Worst ever LC tracks

[roubiliac]

I prefer DOALM to most of Dear Heather.

[comet]

Hi Folks,
I Only found this forum after the Dublin Concert Sat. 14th June 2008. Greetings from Dublin to all you fellow Leonard Cohen fans

I came to know Leonard's albums one at a time as they were released on vinyl
or even on 8 track cartridges ( useless bits of Junk, But that don't make it junk )
Live songs was the one that got him the " depressing " reputation. thirteen minutes of Please don't pass me by and Queen Victoria are enough to make even the diehard fans contemplate the OVEN as being a better alternative.

Even Leonard himself would rather forget (But I can't forget.....) the mess that was made of Death of a Ladies Man with it's distorted sound and almost everything into the red sound wise, The songs were great, but it sounded awful, Pity he didn't re-record it himself without the Spectre's input of destruction.

I heard all the albums up to Recent Songs on vinyl, so you didn't just "SKIP " to the end of a track a the tip of a button, you had to get up out of your comfortable chair and cross the room and lift the needle and physically place it on the shiny bit of the LP between the tracks, and you had to count the shiny bits to get to the desired track
I still think the hum of a valve amplifier and the crackle and pop of the scratches and dust on the vinyl was part of the whole Cohen listening experience.

How things have changed ?

Recently I loaded my whole Leonard collection onto an MP3 player, It then automatically put all the songs into alphabetical order so over a period of several days I heard all the songs,sometimes three or four versions of the same song from the studio albums and from the various live albums all in a row,

Technology Eh !

[osmachar]

Hi all,
I still find it peculiar how people that are into Leonard's work can really dislike some of the tracks mentioned here, ....

Why? Even if you like someone's music in general, you should be allowed to be critical.

[Jeremy]

Although "Death of a Ladies'" man has been widely criticised, I've never had a real problem with it. I think the tunes are good and suit the lyrics well. I like both "True Love Leaves No Traces" (with the female voices) on "DOALM" and Anjani's variation with the original poem "As the Mist Leaves No Scar" on "Blue Alert". "Paper Thin Hotel" works well as a paradox with the comforting "Christmassy" Spector music, and the combination of relief and pain that is expressed in the lyrics. My favourite track is "I Left a Woman Waiting" which I find quite beautiful. The "over-the-top" musical approach is fitting for "Memories" and "Don't Go Home With Your Hard On" because the songs are also "over the top" and deserving of exaggeration. The countrified "hoe-down" stlye given to "Fingerprints" is not inappropriate, since Leonard had already used it on the live version of "Tonight Will Be Fine". My only real criticism of the album is that Spector's "wall-of-sound" can somtimes make things sound messy. This is particularly true on "Iodine" and "Death of a Ladies' Man" (and also for that matter on Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High", which does not sound quite so good on modern equipment). I would like to hear a paired-down version of "DOALM", and may have been the first person to suggest this (I put the idea to Leonard in a letter, at least eight years ago). However, I would also ike to hear a fully re-mastered version of the original version of "DOALM" with more clarity and separation. It would be nice if the two potential new versions were released as a double album, though I'm not holding my breath for such a thing! Finally, I should say that although "Death of a Ladies Man" was
an interesting experiment and worked well as a "stand alone", I'm glad that Leonard followed it with the masterful "Recent Songs".

All good things, John E

John - just seen this. Although this is a thread about Leonard's "worst" tracks (for which read, least liked by whoever's writing - fine for discussion purposes), I must wholeheartedly echo your namecheck for True Love Leaves No Traces. I first heard this covered really well by a "rocky" That Petrol Emotion many years ago, but only recently bought the track from itunes (gotta admit DOALM isn't my top album either! ) It's just beautiful, and I think crosses some of the boundaries between LC's early and later works.

Somewhere else here has been written that "Bird" is especially well served on the Live Songs album - I'd agree with that too. The guitar and sax solos really flesh it out, and Leonard's voice brings new strength and depth to the song - that version's my classic now......

[FanOfTheMan]

Normally being one to accentuate the positive i feel i must add my 2 cents/pennies worth on this.
Bird on a wire....love it however it has become abit of a clitche'.
Jazz police...hated it in '88 love it now.
Worst L.C. tracks...anything that Phil Specter produced.
A worst L.C. track beats the best "lousy little poet's" track anyday!

[Ziyad]

Of course there are no bad Lenny tracks, but relatively speaking, for me they are:

- Don't Go Home With Your Hard On (I love most of Death Of A Ladies Man)
- Jazz Police

Unlike some others I think Diamonds iN the Mine is great - full of black humour

And Bird On the Wire - the verse about the beggar and the painted lady is very moving. Also from the frist time a saw LC in 1974 until I would imagine the end of the 80's, Leonard always started his shows with Bird On The Wire, and eitehr finished with it as well, or played it v near the end of his encores. As well as calling his first commercially available film by that name (I think directed by Tonyy Palmer) - so for those reasons and plus it is a great song, it has always been one of my faves (with about 30 other songs!) and I assume Lenny thought it was his signature song (wirh Suzanne)

[osmachar]

Diamonds in the Mine is one of my favourites

[Jim Williams]

I love Jazz Police - it's hilarious; and, ironically, it reminds me of the late jazz policeman Frank Zappa.

[friscogrl]

I love the song, but one particular line in Seems so long ago nancy bothers me;
Many use her body and Many comb her hair .
Who does that?!

Friscogrl

[Jojio]

As with one of the first contributers here, I also don't like Bird On a Wire very much. I fully appreciate it's place in Cohen's body of work but I just don't enjoy listenig to it. Now, I like a good dirge and Leonard is the leader in the field but this particular dirge does not engage me. I much prefer the versions by Jennifer Warnes and the Neville Brothers.