New Skin for the Old Ceremony was Leonard Cohen's fourth studio album. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other instruments giving the album a more orchestrated (but nevertheless spare) sound.
A remastered CD was released in 1995.
The album is silver in the UK, but never dented the Billboard Top 200.
Cover
The original cover art for New Skin for the Old Ceremony was an image from the alchemical text Rosarium philosophorum. The two winged and crowned beings in sexual embrace, caused his U.S. record label, Columbia Records to print one early edition of the album minus the image substituting instead a photo of Cohen.
The image originally came to public attention in C.G.Jung's essay, The Psychology of The Transference (2nd ed.1966) where it is held by Jung to depict the union of psychic opposites in the consciousness of the enlightened saint. The sexual embrace as a symbol for this condition of psychic unity is also found frequently in Tibetan thangkas (sacred paintings).
Track listing
All songs were written by Leonard Cohen, except where noted.
- "Is This What You Wanted" – 4:13
- "Chelsea Hotel #2" (words: Cohen, music: Cohen/Ron Cornelius) – 3:06
- "Lover Lover Lover" – 3:19
- "Field Commander Cohen" – 3:59
- "Why Don't You Try" – 3:50
- "There Is a War" – 2:59
- "A Singer Must Die" – 3:17
- "I Tried to Leave You" – 2:40
- "Who by Fire" – 2:33
- "Take This Longing" – 4:06
- "Leaving Green Sleeves" (trad./Cohen) – 2:38
Songs
"Chelsea Hotel", the precursor to "Chelsea Hotel #2", was only performed live. "Chelsea Hotel #2" refers to a sexual encounter in the Chelsea Hotel, probably New York City's most famous Bohemian hostelry. For some years, when performing this song live, Cohen would tell a story that made it clear that the person he was singing about was Janis Joplin. Cohen would eventually come to regret his choice to make people aware that the song was about Joplin, and the graphic detail in which the song describes their brief relationship. In a 1994 broadcast on the BBC, Cohen said it was "an indiscretion for which I'm very sorry, and if there is some way of apologising to the ghost, I want to apologise now, for having committed that indiscretion." [1]
Cohen's former bandleader and guitarist Ron Cornelius says he co-wrote "Chelsea Hotel #2" with Cohen during an eight-hour airplane trip.[citation needed] In the liner notes to his 1975 Best of album, Cohen wrote that "Ron Cornelius helped me with a chord change in an earlier version" of the song.[2] Cornelius is listed as co-writer in the BMI database but not with the U.S. Copyright Office or on any Cohen record (until the release of the Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man soundtrack in July 2006).[citation needed] According to Cornelius, the song was re-copyrighted as #2 in order to leave him out of the credits.[citation needed] He hired a music attorney and was paid $8,500 for not pursuing the case.[citation needed] Following the discussion about Cornelius's claims, Cohen and Cornelius met in March 2006 after twenty years.[citation needed]
In concert, a prolonged "I Tried to Leave You" was sometimes used to introduce the band. The 14-minute rendition from the 1985 Montreux Jazz Festival even featured extra lines given to the backup singers.
"Who by Fire" explicitly relates to Cohen's Jewish roots, echoing the words of the Unetanneh Tokef prayer and sung as a duet with Janis Ian (also Jewish; her birth name was Janis Eddy Fink).
"Leaving Green Sleeves" is a reworking of the 15th-century folk song "Greensleeves". Cohen retains the chord progression and the words of the first two verses, but changes the melody and takes the latter verses in a different direction than the original. The song, and in turn the album, ends with Cohen violently screaming the chorus as the track fades out.
Personnel
- Leonard Cohen – guitar, vocals, producer
- John Lissauer – woodwinds, keyboards, backup vocals, producer, arranger
- Emily Bindiger – backup vocals
- Gerald Chamberlain – trombones
- Erin Dickins – backup vocals
- Lewis Furey – viola
- Ralph Gibson – guitar
- Armen Halburian – percussion
- Janis Ian – vocals
- Gail Kantor – backup vocals
- Jeff Layton – banjo, mandolin, guitar, trumpet
- Barry Lazarowitz – percussion
- Roy Markowitz – drums
- John Miller – bass
- Don Payne – bass
Songs for Rebecca
Shortly after this album, co-producers Lissauer and Cohen proceeded to work on its follow-up, Songs For Rebecca, which was abandoned after one side was completed. Five songs are known from their live performances during the North American tour of November 1975; they were reworked and recorded few years later – two of them with Phil Spector for Death of a Ladies' Man in 1977, and the other three on Recent Songs in 1979.
Cover versions
Lloyd Cole covered "Chelsea Hotel #2" on the Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan, and Rufus Wainwright performed the song at the 2006 live tribute, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. Regina Spektor has also covered the song in live performances.
"A Singer Must Die" was covered by the Irish art rock group Fatima Mansions on I'm Your Fan.
"Who by Fire" was covered by The House of Love on I'm Your Fan.
"Who by Fire" was also covered by industrial band, Coil on their 1986 album, Horse Rotorvator.
"Chelsea Hotel" was covered by Brand New sung by band leader Jesse Lacey.
External links
Notes
