Leonard Cohen - "Songs From A Room" (1969)

One of my new hometown Montreal's pride is, of course, Leonard Cohen. He actually lived not so far from where I live, and still has his old apartment, according to local sources. Perhaps I have even passed by the apartment, or even himself, without being aware of it. Apparently he lives much of the year in California, according to the same sources, but still spends some time in his old hometown. It would be interesting to exchange a few words with him, for me anyway, maybe not for him. But I'm (perhaps fortunately) too much of a coward to dare to approach him, if I would see him. A cowardice we can rephrase to "respect for the privacy of others".

Songs From A Room was Cohen's second album. It has a relatively spartan sound compared to the debut album and later creations, which is also reflected in the minimalist cover. Apparently some of Cohen's friends criticized him for, what they believed, the over production of the first album (an opinion I don't share). So producer Bob Johnston saw it as his task to protect Cohen's song ideas from too many influences from surrounding musicians. The album was recorded in Nashville. In fact, Cohen began the recording in Hollywood the previous year with David Crosby as producer, something that obviously didn't work out.

The album opens with the classic Bird On A Wire, one of Cohen's best-known and most loved songs. It is followed by Story Of Isaac which has the biblical story of Isaac, whom God commanded to kill his son, as its theme. Cohen has said that it's a protest song against the Vietnam War that was going on at this time. My personal favorite is The Partisan, which is a cover of the French song La Complainte du Partisan, especially the French-singing female choir is beautiful.

Cohen lived for some years in the 60s on the Greek island of Hydra together with his then girlfriend, the Norweigan girl Marianne Ihlen. She was a great inspiration to Cohen, for example the classic So Long Marianne from the debut album is about her. Marianne is the woman who appears on the back of the cover, a photo from their room on Hydra. Bird On A Wire was also written on Hydra, inspired by birds that were sitting on the newly drawn telephone lines on the island.

Cohen is considered to be one of the singer songwriters who has had the greatest impact in the domain of popular music, along with Dylan and Paul Simon. He is more or less a living legend today. Songs From A Room is hard not to like. But sure, I wouldn't mind a bit more "produced" sound, after a while it can feel a little monotonous, maybe a little boring, with the sparse arrangements the album offers. Cohen began his artistic career as a poet and writer, so you can with a good conscience focus on the lyrics instead, if you find the melodies a bit dreary after a while.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Bird On A Wire 3:26
2. Story Of Isaac 3:35
3. A Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes 3:12
4. The Partisan 3:26
5. Seems So Long Ago, Nancy 3:39

Side B
1. The Old Revolution 4:46
2. The Butcher 3:17
3. You Know Who I Am 3:28
4. Lady Midnight 2:56
5. Tonight I Will Be Fine 3:47

KISS - "Hotter Than Hell" (1974)

Listening to this album is like hearing an echo from my childhood. KISS was my older brother's favorites the years before adolescence, which means the band is one of my first musical memories. I remember when my brother and three of his friends painted themselves and dressed up like the idols, grabbed their wooden fake guitars, rigged the "drum kit" on the ping-pong table, invited the neighborhood kids and mimed to KISS. The highlight was when the drummer took a few handfuls of 1-cent-a-piece candy and threw out over the audience. Personally, I had a broken camera and pretended to be a journalist to the band's chagrin. When they pretended to kick me off the stage my mom sreamed angrily from the stairs to "let Markus be!" which of course disturbed the concert experience.

Hotter Than Hell was the band's second album and was released only a half a year after the debut album. This was before KISS became the commercial product machine they later turned into, in my eyes they were still primarily a rock n'roll band in 1974. And overall it's a pretty good album. My old favorite songs Parasite, Goin' Blind, Comin' Home and Strange Ways are mixed with some not as good.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles with the same producers as on the first album. The band, where all the members were from New York, didn't like Los Angeles. And they seem not entirely happy with the finished result as they have in interviews been reluctant if they used the right producers. The idea was to capture and reproduce the band's heaviness and energy from live shows, but the question is whether they succeeded. And to add difficulties, the label Casablanca no longer had a contract with Warner Bros. regarding distribution, which thereby became problematic. As a consequence the album didn't sell as well as the people involved had hoped. 1977 it was awarded with a gold record, though, after 500,000 copies sold.

Of my four favorite songs no less than three are written by Ace (with the help of Paul on Comin' Home). However, he hadn't the self-confidence at the time to sing himself, and instead let the other band members do this. But he was a good songwriter, and of the members later simultaneously released solo albums, his is reagarded as the best by most people.

Over the years, Paul and especially Gene, have been regarded as "the bad guys", mainly concerning their treatment of Peter and Ace and their clear focus on the commercialization of the band with millions of products. Peter and Ace have often been seen as the heroes. At the same time, Peter and Ace had during many years relatively severe drug problems which affected their behavior and priorities, and they were certainly quite difficult to handle. In an interview Gene mentions, for example, how they had to be quick to record Aces parts early in the day before he passed out. So there are probably several angles concerning this part of the KISStory...

Hotter Than Hell is a pretty good album, and was created by a band that was still primarily a band. If you like to Glam / Rockn'roll / Metal from the 70's chances are you'll like this record. It's not as heavy as Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath from the same time, many of KISS' fans were children, so it's both lighter and more accessible, and sure enough, a little more superficial.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Got To Choose 3:54
2. Parasite 3:01
3. Goin' Blind 3:36
4. Hotter Than Hell 3:31
5. Let Me Go, Rock And Roll 2:14

Side B
1. All The Way 3:18
2. Watchin' You 3:43
3. Mainline 3:50
4. Comin' Home 2:37
5. Strange Ways 3:18

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - "Did You Ever?" (1971)

Nancy and Lee did many great songs together, but some of what they did could also be a bit cheesy and too much of a jokey country & western. On this album they treat you with quite a lot of the later, but fortunately enough the album also contains a few really cool creations.

This was the duo's second, and last, album together. Lee lived by this time in Sweden and three years had passed since the pair's first album.

In general I like Lee's solo albums better as they don't have the same glossy surface. But on side A you fortunately get the epic duet Arkansas Coal (Suite) where the couple goes a little more outside the box and offers a tragic story with death and a drama in the mines, in which Nancy is the daughter and Lee the father. This track is a nice break of the general smiley athmosphere on the album, with a different sound and structure and airier soundscapes.

Side B opens with the equally tragic Down From Dover sung by Dolly Parton in the original version. I've noticed that many people seem to like Parton's version better, personally I'm so used to hearing Nancy and Lee sing it, so I like this version best. The true highlight of the B-side is the song Big Red Balloon. A really cool song which is humorous without getting too humurous. Perhaps the highlight of the whole album.

Maybe Lee's departure in his big red balloon from his nagging wife was a mirror image of the reality. This was anyway Nancy and Lee's last album together. The album's last song Got It Together Again is interesting and a bit funny. A large part of it is a conversation between the couple, which in any case sounds like a pretty spontaneous and unrehearsed dialogue, where Nancy amongst other things wishes they could do to another album together. We also get to know that Lee is 42 years old and has two childdren. The song ends with Lee asking if Nancy is done and if he can go back to Sweden now, before he finishes with a Swedish "Hej då!" ("Goodbye!"),

The album was released the year after in the US, then named "Lee and Nancy Again" and with a different song order.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Did You Ever?
2. Toe tippy
3. Back On The Road
4. Arkansas Coal (Suite)
5. Congratulations

Side B
1. Down From Dover
2. Train Friendship
3. Paris Summer
4. Big Red Balloon
5. Got It Together Again