I see that singer-songwriter Marc Cohn is coming to play Space in Evanston on November 12th and Chicago’s City Winery on November 13th. Just another couple of concert stops for the guy who brought us the hit song “Walking in Memphis” but I have a fun story to share about Marc that goes back almost 30 years.
Back in 1991 I was producing the Murphy in the Morning Show on Q-101 and we had Marc Cohn booked to be with us the morning after his concert at the Park West. “Walking in Memphis” was still on the Q-101 playlist but Murphy was concerned the guy might be kind of low key and not so entertaining on the air with us. I went to see Cohn’s concert and could tell pretty quickly Murf’s worries were for naught.
In between songs, Cohn was engaging his fans with dry clever banter. At one point he told the crowd this was his first time ever in Chicago. Then he said when arriving for the sound check that afternoon someone handed him one of those pink message notes titled “While you were away.” After a pause, the fans cracked up at the irony.
Anyway, the message Marc Cohn got was a request from a man to dedicate a specific song to the guy’s girlfriend. Cohn mentioned the woman’s name saying the next song was for her from her man. Then he launched into the ballad “True Companion” which is a tailor made wedding proposal song. As the melody started up, a young couple sitting right in front of me locked into a tight embrace with the woman nodding her head ‘yes’ and crying tears of joy. She had just been proposed to with an assist from Marc Cohn! It was a really cool moment.
After the concert I rounded up the couple and explained Marc would be on our show in the morning. I made arrangements to call their apartment when Cohn was on with us. We had a keyboard set up in the studio for the singer’s visit and after re-telling the proposal story at the Park West, he sang “True Companion” to the newly engaged couple live on the air. The bit went off really well. It’s fun when circumstances fall together so seamlessly. I sometimes wonder if that happily betrothed couple is still married. I hope they still are each other’s ‘true companions.’
During his time on the show Marc Cohn seemed to as we imagined, a serious musician. Yet he surprisingly agreed to Murf’s request to twist up the chorus of “Walking in Memphis” and sing it on the air like this, “Listening to Murphy, listening and trying to win me some cash, listening to Murphy, but boy do I think that guy’s an ass. He’s an ass.”
This is just one of many quaint little stories I experienced during my almost twenty years in Chicago radio. A little fun and irony became a well crafted segment on the air. I’ll always remember the piano playing Cohn for being so appeasing to that young couple and such a good sport with us.
Sadly, the loving you forever sentiment of “True Companion” didn’t pan out so well for Marc Cohn. After having two sons with the woman he wrote that song for, there was a divorce. A couple years later he married ABC Network news anchor Elizabeth Vargas. Together they had two sons but ended their marriage in 2014 after Elizabeth’s third stint in rehab for alcoholism. Besides his marital ups and downs, in August of 2005 while on tour in Denver, Marc Cohn was shot in the head during an attempted carjacking. The bullet barely missed his eye and lodged near his skull. Cohn was hospitalized for observation but released in less than a day. The shooter was caught, convicted and sentenced to 36 years in prison. Marc Cohn kept his wit throughout this ordeal saying doctors told him he was “The luckiest unlucky guy they had met in a long time.”
Take a listen to this classic wedding song from Marc Cohn.
NEXT WEEK’S BLOG: Reviews of 2 films, a song and a book.