Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 34 no. 17. September 22 1971

Leonard Cohen — Songs of Love and Hate

Leonard Cohen

Songs of Love and Hate

CBS/Polygram

Album cover for Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love and Hate

Many people seem to have expected a rehash of Cohen's first two L.P's (Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs from a Room) and have consequently expressed disappointment at his latest release. But their hastily tossed off opinions are decidedly unjust - no great artist is content with only one masterpiece, and no two of his works are the same. And Leonard Cohen is, in my opinion, one of the finest, greatest, bestest poet-novelist-composer-singers of the contemporary "pop" music world (All Cohen's fans will here readily agree, all others don't know what they're missing).

The songs on Cohen's first record were bitter, honest, pathological - those on this record are in the same category (though even more intense and consuming), but the voice which once still retained a mellowness in the midst of recollections of despair, lost or dead loves, the anguish of emptiness, suicide etc, has now become harsher, even more resigned, even gentler - it caresses the words, rather than sings them, lingers over them as if considering them still -will they convey the soul/gut feelings he wishes to lay bare before us? But I think it is compassion which distinguishes Cohen from all other poet-singers, and on this LP this characteristic has found fuller expression than before;

Now if you can manage to get your trembling finger to behave.
Why don't you try unwrapping a stainless steel razorblade
That's right it's come to this
Yes it's come to this
And wasn't it a long way down
Was't it a strange way down.

-Dress Rehearsal Rag

And the suffering he sings of is not only the agony and emptiness of another accurately, objectively observed, it is also his suffering - he has been through much sadness and pain because he leaves himself open to every shade of human experience, he remains vulnerable. "Everybody I meet wipes me out" is how he puts it. Someone else put it this way: "Leonard Cohen. . . gives the impression that he expects the world to pounce on him and ravage him down to his skeletal reamains - not because he is who he is, but because he is absolutely incapable of constructing any kind of deliberate defence."

Unless his music and his writing are his defences, a means of introducing compassion to the heartless, passion-less self-interest objectivists who rule everywhere, so that they will protect now ravage. Cohen confesses to often imagining himself as ruler of the world, not because he really wants to be, but because he feels that it is time that a "loser" ruled. If he was ruler of the world, he would hand over power to women, because he believes in the matriarchel state - he wants women to hurry up and take over because "they really are the minds and force that hold everything together - they can set men free". But I digress (a little).

Songs of Love and Hate has eight tracks, each one poignantly beautiful, each one delicate and tender, each one gentle and sad. Listening to Cohen always makes one sick with longing for those carefree childhood days of playing by the river or roaming local hillsides, because those days are forever gone, they have been transformed from living experiences into remembered experiences Listening to Cohen conjures up memories of past romances - some that lasted all day - others which began so beautifully, then laded or soured.

For Cohen's songs are memories - hence the folornness, the sadness hich penetrates every song - it is the sadness of loss. But at the same time these songs are life-assertive becuase they bring us up against the pain and sadness of life, and show us that we carry on living, often to find the happiness we seek: "let's sing another song, boys, this one has grown old and bitter."

Cohen's backing group on this record is The Army, which consists of two vocalists, Carlynn Hanney and Susan Mussmano, and four musicians, Ron Cornelius, Charlie Daniels, Bubba Fowler and Bob Johnston. I've never heard of any of them before (except Bob Johnston, who produces Cohen's records), and I don't know anything about them — perhaps some local aficionado can supply information. The child singers are from the Corona Academy in London, and Paul Buck master is responsible for the truly beautiful string and horn arrangements - just listen to that cello - its Pure Sound. This is expert record production - the balance between vocals and instruments is perfect. It is harmony in the fullest sense of the sord.

So, if you're a Cohen fan, or if you're not, this is a Must record, it can't be put too strongly.

Rupert