It was a windy day in May in 1976. I never thought it would really happen, an interview with Canadian poet Leonard Cohen. But there was his voice, unmistakable, on the phone. Not his agent nor the record company. "Hi, this is Leonard Cohen". A few hours later we met in the lobby of the Hamburg Hotel Europäischer Hof. Management wanted us to film the interview in one of their suites. That wasn't right, not for Leonard Cohen. So we found an empty room in the hotel cellar, the dining hall for staff. While the crew lit the surrroundings appropriately, I asked Leonard where his guitar was.
He didn't know he would be needing it, he said. But he walked back to his room to fetch it. And we recorded a very magical, unimaginable personal interview that day. And aware our 16mm camera cassette only held 10 minutes of film, I waited six minutes and asked, "Why don't you sing us a song, Leonard?"
And he did.
This is the result of that magical day. Unfortunately, some one at the TV station edited out some of the music. And inserted a ridiculous video wipe in the post. And discarded some beautiful music.
But the result is still a historical record I wanted to share with you.
Jay Tuck
