Review in fRoots

[Bernd]

The october issue of british world-music magazine fRoots has a review of the three cd-reissues of the first three Cohen albums.
Bernd

[linda_lakeside]

Is it a 'good' review, bernd? Hi. Just fishing for a little more info, as many of us here in North America are not familiar with some publications. Well, I speak for myself only. I've toured around the net, and found many interesting items, but not the one you're speaking of. I was on my way to post the results of the feverishly anticipated results of the top 100 Canadian albums (turn left at Greenland), and saw your post. Hope I bump into some more info. Oh, of course! Google. How could I forget? Thanks for the info. Oh, how's this. I can post my post right here. Songs of Leonard Cohen #11, I'm Your Man, #35 and Songs of Love and Hate - somewhere in between, or there abouts. Not too bad, considering everything Neil Young ever recorded was on the list. Joni as well. There! Actually it's far more complicated when one factors in the 'law' of Canadian Content, etc. but that's old news, boring news, which makes it non-news. I just felt it my Cohenite duty to drop a line. Here, right here, was as good a place as any.
Voila! Thanks for letting my use your space. I apologize for leaving my big, flat footprint on your post, but I have so little time. I thought, the two post combined, might cover the intent of two separate postings? Non?

Cheers,
Linda.

[Bernd]

I will post the review this weekend.
Bernd

[Bernd]

Here it is (from fRoots 292):

LEONARD COHEN
Songs Of Leonard Cohen Columbia Legacy 88697 04742 2
Songs From A Room Columbia Legacy 88697 04740 2
Songs Of Love And Hate Columbia Legacy 88697 04741 2
On its release Cohen's Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967) was more than a strained-voice recapitulation of what we already knew through Judy Collins, the song interpreter who had done so much to introduce the Canadian songwriter on her In My Life (1966) and Wildflowers (1967). Cohen's delivery on his debut's ten-song album was so much more world-weary, more experienced, more laconic, more droll. (Listen to Teachers and One Of Us Cannot be Wrong for serious drollery, the sort of humorous insight that bedded any number of muses). His voice would never match Collins's dexterity, so he made a virtue of his limitations. On his Suzanne, So Long, Marianne and Sisters OfMercy, Cohen seemed experienced in sensuous ways that would have made Judy Collins or Pete Seeger blush. Cohen seemed removed from Seeger's world of impassioned politics, but that was a blinkered take on things (as his second album Songs From A Room revealed). Two hitherto unreleased bonus tracks - Store Room and Blessed Is The Memory - outtakes from the album's John Hammond-produced sessions round off the original album. They add little great insight beyond the editorial process but they are welcome.
Though Anthony DeCurtis's three accompanying essays don't make the link, Leonard Norman Cohen, born in September 1934, was a child and graduate of the Canadian socialist and communist youth movement. Cohen's dipping into The People's Songbook (1948) with The Partisan on Songs From A Room (1969) made his politicised past explicit. Bird On The Wire, Story Of lsaac (introduced by Collins on her folk-rock masterpiece Who Knows Where The Time Goes?) and Seems So Long Ago, Nancy were and remain in an altogether different league. The album's bonus tracks, Like A Bird -an earlier Version of Bird On The Wire - and Nothing To One - ditto, You Know Who l Am - are both recordings produced by David Crosby in May 1968.
The cover artwork of Songs Of Love And Hate (1971) seemed stark and spare even by Cohen's Standards. White characters on a black background. At its black heart was Dress Rehearsal Rag - a different sort of Hesitation Blues and a jewel-like monstrosity of the story-teller's art dealing with doing away with yourself. Or not. When Cohen released his own version of Dress Rehearsal Rag, the Velvet Underground had a head start when it came to morbidity - the whip-hand on bleak, so to speak - and Collins had premiered the song äs long ago as In My Life, but Cohen's take on suicide shone. Joan Of Arc and Famous Blue Overcoat also appear here. The bonus track is a 1968 try-out of Dress Rehearsal Rag in a band arrangement including drums (the instrument of choice for eschewal on Cohen albums) and a flowing mandolin.
The eye-popping chapter and verse of the story of Leonard Cohen getting rooked ran and ran in the press during 2005 and 2006 äs the trial against his former business manager unfurled. Millions went walkies while he sat and contemplated on a Zen Buddhist retreat in sunny southern California. Cohen's back-catalogue has long deserved a caring reissue of the Columbia Legacy kind. If Cohen's financial misfortune played any part in prompting the reissue of these first three albums of his then that is, without a whiff of Schadenfreude, our good luck. Three lustrous albums.
Ken Hunt

[linda_lakeside]

Thank you muchly for the review, Bernd. It certainly covers a lot of ground - a little too much emphasis on comparisons to Judy Collins for my taste, but the history of the tunes is necessary. Still, Leonard's poetry is a well from which much more could have been drawn without mention of Judy's introduction of some of these songs. Yes, three lustrous albums, indeed. I would have favoured a more in-depth take of his opinion of the songs/production and added annotation, in lieu of more history on the shuffled millions, but over-all, it covers the bases. Yet, there seems to be less focus on Leonard and his craft than I would have hoped. But, that's my opinion only, which is worth nada. I certainly hope you scanned the information, and weren't subjected to sitting at your keyboard and typing this rather long review, but whichever you chose is to our benefit, if not yours. I guess the Google Translator will give 'idjits' such as myself a clue as to what 'Schadenfreude' might be.

fRoots 292 must be a specialized mag, as he (Hunt) is pretty confident that his readers even know who Leonard Cohen is, let alone are familiar with his work. Again, Google to the rescue. Also, as LC dated Collins, I doubt she had much blush left in her lovely cheeks, and Pete Seeger doesn't remind me of the blushing type. Leonard's 'sensuality' has become almost a running joke among media and fans alike. The man is 73 - this is 2007, enough already.

Thanks once more, and again, apologies for stepping all over your initial post, but I didn't know if they (the Canadian standings - which came from a book written by one man) were important enough to be of interest, as Hunt's article most certainly was.

Linda.