Leonard Cohen died for the lies on the battlefield of love and turned boredom advertised as poetry into haunted spirit songs of touristry, transference, and truth. After a trio of critically acclaimed albums ('Songs of Leonard Cohen' 'Songs from a Room' 'Songs of Love and Hate' "I just cannot stand to remain a part of it. I've reached a state when I'm just not writing anything and that's no way to be. I'll still write songs if I feel they are good I'll think about recording them; but there'll be no case of my writing songs just for the sake of it."
Cohen continued to write poetry and songs and in April of 1974 went into Sound Ideas Studio in New York to record 'New Skin for the Old Ceremony' with co-producer John Lissauer. The album features Leonard Cohen on guitar and vocals; with John Lissauer on woodwinds, keyboards, backup vocals, and arrangements; Jeff Layton on banjo, mandolin, guitar, and trumpet; Janis Ian on vocals; Emily Bindiger, Erin Dickins, and Gail Kantor on backup vocals; Gerald Chamberlain on trombones; Lewis Furey on viola; Ralph Gibson on guitar; Armen Halburian and Barry Lazarowitz on percussion; John Miller and Don Payne on bass; and Roy Markowitz on drums.
Cohen would reflect at the time: "I really never left. The announcement of my retirement was the result of a bit of sensationalism by a journalist who either took very lightly, or freely interpreted, something I said. There are times when one is facing a crisis, and the tone of what is said can be freely interpreted by anyone with a little imagination. In one of those good or bad moments of sincerity, when words come from the heart more than from the brain, that announcement was generated...It's hard from the very first, when I first start thinking of immersing myself again into the hecticness of constant travel, interviews, concerts. Today I sing here and tomorrow there, which means I never get to know people, the cities they live in, their problems, their circumstances. That makes me feel strange, as if I were not really me, only a person who is passing through, at whom people look, whom they hear, and nothing more. But I also do this in order to give myself some concrete answers at specific times in my life. I decided to make this tour, for example, as a way of reviewing my own capabilities, as a profound analysis...My work is always autobiographical, and, I hope, objective. Of course, I am like my songs; but I don't consider myself sad, so I don't think my songs are sad...It's possible that sincerity might be confused with many things, especially in the world of music, where so many commercial currents run. In any case, it's only a question of coloring. My music is a reflection of my personality, and my personality is a reflection of all that surrounds me. For me, seeing all of this as my work, the most important thing is to be worthy. So, I treat this world that surrounds me with the integrity and dignity necessary to bring it, through me, to everyone else. After that, it is the spiritual state of each person that determines how it will affect her or him. A person could think that I or my songs are sad because of that person's own spiritual state, because they are not affected by the chaotic emotions that surround us, because they are living in another state, and I don't mean to say that that state is more superficial or ordinary, on the contrary, it is the way of being forged by each individual, in which they live. But their power to understand will be affected by what they feel, and by the meaning they give to things. My songs are life and the facts of each day, and I am my songs...My songs have to be lived from the inside. No one will be able to see anything in them, if they are on the outside. The fact that people buy my albums or that people are interested in me means that there are many people inside these songs. We can't talk about virtues, only about creating some relationships which people can then identify with...People are a complex of everyday heroes, at least that's what I feel. There are millions of faces and personalities, but all together they form a people. Then, within each group, there emerges a value system that makes some into leaders and others into followers, that makes some into celebrities, and others into unknown people. All of them are heroes, but each with a different destiny...I don't consider myself a great singer. I just play the guitar and interpret my lyrics. I do what I do because I have a need to do it, to express what I know, and to show people what I do...Critics view things with a certain coldness, they focus on the sound, whether it's good or bad, whether one plays the guitar well, on whether there is a large audience, and sometimes they can't see real success, because they don't look into the soul of the audience nor into the soul of the singer. I've seen the people applauding from their hearts, and that is what is truly important for me...I am content, happy...There are those who sing commercially who sing laughing, who prance around and make a show, because this is their job. I sing serious songs, and I'm serious onstage because I couldn't do it any other way. I think that a bullfighter doesn't enter the ring laughing, rather, he enters thinking that he is betting his life against the bull...I don't think of myself as a singer, writer, or any other thing, the job of being a man is much more than any of that."
'New Skin for the Old Ceremony' charted at number eighty-six in Australia, twenty-four in the UK, eighteen in the Netherlands, seventeen in Germany, and two in Austria. The original artwork featured angelic beings in sexual embrace from 'Rosarium Philosophorum'
http://www.leonardcohen.com/ There Is a War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QNHthFQUA There is a war between the rich and poor, a war between the man and the woman. There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't. Why don't you come on back to the war, that's right, get in it, why don't you come on back to the war, it's just beginning. Well I live here with a woman and a child, the situation makes me kind of nervous. Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says "I guess you call this love"; I call it service. Why don't you come on back to the war, don't be a tourist, why don't you come on back to the war, before it hurts us, why don't you come on back to the war, let's all get nervous. You cannot stand what I've become, you much prefer the gentleman I was before. I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control, I didn't even know there was a war. Why don't you come on back to the war, don't be embarrassed, why don't you come on back to the war, you can still get married. There is a war between the rich and poor, a war between the man and the woman. There is a war between the left and right, a war between the black and white, a war between the odd and the even. Why don't you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden, why don't you come on back to the war, let's all get even, why don't you come on back to the war, can't you hear me speaking? Who by Fire
VIDEO
And who by fire, who by water, who in the sunshine, who in the night time, who by high ordeal, who by common trial, who in your merry merry month of may, who by very slow decay, and who shall I say is calling? And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate, who in these realms of love, who by something blunt, and who by avalanche, who by powder, who for his greed, who for his hunger, and who shall I say is calling? And who by brave assent, who by accident, who in solitude, who in this mirror, who by his lady's command, who by his own hand, who in mortal chains, who in power, and who shall I say is calling? Chelsea Hotel #2
"There was the sole indiscretion, in my professional life, that I deeply regret, because I associated a woman's name with a song, and in the song I mentioned, I used the line "giving me head on an unmade bed while the limousines wait in the street", and I've always disliked the locker- room approach to these matters, I've never spoken in any concrete terms of a woman with whom I've had any intimate relationships. And I named Janis Joplin in that song, I don't know when it started, but I connected her name with the song, and I've been feeling very bad about that ever since, it's 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." VIDEO
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, you were talking so brave and so sweet, giving me head on the unmade bed, while the limousines wait in the street. Those were the reasons and that was New York, we were running for the money and the flesh. And that was called love for the workers in song probably still is for those of them left. Ah but you got away, didn't you babe, you just turned your back on the crowd, you got away, I never once heard you say, I need you, I don't need you, I need you, I don't need you and all of that jiving around. I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel you were famous, your heart was a legend. You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception. And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music." And then you got away, didn't you babe... I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best, I can't keep track of each fallen robin. I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, that's all, I don't even think of you that often. 'New Skin for the Old Ceremony' full album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ALBTKoXRg38BCoeRkIAMIg7jNvVLxGFj6J VIDEO Side one
"Is This What You Wanted" – 4:13 "Chelsea Hotel #2" – 3:06 "Lover Lover Lover" – 3:19 "Field Commander Cohen" – 3:59 "Why Don't You Try" – 3:50 Side two
"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" – 2:38
Leonard Cohen almost gave up on his musical career during the conflicted production of this stark and intimate artistic statement. The triumph of his debut album 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' had left him empty and exhausted and uncertain of his future: "I had no idea there was going to be a second record and I myself felt no urgency to produce one but somehow a kind of pressure did develop to produce another record. Columbia wanted another record. My management wanted another record and I suppose I wanted one too just to prove to myself that I wasn't entirely impotent; so I tried to put together some songs but I didn't really have any songs and I just let it go, man. I just left. I went back to Greece for a little while and I just travelled around the states. I had given up the idea of a second record. I had thought to myself that it was a good thing to have produced a record and now I could just get back to my life and do whatever comes next. Then I tried very hard to write and for several months I'd sit down everyday in front of a piece of paper in motels in California and try to write, which is something I had never done. I'd only written when there was an urgency to write. I tried to put songs together and nothing happened. I suppose I couldn't reconcile myself to the idea that I had no more songs and no more anything. After a while I was ready to accept that and then one day I just happened to meet Bob Johnston and I liked the way he talked and the way he understood my first record and what was right with it and what was wrong and just on the basis of a very short conversation I said I'd come to Nashville and try it out with him. So I went down there, I put down a few songs and I came back another time and I played with a group of musicians - very good musicians, good men - and I said let's listen to it. We listened to it and my voice was completely dishonest. There wasn't anything straight at all in my voice. It was a painful disaster just to listen to it; so I asked the musicians to go home and I went out and talked to Bob Johnston. We talked for some time and I said it's all over. I said I just can't squeeze out another record merely because people liked my first one; so let's just forget about it. So he said OK, we'll forget about it. And I went back to my motel and thought about all the things I'd do in my new life and got more and more depressed. And then one morning I woke up and I changed a couple of lines in the very first song I had written in that second phase of writing and I went into the studio and it seemed to spring into shape. I had a lot of help from my friend too, the jew's harp player whose name is Zem. He's a close friend of mine and he was a great support. So between Zem and Bob Johnston and the Nashville muscians, people like Charlie McCoy and Charlie Daniels, we put it together."
'Songs from a Room' http://www.leonardcohen.com/ "Bird on the Wire" - 3:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEJGWSRxW7U 'Songs from a Room' full album: http://www.leonardcohen.com/us/music/songs-room https://myspace.com/leonardcohenlegacy/music/album/songs-from-a-room-8121729 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0DA2921180888A9F VIDEO All songs written by Leonard Cohen except as noted.
Side one
"Bird on the Wire" - 3:28
"Story of Isaac" - 3:38
"A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes" - 3:18
"The Partisan" (Hy Zaret/Anna Marly) - 3:29
"Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" - 3:41
Side two
"The Old Revolution" - 4:50
"The Butcher" - 3:22
"You Know Who I Am" - 3:32
"Lady Midnight" - 3:01
"Tonight Will Be Fine" - 3:53
bonus
"Like a Bird (Bird on the Wire)" - 3:21
"Nothing to One (You Know Who I Am)" - 2:17
Leonard Cohen emerged as a powerful creative force at the pinnacle of his powers with the plaintive and poignant musical portraits of his pensive and personal poetry. The Canadian poet and novelist had some minor success before moving to New York to become a singer / songwriter. He had lived on the Greek island of Hydra and visited Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion, and his songs and delivery exuded a world weary wisdom. He was discovered by John H. Hammond who signed him to Columbia Records. 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' "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. Also, he was ready to substitute this heavy chordal structure under the song to give it forward movement and I didn't like that." The sessions also included some musical backing by the band Kaleidoscope and vocals by Nancy Priddy. Cohen oversaw the final mix; but was unable to remove some of the additions from the master tape. 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' went to number eighty-three in the US and number thirteen in the UK.
https://www.leonardcohen.com/ Cohen calls 'Suzanne' "a miracle. I don't know where the good songs come from or else I'd go there more often. I knew that I was on top of something. I developed the picking pattern first. I was spending a lot of time on the waterfront and the harbor area of Montreal. It hadn't been reconstructed yet. It's now called Old Montreal and a lot of buildings have been restored. It wasn't at that time. And there was that sailor's church that has the statue of the Virgin. Gilded so that the sun comes down on her. And I knew there was a song there. Then I met Suzanne, who was the wife of Armand Vaillancourt, a friend of mine. She was a dancer and she took me down to a place near the river. She was one of the first people to have a loft on the St. Laurent. I knew that it was about that church and I knew that it was about the river. I didn't know I had anything to crystallize the song. And then her name entered into the song, and then it was a matter of reportage, of really just being as accurate as I could about what she did."
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.
Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.
VIDEO
'So Long, Marianne' was inspired by Cohen's relationship with Marianne Jensen: "I've always felt that the most important thing in this vale of tears was the relationships. I always thought that this was the real politics and that, you know, I think I wrote in purple prose somewhere that the state rose on a festered kiss, that all these institutions were the desperate and dismal alternatives to a failed embrace, and as Ginsberg observed, 'sex is the sport of the young', especially in those days when there were no epidemic inhibitions, so we were all struggling with our own desires, but Marianna consented to live with me, and she brought a tremendous sense of order into my life. She lived in a house very beautifully, it was really a great privilege to live in a house with her, she came from a Norwegian family that had roots in the countryside, and she had been brought up by her grandmother in the war, so she had the education of an older generation. Just the way that she laid a table, or lit candles, or cleaned the house, and she wasn't by any means confined to these kinds of activities that have come under the suspicion of feminists, but the way she inhabited a house was very, very nourishing. So it was a great privilege to be with her. She would put a gardenia on my table in the morning, and I was able to lead a very orderly life. She'd bring a sandwich to me while I was working. Well, these were not exactly, um, they had a real economic function, my work involved the support of our little family. It wasn't just that she was the muse, shining in front of the poet. She understood that it was a good idea to get me to my desk. So it was a very nourishing situation." Come over to the window, my little darling,
I'd like to try to read your palm.
I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
before I let you take me home.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
Well you know that I love to live with you,
but you make me forget so very much.
I forget to pray for the angels
and then the angels forget to pray for us.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
We met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
You held on to me like I was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
Your letters they all say that you're beside me now.
Then why do I feel alone?
I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web
is fastening my ankle to a stone.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
For now I need your hidden love.
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious,
I never said that I was brave.
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
Oh, you are really such a pretty one.
I see you've gone and changed your name again.
And just when I climbed this whole mountainside,
to wash my eyelids in the rain!
Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...
VIDEO
'Songs of Leonard Cohen' full album: VIDEO 01 00:00 "Suzanne"
02 03:49 "Master Song"
03 09:44 "Winter Lady"
04 12:00 "The Stranger Song"
05 17:06 "Sisters of Mercy"
06 20:41 "So Long, Marianne"
07 26:19 "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"
08 29:15 "Stories of the Street"
09 33:49 "Teachers"
10 36:50 "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"
