Leonard Cohen-Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)


 

Artist: Leonard Cohen    

Title: Songs of Leonard Cohen

Label: Columbia

Format: LP

Cat #: CS 9533

Year of Release: 1967

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1967 first press with "Leonard Cohen" only on label, Matrix: XSM118903-1E/1F

Sold Price:  $19.99

Listed Condition: G+/G

Sell Date: 11/13/20

Discogs Last Sold: 11/8/20 VG+/VG+ $28.35

Low: $7.00 9/8/19 VG/G

Median: $22.00

High: $89.00 M/M 9/11/20

Current low price: $10.00 F/VG, $18.00 VG/G+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 36

Have/Want: 6222/1764

Where Sold: Williamsburg, MI

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: either Boston in dollar bin somewhere or Worcester at a flea market dollar records bin

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go?: No

This album is a bit of a sacred cow.  True it's "hits"--"Suzanne" and "So Long Maryanne" are here.  The instrumentation is spare but cool.  The stereo version in headphones is very "of it's era" with hard pans.  Cohen's voice is front and center and the ladies are number two.  Guitars and calliope effects subliminal.

I did a headphone listen and realized this album is why CD's were invented.  As clean as the vinyl looks, the G+ grade means surface noise.  No skips, but it took me a doze off and replay of side one to get through it.  Side two was a cleaner play.  The buyer took this a little below the median rolling the dice.  Pretty fair price considering the wide price range of this edition.  People say it is this press with the Columbia "two eyes" or the Sundazed reissue for the best vinyl sound.  I say fuck it get the remastered CD even if Cohen thought bonus tracks demeaned the listening experience.

I did get to see Cohen at the Beacon in 2009 when it was a super big deal and was grateful for even the last row in the balcony. My friend Nickie and I were each had a phone in one hand and a laptop in the other when they went on sale.  She got through on the phone right before they were all gone.   The old man in a pencil suit knelt and played a 3 hour show.  He came back to the arena in Brooklyn a few years later, but we missed that.

So why did I ding this one?  I think it boils down to the start to finish experience.  Top tier for sure, and I struggle to think of a Cohen album I prefer all the way through.  He's got a weird catalog and I'd pull something from the 70's if I was going to pull something for "pleasure".  New Skin For The Old Ceremony seems about right.  I bought them all on CD at one point, even this one, but never spent a ton of listening time on any of them.  Nickie plays the Essential comp relentlessly over years, and those songs throughout his entire career are carved in my brain, but having everything he released in my possession didn't make me know his catalog cold.  

Something is holding me back.


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