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(Sorry for interrupting this topic, but: Jurica, if you are from Croatia, e-mail me! tomsakic@net.hr)

I honestly always liked this album best. When I read the Leonard Cohen book "Various Positions" I was suprised to read that this one didn't do too well when it was released. I guess it is less commercial. Maybe a bit too dark for the crowd. The first three are the best to me. The hip eighties stuff is interesting too in its own radio friendly way.

I think maybe I`m old fashioned but this album still has me dreaming.... I adore songs of love and hate.........

This was the album that started it all for me and remains my favourite.
Is it always the first album one hears that becomes the favourite?

I am sure that all here have all the albums. Is your favourite the one that you first heard? Was it that initial discovery, engagement, enticement that set the standard?


Pete

Dear Pete,
In my case, yes it was the first one which set the standard: the Songs of Leonard Cohen, which I bought in the winter of 67/68.
That, plus buying his poetry in 1968 nailed him to me. I remain stuck.
Yours, Andrew.

I was introduced to Songs of ... and Songs from a Room at the same time, and for many months I would play them alternately, so that I still have no idea which songs are on which album and if I play one of them I have to play the other. These two albums are still very special for me, but I think that my favourite is probably Various Positions (today, at any rate ).

I was 17 and had left home a few months before turning a full 18. I lived in a house that was full of broken people. My life had been a struggle everyday. alcoholic, violent father, neurotic mother. Leaving home was the only thing left that could save my soul. One night I was sat in the darkness, looking out through the window pane, a friend called round, looking for a place to be warm and to sleep. The rain fell hard all night long, all we had was each other and a few warm bottles of beer. Its cold in Northern England in early Spring. I always felt, up to that point, that I was caught in a snow storm that sucked the warmth from my old trench coat, nothing I did could stop the blizzard. My friend brought only a lonely smile and a cassette tape she had been given by her friend for her birthday. We knew nothing about the singer, not even his name. We played the tape and out came the words; " I stepped into an Avalanche' it covered up my soul". There in the few breathes it took to sing those words, was my salvation. We made love to that casette all night long. 30 years later, I still listen to every word, of Songs of Love and Hate. Leonard made me realise I was not alone. I have survived and healed and 'Love and Hate' is still my favorite. Thankyou Leonard for your great songs.

An incredible first post for you to have made here, Phil Rose. I hope you'll continue. Imagining your life up to that point, and the sound of Leonard's voice as he sings those deeply-wounded words, the immensity of relief that came to you when you heard him is both fathomable and unfathomable. Welcome to the Forum, I am so glad to hear of your rescue and healing, and your favourite is beyond question. This is one of the finest examples I've heard, musically, where the anonymous stranger in the night was an angel.

~ Lizzytysh

Actually I used to post on the old message board, again under my own name. Been awhile since I last visited, but found my way back. No longer in Uk (9years) just moved to FL from TX. I failed to mention in the story an important detail, that was the night I lost my innocence, so I guess LC helped in my seduction. Thankyou Leonard.

Hi Phil ~ I didn't used to be a "part" of the old board, for the most part being over on Sony's, so I didn't recognize your name. Others, no doubt, did recognize your name. I came back in to add in the word rescue, along with healing, and now I see "Sisters of Mercy" may have meaning for you, as well. What a fork in the road that night was for you, in all manner of meaning. Good move going from Texas to Florida .

~ Lizzytysh

I would imagine that there is no one who has discovered Cohen by listening to 'I'm your man', 'The Future' or TNS and then bought the back catalogue and found their favourite in the 70's albums.
I'm sure that it has not happened with anyone
......or has it?

Well count me as one for a start Pete.

p.

Which album, Partisan?

I consider it one of Leonard's masterpieces, even though in a few places (e.g., that line about "the shy one at some orgy," which still induces cringes in me) it seems uncharacteristically poorly-worked-out from a purely tecnhique-oriented standpoint.

I don't find it any more bleak than "Songs From A Room" ("The Butcher," may be the most wracked thing Leonard has ever committed to record, even more so than "Dress Rehearsal Rag," which was at least redeemed with a bit of irony [if not humor] in the imagery) -- There is, however, an acidic edge to Leonard's voice (or maybe it's just the production?) that cuts closer to the bone/heart than anything he did previously.

In that sense, I react to the album in much the same way as I react to a lot of the content of "Flowers For Hitler" (and, later, "Energy Of Slaves" and the book "Death Of A Lady's Man") -- an acknowledgment, even an embrace, of a bitterness/anger that lurks dangerously at the edge of desctructive impulse.

In retrospect, I think "Love And Hate" was a kind of wake-up call to naive listeners (like my own younger self) who had deluded ourselves into envisioning Leonard as some kind of hippie-dippie love-and-peace guru. It was some time before he'd warn us, "This is war, you are here to be destroyed" -- but the seeds of that acknowledgment were definitely in his earlier work, and I think that "Songs Of Love And Hate" [even the presence of the word "Hate" in the title] was definitely a major component of the planting.

Having been the shy one at some orgy [folded in the corner of the room, listening to the radio's music in the darkness], and my friend declaring afterward, "I have to marry you. You're the only woman I've ever known who remained fully clothed at an orgy" ~ when I later heard that line, I couldn't help but feel it had been perfectly crafted .