Songs of Leonard Cohen
Studio album by Leonard Cohen
Released	December 27, 1967 (limited release); February 1968
Recorded	August 1967, Columbia Studio E, New York
Genre	Folk
Length	41:09
Label	Columbia Records
Producer(s)	John Simon
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Leonard Cohen chronology
	Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)	Songs from a Room (1969)

The album Songs of Leonard Cohen was the Canadian poet Leonard Cohen's debut into the world of popular music. It depicted the future way of his career, with less success in the United States and far better in the UK and Europe, reaching #83 on the Billboard chart but achieving gold status only in 1989, while it reached #13 in UK. Cover of the Leonard Cohen album Songs of Leonard Cohen. ... A Studio Album is an album of regular studio recordings. ... Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes . ... John Simon could refer to: John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, Several of his descendants who have held the title of Viscount Simon, John Simon, the author and literary, film and drama critic; or John Simon, record producer for Columbia Records. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 5_stars. ... Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ... Songs from a Room was the Canadian poet Leonard Cohens second album. ... Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. ... The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. ...

Cohen's lonely, pathetic, and all-too-human songs were a marked contrast against the feel-good hippie music and culture dominating at the time. Judy Collins and Noel Harrison both previously had hits performing the song "Suzanne" (in 1966 and 1967 respectively). Singer at contemporary Russian Rainbow gathering Hippie, occasionally spelled hippy, refers to a subgroup of the 1960s counterculture that began in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining in the 1970s. ... Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939 in Seattle, Washington) is an American folk and standards singer. ... Noel Harrison (born 1934 in London) is a British actor and singer and the son of Rex Harrison. ... Suzanne is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen, based on his poem Suzanne Takes You Down. It was published in Cohens collection Parasites of Heaven in 1966. ...

Cohen and John Simon, producer and musical director, managed to give the album a distinct sound while also relying on typical sixties effects such as instruments panning from channel to channel. Although Cohen was granted much freedom in the recording process, they did not always agree on how the record should be mixed. Finally, Simon departed for his Christmas holiday and left the final mix to the artist himself. In a 2001 interview Cohen told British music magazine Mojo: "We did have a falling out over the song "Suzanne." He wanted a heavy piano syncopated and maybe drums and I didn't want drums on any of my songs, so that was a bone of contention." John Simon could refer to: John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, Several of his descendants who have held the title of Viscount Simon, John Simon, the author and literary, film and drama critic; or John Simon, record producer for Columbia Records. ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ... Mojo is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. ... In music, syncopation is the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. ...

On some of the tracks Cohen was backed by strings, the band Kaleidoscope and Nancy Priddy's vocals. The original producer was John Hammond, who signed Cohen to Columbia, but he was replaced by Simon because of health problems. Nancy Priddy is an American actress and singer-songwriter. ... John Henry Hammond (December 15, 1910 – July 10, 1987) was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. ...

"Suzanne", which begins and ends as an ode to an "half-crazy" woman capable of personal connection, contains an unconventional discussion of Jesus in the second verse which has been removed in at least one cover of the song. It is on one level a reference to a Jesus figure on top of a sailor's church overlooking the river in Montréal. Suzanne is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen, based on his poem Suzanne Takes You Down. It was published in Cohens collection Parasites of Heaven in 1966. ... Ode (Classical Greek: ) is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ... Jesus (8–2 BC/BCE to 29–36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ... {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: Concordia Salus (Salvation through harmony) Ville de Montréal, Québec, Canada Location. ...

Three of the album's songs, "Winter Lady," "The Stranger Song," and "Sisters of Mercy," were used in the 1971 Robert Altman film McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. ... McCabe & Mrs. ...

Songs of Leonard Cohen was released on CD in 1989, while a digipak edition was released in some European countries in 2003. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A digipak is a style of compact disc or DVD packaging. ...

Track listing

• All songs written by Leonard Cohen

Side A 20:30

1. "Suzanne" – 3:48
2. "Master Song" – 5:55
3. "Winter Lady" – 2:15
4. "The Stranger Song" – 5:00
5. "Sisters of Mercy" – 3:32

Suzanne is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen, based on his poem Suzanne Takes You Down. It was published in Cohens collection Parasites of Heaven in 1966. ...

Side B 20:32

1. "So Long, Marianne" – 5:38
2. "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" – 2:55
3. "Stories of the Street" – 4:35
4. "Teachers" – 3:01
5. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" – 4:23

Selected cover recordings

Peter Gabriel recorded a syncopated version of "Suzanne" for the Leonard Cohen tribute album Tower of Song, and Geoffrey Oryema performed it on the earlier tribute I'm Your Fan. Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician. ... A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of a specific artists songs. ... Tower of Song is a tribute album to Leonard Cohen, released in 1995 on A&M Records. ... At the age of 24, at the height of Idi Amins power, Oryema had to be smuggled across the Ugandan border in the trunk of a car, following the death of his father, a prominent government minister, beginning a life in exile. ... Im Your Fan is a tribute album to Leonard Cohen, released in 1991 on the British record label EastWest Records. ...

The song "Sisters of Mercy" was the inspiration for the name of the Gothic rock band The Sisters of Mercy, who also took a line from the song "Teachers" as the title of their 1992 compilation album Some Girls Wander By Mistake. Sting and The Chieftans performed a Celtic music-influenced version of the song on Tower of Song. Gothic rock (also called goth rock or goth) is a genre of rock music that originated during the late 1970s. ... The Sisters of Mercy are a rock band that emerged out of the British post punk scene in 1980-1981. ... A compilation album is a musical album featuring songs or tunes with some common characteristics. ... Some Girls Wander By Mistake is a collection of early independent singles by the UK band The Sisters of Mercy. ... For other uses, see Sting (disambiguation). ... The Chieftains is an Irish musical group founded in 1962, known for performing and popularizing Irish traditional music. ... Celtic music is a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe. ...

Brian Hyland released "So Long, Marianne" as a single in 1971, while the britpop group James recorded it on I'm Your Fan. Brian Hyland (born November 12, 1943) was a moderately successful pop artist from Queens, New York during the 1960s. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... Britpop was a British alternative rock genre and movement that was at its most popular in Great Britain in the mid 1990s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" was performed by Ian McCulloch on I'm Your Fan. Ian McCulloch (born Ian Stephen McCulloch on 5 May 1959, in Liverpool) is an English singer. ...

External links

• The Leonard Cohen Files: the album lyrics