It is ironic that it took a reality TV talent show to throw the light of the public gaze back upon Leonard Cohen. The ‘master of erotic despair’ has certainly been one of the most enduring icons of the 1960’s (a fact witnessed by a sell out tour last year), but has never been a household name.
Even for those who find the X-Factor show, and Simon Cowell, a source of irritation, they can at least be thanked for bringing a little bit more recognition to this enigmatic performer.
Poet Turned Performer
Leonard Cohen came to the music industry relatively late. He had already established himself as a published novelist and poet before he turned his hand to music when his song Suzanne became a hit for Judy Collins. In 1967 he went into the studio to cut his debut album for Columbia.
The resulting record Songs of Leonard Cohen was deemed too dark to be a commercial success at the time. However it is since been considered as by far his greatest achievement, a work of unparalleled beauty which served not only to forward his career but helped create Cohen’s own iconic standing.
At a time when the singer songwriters of the folk revival were expanding upon their own musical horizons, Cohen’s 1967 debut appears as markedly anomalous and thoroughly audacious. The music itself was new and challenging, yet steeped in older conventions.
Producer John Simon backed Cohen’s classically informed guitar lines with baroque orchestration and choral backing vocals. He added a sophistication and gravity to the production, which perfectly complemented Cohen’s own florid lyrics. It was as bold a challenge to the prevailing trends of popular music as was the other groundbreaking debut of that year, The Velvet Underground and Nico.
Songs of Leonard Cohen
The ten songs on the album are beautifully constructed, and few lyricists have since been able to wrestle with the ideas of love, loss and longing quite so intelligently, articulately and ambiguously as Leonard Cohen.
He depicts a world entirely at the mercy of the chaos that arises from love and lust, mastery and submission, the supplicant and the worshipped. Though his words may seem lofty or pretentious, they convey a deep-rooted sense of humanity.
Some of his finest material is found on this album, including “Suzanne”, a gorgeous homage to unrequited love, as frequently covered as “Hallelujah”. On the quietly menacing “Stranger Song” Cohen displays his command over his instrument with delicately picked Spanish guitar.
Elsewhere, both the beautiful “Sisters of Mercy” and “Winter Lady” were used to great effect in Robert Altman’s anti-western film McCabe and Mrs Miller. The former is a glorious ode to the generosity of prostitutes, the latter being the nearest thing Cohen came to a love song (albeit one where he asks repeatedly for her to stay with him for the night).
Many artists work their whole career to create a work of such singular artistic vision as Songs of Leonard Cohen, and it is even more remarkable that Cohen achieved this the first time he set foot in a studio. Songs of Leonard Cohen remains an astonishing and enduring debut.
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