POLL on, my brother: The Leonard Cohen Memorial POLL Voting Thread - Ballots due Midnight ET, Dec. 1st

http://static.deathandtaxesmag.com/uploads/2014/09/leonard-cohen-smoking-640x404.png

We all know why we're here and how this works, so let's do the man proud, yes?

The ideal ballot will contain:

1. A tracks ballot, ordered or unordered, of up to 20 tracks but at least five. You can vote for a specific live recording if you like; it will be noted in the results but all votes for the same song will of course go to that song.
2. A ranked album ballot of up to 7 albums. (22 studio + live albums, feels right to be able to rank about a third of 'em at a time.)
3. A ballot of up to 10 Cohen covers. That's a lot of covers, but there are A LOT of great Cohen covers.
4. Your favorite image, clip, anecdote, or quote.

Failing all the bells and whistles, at least send a track ballot.

Post your favorites here, and I'll do my best to keep up with a Spotify playlist.

Lastly, if someone wants to volunteer to help me out with the eventual poll images, it would be much appreciated.

Send your ballots to ilxcohenpoll AT gmail.com by midnight ET on Dec. 1st.

Lastly, I want to kick things off with one of my favorite cuts from Live in London, this ambient reading of "A Thousand Kisses Deep":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7zY09tsCwA

Nice. Ordinarily I'm a proponent of shorter voting periods, but this will give me time to dive back into the work album by album.

Honestly, it was in at least some part to give myself time to do the same.

First ballot's in already!

not enough time!

as it always goes with these things I will happily extend the deadline if the need/demand arises

I posted this list last month.

Does that mean I can nick it for the poll? (If so, sorry about "Going Home.")

go for it!

This has actually prompted me to stop lurking, reading the intelligent music talk, and actually post something. Very difficult list to make.
His death has had me checking out stuff I hadn't listened to much by him (namely New Skin For The Old Ceremony) and I think quite how many different styles he went through is underlooked.
It's really weird to hear him doing these strange Jagger-isms on Is This What You Wanted? for example, and while I'm not normally one to do the whole "Helter Skelter influenced heavy metal"
thing of apportioning too much influence to one specific song I listened to that song on Saturday on the way to a gig and it sounded like a prediction of Nick Cave's whole Abbatoir Blues
and Dig Lazarus Dig period. There're points where it's uncanny quite how much Nick took in terms of his phrasing to the point that lines like "You were a sensitive woman" on it even sound
like him.

bless the continuous stutter
of the word being made into flesh

Five ballots in. Keep it up!

Can anyone recommend a good biography or interview collection to nick stories from? Ideally something that leans heavily on the songwriting, and/or recording process.

I remember this book being good: https://www.amazon.com/Various-Positions-Leonard-History-Culture/dp/0292717326

I read it ages ago, but I recall an engaging and detailed read

The official biography by Sylvie Simmons is excellent. There's also a book called Prophet of the Heart which I remember as being pretty good, although it's years since I read it.

going through his catalog is making me realize how much i love recent songs

lol – such a Brad comment

who doesn't love recent songs

Because I'm horribly deficient as both a Canadian and a music nerd, my knowledge of his catalogue is spotty. At what point in his career does he adopt the "old man with a hat" voice? Like, when does he go from "So Long, Marianne" to "Everybody Knows?"

At what point in his career does he adopt the "old man with a hat" voice?

i'm your man. so, precisely at "everybody knows"

lol – such a Brad comment

local brad loves the record with fretless bass

you can hear traces of it in various positions

that was an xp

brad do you know the field commander cohen live album? recorded on the recent songs tour with a lot of the same people, RS/new skin songs he didn't really do live after that (also "memories"!). I love it, maybe more than the recent live albums

yeah that's the record that actually opened up recent songs for me. i love the live version of "the window"

Same! (I think maybe I even heard it first)

4. Your favorite image, clip, anecdote, or quote.

About a 1,000 years ago I was staying in this Hotel in NYC.
It wasn't a bad Hotel, it wasn't a good Hotel
but in the elevator there I begin to bump into a young woman late at night.
After a couple of weeks i gathered my courage
and I said to her "Are you looking for someone?"
She said "Yes, I'm looking for Kris Kristofferson".
I said
"Lucky Lady, You're in luck, I am Kris Kristofferson".

Such was the generosity of those times.

A couple of years later,
after this young woman had passed from this vale of tears,
I found myself sitting at a Bar in a Polynesian restaurant in Miami Beach.
It was a Bar where they served cocktails in ceramic coconut shells.
This was a mystery I could not penetrate,
because the very trees and Boulevards
were lined with coconut trees,
bearing true and authentic coconut shells.
Why they would choose to serve their drinks
in ceramic coconut shells
escapes me until this very day.

As I say I was sitting at the Bar of this Polynesian restaurant when the presence of this young woman came upon me very strongly. And upon a napkin I began that song, for Janis Joplin at the Chelsea Hotel.

So set your restless heart at ease
Take a lesson from these Autumn leaves
They waste no time waiting for the snow
Don't argue now you'll be late
There is nothing to investigate
It's light enough, light enough
To let it go

Remember when the scenery started fading
I held you til you learned to walk on air
So don't look down the ground is gone
There's no one waiting anyway
The Smokey Life is practiced everywhere

I love "The Window" despite not being fond of Recent Positions. To me it's the origin of the IYM chansonnier persona.

ah yes recent positions, the x-rated leonard cohen album

prefer new skin for the ladies' room

guys guys the quotes anecdotes etc are supposed to be in your ballots!!

speaking of, get 'em in, folks! two weeks to go!

two weeks is plenty of time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQ2vXv-aq8

lol my lack of chill is not very Cohenesque of me

At what point in his career does he adopt the "old man with a hat" voice? Like, when does he go from "So Long, Marianne" to "Everybody Knows?"

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Thursday, November 17, 2016 1:03 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'd say various positions actually

i mean "dance me to the end of love" is an old man with a hat song come on

yeah that's pretty true of "the law" too

I hope you people vote for "Coming Back to You"

i like but don't love the last three records although popular problems comes the closest to love

I hope you people vote for "Coming Back to You"

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 17, 2016 3:10 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one of my favorites

when it comes to voting I think I'll just see how I feel on the day but "night comes on" is almost certain to be on my ballot

and i'm definitely voting for "the law." hail side one of various positions

i like but don't love the last three records although popular problems comes the closest to love

I think I might love YWID on a level comparable with the older albums but it might just be recency bias / weight of circumstances talking.

Brad I think this is the first time I've ever seen you hail side one of anything

i like but don't love the last three records although popular problems comes the closest to love

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson),

my man

"samson in new orleans" is one of his best songs ever really

http://www.stereogum.com/1911151/leonard-cohen-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/

also I've begun to chronicle the awesomely non-canonical picks from this thread here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/suckerblues/playlist/6g8ik25y0RKQam2WGtkCV3

well that certainly is a ranking of leonard cohen records

And on “Samson In New Orleans” — a tedious ballad and the album’s only wasted moment

(The Robert Frost-quoting “A Thousand Kisses Deep” is the one stinker.)

*shakes fist*

ballot sent!

Any chance of extending this over the weekend? I'm out of the country right now and get back tomorrow. I can vote in the next day or two.

Honestly I probably won't do the prep work till Sunday so you're good.

Up to 13! Keep 'em coming, folks.

Thanks for the soft extension. I completely blanked on this after t-giving.

i'm working on my ballot.
death of a ladies' man is better than i remember!

it's kind of a cousin to harry nilsson of that period, or john lennon if he would have written good songs in the mid 70s

Wasn't planning to send a ballot, but since the poll's just sittin' here wide open and all I figured I might's well.

death of a ladies' man is better than i remember!

― Karl Malone, Thursday, December 1, 2016 11:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one of the best imo, i love it. this is a good thread btw: Defend the Indefensible: Leonard Cohen's "Death of a Ladies' Man"

lol actually it is not that good of a thread idk why i thought it was. anyways "some great fuckin music" as spector described of it

DOALM rules

Thanks to the 14 voters in so far, keep it rollin'

ballot sent!

looking forward to this rollout.

DOALM is shit

i already regret not putting "waiting for the miracle" higher. sorry, leonard cohen. hopefully other people pick up the slack!

thx for the ballot Karl!

for the record ballots will still be accepted until NOON EST on SUNDAY.

17.5 hrs till deadline, so anyone left - get crackin'

Still think the best thing he ever did was that WWII song, sung in French and English, forget the title

The Partisan. That was high on my ballot, too. It's such a gorgeous sounding song: the backing vocals coming drifting in and the melodica sounding keyboard instrument (I THINK it's a melodica).
There's something that's been sort of overlooked as the view of Cohen has changed to that of a smiley, benign old Zen master skipping around adorably in a tailored suit and that's quite how stern he could be at sounds. There's a real power in his voice around this time even as it sounds quite frail as he strains for notes slightly too high or low for him, he's still a force to be reckoned with.

yes there was a certain severity at times (queen victoria!)

Just wanted to let you all know that the kindle edition of the biography mentioned upthread, I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen is selling for $1.99 on Amazon (in the US, at least).

Reading a biography of him actually made him a lot more interesting to me: like I said, there seems to be this new perception of him as a lecherous monk, something like a thinking man's Tom Jones. He was a lecherous monk but there was so much more to him than that and it doesn't do him any justice. Reading about things like his baiting of German audiences with Nazi references, taking to the stage in fits of amphetamine fuelled paranoia, deciding he was going to go join the Israeli army on a whim during the conflict in 73, touring mental institutions, experimenting with Scientology...he fitted a lot into those 82 years. Not all of it wise. So this hagiographic image of him floating around long before he died, it does him no justice especially as a writer who put his own frailties under the magnifying glass so. Even towards the end there's the smiling assassin's steel in You Want It Darker (which relistening to made me realise Treaty was unduly absent from my ballot, hope some others have voted for it).

Greil Marcus was asked about Leonard Cohen yesterday. Response:

think the reason I like Leonard Cohen better on movie soundtracks—McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Natural Born Killers, Pump Up the Volume most memorably for me—is that there the music is orchestrating the actions of people, and if they’re good, and here they are (Julie Christie, Shelley Duvall, Warren Beatty, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Woody Harrelson, Juliet Lewis), they draw us in, and we care about what they’re doing and why, we worry about them, we feel protective toward them—in other words, in the movies there’s a dimension of humanness, of vulnerability and jeopardy, that is attached to the music, a dimension that I find completely absent from Cohen’s music on its own. To me it was more than half a century of someone looking down from his tower of song on everyone else. Randy Newman put it best, long ago, introducing his song “Suzanne” onstage in San Francisco: “This isn’t Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne.’ It’s on a somewhat lower moral plane, actually.”

Otm dan

but that was only replacing the previous 1d perception of cohen as depressive doom merchant - basically there is a bit more to this guy's life & work

like in the years before your basic types decided it was all about wry genial irony the idea of having to say "no there's also an element of self loathing/paranoia/whatever" would be absurd no

there’s a dimension of humanness, of vulnerability and jeopardy, that is attached to the music, a dimension that I find completely absent from Cohen’s music on its own

I guess someone needs to hear Death of a Ladies' Man.

Marcus reliably boring

I am a xgau-sceptic and xgau is a cohen-sceptic but his long essay on cohen is good (haven't read the recent obit btw); it does contain the kewl anecdata that all the hardcore cohen fans he knows cheated on their wives tho

Simon I am trying to throw something together now btw, it's difficult

simon I won't be able to get in today but possibly tomorrow morning? If that's too late that's fine

tomorrow morning could be workable - I'm only rolling out the albums on Monday so there's some wiggle room. all I'm doing today is collecting links, quotes, etc

for anyone struggling, I highly recommend just doing an unranked or partially ranked ballot.

Submitted

Don't sweat this, people: throw a buncha songs on a list, make sure "Hallelujah" ain't on it, hit send.

we are now up to 19 ballots!

I entered an antique shop today and the only two CDs they had - as in, at *their entire CD stock* - were pristine used copies of Ten New Songs and Recent Songs, which I'd been looking for. That made my whole week.

Don't sweat this, people: throw a buncha songs on a list, make sure "Hallelujah" ain't on it, hit send.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 December 2016 17:52 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pretty much what I did yah; clearly hallelujah is a lovely and excellent song but I could do the out four 20s without touching it, also I voted for two albums that contain it

*three or four

I *may* have to delay the rollout by a day as tomorrow night I will apparently be making dinner for a human woman, a thing that quite literally never happens. The Cohen effect?

Also, my second Cohen biography ebook came in today - very fortuitous timing.

Follow Leonard's implied advice and wear a suit & tie.

Or don't. I don't know anything about your life.

y'know I don't even wear a tie to work but I might but one on for kicks when I get home

Scratch what I said, the rollout WILL start tomorrow night, albeit in slightly unorthodox (read: not work-intensive for me) fashion.

Unless any more come in before I go to work tomorrow, we got in a v respectable 20 ballots.

here we go

Laughing Len strikes again: ILM Artist Poll #81 - Leonard Cohen

Voted!

Yer in!

Ranking those late albums.

I really like your take on "I'm Your Man."

thanks

FWIW this sentence seems to be missing a clause:
"It’s hard to remember which songs appear on the comeback albums, but to my ears Popular Problems is where the performing chops gained by a tour necessitated by money problems."

and you forgot the record "old ideas"

and i think you mean "if it be your will"

sorry to nitpick :(

the webb sisters version of the latter song was a staple of the late tours, and it's quite something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDemnguRYj4

that sentence works actually, although I would have subbed it – the performing chops on PP gained (i.e. improved) as a result of the tour.

Thanks for the correction!

I rank 1971-1979