When Leonard Cohen died in November, I mentioned my fondness for his song "Dance Me To The End Of Love", and observed en passant:
You can get a sense of the song in the context the author created it in the recording by the Klezmer Conservatory Band, in which Cohen's 1984 album cut is surrounded by rediscovered Mitteleuropean klezmer tunes from the shattered and extinct Jewish communities of the Continent.
If you've never heard them, the Klezmer Conservatory Band are a marvelous group. So I thought I'd try to crowd them on to the stage of The Mark Steyn Show and talk about their haunting klezmerized version of "Dance Me". Hankus Netsky directs the ensemble, and Eden MacAdam-Somer sings Cohen's fine lyric.
Oh, and be sure to stay tuned for a bonus song - the irresistible "Miami Beach Rhumba" by another songwriter who left us in 2016, Irving Fields:
For more on "Dance Me To The End Of Love", see my essay on the song.
~Also on this weekend's Mark Steyn Show: a celluloid Mount Rushmore of great movie presidents, plus bestselling novelist Andrew Klavan on the intersection of culture and politics.
~More from Steyn's Song of the Week:
#288: Cheryl Bentyne sings "This Masquerade"
#287: Maria Muldaur sings "Aba Daba Honeymoon"
#286: Mark asks "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"
#285: Anthony Kearns sings "The Wexford Carol"
