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...the release of "Death of a Ladies' Man" caused turmoil among Cohen's fans, unanimously considered his worst album, however, hidden within the folds of its sounds, is the musical future from the mid-eighties to today...
Every great artist has a black sheep among their albums that they disown. Leonard Cohen, more than thirty years after its release, considers "Death of a Ladies' Man" a half misstep. When it was released, Cohen's most devoted fans cried scandal listening to the famous wall of sound that the producer Phil Spector built around Cohen's songs. Those that until then were poems set to music only by Cohen's voice and guitar (in truth, the first hint of change had already appeared in the previous New Skin for the Old Ceremony), under Spector's care, became songs full of instruments, sounds, choruses, and counter-choruses that no one would have ever expected. What worked for groups like the Ronettes or Tina Turner was jarring in the presence of artists like Cohen, not to mention the half disasters that Spector made with "Let it Be" by the Beatles and later with "End of the Century" by the Ramones.
After four albums of great lyrical depth, built around the folk sound, Cohen felt the need to give a twist to his music but made the mistake of biting off more than he could chew, so that the change was so evident as to leave many perplexities and questions which, however, would find full meaning and answers a few years later, when this breaking album became a starting point for changes in subsequent albums.
The collaboration between Cohen and Spector led to the writing of twice as many songs as would end up on the album. Work that was eventually released in an unfinished manner, passing off vocal recordings that still needed a lot of work as complete, something that never sat well with Cohen. Spector surrounded the artist with an endless number of musicians, managing to get Bob Dylan and the beat poet Alan Ginsberg, collaborators at the time on Dylan's bestseller "Desire," to participate in the choruses of Don't Go Home with Your Hard-on.
The lyrics of this album speak of loves, lost, found, fleeting, which are a constant in Cohen's texts. "Like mist leaves no wound in the darkness of the hill, so my body leaves no wound on you and never will." So begins True Love Leaves No Traces, the first track of an album dedicated to love and failure in love (Iodine). Blinding love full of jealousy when the object of desire is near but unreachable (Paper-Thin Hotel), itchy and fleeting love, between the sacred and the profane of a student who at the school dance would give up his faith just to see his lover naked (Memories), now extinguished love that seeks a meeting point that no longer exists (I Left a Woman Waiting).
Songs perhaps too burdened by Spector's hand but that maintain the textual and stylistic peculiarity that made Cohen a composer, yes sophisticated, but capable of reaching the depth of the soul and offering his interpretation, bringing it to the surface and making it accessible even to those who find it elusive.
After only two years, Cohen recovered from the Spector binge with an album that musically wanted to return to simplicity like "Recent Songs".
It remains an experiment which, in light of future works, seems to be a progenitor from which to borrow new sonic solutions.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Iodine (05:03)
I needed you, I knew I was in danger
of losing what I used to think was mine
You let me love you till I was a failure,
You let me love you till I was a failure --
Your beauty on my bruise like iodine
I asked you if a man could be forgiven
And though I failed at love, was this a crime?
You said, Don't worry, don't worry, darling
You said, Don't worry, don't you worry, darling
There are many ways a man can serve his time
You covered up that place I could not master
It wasn't dark enough to shut my eyes
So I was with you, O sweet compassion
Yes I was with you, O sweet compassion
Compassion with the sting of iodine
Your saintly kisses reeked of iodine
Your fragrance with a fume of iodine
And pity in the room like iodine
Your sister fingers burned like iodine
And all my wanton lust was iodine
My masquerade of trust was iodine
And everywhere the flare of iodine
04 Memories (05:59)
Frankie Lane, he was singing Jezebel
I pinned an Iron Cross to my lapel
I walked up to the tallest and the blondest girl
I said, "Look, you don’t know me now
But very soon you will
So won’t you let me see
Won’t you let me see
Won’t you let me see
Your naked body
Just dance me to the dark side of the gym
Chances are I’ll let you do most anything
I know you’re hungry, I can hear it in your voice
They’re many parts of me to touch, you have your choice
But no you cannot see
No you cannot see
No you cannot see
My naked body"
We are dancing close, the band is playing Stardust Balloons
And paper streamers floating down on us
She says, "You’ve got a minute left to fall in love"
In solemn moments such as this I’ve put my trust
And all my faith to see
All my faith to see
All my faith to see
Her naked body
07 Fingerprints (02:58)
I touched you once too often
Now I don't know who I am
My fingerprints were missing
When I wiped away the jam
Yes I called my fingerprints all night
But they don't seem to care
The last time that I saw them
They were leafing through your hair
Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?
Yeah I thought I'd leave this morning
So I emptied out your drawer
A hundred thousand fingerprints
They floated to the floor
You know you hardly stopped to pick them up
You don't care what you lose
Ah you don't even seem to know
Whose fingerprints are whose
Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?
And now you want to marry me
You want to take me down the aisle
You want to throw confetti fingerprints
You know that's not my style
O sure I'd like to marry you
But I can't face the dawn
With any girl who knew me
When my fingerprints were on
Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?
Fingerprints, oh fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?
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