About Us

PERFECT IN EVERY WAY"

"excellent, as always; thank you :)"

"Excellent item, extremely well packed, lightning fast delivery. Perfect seller!"

"BEST VINYL SELLER ON E-BAY"

"Excellent seller and thoroughly professional. Vinyl delivered perfectly. Thanks"

"Excellent communication, good honest genuine ebayer, highly recommend, A++++++++"

"FANTASTICALLY FAST SERVICE"

"Fast delivery, good comms, well packaged, highly recommended AAA+++"

"It was a pleasure dealing with this seller. An excellent service. Many thanks"

"SUPERBLY PACKAGED"

"EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE"

"Excellent seller very helpful great communication quality record many thanks"

"Top quality vinyl! A very fast service! Top seller, highly recommended."

"Great product and service! One of the best ebayers I've dealt with!"