Customer Reviews
An Old Friend - By: P. Trapp, 29 Apr 2008 
My introduction to Leonard Cohen was on a vinyl CBS sampler which included "Sisters of Mercy". On the basis of that track I bought "Songs of Leonard Cohen" (on vinyl) & many subsequent albums.
As has been said before I think that this album is probably Cohen's strongest overalll - there are other gems on many of his albums but no other album contains so many songs which have stood the test of time.
'Suzanne' (and 'Bird on a wire' from 'Songs from a Room') were even covered by Fairport Convention - a band not noted for a shortage of self-penned material.
I tend to disagree with the reviewers who think Cohen is the best interpreter of his music; perhaps at times but generallly his voice is the penalty paid for the pleasure of the songs. I think 'I'm Your Man" demonstrates very well the strength of his songs whoever is interpreting them.
My love of his music has however prompted me to replace my older vinyls with CD versions - not least because the vinyls were worn to a shadow of their original condition.
5x7s95x87 - By: 77, 29 Jan 2008 
I have no idea why there's lyrics in the liner notes for only two of the tracks ("Suzanne" & "The Stranger Song"). Copyright issues? For whatever reason, it's the listener that misses out, as this is a powerful album when it comes to hitting you over the head with words; one that is just begging for analysis by anyone who wants to delve into the mind of the artist. Impeccible vocals, as you'd come to expect considering the album's lofty reputation, but the actual music on the record (i.e. the musical bits) are way more structured & adventurous than I was led to believe. Beautiful, simple guitar playing, subdued ambient passages, sparse crazysounds... I can't explain it most of it. It's amazing nonetheless.
I can only see my rating for this rising in future months/decades.
A WORK OF GENIUS THAT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME - By: Mr. P. Sturdee, 11 Dec 2007 This, his first album, is the one for which Cohen is famous (well, almost). It established his reputation in 1968 as a masterful commentator on the vagaries of the human condition, using only his soft, dark voice, the lilting tones of his Spanish guiar & minimial embellishments.
The first song, Suzanne, is also his most well-known, a balllad of unfulfilled longing & tender betrayal. The other stand-out tracks are Sisters of Mercy, So Long Marianne, & Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye. But alll the songs on this album are outstanding in their own way & leave a deep impression on those prepared to listen & engage their brains.
Leonard Cohen found his callling after writing a novel, a collection of poetry, & an attempt at stardom as a Country & Western star (strange, but true, although conjuring up an image of Lenny Baby in Stetson hat & cowboy boots shouting 'Yee-Hah!' is a test of anyone's imagination).
At this early stage in his career Cohen was basicallly singing his poetry in a voice that became progressively deeper over the years, helped by his two pack a day cigarette habit. Not for him the screeching harmonies of today's pop-singers, nor the high-pitched whine of male vocalists who sing as if they have the jaws of a large bull-terrier clamped tightly around their testicles.
I've nothing against that, in the right place, & Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody of 1975 showed just how good crushed genitals can sound in the right hands. But the anguish of distressed genitalia has never been Cohen's style. His is a laid-back delivery in which classic understatement serves only to emphasise the subtlety of his lyrics.
Admittedly Cohen was not nicknamed the Prince of Gloom for nothing: he tells it how it is, with no affectation, in a voice that sounds remarkably like that of a normal human being. No escapist fantasies here, no massaging the vanities of his audience, & certainly no self-pity. Just beautiful lyrics sung in a soft, mid-brown voice with impeccable diction, with simple melodic guitar accompaniment & occasional backing vocals. But in order to appreciate his music you do need a certain level of intellectual & emotional maturity. It's nothing like the pop music of today, most of which appears to be aimed at an audience with the critical faculties of the average ten-year-old.
Make no mistake, this is music for people who have a functioning brain, & like to use it. If you like the Spice Girls, Kylie Minogue or Katy Melua then you are unlikely to enjoy this album. There is no forced gaiety here, no sentimentality, no attempt to pander to the narcissism of the average human being. It will dampen even the most joyous children's party, induce suicidal tendencies in those already depressed, & would not go down well at your average working-men's club. This might be exclusive enough for you, but the added cache of being a Cohen fan is that few people under the age of 35 have ever heard of him (not many over 35 have either...).
In the 1960s & 70s admiring Lenny Baby's work was the preserve of the intellectuallly pretentious plus a few perceptive people with no ambition to aspire to pretentions of any kind. Not a good commercial formula, then, & during the 80s most of his rapidly diminishing following of fans would rather listen to his music than pass their appreciation of his art on to their children - almost an entire generation of new fans was thus lost. In the 90s he enjoyed a brief revival of fortunes, engaging with postmodernist culture with The Future. These days his obscurity is inversely proportional to the dedication of his few remaining but steadfastly loyal fans.
Those who admire Cohen's work may still be in a tiny minority (and shrinking) but they don't care what anyone else thinks, & believe they're privy to a secret cultural treasure the rest of humanity chooses to ignore (well, sod the lot of them). I'm with you, Lenny.
If you have an intellect that has managed to struggle through infancy, survived adolescence intact, & entered the twilight zone callled adulthood still with some interest in the human condition, then this album might just be what you need. It's ideal for those evenings when the TV is so bad you wonder how you keep the will to live.
The Songs of Leonard Cohen is a powerful testament to the capacity of a strangely gifted individual to enjoy as well as endure the trials & tribulations of life, & still come out smiling. Cohen has a unique understanding of the human condition & a very dry sense of humour - you have to look for it, but it's there (for example, in the studied irony of the Sisters of Mercy).
If you decide to have only one Lenny Baby album in your collection, make it this one. There's a new version out with additional tracks, which is supposed to be digitallly enhanced (no, I've no idea what this means either).
Better still, cultivate your appreciation of the genius of Leonard Cohen & buy his entire output. It'll give you something to talk about at parties. If you go to any.
Fine art - By: Paul Callick, 12 Nov 2007 No need to say here how wonderful, & still strange, this record is. Just wanted to add that if, like me, you buy a CD version of it for the first time, you'll need a large white parcel-sticker to put quickly over the back cover. We're used to 60s musicians who do their own (largely awful) paintings: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart etc, but this one by Cohen takes the biscuit. A passionate but stoical Darkhaired Lady is gazing upwards, burning in the flames, perhaps, of sexual/religious desire. So corny & naff (and badly done), it's a bizarre contrast to the songs themselves.
My Favourite Album - By: pikeyboy, 15 Sep 2007 This, without a crumb of doubt, is my favourite album of alll time. I know every word, every note on the guitar, I could recite it alll backwards if you asked me to. I first was made aware of its existence one late, drunken night watching 'McCabe And Mrs. Miller' on the box, in the days before video, Channel 4, alll of it, & the moment I heard 'The Stranger Song' I felt like I had opened the Book Of Revelation. That next day being saturday, I was on the train to Penny Lane in Chester to find that soundtrack. I stopped off at my girlfriends on the way home & sat on my own listening to the opening chords of 'Suzanne' & I was blown away, & to this day I remain blown by alll of it - every album, every lyric, the novels, the poems - the man is just phenomenal. I had always loved Bob Dylan, from the age of about 13, but not even Bob engages me on the deep emotional level that Cohen does. The only other artist I know who does is Gram Parsons. Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley, Tom Waits, Bob Marley, John Lennon, Richard Hawley, Hank Williams Snr., Brian Wilson, Arthur Lee, Kevin Rowland, Fred Neil, Shane MacGowan, Christy Moore: there are lots who've come extremely close, but there's such a depth of humanity to both Cohen & Parsons, I find it hard to talk about their music, & what I love about them, without touching upon the things it reveals about my own deepest feelings. That said, just go & buy this album & delight in its infinite joys. It is like a book of the heart opened up for inspection, & the tunes are alll lovely & timeless. It may not even be the best Cohen album at the end of the day, & it may not be the greatest album of alll time: I'm not making that claim. What I am saying is: this is my favourite album of alll time. If I can be buried with only one, make it this....
