The new DVD, “Bird on a Wire” is a digitally recreated version from a recently unearthed reel of the 1974 music documentary of the same name about the singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen (1). The new DVD version of this film is distributed by MVD Visual and follows Cohen and his band mates out on tour of Europe in 1972. At the time this tour was looking like the end for Cohen; he’d had enough of the travails of the music business and his 1972 tour looked to be the end of the road for this then popular and very influential folk singer. Though we now have the hindsight of the next 40 years as our guide, the blissful malcontent and disillusioned disbelief from the singer was palpable.
There is much of the music from this tour in the film, which includes performances in European cities, behind-the-scenes situations backstage and on the tour bus, and there is some of Cohen’s spoken poetry, but there’s a fairly well demarcated narrative here as well. Call it an early harbinger of reality television even; the way Cohen at once becomes conscious of this camera in his face while having a human moment is quite captivating. Leonard Cohen has a remarkably small catalog of what the critics would call mentionable work; most of it being recorded early on in his career. If Cohen’s best work was his earliest then Bird on a Wire is a portrait of the consummate artist, frustrated though he may be, at his apex.
“Any system that you contrive without us will be brought down; we warned you before and nothing that you built has stood…”
When Leonard Cohen invites a crowd from the rafters down to the front row and starts a riot in Tel Aviv in 1972, it is not met by the workers at this facility well. This is his last concert on this European tour and it’s the first scene in the film Bird on a Wire. Cohen’s trying to convince everyone in the balcony that they’re too far away; that they should come down and sit onstage. This was the way with Leonard Cohen; he wanted to include everyone underneath the tent. It was this desire to more freely interact with his fans and the system set up which didn’t make this possible which underscored his growing dissatisfaction with the recording industry; a running theme in the film.
The way this film is framed shows a time when music meant something; when being a fan of someone meant something; in a time when people were moved to action by the actions of celebrity, when celebrities brought out the best in their fans rather than instilling a feeling of bourgeois entitlement. In 1972 Leonard Cohen was a huge presence. But Bird on a Wire was more than just a chronicle of what happened on this particular tour; what the celebrity did and how it was done. Bird on a Wire is a vivid portrait of what it was like for artists when it still meant something to create art and the fans which loved them.
Bird on a Wire also shows in stark detail how hard it is to be a musician. Yes, sure, many people have a hard time feeling bad for these artists who seem almost by accident thrust into the spotlight and then wail about it openly. But the problems of 1972 were quite different than the problems of the modern era. With the manner in which the puppet masters are depicted in this film; it’s easy to understand why Cohen had desire to quit the music business despite his popularity. On the one hand he seemed to hate the music business; at the same time he appears almost amused; thinking ‘there’s no way this can actually be happening.’
There’s a lot of naked Leonard Cohen in this film; Leonard Cohen skinny dipping in a pool, Leonard Cohen taking a shower with his band mates in a community shower, Leonard Cohen in the bathtub writing poetry. Not that Bird on a Wire is pornography. The fact that we get so up close and personal with Cohen just shows how totally all-access this film was; it also is a little interesting as it appears to be telegraphing what maybe the filmmakers thought the future would hold in America; more openness, greater access. This imagining is a joke to be sure!
Leonard Cohen fans will really love this DVD as will cultural historians (seeing the getups of some of these Europeans in 1972 is something of a trip, and at the same time, not all that different) but the thrust of Bird on a Wire is the uncertainty which existed on this tour. The feeling of this film or the mood is very apocryphal; beautiful but at the same time quite grim. While we now know that Leonard Cohen would go on to record and continue to play to this very day (2010 tour currently ongoing); I’m sure at the time it felt like the end. In researching this review I came across a New Music Express article from 1973 which was an interview where he talked about quitting the music business. The tour from Bird on a Wire took place right around this time. Cohen said in this interview, “I’m no longer a free man; I’m an exploited man. Once, long ago, my songs were not sold; they found their way to people anyway.” Cohen says virtually the same thing to the camera while on tour for Bird on a Wire. It’s unclear whether or not Cohen felt victimized by the commercialism of the recording industry or victimized because he didn’t think of being the puppet master instead of the puppet first.
Even though Leonard Cohen felt put upon by the stresses of the music business; stresses which were echoed in Bird on a Wire; he was still able to persevere. Whether or not you know his work, Bird on a Wire as a film stands firmly on its own accord.
Sources:
Promo DVD copy of “Bird on a Wire”
(1) http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/nme2.html
