"Cohen in account of a pickup band of israelli musicians, including people who went on to be some of the greatest musicians in israel" No one had any idea where they were or where they were playing. This tour officially never happened. There's no record of it in the military archive. It has to be reconstituted by putting together the pieces. "It became a different kind of research, a much more interesting kind of research," he says.
In October 1973, an unhappy Leonard Cohen was listening to the radio on his Greek island home when he heard that Israel was at war. He headed to Tel Aviv, exchanging a personal and creative crisis for a national one. Absent a plan and even a guitar, Cohen wound up serenading Israeli soldiers at the front. Journalist Matti Friedman talks about his book Who by Fire with EconTalk host Russ Roberts and explains how a songwriter and a nation were transformed in the crucible of war.