Leonard Cohen - Live Songs (1973)

"Live Songs" is Leonard Cohen's first live album, released during the three-year silence between "Songs of Love and Hate" and "New Skin for the Old Ceremony". It consists of recordings from concerts performed mostly in Europe in 1970 and 1972. Cohen is backed by a medium-sized, country-influenced group, which includes guitarist/fiddler Charlie Daniels and vocalist "Jennifer Warren", who would soon become famous as Jennifer Warnes, among other things a popular interpreter of Cohen's songs.

The album consists mostly of reinterpretations (often with additional or significantly altered lyrics) of songs from Cohen's second album, Songs From a Room ("Nancy" is a version of "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy", and "Improvisation" is an extended instrumental guitar trio version of the vamp from "You Know Who I Am", which is also featured). Neither Songs of Leonard Cohen nor the then-recent Songs of Love and Hate (which featured a live track, "Let's Sing Another Song, Boys", culled from the same tour as the 1970 recordings here) are represented. The other tracks are a cover of the folk standard "Passing Through", and two new compositions: "Please Don't Pass Me By (A Disgrace)" (a thirteen-minute singalong recorded in 1970) and "Minute Prologue". A "bonus" track, "Queen Victoria", was recorded by Cohen alone in his Tennessee hotel room in 1972.

At the beginning of a Paris, France performance of "Bird on the Wire", Cohen recites the first verse of a French translation of the song's lyric.

Tracklist

Side 1 (Recorded in 1972)

01.  Minute Prologue  (Cohen)  - 1:12 (London)

02.  Passing Through  (Blakeslee, Cohen)  - 4:05 (London)

03.  You Know Who I Am  (Cohen)  - 5:22 (Brussels)

04.  Bird on the Wire  (Cohen)  - 4:27 (Paris)

05.  Nancy  (Cohen)  - 3:48 (London)

06.  Improvisation  (Cohen)  - 3:17 (Paris)

Side 2 (Recorded in 1970 and 1972)

01.  Story of Isaac  (Cohen)  - 3:56 (Berlin)

02.  Please Don't Pass Me By (A Disgrace)  (Cohen)  - 13:00 (London)

03.  Tonight Will Be Fine  (Cohen)  - 6:06 (Isle of Wight)

04.  Queen Victoria  (Cohen)  - 3:28 (Tennessee)

Personnel

Leonard Cohen - vocals, acoustic guitar

Jennifer Warren - vocals

Corlynn Hanney - vocals

Donna Washburn - vocals

Ron Cornelius - acoustic guitar, electric guitar

David O'Connor - acoustic guitar

Charlie Daniels - fiddle, electric bass

Bob Johnston - harmonica, organ

Notes

Released:  May 1973

Recorded:  1970, 1972 in London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Isle Of Wight, Tennessee

Genre:  Folk, Live

Length:  49:10

Label:  Columbia

Producer:  Bob Johnston

Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love And Hate (1971)

"Songs Of Love And Hate" is Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen's third album. It was mainly recorded in Columbia Studio A in Nashville. "Sing Another Song, Boys" was recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 30, 1970. Further recording took place at Trident Studios in London.

It is one of Leonard Cohen's most emotionally intense albums which, given the nature of Cohen's body of work, is no small statement. While the title Songs of "Love and Hate" sums up the album's themes accurately enough, it's hardly as simple as that description might lead you to expect in these eight songs, "love" encompasses the physical ("Last Year's Man"), the emotional ("Famous Blue Raincoat"), and the spiritual ("Joan of Arc"), and the contempt in songs like "Dress Rehearsal Rag" and "Avalanche" is the sort of venom that can only come from someone who once cared very deeply. The sound of the album is clean and uncluttered, and for the most part the music stays out of the way of the lyrics, which dominate the songs. Thankfully, Cohen had grown noticeably as a singer since his first two albums, and if he hardly boasts a range to rival Roy Orbison here, he is able to bring out the subtleties of "Joan of Arc" and "Famous Blue Raincoat" in a way his previous work would not have led you to expect. And while Bob Johnston's production is spare, it's spare with a purpose, letting Cohen's voice and guitar tell their stories and using other musicians for intelligent, emotionally resonant punctuation (Paul Buckmaster's unobtrusive string arrangements and the use of a children's chorus are especially inspired).

Tracklist

01.  Avalanche  - 5:07

02.  Last Year's Man  - 6:02

03.  Dress Rehearsal Rag  - 6:12

04.  Diamonds in the Mine  - 3:52

05.  Love Calls You by Your Name  - 5:44

06.  Famous Blue Raincoat  - 5:15

07.  Sing Another Song, Boys (Live at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 31, 1970)  - 6:17

08.  Joan of Arc  - 6:29

Personnel

Leonard Cohen - acoustic guitar, vocals

Ron Cornelius - acoustic and electric guitars

Charlie Daniels - acoustic guitar, bass guitar, fiddle

Elkin "Bubba" Fowler - acoustic guitar, banjo, bass guitar

Bob Johnston - piano

Corlynn Hanney - vocals

Susan Mussmano - vocals

The Corona Academy, London - children's voices

Michael Sahl - strings on third verse of "Last Year's Man"

Paul Buckmaster - string and horn arrangements, conductor

Notes
Released:  March 1971

Recorded at:  Columbia Studio A, Nashville

Genre:  Folk, Rock

Length:  44:21

Label:  Columbia

Produced:  Bob Johnston

All songs written by:  Leonard Cohen