Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 364 - Leonard Cohen

Songs of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen

Columbia

Produced by John Simon

Released 27th December 1967

US Chart #83 

UK Chart #13
Dutch Chart #4

Songs With Leonard Cohen
With two Bonus Tracks*

*2007 CD Reissue contained Store Room and Blessed Is The Memory.

Side 1

Side 2

 Musicians
(None are credited on the Album Sleeve)

    Leonard Cohen: vocals, acoustic guitar
    Jimmy Lovelace – drums ("So Long, Marianne")
    Nancy Priddy – vocals ("Suzanne", "So Long, Marianne", "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye")
    Willy Ruff – bass ("So Long, Marianne", "Stories of the Street")
    Chester Crill, Chris Darrow, Solomon Feldthouse, David Lindley – flute, mandolin, Jew's harp, violin, various Middle Eastern instruments ("Master Song", "Winter Lady", "Sisters of Mercy", "So Long, Marianne", "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye", "Stories of the Street", "Teachers")

Single On Songs of Leonard Cohen

A-Side: Suzanne    
B-Side: Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
US Release January 1968
Did Not Chart in US or Canada

(Dutch PictureSleeve)

A-Side: Suzanne    
B-Side: So Long, Marianne
UK Release March 1968
French Release May 1968 #3
Dutch Release April 1969 #28

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On 21st October 2016 Leonard Cohen released what turned out to be his final album, You Want It Darker, at aged 82 and quite ill it is a remarkable piece of art. A couple of weeks later on 7th November 2016 Cohen passed out of this world leaving to us a fascinating legacy of music and poetry.

Today's choice we rewind back the years to the very start of his musical journey. By 1966 he was already a published Poet and Novelist but as he said somewhere he was discouraged by the lack of financial success as a writer and moved from Canada to the USA in the hopes of becoming a Songwriter and Musician. The plan had been to go to Nashville to become a Country Singer (I must admit I cannot even get my head around the picture that conjours up!) but instead he got caught up in the Folk scene of New York City.

He got a break when Judy Collins released his song Suzanne (Cohen himself at first didn't actually think it was much of a song such were his levels of confidence in his abilities) on her November 1966 album In My Life. This brought him to the attention of John Hammond at Columbia Records.

Hammond had intended to produce Leonard Cohen's Debut album but had became ill at the time and so John Simon took charge and created a few disagreements between Producer and Artist. Where Cohen had wanted a more sparse sounding record, Simon felt the songs should be bolstered with Strings and Horns (there were even drums despite Cohen insisting there be no durms!). Whilst some things were changed in the mixing by Cohen, there were many things he couldn't change.

The album didn't fare well in the USA or even his homeland of Canada but in Europe it was a very different story. In the UK the album would spend almost a year and a half on the chart peaking at #13. In Holland it peaked at #4. A release of the single Suzanne went unnoticed in the USA but again Europe it was a bit of smash finding its highest placing of #3 in France.

The album received mixed reviews at the time of its release, with Arthur Schmidt of Rolling Stone writing, "There are three brilliant songs, one good one, three qualified bummers, and three flaming shits." Reviewers have been much kinder to it since its release. Tim Nelson of BBC Music called the collection "the absolute must-have classic."

"Stranger Song", "Sisters of Mercy", and "Winter Lady" were included on the soundtrack of Robert Altman's 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

The album does contain a number of what would be classed as Essential Leonard Cohen Songs: "Suzanne", "Master Song", "Stranger Song", "So Long, Marriane" and "Sisters of Mercy".

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 329 - Leonard Cohen

Greatest Hits - Leonard Cohen

CBS/Columbia

Released 1st January 1975

UK Chart #88

 In some territories that the album was released in it was called  

Leonard Cohen The Best of

 (US Album Cover)

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According to Ira Nadel's 1996 Leonard Cohen memoir Various Positions, he agreed to the project because there was a new generation of listeners and he was given complete artistic control; he picked the songs, designed the package, and insisted that the lyrics be included.

The album was not really a hit in the USA but it had some success in Europe which for him was a major market at the time. In some places on release it was called The Best Of and in other places Greatest Hits. 

When I see an album titled Greatest Hits I always checkout the tracklist and to see if the title is worthy to be called that at all!

Up until the release of this album Cohen had some success with his first four studio albums and his first four singles had gained some chart placings in Europe (mainly France) - none in the UK though (and neither in Canada or the USA). So straight away I'm a little skeptical calling a Greatest Hits. 

Calling it a Best Of I actually have no issue with because when I look at the tracklist what stands out straightaway is that these 12 songs are actually some of the best of his early works. Maybe I'm just too fussy about these things!

I actually do like the album regardless of my reservations with the title. Many of the songs on it could easily be numbered among his signature songs.

The 1987, 1992, and 1994 (The Best of The Best Gold Series) Reissues on CD maintained the original tracklist (as did the 1999 Simply Vinyl version released in the UK) but I have to say I was a little disappointed when the album was reissued (or should I say revamped?) again on CD in the UK back in 2009.

The reasons for my disappointment was four tracks from the original 1975 Version (Lady Midnight, The Partisan, Last Year's Man and Take This Longing) were removed and nine tracks released after 1975 (Everybody Knows, Waiting for the Miracle, A Thousand Kisses Deep, The Future, Closing Time, Dance Me to the End of Love, First We Take Manhattan, I'm Your Man and Hallelujah) were added. This makes it an altogether different album and not really a "re-issue" in my book!

Being a bit of a stickler about these things means that I'm more than happy to whip out the old 1975 version and give it a whirl. To confuse matters even more the Music on Vinyl label (Columbia) re-issued the album in 2010 on Vinyl of course and went back to the original 1975 tracklisting (as did Simply Vinyl in the UK who also re-issued it in 2010)!

 

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 317 - I'm Your Fan - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

I'm Your Fan - The Songs of Leonard Cohen - Various Artists

Atlantic Records

Executive Producer – Christian Fevret, Jean-Daniel Beauvallet 

Released 1991

I'm Your Fan Tracklist

    01. "First We Take Manhattan" – R.E.M.
    02. "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" – Ian McCulloch
    03. "I Can't Forget" – Pixies
    04. "Stories of the Street" – That Petrol Emotion
    05. "Bird on the Wire" – The Lilac Time
    06. "Suzanne" – Geoffrey Oryema
    07. "So Long, Marianne" – James
    08. "Avalanche IV" – Jean-Louis Murat
    09. "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" – David McComb & Adam Peters
    10. "Who by Fire" – The House of Love
    11. "Chelsea Hotel" – Lloyd Cole
    12. "Tower of Song" – Robert Forster (Not on Playlist Above)
    13. "Take This Longing" – Peter Astor
    14. "True Love Leaves No Traces" – Dead Famous People
    15. "I'm Your Man" – Bill Pritchard
    16. "A Singer Must Die" – The Fatima Mansions
    17. "Tower of Song" – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    18. "Hallelujah" – John Cale

Bonus Cover Versions on the Playlist

Famous Blue Raincoat - Tori Amos

Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye - The Lemonheads ft Liv Tyler

If It Be Your Will - Jann Arden

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

The Tower of Song - The Jesus and Mary Chain

First We Take Manhatten - Warren Zevon

Bird On A Wire - The Neville Brothers

Everybody Knows - Don Henley and Bryan Adams

Joan of Arc - Judy Collins

Going Home - Marianne Faithful

Ain't No Cure For Love - Aaron Neville

I'm Your Man - Father John Misty

Ballad of a Runaway Horse - Emmylou Harris

Memories - The Blackeyed Susans

Suzanne - Beck

Chelsea Hotel No. 2 - Lana Del Rey

The Traitor - Martha Wainwright

Dance Me To The End of Love - The Civil Wars

Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright ft Choir! Choir! Choir!

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Something a little bit special today, I was playing the I'm Your Fan - The Songs of Leonard Cohen last night and thought it would be good to share that and also another bunch of Leonard Cohen covers by a wide range of artists. There are so many available it was hard to pick what to include and what to leave out. I hope you enjoy what's on offer.

A nice chilled out sound for a Saturday morning.

I always loved The Neville Brothers version of Bird on a Wire (and Johnny Cash pulls of a tidy cover of it also), it was their version way back in 1990 that actually led me to seek out the music of Leonard Cohen really for the first time. I never tire of saying it that a decent cover version will always lead you back to the source. I can't think how many artists I've discovered as a result of a great cover version. In a little way a bad cover sometimes does as well but if the original artist is unknown to you it's rare to go hunting for their music on the strength of a bad cover!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

In Memory of Leonard Cohen 1934 - 2016

 "I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"
- Leonard Cohen

   

I woke this morning to the sad news of the passing of Leonard Cohen aged 82. His death comes three weeks after his latest album You Want It Darker was released.

The details surrounding his passing have not been made known and there seems to be some confusion as to the date as some have reported it as yesterday whilst on the Wikipedia page for him it says 7th November 2016. Dave Remnick said it was Tuesday. The date so much doesn't really matter, but the sadness of hearing about the health issues he was experiencing as a result of cancer (this was major news to me and the last interview he gave this was made public) was very concerning.

Listen here to the last ever interview that Leonard Cohen gave to Dave Remnick for The New Yorker Radio Hour. This is most a fascinating insight to the man who despite his illness was gracious, funny, very on the ball mentally discussing deep issues as well as  unpublished poems and songs that he might get around to. Sadly that was not be.

I've included below his latest album and after hearing Remnick's interview and how the album was recorded and this knowledge that Cohen himself knew he wasn't long for this world it's an amazing parting shot I think.

"I'm leaving the table, I'm out of the game" 

- Leonard Cohen 

 You Want It Darker - Leonard Cohen

Columbia

Produced by Adam Cohen

Released 21st October 2016

Canadian Chart #1

US Chart #10

UK Chart #4

Soon I'll do a post where we can look back at some of the other music that Leonard Cohen has made down through the years.

I'll finish up here though with my favourite Leonard Cohen song (and it's not Hallelujah)

Tower of Song

"Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
There moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the Tower of Song"

- Leonard Cohen

RIP