Songs from a Room is the second studio album by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached No. 63 on the US Billboard Top LPs and No. 2 on the UK charts.
Background
The recording sessions for Songs From a Room began in Hollywood in May 1968 with David Crosby as producer. That didn't work out, and the album was eventually produced at Columbia Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, with producer Bob Johnston (two of the tracks from the Crosby sessions are included as bonus tracks on the 2007 remastered version). Johnston and Cohen had wanted to work together on Cohen's first album, but the studio had assigned Johnston elsewhere. After his experiences with Crosby, Cohen was not keen to continue the project, but after speaking with Johnston, he agreed to carry on as Johnston was prepared to work on achieving the spartan sound Cohen considered appropriate for his songs after the disputes he had with John Simon during the mixing sessions of Songs of Leonard Cohen. At the time, Johnston was best known for producing Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Simon and Garfunkel. As Anthony Reynolds observes in his book Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life, "Since at this point in time Cohen was something of a hybrid of all of these acts, Cohen moved from the Chelsea in New York City to Franklin, Tennessee, where he lived on a farm 30 miles from Nashville itself. Cohen recorded some demos on the actual farm and otherwise immersed himself in a version of the country life."
Recording
Unlike his augmented debut, Cohen's sophomore effort is austere by comparison, with considerably less drums, and featuring a stripped-down approach that emphasize the words rather than the musical arrangements. In 2001, Cohen admitted to Sylvie Simmons of Mojo, "It's very stark. A lot of my friends who were musical purists had castigated me for the lushness and over-production of my first record and I was determined to do a very simple album." The sessions in Nashville began in the fall of 1968 at Columbia's Studio A on 16th Avenue in Nashville. he had grown up with in Montreal:
<blockquote>I think that the world throws up certain kinds of figures. Sometime in abundance, sometimes very rarely, and that some of these figures act as archetypes or prototypes for another generation which will manifest these characteristics a lot more easily, maybe a lot more gracefully, but not a lot more heroically. Another twenty years later she would have been just like you know, the hippest girl on the block. But twenty years before she was - there was no reference to her, so in a certain way she was doomed.</blockquote>
In sheet music for the album, a song titled "Priests" was included, and although reportedly recorded, it didn't appear on the LP or on any subsequent Cohen record. The song was recorded by Judy Collins on her 1967 album Wildflowers, and by Richie Havens on his 1969 album Richard P. Havens, 1983.
The album cover is a simple black-and-white photo heavily matted as to almost wash out Cohen's face. The back cover features a black-and-white photo of his Norwegian girlfriend Marianne Ihlen sitting at a desk with a typewriter, books and some papers. The picture was taken on the Greek island of Hydra. Cohen used their seven-year relationship as the basis for several of some his earliest songs, including "So Long, Marianne", "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", and "Bird on the Wire".
Reception
Songs From a Room was released in April 1969 and hit #63 on the U.S. charts and #2 in the UK. A single, "The Old Revolution", was released but did not chart. Like his debut LP, it received mixed reviews from critics, who were put off by his unusual singing voice but intrigued by the songs. In the original Rolling Stone review, Alec Dubro wrote, "Well, it looks like Leonard Cohen's second try won't have them dancing in the streets either. It doesn't take a great deal of listening to realize that Cohen can't sing, period. And yet, the record grows on you..." Mark Deming of AllMusic calls it "something of a letdown" and "neither as striking or self-assured as Songs of Leonard Cohen" but concedes, "Despite the album's flaws, Songs from a Rooms strongest moments convey a naked intimacy and fearless emotional honesty that's every bit as powerful as the debut, and it left no doubt that Cohen was a major creative force in contemporary songwriting." Writing in 2011, Cohen biographer Anthony Reynolds declared, "Compared to the relative 'party' of the previous album, Songs From a Room is the hangover of the morning after... Yet there was a voluptuousness in the album's austerity, a richness of the 'less is more' variety." Amazon.com raves that Songs From a Room is "fully loaded with poetic classics." In a 2014 Rolling Stone readers poll ranking the top ten Leonard Cohen songs, "Bird on a Wire" came in at #5.
Many of the songs from Cohen's second album would appear on 1973's Live Songs, a collection of performances from 1970 and 1972. Songs from a Room was released on CD in 1990. A digitally remastered version, including two bonus tracks produced by David Crosby, was released in February 2007.
Personnel
- Leonard Cohen – vocals, classical guitar, Jew's harp (2, 10)
- Ron Cornelius – acoustic and electric guitar
- Bubba Fowler – banjo, bass guitar, violin, acoustic guitar
- Charlie Daniels – bass guitar, violin, acoustic guitar
- uncredited – backing vocals in French (4)
;Technical
- Bob Johnston – production (original album), keyboards
- David Crosby – production (11–12), harmony vocals (12)
- Neil Wilburn – engineer
Original songs and their covers
"Bird on the Wire", described by Cohen as a simple country song, has been covered by many musicians including Jennifer Warnes (his one-time backup singer), The Neville Brothers, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, The Lilac Time, Esther Ofarim, Johnny Cash, Fairport Convention and subsequently their guitarist Richard Thompson.
"Story of Isaac", based on the Old Testament story of God's demand that Isaac be sacrificed by his father Abraham, has also been covered by a number of musicians including Judy Collins, Suzanne Vega, Linda Thompson, The Johnstons, Pain Teens, and Roy Buchanan.
"Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" has been translated into Italian by Fabrizio De André and included in his album Volume 8 (1975).
"You Know Who I Am" was covered by Mama Cass in her 1968 album Dream a Little Dream and by Esther Ofarim on the 1968 album Esther Ofarim.
The Partisan
"The Partisan" is Cohen's cover of the French song "La Complainte du partisan" by Emmanuel d'Astier and Anna Marly, which is about the French resistance during World War II.
The English translation was written by Hy Zaret. The rock journalist Alex Young notes, "[Cohen] is often incorrectly credited as the composer of the song – although he is certainly responsible for its survival." Young also notes that the English translation that Cohen recorded differs from the French in that it excludes the direct references that d'Astier and Marly made in the original lyrics to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany.