leonardcohenforum.com

Watching the YouTube videos I find myself wishing I could see Leonard's face ( eyes,mouth ) instead of the top of a hat. Maybe he needs it to shield his eyes from the stage lights, or maybe it's just a Tom Waits influenced fashion accoutrement, but I wish he would sing without it. Does anyone agree?

I am hoping he uses his hat as a feezbie and throws it out to the fans and I catch it at Manchester lol

Some older male performers seem very conscious about their thinning hair or balding heads and think a hat hides this fact

Leonard doesn't need to be too concerned about this compared to some others like Paul Simon who wears a baseball cap!
Maybe he needs it to keep his head warm

When I saw the show he was taking off the hat in between songs and bowing, I think he's wearing the hat for the simple reason that it looks stylish I remember him making a comment about everyone's outfits and how they were all very orthodox musicians.

During the concert he takes his hat off quite a bit so you will be able to see his face, which is smiling quite a lot.
I actually like the hat, it suits him.

Perhaps it is just one of those days when the hat really does help?

he wears the hat because it makes him look even more fucking cool than usual.

pity it hides the face, though!

Leonard comments on his hat in this hi def vid:

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/06/12/leonard-cohen-live/

MacLeans writer called it a mask, but it seems to me like more of a security blanket. Whatever gets you thru the nite....

Gosh - that guy makes me laugh and cry at the same time, again and again. What is it ? Still after such a long time I hang on his lips like it was heavenly manna what comes out of his mouth. What is it, what the fuck is it ?

it is not that he touches your heart with a raw and real of his voice the resonant leaves the spine tickling burr frazzle N dance me end of love a thousand kisses deep speak of thy will be done, now it closing time on having kiss the past from our present with music.

visions of Tina Turner joyning him onstage and letting Leonard step, out his past as ZEnchants and let the pain of our past tear us through a healing like never before

this clip has hat details.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfr3OqlTAjc

Henning wrote:Gosh - that guy makes me laugh and cry at the same time, again and again. What is it ? Still after such a long time I hang on his lips like it was heavenly manna what comes out of his mouth. What is it, what the fuck is it ?

I'm right there with you, Henning. During the past years, listening to Leonard or reading his books, I'd be caught off guard by the way his work moves me. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now, but no. Every time it happens I am so happy it's like finding him all over again, being comforted one more time. And one more time. Seeing him perform, I wrote elsewhere, was like going to church, but not the church of Leonard Cohen. It was a kind of worthwhile activity I could really get behind. Get it?

Abby