Monday, January 12, 2009
Cohen: The Poet's Transition to Singer-songwriter
I have only seen three of the British Under Review video series on musical artists and their recorded output. The first volume on Leonard Cohen, ninety minutes of assessment of his career by Robert Christgau, Anthony DeCurtis, a bunch of British and Canadian critics and journalists, as well as some folks involved in various album projects. The actual footage and sound clips are limited due to budget and licensing, but nicely augment the discussion.
I remember a fellow back in college who observed how guys would get off in their corner and talk about music the somewhat the same way they do about sports. Under Review DVDs are kind of like that. For me, the results of screening a Under Review DVD is a hyperlinked visit to my record collection to revisit work and, in this case, to bookshelf to his work Ipod to his tunes I may not have considered as closely.
Under Review documents how Cohen's career as a songwriter began twelve years after being a published poet. The commentators discussed how his work was early work was tame by American standards, but somewhat groundbreaking in the tamer waters of Canadian poetry of that era. The 1967 album, Songs of Leonard Cohen with Suzanne and Sisters of Mercy is one of my favorite of records. It is intimate and consistent and has the ability to put one into a unique space. DeCurtis talks about how its "songs and approach come from within."
His next two albums, Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate are also spare, created in Nashville with country music musicians. One of the takeaways from the DVD is the idea that these three create a kind of trilogy. The next album New Skin for the Old Ceremony has a broader sonic dimension, womens voices and strings, although still spare, but the focus was still, of course, on the words. Then there was the crazy 1977 excess of his collaboration with Phil Spector and the album that resulted, Death of A Ladies Man. Most of the critics and commentators in Under Review conclude that this is more of a Phil Spector album that featured Leonard Cohen. In I'm a Man, Cohen talks about how his children and the punks eventually discovered and embraced this record.
There is a second Under Review volume that covers the post Ladies Man era pretty much right up to the present. After I follow up with a visit or two to the first five Cohen albums, I will ask it to report to the top of the red window queue.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:07 PM
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