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34-549: After recording Death of a Ladies' Man with Phil Spector , a chaotically recorded album that would garner Cohen the worst reviews of his career, the singer decided to produce his next album himself with assistance from Henry Lewy, who had previously worked regularly with Joni Mitchell . The album included Gypsy violin player Raffi Hakopian, English string arranger Jeremy Lubbock, Armenian oud player (located in Los Angeles) John Bilezikjian and even

68-593: A 2005 interview ( Old Ideas: Notes on Dear Heather ) that he used an alternate 1979 track for "Un Canadien errant", adding a new vocal line with completely new lyrics, for his 2004 album Dear Heather . Cohen also recorded a studio version of the disco-infused "Do I Have to Dance All Night", which had been previously released as a live single in France in 1976, but it was not included on the album. The musicians who recorded Recent Songs with Cohen served as his tour band later that year, highlights of which can be heard on

102-475: A Ladies%27 Man (album) Death of a Ladies' Man is the fifth studio album by Leonard Cohen , produced and co-written by Phil Spector . The album was in some ways a departure from Cohen's typical minimalist style by using Spector's Wall of Sound recording method, which included ornate arrangements and multiple tracks of instrument overdubs. The album was originally released in the US by Warner Bros. , and on CD and

136-607: A Mexican Mariachi band. Long-time Cohen collaborator Jennifer Warnes appeared prominently in vocal tracks. Members of the band Passenger, whom Cohen also met through Mitchell, played on four of the songs. Garth Hudson of the Band also appeared on the album. Unlike the psychodrama evident on the Spector-dominated Death of a Ladies' Man , Recent Songs , which was recorded at A&M Studios in Hollywood in

170-632: A cover version of the song "The Traitor" in the tribute film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man . Nana Mouskouri has covered the song on several albums ( Song for Liberty , Vivre Avec Toi , I'll Remember You , The Rose ) and also sung the song in translation, for instance as "Das Fest" on her German language album Ich hab gelacht, ich hab geweint . The Canadian singer Patricia O'Callaghan performs covers of "The Window", " The Gypsy's Wife " and "The Smokey Life" on her fifth solo album Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen released in 2012. All songs written by Leonard Cohen, except where noted. Death of

204-409: A deal with Warner Bros. to release the record, one that Cohen would always harbor mixed feelings about. "I'm too ashamed to tell the whole truth of what happened there", Cohen confessed to Adrian Deevoy of Q magazine in 1991. "People were skating around on bullets, guns were finding their way into hamburgers, guns were all over the place. It wasn't safe. It was mayhem, but it was part of the times. It

238-409: A microphone and headphones and we'd all be wired up in our separate booths and we'd listen and add our part." The album had a largely acoustic, Eastern-tinged flavor and was augmented by the singing of Jennifer Warnes and newcomer Sharon Robinson , who would go on to become one of Cohen's favorite musical collaborators. "Came So Far For Beauty" originated from Cohen's collaboration with New Skin for

272-673: A version of "Memories" on their autumn 2008 tour. Swedish singer Svante Karlsson mentioned the album title in the song "I Nöd & Lust" (from Tro Inte Att Du Känner Mig 2010) in which the female character listens to it in her head phones during a train ride. In 2013, Guitars and Bongos Records released Greg Ashley's cover version of the entire Death of a Ladies' Man album. Kimberly Morrison, a.k.a. "The Duchess" from The Duchess and The Duke! provides some backing vocals. Greg's cover photo mimics Cohen's original photo, but replaces actual women with two mannequins. All songs written by Leonard Cohen (words) and Phil Spector (music). Cohen published

306-698: A whole ploughed a self-indulgent, middling trough." The LP peaked at # 24 in Austria (where it went gold) and hit #56 in Germany . "Ballad of the Absent Mare" has been covered by several artists, notably Emmylou Harris on the album Cowgirl's Prayer (as "Ballad of a Runaway Horse") and Perla Batalla feat. David Hidalgo on the album Bird on the Wire: the Songs of Leonard Cohen . Martha Wainwright performs

340-525: Is a 1983 Canadian made for TV short musical film , written by Leonard Cohen and Mark Shekter and directed by Allan F. Nicholls . The storyline is based on imaginary events in the King Edward Hotel in Toronto , and the guests' (usually romantic) interactions with each other. Leonard Cohen had the idea for the film based upon his personal experiences and his song "The Guests". It

374-424: Is a fiddle-infused hootenanny that recalls Cohen's love of country music. Early versions of "Iodine" (then called "Guerrero") and "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-on" were performed in concert as early as 1975 (with music credited to John Lissauer ) and are widely available on bootlegs. As Anthony Reynolds reports in his 2010 Cohen biography, the sessions did not even "officially" end: Marty Marchet's son Steven secured

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408-585: The Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–38. Curiously, Cohen and Lewy opted to use a Mexican Mariachi band on the song, which is arguably the only cheerful sonic outburst on what is otherwise a languid album (the Mariachi band is also employed more subtly on "The Guests" and "The Ballad of the Absent Mare"). Cohen's 2004 song "The Faith" is based on the same folk tune as "Un Canadien errant", with Cohen's collaborator Anjani Thomas acknowledging in

442-725: The 1960s, and had some success in the early 1970s by producing albums by John Lennon and George Harrison ; however, his behaviour became increasingly erratic. As Ira Nadel notes in the 1996 Cohen biography, Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen , stories differ as to how Cohen and Spector became collaborators: Biographer Anthony Reynolds writes in the 2010 book Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life that Cohen's friend and fellow Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell tried to warn Cohen about working with Spector, Mitchell having witnessed some of Spector's erratic behavior during recording sessions with Lennon in Los Angeles. However, at least at

476-480: The 1970s in the books The Energy of Slaves and Death of a Lady's Man as well as in his lyrics, but there was a new equanimity in these Recent Songs that began with the welcoming introduction of 'The Guests'...The album was full of references to absence and dislocation, but Cohen deliberately countered them with humor." Cohen biographer Anthony Reynolds took a dim view of the collection in 2010: "For all its artistry, Recent Songs sounded bland and MOR...the album as

510-649: The 2001 release Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 . Cohen performed several songs from the LP in concert, such as "The Guests", "The Window", and the Sinatraesque "The Smokey Life". Speaking with Mojo ' s Sylvie Simmons in 2001, Cohen was effusive in his praise for the album: The painting of Cohen on the album cover is by the artist Dianne Lawrence. It is inspired by the album cover portrait taken by photographer, Hazel Field for Leonard Cohen's 2001 release, Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 . "The Guests" would be

544-581: The Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan . The songs were performed by Dead Famous People and the duo David McComb & Adam Peters, respectively. "Memories" has also been covered at least five times by other artists, including John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats and Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest , although the latter modifies the lyrics considerably. "Iodine" earned three known performances in Cohen's European tour of 1979. The Last Shadow Puppets performed

578-474: The Cohen album disclose that the photo was taken by an "Anonymous Roving Photographer at a Forgotten Polynesian Restaurant". It features (from left to right) Eva LaPierre, Cohen and Suzanne Elrod , the mother of Adam and Lorca Cohen. Death of a Ladies' Man was released to universal confusion and largely bad reviews, leaving many die-hard Cohen fans stunned. Rolling Stone headlined its review with "Leonard Cohen's doo-wop Nightmare" and observed, "Too much of

612-462: The Old Ceremony producer John Lissauer for a project called Songs For Rebecca , which was scrapped (Lissauer received co-writing credit). In the liner notes to the album, Cohen thanks his Zen Master Roshi for inspiring one of the songs: "I owe my thanks to Joshu Sasaki upon whose exposition of an early Chinese text I based 'Ballad of the Absent Mare.'" The metaphoric lyrics are based on

646-581: The air to see where they landed." In 2010, Cohen biographer Anthony Reynolds singled out "True Love Leaves No Traces" for praise, describing the song, which Cohen sings with Ronee Blakley , as "incandescently beautiful as anything either man would ever commit to tape". Up to 1978, the album was one of Cohen's biggest sellers in Sweden. Death of a Ladies' Man has inspired fewer cover versions than any preceding Cohen album, but both "True Love Leaves No Traces" and "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-on" were covered on

680-609: The album, calling Spector's production "a 'catastrophe'". Of the album's eight selections, "Memories" is the only track Cohen regularly performed in concert (on tours in 1979, 1980 and 1985). He apparently liked the song enough that he included it in his 1983 experimental art film I Am a Hotel , as the sole non-acoustic piece alongside four other songs which have generally enjoyed more positive fan response: " Suzanne ", "Chelsea Hotel #2", "The Guests", and "The Gypsy's Wife". A "de-Spectorized" version of "Memories" ended up being released when Cohen's album Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979

714-401: The book Death of a Lady's Man in 1978. It has nothing in common with the album, with only one exception: it contains the poem "Death of a Lady's Man", which is identical to the lyrics of the album's title song. In 2009, Scottish author Alan Bissett released his third novel, Death of a Ladies' Man , which makes references to Cohen throughout the text. I Am a Hotel I Am a Hotel

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748-408: The early songwriting stage, Cohen and Spector worked well together. Songwriter John Prine , who had also witnessed the producer's bizarre antics when he had been invited to his house to compose a song together, later marveled to Paul Zollo of BluebirdRailroad magazine that as soon as Spector "sat down with an instrument, he was normal." Things would change once Cohen and Spector entered a studio, with

782-460: The opening song of Cohen's 1983 made-for-TV short musical I Am a Hotel , which would also feature "The Gypsy's Wife" as part of the narration. Recent Songs received warm reviews and was viewed as a return to form by many critics after the shocking Death of a Ladies' Man . At the time of the album's release, The New York Times said it provided "an ideal musical idiom for his idiosyncrasies" and listed it among its top ten records of 1979. In

816-505: The original 1980 Rolling Stone review, Debra Rae Cohen said: "There's not a cut on Recent Songs without something to offer...and at least four or five tunes are full-fledged masterpieces. I wish I had a tape loop of; 'The Guests' which features a hold-your-breath, haunting melody." The Tucson Citizen panned the "heavy touches of a Dylanesque vocal inflection on his more country numbers." William Ruhlmann of AllMusic observes, "His writing had become increasingly bitter and angry during

850-601: The producer's paranoia taking over and Cohen becoming increasingly disengaged from the project. Spector would use three studios for the album, although his favorite remained the Gold Star Studios complex located at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard near the corner of Vine Street in Hollywood . Spector recruited a plethora of top-shelf Los Angeles studio musicians to play on the songs, including guitarists Dan and David Kessel, drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Keltner , and pedal steel player Al Perkins , among many others. It

884-433: The record sounds like the world's most flamboyant extrovert producing and arranging the world's most fatalist introvert." The Toronto Star declared in large type, "Leonard Cohen is for Musical Sadists". While defending the album, in a retrospective review AllMusic writer Dave Thompson concedes, "It is also true that a cursory listen to the album suggests that the whole thing was simply a ragbag of crazy notions thrown into

918-776: The recording of the nine-minute title track began at 7:30 in the evening and lasted until 2:30 in the morning with the session musicians working on quadruple time, typical of the sessions as a whole. Another night, poet Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan showed up and were ordered by Spector to sing background vocals on the raucously burlesque "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-on". Most of the songs deal with themes of unbridled sexuality and brutal voyeurism , such as "Paper Thin Hotel" ("The walls of this hotel are paper thin/Last night I heard you making love to him..."), and are couched in Spector's bombastic sprawl of sonic grandeur. The buoyant "Fingerprints"

952-533: The rest of the world by Cohen's long-time label, Columbia Records . By the mid-1970s, both Cohen and Spector were on a downward slide commercially. Although he remained popular in Europe, Cohen had never achieved the success in the United States that Columbia had hoped for. Spector had created hits such as " Be My Baby " and " You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' " with his " wall of sound " production technique in

986-419: The spring of 1979, sounds lucid by comparison. In the book Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life , oud player John Bilezikjian recalls to author Anthony Reynolds: "Sessions started in the afternoon and we'd go into the evenings. No drinking, that I saw, no visitors. Finished at a reasonable time, no early hours stuff...He let me do whatever it was I wanted to do. He trusted my sense of musicality. He would be with

1020-416: The twelfth-century Ten Bulls (or Ten Ox-herding Pictures ). According to Anthony Reynolds 2010 Cohen memoir, "The Guests" was based on a 13th-century Persian poem and was chosen to open the album because of the enthusiastic response it had evoked when Cohen played it to friends. The album also features Cohen's interpretation of "Un Canadien errant", a song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after

1054-400: Was issued in 2001. This version includes a saxophone solo different from that of the album version's. In 1978, Cohen would release a book of poetry with the slightly altered title Death of a Lady's Man . It has nothing in common with the album, with only one exception: it contains the poem "Death of a Lady's Man", which is identical to the lyrics of the album's title song. The liner notes of

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1088-643: Was originally intended for the Canadian pay TV network C-Channel , but when the network collapsed, the production was completed by Citytv with financial assistance from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Canadian Film Development Corporation . Cohen features frequently, as an amused bystander ('the Resident'). Extensive dance routines in scenes 2 and 3 were choreographed by Ann(e) Ditchburn, who also dances as

1122-538: Was precisely in front of an audience, however, that Spector's megalomaniacal switch turned on, and soon Cohen felt overwhelmed. Speaking to Mojo ' s Sylvie Simmons in 2001, Cohen described his feelings at the time: During a cryptic exchange detailed in Ira Nadel's Cohen biography, Various Positions , Spector pointed a loaded pistol at Cohen's throat, cocked it, and said, "I love you, Leonard." Quietly, Cohen responded, "I hope you love me, Phil." Nadel also writes that

1156-410: Was rather drug-driven. But I like Phil, and the instinct was right. I'd do it again." Interviewed for the 2005 documentary I'm Your Man , Cohen expressed disappointment in the record and felt that the songs "got away" from him; he also noted that it was a favorite among " punksters " as well as his daughter. At the time of the album's release, however, he was much less generous in his public response to

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