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An album that delves into the depths of the human soul, winding through the mazes of the human psyche. A man tortured by existential anxieties bares his soul through eight achingly emotional tracks. Leonard Cohen, a native of Montreal, Canada, is one of those few singer-songwriters who can capture the heart and mind of the listener, one of those few post-war folk masters who managed to interpret his inner turmoil and make it universal through the canonical song form. As a skilled chansonnier, Cohen was able to reconcile music and poetry in an incredibly true and authentic mix, personal and never banal, despite talking about matters shared on a wide scale, despite saying things that many people live through. The strength of this singer-songwriter of Jewish origin (he was of Jewish religion, as his mother was actually Lithuanian and his father Polish) lies in attempting (and succeeding) to exorcise his intrinsic malaise, giving the world touching and pure poetry, gentle and genuine lyricism.
After his recording debut named “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” a highly acclaimed folk work elevated to a cornerstone, and after an album in the vein of the first, Cohen released on March 19, 1971, a completely different long playing: "Songs of Love and Hate." A stunning cover where Leonard smiles against a black background, as if to highlight the contrast between light and shadow, and a back cover featuring a caption saying “They locked up a man who wanted to conquer the world, the fools, they locked up the wrong man” frame this masterpiece of authorial folk music destined for immortality “in saecula saeculorum.”
Cohen leaves little room for happiness: only in the track that closes side A, “Diamonds in the Mine,” does he indulge in choral joviality accompanied by a female choir. Yet the lyrics of the song in question do not reveal any sign of positivity: through raw language, the Canadian chansonnier directs a fierce critique at those who allow abortion (doctors), and at those mothers who decide to renounce the fruit of their intimacy, or who in certain cases leave it to unscrupulous men, their virile partners, the power to eliminate the “unborn child.” The texts of the other compositions are no less: from the depressing and monotonous “Avalanche,” one of Leonard’s most beautiful musical creations, which Nick Cave, thirteen years later, would cover in his recording debut, “From Her To Eternity,” to the melancholic “Famous Blue Raincoat” where the author speaks of his woman’s betrayal for his brother (“And what can I tell you, my brother, my killer? What could I ever tell you? I guess I miss you, I guess I forgive you, I'm glad you took my place. If ever you come by here, for Jane or for me your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free”). Not to mention the gripping and anguished “Dress Rehearsal Rag,” and the closing dedicated to the heroic figure of Joan of Arc (“Joan of Arc”), also mentioned in “Last Year’s Man”. Apart from “Love Calls You By Your Name,” the album also features a live piece (Isle of Wight, August 31, 1970), “Sing Another Song, Boys” which further impresses the listener. Fabrizio De André, our homegrown chansonnier, made covers of “Joan of Arc” and “Famous Blue Raincoat”: the former title is translated literally, while the latter changes to “La Famosa Volpe Blu” moving the focus to the female protagonist.
“Songs of Love and Hate” represents a decisive step in the Canadian artist’s career, a leap in quality compared to the past. To be listened to once, twice, endless times: it never tires. An album to love.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Avalanche (05:01)
Well I stepped into an avalanche,
it covered up my soul;
when I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn, learn to serve me well.
You strike my side by accident
as you go down for your gold.
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
is neither starved nor cold;
he does not ask for your company,
not at the centre, the centre of the world.
When I am on a pedestal,
you did not raise me there.
Your laws do not compel me
to kneel grotesque and bare.
I myself am the pedestal
for this ugly hump at which you stare.
You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn what makes me kind;
the crumbs of love that you offer me,
they're the crumbs I've left behind.
Your pain is no credential here,
it's just the shadow, shadow of my wound.
I have begun to long for you,
I who have no greed;
I have begun to ask for you,
I who have no need.
You say you've gone away from me,
but I can feel you when you breathe.
Do not dress in those rags for me,
I know you are not poor;
you don't love me quite so fiercely now
when you know that you are not sure,
it is your turn, beloved,
it is your flesh that I wear.
03 Dress Rehearsal Rag (06:05)
Four o'clock in the afternoon
and I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
all of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
there's nothing much to save
and a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
your trembling fingers to behave,
why don't you try unwrapping
a stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
and the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
it's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
that is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?
Once there was a path
and a girl with chestnut hair,
and you passed the summers
picking all of the berries that grew there;
there were times she was a woman,
oh, there were times she was just a child,
and you held her in the shadows
where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
and you sang about the view,
and everywhere that you wandered
love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
all along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
You can still find a job,
go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
there are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
they can give you back your hope,
you can find your love with diagrams
on a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
except the one that seems
to be written on your wrist
along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
that's a razor in his mit;
and he puts on his dark glasses
and he shows you where to hit;
and then the cameras pan,
the stand in stunt man,
dress rehearsal rag,
it's just the dress rehearsal rag,
you know this dress rehearsal rag,
it's just a dress rehearsal rag.
06 Famous Blue Raincoat (05:10)
It's four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.
I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record.
Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?
Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene
And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife.
Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane's awake --
She sends her regards.
And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.
If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.
Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.
And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Sincerely L. Cohen
08 Joan of Arc (06:21)
Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
"And I love your solitude, I love your pride."
"Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above the wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her wedding dress.
It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?
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Other reviews
By Grasshopper
Exorcising ghosts from the human mind, forcing them out of their darkest hiding places to be exposed.
The quintessential 'song of love and hate' is 'Famous Blue Raincoat,' an immense tenderness that tears through the album’s gloom.
