Talk:Songs from a Room
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Worse than debut?
[edit]How can this album be considered as commecrially weaker release, when it reached #2 at UK charts and #63 at Billoboard, while his first album was #13 (UK) and #83 (US). Also, many fans hated the "over-production" of the debut release, particularly the UK listeners, and many of them still consider 2nd LP to be his best record. Cohen himslef said he turned to Johnston (after some fights with Simon during mixing sessions of first album), and thatt with him he finally achieved the ascetic sound he thinks as being the most appropriate for his songs. Thus, not only commecrially, but artistically Cohen's 2nd LP seems to be better than the first one... Tomsak 13:22, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- I agree with you on all accounts here, Tom. – Hattrem 22:00, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- I edited it a little, so you can see it & make corrections.
- Christgau said it was worse. So does the AMG. It's mostly in his vocals - compared to the first record (and even for Cohen) they're rather indifferent. Also, the arrangements aren't always ideal (the jew's harp is a distraction, the guitar is mixed too low, and the bass is overbearing) and they get monotonous. Finally, Cohen is writing mostly about politics here, and generally speaking he's better off writing about love and despair. -Maggie --64.229.64.62 15:32, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Comments re. "Priests" incorrect. I definitely owned an LP of LC's in the ealy 1970s with a recording of "Priests" by him. I'm fairly sure it was on "Songs from a Room". Why has it been erased from history?...Was it the Jazz Police???????
Musicians
[edit]I have one doubt more - I am not sure can we refer to Cornelius as Cohen's band leader, because Bob Johnston was on both tour, playing organ and keyboards, and I'd guess he's supposed to be bandleader, as he already gathered the musicians in the studio in the first place... That fact should be checked in the books. Tomsak 09:41, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
- Okay, we will leave out the term "bandleader", although I don't think it's a problem for the producer not to rehearse and lead the band.
- But where did you find the detailed information about the backup musicians? – Hattrem 05:12, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
- All tour musicians are listed in Devlin's book about the tours (and copied to The Files from there), but I either don't have the full list of people who appeared on first three albums - only the names I gathered from Devlin's, Nadel's books and Dorman&Rawlin's and other places.Tomsak 14:37, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
- I guess that I found those few names for this particular album in Devlin's "In Every Style of Passion".Tomsak 14:39, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
- Thank you, that's good to know. – Hattrem 16:29, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
Signature sound?
[edit]Is it correct to call the Jew's harp Cohen's "signature sound"? I don't recall it being on any other records than Songs from a Room and Dear Heather. – Hattrem 07:09, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
Bob L. Moore
[edit]Nashville A-Team musician, Bob L. Moore, was definitely the upright bassist on Leonard Cohen's, "Songs From A Room." According to Mr. Moore's original workbooks[1] Bob Moore was the bassist and Local 257 union leader on the following Leonard Cohen sessions: Monday September 30, 1968 (9:00pm) Thursday January 16, 1969. Friday January 17, 1969. Wednesday January 20, 1971. Plus additional sessions later in the 70's. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Teenking (talk • contribs) 00:14, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
The Partisan
[edit]Who is the woman who sings in the second half of "The Partisan"? She ought to be listed in the Personnel section of the article. --Zundark (talk) 08:58, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
Seems So Long Ago, Nancy
[edit]Just to preserve it, here is the story of Nancy by her nephew Tim Challies
Seems So Long Ago, Nancy January 17, 2011
Back in 2005 I wrote an article called “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy.” Anyone who knows the work of Leonard Cohen will recognize that this is also the title of one of his songs. In this article I explained the significance of that song in my own life. Now, nearly 6 years later, I want to post this article again as a means to introduce you to Nancy (since the majority of today’s readers were not reading the blog back in ‘05). I am anticipating that in the next few weeks or months I will have some interesting updates to this post and the story behind it. But first, the article.
In 1969 Leonard Cohen released a record entitled Songs From A Room. The fifth track on that album is “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy.” The song has become one of Cohen’s more popular ones; it has found its way onto one of his live albums and has been covered by several other artists. It is a dark, haunting song that speaks of a young woman named Nancy. The poetic words are difficult to interpret, leading many fans of Cohen’s music to speculate on what they mean.
It seems so long ago, Nancy was alone, looking at the Late Late show through a semi-precious stone. In the House of Honesty her father was on trial, in the House of Mystery there was no one at all, there was no one at all.
It seems so long ago, none of us were strong; Nancy wore green stockings and she slept with everyone. She never said she’d wait for us although she was alone, I think she fell in love for us in nineteen sixty one, in nineteen sixty one.
It seems so long ago, Nancy was alone, a forty five beside her head, an open telephone. We told her she was beautiful, we told her she was free but none of us would meet her in the House of Mystery, the House of Mystery.
And now you look around you, see her everywhere, many use her body, many comb her hair. In the hollow of the night when you are cold and numb you hear her talking freely then, she’s happy that you’ve come, she’s happy that you’ve come.
Over the years Cohen has made several references to the song during concerts and in interviews. Fans once speculated that the song was written as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, but Cohen replied “No, it was about a real Nancy.” In his introduction to Frankfurt 72 Cohen said “This is a song for a girl named Nancy who was a real girl—who went into the bathroom of her father’s house, took her brother’s shotgun and blew her head off. Age of 21. Maybe this is an arrogant thing to say, but maybe she did it because there weren’t enough people saying what I’ve been saying.” “In the song book for the Songs of Love and Hate album, there is a description of a LC concert. LC is about to start singing ‘It Seems so Long Ago, Nancy,’ but he decides to talk about her first, to get in the mood. He says that she was not adjusted to life in this world. She had a baby and they took it away from her, and she shot herself.”
Over the years I have had a fascination with this song. It is an awful song, in many ways, leaving Nancy a legacy that few would want—a legacy of promiscuity and self-loathing. I have often felt such pity for Nancy as I can almost feel her sadness and pain through the song. I have wished that someone could reach through the sadness and bring her some measure of peace.
But the peace never came. Lost in her despair, Nancy took her own life.
How do I know this? Nancy was my aunt.
Perhaps this puts my fascination with this song into perspective. The song is not about some anonymous Nancy, but is about a woman I should have been able to know and love, but for the fact that she took her life before I was ever born.
At times in my life I have been nearly obsessed with finding out about her. Her name rarely comes up when the family comes together and it is as if the past is so painful to her siblings that they would rather not think about her at all than relive that pain. What follows represents the small amount I have learned about my aunt.
Nancy was born October 20, 1943 and died on March 10th of 1965, when she was only twenty-one years old. She was a troubled young woman, and spent many of her teenage years under psychiatric care. Several years ago, digging through some old papers at the family cottage, I found a few letters she had written to her mother from psychiatric hospitals. In some of these letters she seems to be doing well, thanking my grandmother for sending her clothes and saying “Next week seems so far away. I just hope I’ll be free soon.” In others she seems to be in times of torment, writing disjointed thoughts in scrawled handwriting. “A manic depressive just bombed in—And I mean bomb. Hell! She came 400 miles by ambulance in 4 hours. Imagine the ball she had eh? Well she’s great fun but really ‘hurt’ through behind her happy face. Don’t worry!”
There is a second series of letters, which pre-date the first by several years. In 1961 Nancy lived away from home, serving as a tour guide at historic Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, and she writes about dating boys from R.M.C. (Royal Military College) and visiting with aunts and other relatives, even travelling to New York to take in a Henry Fonda show and shop at Bloomingdales. “Don’t worry about me,” she wrote, “I know that I’m doing the right thing.”
My grandmother was a meticulous calendar-keeper and on December 20, 1963 she noted, “Nancy met Mike.” At some point in the following months Nancy became pregnant, and social conventions being what they were at the time, especially in a prominent family of Members of Parliament and Supreme Court Judges, Nancy was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Just a few months after the baby was born, Nancy, in a time of desperate depression, took her life with her brother’s gun. Her brother is my father. He was just fifteen.
Several months ago, in private correspondence with Leonard Cohen, he commented to me about Nancy and his memories of her. “It is her beauty and bravery that shine through. Many young women of the time came up against the hard limitations of family and society, although not every confrontation ended so sadly.” Cohen was not fast friends with Nancy, though he had met her many times through mutual friends. Their closest mutual friend was Morton Rosengarten, an artist and sculptor.
When I consider Nancy’s life, I can’t help but wonder if she had not found more than the hard limitations of family and society. My grandmother once shared with my mother that in the weeks before her death, Nancy would scream, “Mom, get me a guru! I need a guru!” Nancy seemed to know that her torment went deeper than societal conventions, touching even on the realm of the spiritual. She cried out for guidance; for help. But it would never come.
I wish I knew more about Nancy. I dream some day of finding and meeting her son (my cousin). I wonder if that would help bring a small measure of closure to what is a tragic story. Or perhaps it would merely bring unnecessary pain into his life. But perhaps the joy of knowing that some glimmer of good—a human life—came from the situation would bring some measure of comfort to those who still mourn Nancy, even after forty years.
A few years after Nancy took her life, my grandfather did the same.
Imagine the pain the family faced as they dealt with another suicide, another tragedy, another humiliation. He, too, dealt with tormentuous depression, anger and grief. When it came to be too much for him to handle, he took his life. Could a family get any lower? Imagine gathering at Christmas or Thanksgiving with two family members missing. Imagine the pain.
But at about the same time my grandfather took his life, something miraculous happened in that family. My father was given new life.
The Bible shares a story that speaks of a similar situation.
In John chapter eleven we read about a man named Lazarus, who was a close friend of Jesus. At one point Jesus received a messenger telling him that Lazarus was gravely ill and asking him to hurry to the town of Bethany to be with his friend. But by the time Jesus arrived, it was too late—Lazarus was dead and had been in the tomb for four days already. Imagine a four-day old corpse in the heat of the middle-east. The corpse would already have been decaying. When Jesus asked to see the body, Lazarus’ sister, Martha, said, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Martha knew what to expect of a man who was dead—he would be putrefying, causing an unbearable stench. She had a reasonable expectation of a dead man.
But Jesus did not, because he had something to teach them. He said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus then went into that tomb and called “Lazarus, come out!” And just like that, life was breathed back into the dead man, and he walked out of the tomb, still bound in grave cloths. The power of God had breathed life into death. And that is what happened to my father. He did not experience physical death, but was spiritually as lost and dead as his sister had been. His spirit was as dead as Lazarus’ body. He was without a guru, without a teacher, without a God and without a hope. But then the power of God breathed life into him. My father was saved from the horror and despair that befell his sister and his father.
What is even more amazing is that this same life was breathed into Nancy’s sister (my aunt) and Nancy’s mother (my grandmother). They, too, were given life! That life has continued to bring joy and comfort to the family through the years. The words Jesus said to Lazarus are the same he says to you today. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Do you?
This article was enthusiastically received by Leonard Cohen’s fans who had long wanted to know more about the person behind the song. And over the years it has made its way to other people who have been able to fill in some of the gaps about Nancy’s life. Through a near-miraculous series of events, we found Mike and Nancy’s son, my cousin. He lives just a short distance from my home and has quickly become a part of our extended family.