We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Like scotch whiskey or Fellini films, the “music” of Leonard Cohen is an acquired taste. As is the case with his sometimes brilliant, mostly depressing 1971 Lp “Songs Of Love & Hate”. If you don’t deal with depression well, you should probably avoid Cohen’s music anyway.(check out the first track “Last Year’s Man). And if you don’t like poetry put to spare musical arrangements (he called this LP “over-produced) and “sung” in a mostly spoken monotone, this will not be for you. But, if you can get past all that, the words and subject matter might grab you. This is Cohen’s 3rd album and is produced by Bob Johnston (Dylan’s old producer) for Columbia. It also includes a group of backing musicians including Charlie Daniels ( yeah that Charlie Daniels). And, some of the best songs on the record were written years earlier.
It might be better to approach this by letting you listen to some covers of these songs done by actual singers (who love the songs of Cohen)….
Judy Collins did Famous Blue Raincoat both in studio and live
Aimee Mann (you remember her from the group Til Tuesday who had an 80’s hit with Voices Carry). She gives us a great take on “Avalanche”
But the gem of the LP for me is the song “Joan of Arc”, which Jennifer Warnes did later as a duet with Cohen. It’s a brilliant song…maybe one of the most powerful I’ve ever heard. What kind of mind dreams up a love song about Joan of Arc that is a conversation between Joan and the fire that is literally consuming her?
If you only know Cohen from the many versions of his classic song Hallelujah, give this a listen with an open mind and an open ear. The rewards, while maybe hard to understand, are there.
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