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Leonard Cohen is probably the most famous man most of you have ever heard of – especially within the demographic that makes up the largest percentage of the readership of music-reviewer.com.  Even among people like myself who cut their teeth on the music of the late 70’s and early 80’s, Cohen’s name is among the more obscure in the realm of popular music.  Thankfully however, his music stands and speaks for itself.  As it turns out, though he has had a prolific recording career, his music and words have been made far more famous by others than by himself – Leonard Cohen stands as one of the most covered recording artists of all kinds and it’s no wonder.  His lyrics are nothing short of pure genius!

SONY/BMG is in the process of re-issuing several of Cohen’s early works and I was fortunate enough to be invited to review one of the finest among them – Songs of Love and Hate.  This review will probably read more like a book than a promotional tool, but understand as you read that Leonard Cohen has been an inspiration to me and the details herein are but a few of my personal observations of one of the finest songwriters alive.

Of Canadian descent, Cohen started off writing books of poetry and even a couple novels before he hit the music scene at the tail end of the 1960’s with his first album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” (1967).  Critics in the US called his music ‘too dark to be commercial,’ and the album (and subsequent ones) languished on the domestic charts.  Internationally however, Cohen took off, becoming an overnight cult favorite in England and Western Europe.  “Suzanne,” a poignant and masterfully written track from his first album was later recorded and turned into a hit single as sung by Judy Collins who was really hitting her stride at the time and further propelled by the sheer beauty of Cohen’s words.  Others, including Peter Gabriel, later covered “Suzanne,” each adding his or her own spin to what was to become only one of many classic songs penned by Cohen.

I came to know Leonard Cohen back in 1994 when I picked up a copy of the soundtrack to the movie, “Natural Born Killers.”  I had never heard of him at that point – I had picked up the soundtrack to hear what was then considered to be a ground-breaking collaboration between Peter Gabriel and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.  That song was amazing and quite the subject for another time, but what REALLY blew me away were the tracks  “Waiting for the Miracle” and “The Future”.   I found myself playing these two songs over and over.  I couldn’t get enough!  From the death of the thoroughly violent and repellant “Natural Born Killers” was born a Leonard Cohen fan!  Eventually, I tracked the songs down to Cohen’s 1992 release, “The Future,” and while I have to admit that these were definitely the standout tracks on that particular album, the songs on “The Future” in the 1990’s are every bit as compelling as those on his earliest albums published in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

There have been times and places where it has been somewhat of a scavenger hunt trying to find Cohen’s albums – especially before the advent of online shopping.  Many record stores have made a habit of mis-categorizing his albums.  On more than a few tracks over the course of time, Cohen’s delivery has been more conversational – even to the point of speaking the lyrics – so often times his CD’s were popped under “Spoken Word.”  The darkness of his lyrics, the contexts of despair, loneliness, sexuality and loss have led many a Country artist to cover his work – so often times his albums have been filed under Country.  Before the days when all you had to do was hit a Web browser and get an immediate listing of everything he has ever created (alphabetically, by date, you name it…), even his fans couldn’t find his work!  But still he has prevailed and made life-long fans like myself.  I revel sometimes in having Cohen as a ‘secret’ that the rest of the world doesn’t know about, but I have to wonder sometimes how he has gone so long without becoming a household name.

As a singer, I think it’s fair to say that you either like Cohen or you don’t.  There’s not a lot of middle ground.  Early on he reminded me of a less tone-deaf version of Bob Dylan (there are other similarities between the two of them, which you have probably picked up on if you’ve read this far).  As his career wore on his voice deepened, ostensibly from cigarettes and hard living.  I find his later, deeper voice more effective personally, but I may be in the minority with that view.  But really, the punch is in what he sings rather than how.  What he lacks in melodic ability he so much more than makes up for with the sheer brilliance of his words.

Songs of Love and Hate, the subject of this particular review, was Cohen’s third album, originally released in 1971 on Columbia Records.  Cohen sings and plays acoustic guitar, and is backed up by Ron Cornelius, Elkin Fowler and Charlie Daniels (yes, THAT one).  The amazingly effective orchestral arrangements were provided by Paul Buckmaster (best known for his work with Elton John, David Bowie and even Train on their 2002 hit “Drops of Jupiter). 

Songs of Love and Hate is one of those rare albums that, even on first listen, evokes such strong emotional reactions that, if you’re like me, you might not want to listen to it where other people can see.  Herein lie some of the most powerful words ever to be put to music.

“Avalanche” which begins with a Flemenco-like guitar fingering and string flourish is a dark song with an amazingly simple, but bone-chilling melody.  The chord shifts remind me of the curving, relentless crest of a wave – or avalanche.  The guitar surges, becoming more plaintive as the song progresses and the words intertwine, dragging the listener inexorably beneath the surface.  Truly brilliant!

The next song, “Last Year’s Man” is an absolutely amazing lyric set to a very straight-forward acoustic guitar track accompanied by a delicate string arrangement that is quiet to the point of almost  not being there at all.  Whereas “Avalanche” thrilled me with the gathering storm of a melody, “Last Year’s Man” is all about the words: "The rain falls down on last year's man/that's a jew's harp on the table/that's a crayon in his hand/And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled/far past the stems of  thumbtacks/that still throw shadows on the wood."  The London Corona Academy Boys choir casts a disturbing shadow upon the closing lyric.  Their voices echo Cohen’s and if I had to guess he was trying to bounce the innocence of children’s voices against the darkness of his words – whatever the case, the closing of “Last Year’s Man” is intense.

“Dress Rehearsal Rag” starts off sounding more like the spoken word than singing (imagine how his records ended up in the Spoken Word bins…).  This song is so incredibly dark it is really the kind of thing nightmares are made of.  A broken man stands in front of a mirror contemplating his life and his imminent death.  This is a dress rehearsal alright.  He is about to end it all, but first of all his life is to flash before his eyes.  All of his memories (so eloquently worded you can almost feel his pain yourself) punctuated by the almost gleefully desperate chorus: “And yes it's come to this/it's come to this/and wasn't it a long way down/wasn't it a strange way down?”  The pain is palpable and the end is ugly – this is an absolutely brilliant piece!

Cohen is a man of recurring plots and themes.  It should come as no surprise with an album title like Songs of Love and Hate that the recurring themes should be love and loss, jealousy and revenge.  While all the songs fit the mold as the title promises, “Love Calls You By Your Name” and “Diamonds in the Mine” fit most perfectly.  They are dark and masterful, if lyrically obscure.  You can infer many meaning from any of Cohen’s lyrics, but while the details are clouded and open for debate, the overriding theme of looking back, of reflecting on the past almost with a woulda-coulda-shoulda attitude pervades these songs and, in fact, the whole album.

"Famous Blue Raincoat" is the sixth track on Songs of Love and Hate.  Tori Amos has performed it in concert consistently throughout her career.  Steve Hogarth of Marillion calls it the greatest song ever written.  Jennifer Warnes covered it in the 80’s and even named an entire album after the song.  Personally, I think "Famous Blue Raincoat" is Leonard Cohen’s career masterwork.  While his accounting of what actually happened and how, Cohen has alluded over the years that the song is based on a true story – the story of a love triangle and a man’s coming to grips with it when it is over.  It is framed in the context of a letter from the husband to the former lover and it is one of the most delicate and sweetly honest songs I have ever heard.  I have listened… gosh… a hundred, maybe a THOUSAND times to "Famous Blue Raincoat" and I still get choked up.  That anyone can express such pain, honesty and guilt in the form of a lyric is an amazement in itself.  I am so tempted to print the entire lyric for the un-anointed, but for the sake of ending this review sometime before I (and you reading it) reach another birthday, I will just recount a verse:

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

Amazingly powerful stuff.. it gets me every time!

“Sing Another Song Boys” is an oddly-placed live track, recorded about a year before Songs of Love and Hate was released.  Another song of intense longing for a love that won’t ever come, of unrequited sexual desire.  The imagery makes me think of pawn shops and pirate ships – I’ll leave it up to you to buy this album and tell me what YOU think.  Cohen’s lyrics are often like the Bible.  Everybody reads something different into the words.  But damned if this one doesn’t end sounding like a drunken refrain you might hear as your gondola regains daylight after the interminable darkness that is the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland!

“Joan Of Arc” rounds out the original lineup of this album on kind of a weak note compared to the rest of the album.  Funny, it has the prettiest melody of any song on the disc… and if this was a song by anybody else on any other album it would probably be hailed as a masterpiece – it’s just that the emotional rollercoaster of the first six songs is enough to leave you exhausted and punch-drunk.  Almost to the point of having to put the album away for another day – can an album, the power of music and lyrics really be that powerful?  Yes!

As a bonus on the 2007 Columbia/SONY/BMG reissue of Songs of Love and Hate there is an additional bonus track – an alternative version of “Dress Rehearsal Rag.” It is an outtake from the 1968 recording sessions that led to the previous album “Songs from a Room.”  As I alluded earlier, this is about as intensely dark a song as there has ever been written and I think I like the version that ended up on album – the outtake version sounds almost happy in comparison. 

An added bonus, more for the true collector than the casual listener, is the beautiful presentation SONY/BMG chose for the CD.  The case is fashioned after a hard-bound book complete with hand-typed notes on the inner and outer cover as well as pictures and full lyrics.  A summation of the album rounds out the packaging with even more detail about the disc than I’ve droned my way through – you’ll have to check the rest of it out for yourself.

So in case you were on the fence, wondering if I would actually recommend this album (I have to laugh at that…).  This obscure album contains some of the most amazingly intense and evocative lyrics I have ever heard gathered together in one place. 

** Special thanks to www.wikipedia.org for some of the factual details contained herein as well as www.oldielyrics.com for some last minute clarification on some of the lyrics. **