'He's there, he's still there': Vancouver playwright remembers Leonard Cohen
Tracey Power wrote and directed The Chelsea Hotel: the Songs of Leonard Cohen, which premiered in 2012
"But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone / I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song."
For director and playwright Tracey Power, these are the lyrics she holds on to as she comes to terms with the death of legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
"I think I'm still in a bit of disbelief," she told CBC's The Early Edition. "He's inspired my life and my work for the past five years more than any other artist. I have huge thanks to give him for that."
Power is the creator of The Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, a play about a writer stuck in the hotel wrestling with writer's block and past regrets. The performance is completely structured around Cohen's music and lyrics.
It premiered at Vancouver's Firehall Arts Centre in 2012.
"We always thought we'd see him sitting in the audience one day and we'd be able to talk to him about the show.... In my mind, there's still a part of me that thinks that'll happen," said Power.
Power remembered the first time she heard a Cohen song, Bird on the Wire, which was featured in the similarly-titled 1990 movie, Bird on a Wire.
"I grew up on Vancouver Island, and they were filming the movie in Victoria, so they were playing that song a lot on the radio and that was my first introduction to him," she said.
Power said she'll be taking some time to listen to Cohen's latest and now final album, You Want It Darker, which was released on Oct. 28, 2016.
"When it's an artist you admire so much, you want to take the day off and listen to the words and listen to the music and give it the time that it deserves," she said.
"I guess I'll be doing that on this Monday and shedding a lot of tears.... He's there, he's still there."
Cohen died in his home in Los Angeles Thursday at the age of 82.
To hear the interview, click on the link labelled Vancouver playwright Tracey Power remembers Leonard Cohen