March 2012 MOJO Spotlights Leonard Cohen

[DrHGuy]

A young Leonard Cohen, sporting a black mock turtleneck emblematic of the 1960s coffeehouse poet/folk singer and equipped with occupationally congruent beads, cigarette, and notebook emits some serious existential angst from the cover of the March 2012 issue of MOJO magazine, which goes on sale January 31, 2012 – but is on display now at the Heck Of A Guy site.

Inside, a one on one interview of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons, whose biography, “I’m Your Man – The Life of Leonard Cohen,” is expected to be published October 2012, is the centerpiece of a 14 page feature on the Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, novelist, and icon.

For an early look at the Leonard Cohen MOJO cover, more information about the content of the Leonard Cohen feature, and an explanation of how the DrHGuy and Heck Of A Guy site came to host the first exhibition of the masterpiece that is the MOJO cover, see Exclusive 1st Look – Leonard Cohen MOJO Cover: http://1heckofaguy.com/2012/01/27/exclu ... ojo-cover/

[B4real]

That front page looks like history is repeating itself with that "Old Idea". Well, you can’t get too much of a good thing!

....and you could also be thinking that Paul McCartney’s songwriting hero is Leonard by the way he is wistfully looking across to LC’s pic.
....Sylvie Simmons interview will be interesting I feel.

Well done Allan,
I love your Modus operandi in obtaining this - good coup!

[musicmania]

Excellent coup Allan! I've being waiting for this as a couple of weeks ago they contacted me about photos only the photos they referenced weren't mine but I guided them to the actual owners. They told me in that email there will be 18 pages dedicated to Leonard in this issue

[John Etherington]

Just received my copy. The main feature on Leonard is fourteen pages long with plenty of pictures (both colour and b&w) including some I've never seen before. There's a full page review of "Old Ideas", which gets four stars, and a full page colour drawing of Leonard opposite. There is also a full page ad for the album on the back.

All good things, John E

[TommyJ]

Excellent stuff. January is proving one LONG month, waiting for the arrival of Old Ideas!

Tom

[LisaLCFan]

Awesome! I can't wait to buy this!

[John Etherington]

I've just played the first 30 seconds of each track on the CD and I think that's all I need to hear! For what it's worth, there are five bonus tracks - Avalanche, Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird On A Wire, Seems So Long Ago Nancy, and Last Year's Man (but not in the order listed on the cover). The only artists that I had previuosly heard of on this were Cas McCombs, The Low Anthem, Scott Matthews, Liz Green, and Emily Barker. The only track that I played right through and enjoyed is "Last Year's Man" by Paper Dollhouse - an ambient sounding track that is totally unrecognisable as "Last Year's Man"!

[John Etherington]

Within the pages featuring Sylvie Simmons interview with Leonard, there is also a two-page piece by her on the making of "The Songs of Leonard Cohen". This revealed one particularly interesting fact that I was unaware of. Apparently there are still nine unreleased tracks from the SOLC recording sessions!

[Goldin]

Apparently there are still nine unreleased tracks from the SOLC recording sessions!

Is it mentioned, by whom they were produced?

[John Etherington]

Goldin - The article doesn't say whether these were produced by John Hammond or John Simon.

[Goldin]

Then I wonder is it really such an exclusive and accurate info?
LCLive reports on some 1967 demos and possible outtakes.

http://web.archive.org/web/200805111947 ... sdemos.htm

Other Demos (1966-1967)
(New York, NY, USA)?

Blessed Is The Memory (aka "Everybody's Child")
Middle of The Night
Nine Years Old (1)
Priests
Splinter

Avalanche (?)
A Winter Lady (?)
Dress Rehearsal Rag (?)
Love Calls You By Your Name
Sisters of Mercy (?)

_________________

(1) early title/version of "Story of Isaac".

note: maybe recorded (with the other early songs printed on The Leonard Cohen Acetate) as a demo tape for copyright (for Polygram?). Other possibility is that some of these songs were recorded to be eventually included on Cohen's first album (in that case they will be Songs of outtakes). All songs copyright registered July 24 1967 except "A Winter Lady" (April 11 1967) and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" (April 3 + July 19 1967).

source: U.S Copyright Office [Thanks to Kjell Ove Hattrem who located the information].

http://web.archive.org/web/200805111630 ... ttakes.htm

Songs of Leonard Cohen outtakes (1967)
Columbia Studio E (USA)

Love Tries To Call You By Your Name (?) (1)
Winter Lady [alternate mix] (2)

_________________

(1) early version of "Love Calls You By Your Name" later released on Songs of Love & Hate (1971). Copyright for that song was registered December 21 1967 so I guess it was supposed to appear on the Songs of album...

(2) instrumental part used in "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" movie soundtrack. [Schinzel & Lohse, Recordings of Leonard Cohen 1957-86].

[tomsakic]

Goldin, I highly presume that S. Simmons will have all about these outtakes in her forthcoming biography so that old info about 1960s demos will have to be updated:)

Shamefully, when Sony released first album remastered in 2007, they didn't have a clue that there could be outtakes and didn't look deep enough for them. They even missed the fact that there was song called Priests which Judy Collins covered and which was printed in album's songbook by Sony at the time but didn't appear in the final cut of the album.

[tomsakic]

CD is already offered on eBay, as is magazine, here's the tracklist of tribute CD.

1 Field Music - Suzanne
2 Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo - Master Song
3 Palace Songs - Winter Lady
4 The Miserable Rich - The Stranger Song
5 Liz Green - Sisters of Mercy
6 Bill Callahan - So Long Marianne
7 Michael Kiwanuka - Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
8 The Low Anthem - Stories of the Street
9 Cass McCombs - Teachers
10 Father John Misty (aka J Tillman) - One of us Cannot Be Wrong
Bonus tracks:
11 Dan Michaelson - Avalanche
12 Diagrams - Famous Blue Raincoat
13 Marc Ribot & My Brightest Diamond - Bird on a Wire
14 Scott Matthews - Seems so long ago, Nancy
15 Paper Dollhouse - Last Year's Man

[John Etherington]

Hi Goldin - Thanks for the lists of outtakes/demos. These are probably what Sylvie was referring to. She mentioned that apart from the nine outstanding there were the two that were released on the "Songs" of Leonard Cohen" reissue, and the four that were re-recorded for later albums. The article wasn't claiming any exclusivity - it was a synopsis of the "Songs of Leonard Cohen" recording sessions, presumably to tie-in with Mojo's covers CD.

[tomsakic]

CD preview at http://soundcloud.com/mojomagazine/sets/the