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LEONARD COHEN/ 2011
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Prints on paper: Portraits 3 | | Medium: | Giclée on Japanese matte paper | | Size (inches): | 16.5 x 11.7 (paper size) | | Size (mm): | 420 x 297 (paper size) | | Edition size: | 25 | | Catalog #: | PP_0231 | | Description: | From an edition of 25. Signed, titled, date, copyright, edition in pencil on the reverse / Aside from the numbered edition of 5 artist's proofs and 2 printer's proofs.
"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."
- Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen -
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships.[1] Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."[2]
Recording career:
1960s and 1970s
In 1967, disappointed with his lack of financial success as a writer, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer-songwriter. During the 1960s, he was a fringe figure in Andy Warhol's "Factory" crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening to Nico in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style.[12] His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins and was for many years his most covered song. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond. At this time, Cohen recorded at least one demo acetate (for Asylum Records or some subsidiary of Polygram[13]), supported by his close companion at the time, Joni Mitchell.
Cohen's first album was Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967). Although Hammond was originally supposed to produce the record, he became sick and was replaced by the producer John Simon.[6] Unfortunately, Simon and Cohen clashed over instrumentation and mixing. Cohen wanted the album to have a spare sound, but Simon felt that the songs could benefit from arrangements that included strings and horns. According to biographer Ira Nadel, although Cohen was able to make changes to the mix, some of Simon's additions "couldn't be removed from the four-track master tape."[6] Nevertheless, the album became a cult favorite in the US, as well as in the UK, where it spent over a year on the album charts.[14] Several of the songs on that first album were covered by other popular folk artists, including James Taylor, and Judy Collins. Cohen followed up that first album with Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire") and Songs of Love and Hate (1970). Both of these albums were produced in Nashville by famed producer Bob Johnston, who helped Cohen achieve the sparer sound that he'd been after on his first album; Johnston also joined Cohen on two subsequent live tours, playing organ and piano.[15]
In 1970, Cohen toured for the first time, with dates in the United States, Canada and Europe, and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. He toured again in Europe and Israel in 1972 with some of the same band-mates, including Charlie Daniels and his producer Bob Johnston. Both tours were represented on the Live Songs LP, while Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 was released in 2009. The 1972 tour was also filmed by Tony Palmer; the film Bird on a Wire (with which Cohen was unhappy) was shown re-cut under Cohen's guidance in 1974, but released only in 2010, reconstructed according to Palmer's original version.
In 1971, Cohen's music was used in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film McCabe & Mrs. Miller. When Cohen was on a stay in Nashville, Altman phoned to ask permission to use some tracks off Songs of Leonard Cohen. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, Cohen had seen Altman's then-current film Brewster McCloud in a local theater. He hadn't paid attention to the credits so when Altman asked permission to use Cohen's songs in his new film, Cohen had to ask him who he was. Altman mentioned his hit film MASH, but Cohen had never heard of it. When Altman mentioned his lesser-known Brewster McCloud, Cohen replied, "Listen, I just came out of the theater. I saw it twice. You can have anything of mine you want!"[6]
Beginning around 1974, Cohen's collaboration with pianist and arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. They toured together in 1974 in Europe, and in US and Canada in late 1974 and early 1975, in support of Cohen's record New Skin for the Old Ceremony. In late 1975 Cohen performed a short series of shows in the US and Canada with a new band, in support of his Best Of release. However, none of the recordings from the three live tours with John Lissauer were ever officially released.
In 1976 Cohen, now without Lissauer, embarked on a new major European tour, with a new band and major changes in his sound and arrangements, again, in support of his The Best of Leonard Cohen release (in Europe retitled as Greatest Hits). One of the band members was Laura Branigan, and the set-list included unreleased songs "Everybody's Child" (a.k.a. "Blessed Is the Memory") and "Storeroom" (both released as bonus tracks to 2007 reissue of Songs of Leonard Cohen), and the new song "Do I Have to Dance All Night?" (which was released as a single with the song "The Butcher" in a single available in Europe only).[16] From April to July, Cohen gave 55 shows, including his first appearance at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival.
After the European tour of 1976, Cohen again attempted a new change in his style and arrangements - his new 1977 record, Death of a Ladies' Man (one year later, in 1978, Cohen also released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, Death of a Lady's Man), was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, which backs up pop music with many layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty—Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions, and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thought the end result "grotesque,"[17] but also "semi-virtuous."[18] The record was released by Spector's label, Warner, and was returned to Columbia's Cohen catalogue in the late 1980s. Cohen did not take part in the album's promotion, but in his tours of 1979, 1980 and 1985, he performed two songs from the album, "Memories" and "Iodine". However, Cohen chose not to include any of the album's songs on his later compilations More Best of Leonard Cohen and The Essential Leonard Cohen.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. Beginning with this record, praised in 2001 by Cohen as his favourite,[citation needed] Cohen began to co-produce his albums. Produced by Cohen and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer), Recent Songs included performances by Passenger, an Austin-based jazz-fusion band that met Cohen through Mitchell. The band helped Cohen create a new sound by featuring instruments like the oud, the Gypsy violin and the mandolin. The album was supported by Cohen's major tour with the new band, and Jennifer Warnes and Sharon Robinson on the backing vocals, in Europe in late 1979, and again in Australia, Israel and Europe in 1980. The tour was filmed by Harry Rasky as The Song of Leonard Cohen, and the film was broadcast on television in 1980.[citation needed] Cohen also gave a couple of major TV appearances in 1979, including German's ZDF television.[citation needed] In 2000 Columbia released an album of live recordings of songs from the 1979 tour, entitled Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979; the album (with a different track list) was originally rejected by the label in 1980.
During 1970s, Cohen toured twice with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer (in 1972 and 1979). Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums, receiving full co-vocals credit on Cohen's 1985 album Various Positions (although the record was released under Cohen's name, the inside credits say "Vocals by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes"). In 1987, she recorded an album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat.[19]
References:
1. ^ de Melo, Jessica (11 December 2009). "Leonard Cohen to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 2010 Grammys". Spinner Canada. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
2. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame press release, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Announces its Inductees for 2008," 13 December 2007. http://www.rockhall.com/pressroom/2008-inductee-announcemen
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nadel, Ira B. Various Position: A Life of Leonard Cohen. Pantheon Books: New York, 1996.
12. ^ Warhol, Andy: Popism. Orlando: Harcourt Press, 1980.
13. ^ "• View topic - Please help identify this acetate master". Leonardcohenforum.com. Retrieved 2011-02-21.
14. ^ "Sixties crooner Leonard Cohen makes comeback concert tour". London Evening Standard. 13 March 2008. Archived from the original on 23 February 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
15. ^ Louis Black, "First We Take Berlin", Austin Chronicle, 2007, http://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11798
16. ^ Pictures of various European records with recording[1]
17. ^ de Lisle, T. (2004)Hallelujah: 70 things about Leonard Cohen at 70
18. ^ Fitzgerald, J. (2001) Beautiful loser, beautiful comeback. The National Post, 24 March 2001.
19. ^ a b Rohter, Larry (24 February 2009). "On the Road, for Reasons Practical and Spiritual". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 201
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen
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