Leonard Cohen, who is back on the road after a long sabbatical from the stage, collapsed while performing in Valencia, Spain Friday night. According to the BBC, Cohen fainted during “Bird On Wire” forcing his band to stop playing in order to tend to him, a member telling the audience that the poet/singer was suffering from vomiting fits and stomach cramps. After a short stay in a hospital, Cohen was discharged and is expected to perform this evening, his 75th birthday, in Barcelona.

After covering The Velvet Underground & Nico with a group of musical collaborators including Devendra Banhart and members of MGMT for the first iteration of his Record Club, Beck has opted to focus his second effort on Songs of Leonard Cohen and has posted his cover of “Suzanne” on his Record Club’s website. Collaborators include Devendra and MGMT again, along with members of Wolfmother and Little Joy.

The website describes the Record Club project as “an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day.” Relying on spontaneity (nothing is rehearsed or arranged beforehand), the group selects an album “to be reinterpreted and used as a framework.” A track is posted to the Record Club website once every week, and the recordings tend to be rough renditions, especially since they are frequently the first takes of the day. “There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens,” the site claims.

Check out the cover of “Suzanne” here, and be sure to check the Record Club’s website over the next few weeks for more covers from Songs of Leonard Cohen.

[Photos by Paul Familetti]

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