Songs of Leonard Cohen is the debut album of Canadian musician Leonard Cohen.
It foreshadowed the future path of his career, with less success in the United States and far better in Europe, reaching #83 on the Billboard chart but achieving gold status only in 1989, while it reached #13 in UK and spent nearly a year and a half in the UK album charts.
Album information
Cohen's lonely and all-too-human songs were informed by his literate approach, part and parcel to a burgeoning singer/songwriter movement in popular music. Seen by later critics as a reaction against the psychedelic band-oriented styles (as were the country-rock developments of 1968 and 1969) enjoying a vogue in 1967, determining whether indeed the singer-songwriters were 'reacting against' the baroque tapestries of Sgt. Pepper or the San Francisco bands is problematic. Instigated by the work of Bob Dylan, singer-songwriters appeared to be folk singers on the surface, but were not allied to the folk movement's politics or repertoire, instead performing original material in styles at times reminiscent of the folk singers of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Songs of Leonard Cohen was one of the first in this new sub-genre, along with the debut albums of Laura Nyro, Tim Buckley, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell, propelling the approach to an eventual position of dominance in the early 1970s. Judy Collins, one of the first of the 'traditional' folk singers to champion new writers such as Mitchell and Cohen, along with actor Noel Harrison previously had hits performing the song "Suzanne" (in 1966 and 1967 respectively).
Cohen and John Simon, producer and musical director, managed to give the album a distinct sound while also relying on typical sixties effects such as instruments panning from channel to channel. Although Cohen was granted much freedom in the recording process, they did not always agree on how the record should be mixed. Finally, Simon departed for his Christmas holiday and left the final mix to the artist himself. In a 2001 interview Cohen told British music magazine Mojo: "We did have a falling out over the song "Suzanne." He wanted a heavy piano syncopated and maybe drums and I didn't want drums on any of my songs, so that was a bone of contention."
On some of the tracks Cohen was backed by strings, the band Kaleidoscope and Nancy Priddy's vocals. The original producer was John Hammond, who signed Cohen to Columbia, but he was replaced by Simon because of health problems.
"Suzanne", which begins and ends as an ode to a "half-crazy" woman capable of personal connection, contains an unconventional discussion of Jesus in the second verse which has been removed in at least one cover of the song, "Suzanne" was ranked 41st on Pitchfork Media's 'Top 200 Songs of the 1960s'.[1] The track "So Long, Marianne" also featured on the list – ranked 190th.[2]
Three of the album's songs, "Winter Lady," "The Stranger Song," and "Sisters of Mercy," were used in the 1971 Robert Altman film McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Songs of Leonard Cohen was released on CD in 1989, while a digipak edition was released in some European countries in 2003. A remastered version, with bonus tracks, was released in the United States on April 24, 2007, and in Japan on June 20, 2007. The Japanese version was a limited edition replica of the original record album cover with lyric card insert.
On the vinyl and remastered versions is a picture of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes[3] in a fire looking towards heaven. According to the liner notes, apparently Cohen had collected the picture when he was much younger.
Track listing
All songs written by Leonard Cohen.
Side one
- "Suzanne" – 3:48
- "Master Song" – 5:55
- "Winter Lady" – 2:15
- "The Stranger Song" – 5:00
- "Sisters of Mercy" – 3:32
Side two
- "So Long, Marianne" – 5:38
- "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" – 2:55
- "Stories of the Street" – 4:35
- "Teachers" – 3:01
- "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" – 4:23
Bonus tracks on 2007 reissue
- "Store Room" – 5:06
- "Blessed Is the Memory" – 3:03
Selected cover recordings
Judy Collins recorded "Suzanne" on her 1966 album In My Life; and recorded "Sisters of Mercy" and "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" on her 1967 hit album Wildflowers. The seminal British folk-rock group Fairport Convention were also among Cohen's earliest admirers, recording a performance of "Suzanne" (sung as a duet between Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews) for the BBC in August 1968; the recording was released on their BBC sessions compilation Heyday. Other early versions of "Suzanne" included those by Pearls Before Swine, Françoise Hardy, and Harry Belafonte. Peter Gabriel recorded a syncopated version of "Suzanne" for the Leonard Cohen tribute album Tower of Song, and Geoffrey Oryema performed it on the earlier tribute I'm Your Fan. Italian singer Fabrizio de André sang an Italian version of the song on his CD Canzoni. The British experimental rock group The Flying Lizards released a version with detached, cold vocals sung over dark samples on their 1984 LP Top Ten.
The song "Sisters of Mercy" was the inspiration for the name of the Post-punk/Gothic rock band The Sisters of Mercy, who also took a line from the song "Teachers" as the title of their 1992 compilation album Some Girls Wander By Mistake. Sting and The Chieftans performed a Celtic music-influenced version of the song on Tower of Song.
"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" was sung by Roberta Flack on her album, First Take (1969), and by The Vogues in 1970. It was performed by Ian McCulloch on I'm Your Fan; by Michael Monroe (singer of Hanoi Rocks) on his Whatcha Want album as a tribute to his late wife, Jude Wilder; and by The Lemonheads on their album, "Varshons" (2009). Brian Hyland released "So Long, Marianne" as a single in 1971, while the britpop group James recorded it on I'm Your Fan. Indie rock band Straitjacket Fits also covered it on their 1988 debut. Harvey Milk covered "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" on the album Courtesy And Good Will Towards Men. Will Oldham, recording under the name Palace Music, released a version of "Winter Lady" on his 1994 EP Hope.
On September 4, 2009, Beck announced that his second Record Club cover album would be Songs of Leonard Cohen. Contributers include MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Binki Shapiro of Little Joy. Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT chose the album.[4]
Guilt Machine covered "The Stranger Song" on their debut album, On This Perfect Day.
External links
- ^ "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/6404-the-200-greatest-songs-of-the-1960s/2/. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
- ^ "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/6400-the-200-greatest-songs-of-the-1960s/2/. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
- ^ Cover of "Songs of Leonard Cohen"
- ^ http://stereokill.net/2009/09/04/beck-mgmt-banhart-cover-leonard-cohen/
