leonardcohenforum.com

Hi everyone, Im new to this site though Ive been a lover of Leonards music since 1970.
Back in the early seventies I bought a song book of leonards first two albums and the tablature was brilliant exactly as he played it Im sure,some of the fingerpicking was quite intricate but well worth the practice required.It also had priests in it a song Ive still never heard.Unfortunately The book is long lost and I was wondering if anyone knows if its available anywhere,Ive tried looking on the net with no luck.

All LC song books are listed at
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/songbooks.html
many of them are still available

vienna55 wrote:Hi everyone, Im new to this site though Ive been a lover of Leonards music since 1970.
Back in the early seventies I bought a song book of leonards first two albums and the tablature was brilliant exactly as he played it Im sure,some of the fingerpicking was quite intricate but well worth the practice required.It also had priests in it a song Ive still never heard.Unfortunately The book is long lost and I was wondering if anyone knows if its available anywhere,Ive tried looking on the net with no luck.

Hello vienna55 - I remember that book well. I had only been listening to Mr. Cohen's work for a year when I came up here to school in Buffalo, our "Undergraduate Library" had that book, and I used it to teach myself how to fingerpick. It was great for working out the specific runs for songs such as Suzanne and Bird on the Wire. Unfortunately, despite many attempts, I could never figure out the more difficult triplet type patterns that were needed for several songs. I never knew what the cover looked like though, it was a softcover, and the library had bound it with a hard green paperboard, great for preservation of the contents but terrible otherwise.

At any rate, it is quite certain that this book, which was issued in the early 70's and which I borrowed repeatedly in the early 80's, is out of print. I would recommend such places as ebay, pretty much everything that's ever existed comes up eventually!

John K.

I think I have this book you're speaking of.
The cover is the same as the one from the album Songs From A Room (and it includes songs from both the first two albums + Priests). I don't think that it is listed on the Cohen Files gallery of songbooks.
There was a little article on Leonard Cohen at the begining that had on the side "This is pure fantasy. Never heard of the man mentioned here, all good things, Leonard"(if this is the same one i'm thinking of that is)

If you would like any specific scans I would be happy to send them (not too many though, the book has taken a bit of beating to time and I don't want it to fall apart)

If this book is not yet featured on The Files, it would be nice to have a scan of the cover + other details for the page!

The book Yeats is talking about is the sixth down the list of songbooks and is entitled: "Songs of Leonard Cohen.
Herewith: Music, words and photographs" copyright Stranger Music 1969. As he mentions, it includes the charming disclaimer "This is pure fantasy. never heard of the man mentioned here" in handwriting. I believe this is also the one Vienna55 enquires about.

I have my copy in front of me, looking a little worse for wear. Hard to believe it now, but I took this song-book and my guitar on a trip around South America, and strummed Leonard's songs while lying in a hammock on the Amazon. Can't imagine what the locals thought of me!

Hydriot, you are right. My copy is "Songs of Leonard Cohen. Herewith: Music, words and photographs" as well. It Just has a different cover. Most likely a different edition of the same book.

Yes, This songbook was published with 2 different covers.( I happen to have both copies). The content is identical.

I think my songs of Leonard Cohen just has a white front cover with a small photo of Leonard on the front. I will have to track it down

My copy is now loose leaf in a ring binder...together with the Songs of Love and Hate songbook. They got used so much they started falling apart.

I remember very well, in the 70's using the first book and it's tablature to learn the fingerpicking. It was painstakingly slow until my fingers caught up with my brain then I never looked back.... but I still do my own finger picking for some of the songs that I couldn't get the hang of...I think I'm getting away with it

It's only now, after 35 years that I can now do Sisters of Mercy.

all good things ( a phrase he uses in one of these song books)

pete

thanks for all your helpful replies,i have found it on leonardcohenfiles!
Sisters of mercy,tonite will be fine ,the master song and one of us canot be wrong were among my favourites to play,for some reason back then I found teachers pretty hard.
Hey thats noway to say goodbye ,I still use when iM busking and it always surprises me how many people regonise it even tho I dont sing.

Yes, I remember that book, too, with the Songs from a Room cover. My brother brought it back for me from his first term at university in Edinburgh in 1970. I was 14 and I'd got the first album and the UK abridged paperback of Selected Poems, so was hungry for all I could get.

Apart from the great NY Times article, and his Greek driver's licence on the back cover, I remember the photos, especially the one of him hugging Judy Collins and the one with Marianne, walking through an airport, I think, typewriter in hand - total 60's cool! Made me want to get out into the world - and meet such women! Sigh ...

By the way, I expect you know there are great versions of Priests by Judy Collins, Richie Havens and others. I wonder if we'll ever know why there isn't an LC version.